Ashrei Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is not just about you.  Don’t get me wrong—Ash Wednesday does involve you, as the sooty ashes are maybe tickling your forehead right now.  But we don’t get together to observe Ash Wednesday solely for the purpose of purifying our own individual selves through acts of penitence, like smearing our foreheads with ashes. 

We’re not here to flog ourselves out of guilt for our sin, mercilessly punishing the flesh that has been created in the image of God.  We’re definitely not here to show off how religious we are, right?!  God knows the truth. 

We’re here today/tonight to humble ourselves before God, to consider how we get ready to welcome the risen Jesus Christ.  We’re here forty days early for Easter.  And that is definitely not about you—Easter is not about you, and the season of preparation that we call “Lent” is not about you, either. 

It’s about God, and it’s about the work God is doing in the world.  God is the one who creates.  God is the one who grants grace.  God is the one who acts first, who does the work, and we get to bear witness. 

Now, how does God do this work?  Well, that is where you come in.  And for sure, it does matter the humility you bring along with you.  This is why Jesus advised: don’t be a hypocrite about your prayers. 

If you’re praying just to get attention for yourself, if you’re getting an ashen cross on your forehead just to make some kind of piety visible, if you’re loudly naming the extravagant desserts you’re giving up for Lent or you’re showing up to the neighborhood parish fish fry just for the food and community, well, obviously you could do worse things with your time and energy, but don’t pretend like you’re doing that for God.  God knows the difference, and God’s opinion is the only one that matters since God will be the one to judge each of us in the end. 

But I’m not here to browbeat you into anxious self-examination or second-guessing all your motives, because again: this is not about you.  Ash Wednesday is not about feeling so bad about yourself that you give up what brings you joy to the point that maybe you even give up on everything. 

Ash Wednesday is the opportunity to make a fearless inventory of your life and to humbly seek God’s wisdom and direction, because, friends, if you think Ash Wednesday and Lent are about keeping somber faces and fasting as a means of denying yourself pleasure, then you are missing out on the very treasures in heaven that Jesus speaks of. 

Obsessing over your personal self-worth will never bring you completion or perfection, and that’s not what Jesus suffered and died for, anyway.  Because it’s not about you.  It’s about God. 

And God, as always, is watching out for the most vulnerable people in our population.  God is paying attention to how they are treated.  In the Scripture reading from the prophet Isaiah, God is saying,

I see the way you are oppressing your neighbors! 

You want a gold star for your fasting and your false humility, and just look at who is suffering so that you can keep your day of fasting! 

Neat, you observe the Sabbath and take the day off from work, yay—but then you deny someone else the chance to experience the gifts of Sabbath if you’re making them work. 

If you won’t care for your neighbor because they are human just like you, God is saying, then go ahead and care for them and call that a gift to me. 

So eat beef every Friday if your Lenten discipline is to feed people who are hungry.  Have all the chocolate you want during Lent if you’ll commit your energy and your time to advocating for people without homes—or maybe you can build affordable housing.  Go ahead and buy that beautiful new Easter dress if you’ll also provide clean, dry clothes for people who don’t have regular access to laundry facilities. 

God is not here to dispense pats on the back for your piety, but God is watching for how you care for the most vulnerable people in our society.  For those of us with the privilege in this country to be counted as United States citizens, we can do much more than simple acts of charity. 

When our immigrant neighbors are being terrorized for fear of being snatched up by ICE and taken away to a detention center, when new detention centers are being built all the time, then what does it mean for us “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke”[1]?

Sarah Ruiz, executive director of Ashrei Foundation,[2] spoke on Monday morning at the Rally to Bridge Faith and Justice, organized by interfaith clergy.  She mentioned that we may not all speak the same language or confess the same foundations of faith, and we may differ in our faiths, but we show up, and only when we love each other with our differences will we move forward in faith, justice, and love. 

She said her understanding of the Hebrew word ashrei, for which her foundation is named, is that ashrei refers to the forward movement toward the fulfillment of justice. 

Seeking justice for our immigrant neighbors—that’s what brought us out on the MLK Bridge on Monday morning.  Ms. Ruiz educated us about some numbers—3 detention centers in the state of Missouri, among those three, 400 detained at any given time, and some 2000 people in the past year have passed through these detention centers, more than 80% of whom have no criminal record. 

Last year, the Ashrei Foundation started a Rapid Response Hotline in St. Louis to provide guidance and support for people fearing a family member has been taken by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) or to call and report locations of ICE activity so that communities can mobilize to bear witness with recording devices and to discourage the violence of ICE agents themselves and hold them accountable.  Since the hotline was started, Ms. Ruiz said they have fielded over 5000 calls and helped over 500 families. 

The weather was unusually sunny and beautiful for mid-February, which surely made it possible for more people to gather on the bridge for this rally.  Ms. Ruiz said, “Today is wonderful, but today is not enough.”  She called on us to take action, to commit to taking the next step—she said that as we cross the metal bar that divides the bridge from the not-bridge (as she called it), we are to commit to the next step of our individual journeys in responding to the needs of our neighbors. 

And that’s the challenge I share with you today/tonight, too—making our Ash Wednesday celebration into an Ashrei Wednesday, a time to participate in the forward movement to the fulfillment of justice.  As you leave worship, as you cross the threshold from the sanctuary to the not-sanctuary, commit to your own next step.  There are so many places to donate money if you’re able to do that.  This is the time to talk to your elected representatives or even build a relationship with them.  There are rapid response trainings going on for those who can organize, and there are organizations looking for people to deliver groceries or care for the needs of immigrant families.  Whatever you do, Ms. Ruiz pleaded with the crowd, do something. 

And if you’re not sure what to do, Isaiah has some words of encouragement for you too: “You shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and God will say, ‘Here I am.’”[3]  Because remember: Ash Wednesday is not about you, and Ashrei Wednesday is not about your good works or your own righteousness either.  It’s about God, in whom all things hold together. 

As you cross from the sanctuary into the not-sanctuary, as you take your own next step in caring for your neighbor, remember “The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.”[4] 

May your steps guide you to the very treasure that Jesus promises.  Good news awaits.  Friends, resurrection is unstoppable.  Easter is coming. 

Amen. 

Pastor Cheryl

[1] Isaiah 58:6

[2] From https://www.ashreifoundation.org/ 

[3] Isaiah 58:9a

[4] Isaiah 58:11