Ash Wednesday, 3/5/2025

Text: Isaiah 58:1-12

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

There is a preceding portion of the Isaiah reading we heard for today that was not included, and I would like to read to you those 5 preceding verses from the 58th chapter of Isaiah:

“Shout out; do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they want God on their side. “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day and oppress all your workers. 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. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”

Truly, Ash Wednesday is the day we all remove our masks, and to not hide ourselves, not just from the reality of our own finitude, but also of our call to follow God rightly on His command of liberation. Hear how urgently God speaks through Isaiah: “Shout out! Do not hold back! Lift up your voice!” We are pressed to leave falsehood behind and to embrace God’s way, which centrally includes a self-giving service on behalf of the poor. In the face of death, no pretense can be held. The readings point that in such moments of clarity, we have to make a stand on behalf of truth and love. “Now is the day of salvation” as the apostle Paul exhorts in 2 Corinthians 6. If there is one things our readings make clear: God does not like hypocrisy. It is one of the reasons Jesus says in our Gospel reading to not perform piety in order to be seen, and rather to them quietly and humbly. That however does not cancel out the call we hear in Isaiah, but to complement it. God does not like a theatrical and performative faith that does not revolutionize the heart towards love and justice towards those in need. It does not please God to make oneself seem spiritual, and then act in opposite to what that same God demands so clearly: loose the bonds of injustice, break every yoke of oppression. We can make all kinds of rituals, we can fill this sanctuary with incense, we can lift up the most beautiful choruses, we can make the most public demonstrations of piety, prayer and liturgy; we can even display our foreheads smacked with ashes, and if these things are not coupled with a contrite heart that burns for justice and compassion, especially for the deserving and undeserving poor among us, as Dorothy Day would say, then it is empty. Beloved, these texts today are

a program of ministry and devotion for every believer. And since we are beginning our Lenten journey today, now we are committing ourselves to return to God, what discipline shall we undertake to enact this vision that God has placed before us? As we declutter our hearts from everything that alienates us from God and neighbor, what will we ask God to fill our hearts with?

Often in Lent, we ask the question, what are we giving up to show God we can do things for Him, to meditate on Him better. Some people give up chocolate, or foods, or technology. But reading this text, when God says through the prophet “this is the fast that I choose”, shouldn’t we go a bit more daring with our fast? As Jesus says in the Gospel, where do we place our hearts? On God’s Kingdom and its vision? Or on something else? Are we using our Lenten spirituality to distance ourselves from the cry of the poor, or are we cultivating a fast that humbly lives out the Kingdom in the here and now?

And how might that look like? Perhaps we can choose a fast where we give up fear and foster courage in the name of Jesus. Perhaps we can fast from hatred and choose to love every person on the basis of Christ’s command. Perhaps we can fast from permitting injustice in our communities. Perhaps we can fast from inaction, and in God’s name call upon those that are in power: your war on the poor is atrocious, repent and serve the least of these; repent, and join in on the cause of compassion. Individually, we can fast from suspicion of neighbor and hateful speech and begin those kingdom values to grow within us.

Beloved, all in all, Ash Wednesday and the season it inaugurates is a matter of focus. Focus on Jesus. Meditate on Him. Listen to His words and witness Him where He walks. Contemplate His gaze, how He looks at us and the world. Heed His invitation, and follow Him, eliminating all distraction that is not God’s Kingdom. Let God feed you with the fruits of lovingkindness that He has planted. Remembering that we are dust, and to dust we shall return, it might spring in us the reality that our limited time is always well spent when we follow Jesus and share the fruits of His Gospel, for He has the words of eternal life. Indeed, there is a change that is coming, something greater that we could never imagine, will be on the horizon as we journey with Jesus. Let us remain with Him throughout this Lenten season, focusing on Him above all the other distracting voices who want to lead us astray from the path of God’s grace for all people. Practice the fast that He has chosen for us wherever you are: loose the bonds of injustice, undo the straps of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide shelter to the unhoused; above all things: do not hide your love from your neighbors. Let us pray: