The Wondrous Invitation of Ash Wednesday

I find the season of Lent a tremendous relief. We enter into this season together, acknowledging openly and honestly that we don’t measure up. We all fall short of what God has called us to be. We live in a world that is simultaneously beautiful and disastrous, a world filled with great injustices, horrors, and inequalities.

Why, then, is Lent a relief? Because I don’t need to do anything. Ash Wednesday is an invitation. I come because God invites me.

Clarity

Imagine a dirty window full of mud and smudges. During Lent, God washes it clean. We now have the opportunity to gain a fresh perspective, to notice things we never could have if the dirt remained in place.

Lent brings everything sharply into focus, especially our own lives—all that God has given us in his grace, beauty, and mercy. He invites us to come and see clearly, but not because of our merit or through some acknowledgment of our works.

In fact, God stands against every attempt we make to qualify ourselves for this glorious invitation. He turns his back on any religious practice with which we attempt to justify ourselves. After all, what is the crucifixion of Jesus if not the death of self-justifying religion?

Ashes

In receiving the ash on our foreheads, we acknowledge that we are nothing without God. The ashes represent our mortal nature. Nothing within us qualifies us to accept God’s extraordinary invitation. As we enter into a life with him, we become ambassadors for Christ who, through our lives, urges others out of darkness and into light.

Yet the temptation is to see this invitation, this life with God, as something other than what it truly is. We want to see it as something that satisfies, that brings great power and self-affirmation, because we live in a world soaked in prideful self-sufficiency.

In the midst of our attempts to gain acceptance through works, the ashes proclaim that by God’s mercy, we willingly agree to a different kind of life. We say yes to the ongoing transformation he works in us.

Acceptance

To enter into Lent is to accept the invitation. We ask God to provide clarity so our lives may be intertwined with his. God invites us so he may transform us into his instruments to share his message of reconciliation. We do not pray, give, and fast during this season in order to feel better about ourselves. Instead, we practice these disciplines so the divine life, the life that comes only from him, flows through us more freely.

We live in a world enamored with things under judgment. So often, we remain blind to the sacrifice of Christ in all of its beauty. We say yes to the invitation to a life with God, to be an ambassador for Christ, so that others may hear in new ways the wondrous call of our Savior: “Be reconciled to God.”

Without it, we’re nothing but ash.

(This post is an adaptation of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on February 10, 2016 in the Bishop’s Oratory.)

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