Reading

Joel 2.1-2, 12-17

 2  Blow the trumpet in Zion;

    sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord  is coming, it is near-

 2   a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

 12   Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

 14   Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain-offering and a drink-offering for the Lord, your God?

 15   Blow the trumpet in Zion;

    sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly;

 16 gather the people. Sanctify the congregation;

    assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.

 17   Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep. Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples,

    “Where is their God?”  ’

 Gospel

Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21

 6  ‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2   ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

 3  But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

 4  so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5   ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

 6  But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

16   ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

 17  But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,

 18  so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

19   ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal;

 20  but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.

 21  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Ash Wednesday homily

It might feel on hearing these two readings that they are in conflict with each other. Our first reading from Joel is encouraging the people to sound the trumpet sanctify a fast and call an assembly. Yet in our gospel reading we have Jesus encouraging people to fast and give alms in secret. What our readings are helping us understand is that fasting and the imposition of ashes are a great way of showing our faith to those who have no faith, but Jesus is giving us a warning not to make our fasting or outward giving a competition and so taking away the focus of these acts, which should be on God.

Our reading from Joel is set at a time during and after Jerusalem’s destruction. It would have been a really difficult period and many of the Israelites turned away from God because they felt abandoned. Yet the Prophet Joel is encouraging the people to turn back to God despite the darkness and destruction happening all around them and that the only way that the darkness could be overcome, is through God.

Throughout the Old Testament we read how various people would use ash as a way of showing sorrow. Stories about someone dying or being hurt, people will put on sackcloth and sit in ashes as an outward sign that they were grieving. It isn’t clear when this custom translated into putting ashes in the shape of the cross on people’s foreheads, but it is thought to have originated during the papacy of Gregory the great between 590 and 604. By 1091 it had become a universal custom in the Western church. This act of showing sorrow is quite unusual in Western society today. I think we’re so focused on showing our happy or good selves that it’s difficult to feel comfortable showing the times when we’re not feeling good. However, I think we are getting better at accepting that we have both good and bad days and times in our lives. I was offering pastoral support to someone recently, and they said that when someone is walking by and says how are you, they wanted to have the courage to say, actually I’m not doing that great at the moment.

Just showing our good side to the world is exhausting because it means suppressing our true selves. It also puts pressure on others around us to do the same and so continues this monotonous cycle of only showing our perfect selves.

It's a bit like what Jesus is saying in our gospel reading from Matthew. Jesus is drawing out some negative examples from both Jewish and gentile communities of people who are just showing their good side. People who are all about showing what a strong faith they have for the benefit of people around them rather than for God. Jesus then goes further by condemning the custom of covering the face with ash, which was an outward sign of someone fasting because they were sad and says that we should put oil on our faces so that we look healthy.

It’s interesting therefore that this gospel reading is used on a day when we put a cross of ashes on our foreheads for all to see! Doesn’t this feel a bit like we're showing off!?

Well originally the use of crosses in ash on the foreheads of Christians denoted those who were wanting to be reconciled to their community for a sin they had committed. It was up to the surrounding community to pray for that person to be reconciled and to feel sorrow for them. I really like that idea of a community coming together to pray for someone who is struggling. It's not about saying woah is me, feel sorry for me, it's about showing others that we need help and a community stepping up to being alongside those in need. The cross of ashes doesn’t show off how faithful we are, it reminds us how sinful we are and by each of us having the cross of ash it shows each of us that we are all equally sinful and all equally need to pray for each other and for ourselves.  

We are a community of sinners who are striving to be Christ like, but we can only do that by praying for each other and helping each other. Not by showing off how pious or faithful we are, but by showing our true selves with all our flaws and accepting ourselves with those flaws. Jesus intervenes for us so that we can have a way of coming back to our communities even when we are sinful. We don’t need to sacrifice a bull or sacrifice our own life when we do something wrong. Jesus is there to pick us up from our brokenness and say you are still loved, you don’t have to show your perfect face today. The cross of ash on our foreheads reminds us that it is ok to not be perfect, God sees all the good and all the bad that we do but still loves us.

As we begin this time of Lent let us pray for each other, for ourselves and for the sins we have committed. Let us sit with our sorrow and then give thanks for the coming of Jesus Christ who breaks the bonds of sin. Amen