This Ash Wednesday will be a time of deep reflection on the benefits and
provisions of God, but also for our abject failure to be a righteous and Holy
people. Have we done well? Have we been a people of perfect obedience? Have we
honored God in all of our ways? We not speak with complete credibility of
others in the church, but we can assuredly speak for our own selves – WE HAVE
NOT BEEEN SO OBEDIENT AND HOLY! Each of us have been, as the Gospel text
recommended for the day suggests – PRODIGALS. We have happily taken of the
blessings of God and gone into a far country to waste
all. But we have been a righteous people, you
aver! Have you really been? Have you taken time to visit the poor and sick on
every occasion? Have you given generously of your resources to the work of God?
Have you tithed your time and your study moments as well as all else? Has there been time enough to
confess all of your sins that you can, at least, remember committing? I use
only the opening lines of the Gospel and Epistle for they are suggestive of the
whole.
10 “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth. 11 And
he said, A certain man had two sons: 12 And
the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods
that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all
together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his
substance with riotous living . . .” (Luke 15:9-13)
Let us read the opening lines of this great parable and discover how we are
different from that Prodigal who left his loving Father for the allurements of
the world. We have taken the blessings of God in our own hands and have
squandered them on desires for which they were not intended – yes, you and I
have done so. It is not a nebulous tale intended only for listeners of 2,000
years ago, but for you and me.
Do we doubt that these parables of Jesus apply to us?
1 “God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by he word of his power, when he had by
himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” (Heb 1:1-3)
As we observe this ASH Wednesday, let us remember that obedience, repentance,
love, and faithfulness are not the things to be boasted of. We do not smear
ashes on our faces, or disfigure them, to be seen of men as fasting and
repentant. The words of Jesus have direct application to the means of fasting
and of observing this beginning of the Lenten Season: “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a
sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men
to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash
thy face; That thou appear not unto men
to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in
secret, shall reward thee openly.” (Matt
6:16-18) “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks an OUTWARD sign, but
the Lord looks into the heart. “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with
old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor 5:8) We use plain,
unleavened bread in our Communion because it represents the sinlessness of the
Savior it symbolizes. Simplicity in both worship and service is pleasing to the
Lord.
As we observe this Holy Season, let us keep
foremost in our minds that it is the Holiness of Christ, and not of ourselves,
that we observe. Our hearts are prone to sin and wickedness, but it is the
blood of Christ, shed on Mount Calvary, that cleanses us and makes us whole if
we are penitent.
