Let us declare a fast!

Today lent begins; we come together and recognise our mortality while ever remembering the work Jesus has done for us and God's immortality. Ash Wednesday calls us to start this work in humility and our readings reflect this. Matthew 6.1, "‘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.", Isaiah 58.4, "Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high." Yet, we start this time with a very public and real symbol of ash spread onto the forehead, Joel 2.15, "Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly". Ash Wednesday is the call of a solemn assembly.

There is more recent history to Ash Wednesday then I would have thought; for a long time after the reformation in the Anglican church it was disallowed; suddenly it was renewed in the 20th Century. So here is a very public trumpet blast that we return to our lives with. What I find important is the ash doesn't stay for long, by the time I pack up from the service the ash on my forehead is dissipated; like the sound of a trumpet it fades quickly. We start our lent with a solemn service and this trumpet blast yet for the Lenten fast we are not called to bring attention to it; you may be fasting food in some way or form, media consumption, or fasting by adding in regular prayer and in turn giving up the time that would have been spent doing other things. All of these items are for personal growth under God, for God not for us. All these things are our preparation for Easter.

Using someone close for accountability can be important with in a private setting; but after the ash fades, the trumpet blast of lent does too. Let's keep a holy lent; let's declare a fast; let this time be for us and God, focused on the individual relationship with God. The relationship we can explore in quiet prayer in our rooms, not the relationship we show to the public and by Easter let the difference between private and public relationship be less and less. In all of the season, letting ourselves be drawn ever closer to God. This world will pass away and so we will; yet there is promise beyond the ashes of this fallen creation.

Reference

Wedgeworth, Steven. 2023. ‘No Ashes to Ashes: An Anglican History of Ash Wednesday’. Ad Fontes, February 20. https://adfontesjournal.com/steven-wedgeworth/no-ashes-to-ashes-an-anglican-history-of-ash-wednesday/.