Looking Back, Around, Within, Ahead
Ash Wednesday, 2021
Isaiah 58:1-12 • 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 • Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Ash Wednesday marks a point on our journey when we take time to look back, to look around, to look within, and to look ahead. I know I am not alone when I say that I will miss joining you all to receive ashes this year. But it occurred to me that, looking back, the past year has already left its own ashen marks.
We look back and we see a year that has reminded us of our mortality: we have witnessed the loss of millions of lives to coronavirus across the globe; over 100 million around the world have been infected; and many experienced the loss a friend, a loved one, a colleague, a partner, a neighbor. Many have lost employment. Many have come to rely on food pantries and food banks to eat. Many feel isolated and alone. And there are the losses of those small-but-not- insignificant things that I so took for granted – handshaking, hugging, and human embrace; the ability to sit in a pew on Sunday morning and be near a friend or see a familiar face. We have been stripped of pride, of dreams, of security, of control. Our mortality has ever been before us. Perhaps ashen marks are already on our foreheads.
We look around. We look around and see our neighbors in need. We look around and see injustice and inequalities. We look around and see the squandering and abuse of natural resources. We look around and see, as Walter Brueggemann writes, the ashes:
“Of failed hope and broken promises,
Of forgotten children and frightened women
Of more war casualties, more violence, more cynicism”1
So, we look within. We look within to find our deepest longings: to be loved, to love, to feel secure, to have good health, to provide for our families, to see blessings for our neighbors, to create a neighborhood for all. We look within to find a glowing ember amidst the ash. A source of heat, and light, and love that we can let the Spirit blow upon to kindle a fire in us that turns us to choose – a new fast:
“to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke...
... to share [our] bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into [our] house; when [we] see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide [ourselves] from [our] own kin”
We look within and choose our fast. And we turn. We turn and look ahead. We look ahead to Easter and we ask God:
“Easter us,
Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom Easter us that we might be fearless for your truth”2
“Easter us” that, by and through this Lent, God, your Spirit might fan anew the flames within – a new healing fire; a fire that burns with the Spirit’s flames of love, and peace, and truth; a fire that heats and rises, and creates its winds that blow healing embers far and wide – embers of:
“mercy, and justice, and peace, and generosity.
We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.”3
1 Walter Brueggemann, “Marked by Ashes,” in Prayers for a Privileged People (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2008), pp. 27-28.
2 Brueggemann, Marked by Ashes.
3 Brueggemann, Marked by Ashes.