No Ashes!

 As I write this, Lent is at our doorstep. Starts tomorrow. That would be Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. And I am raising the question - can we actually have Lent without Ashes?

For so many Ash Wednesday has become almost a religious holy day. You just have to get to church nd get those ashes. There is, actually, no such regulation and/or stated obligation but still this thinking is embedded in the minds and hearts of many of the faithful (and even some of the less than faithful.)

And because for so many Lent is so much about those ashes and that smudge mark on the forehead, I raise the question out loud and in print.

Can we actually have Lent without Ashes?

And, no, I am not somehow suggestion that we rid ourselves of those Ashes or of Ash Wednesday. Those Ashes can serve a very important purpose. My question is more about Lent itself.

And this year for me the matter is of real consideration because, come Ash Wednesday, I will not be receiving ashes on my forehead.

A couple of days ago I tested positive for Covid. I have begun my Paxlovid treatment. However, it will be a couple days more before another test, this time hopefully negative. In this present situation, I dare not present myself in any sort of public gathering, potentially exposing others to this virus.

No ashes for me on Ash Wednesday this year!

And no big deal either!

Knowing a bit about this wondrous Church of ours and its numerous "faces," I am aware that some of our branches have already begun Lent. They started on Monday last. Obviously, they do not have an Ash Wednesday. Others will begin Lent this coming Sunday, and, again, that Ash Wednesday thing is not on their calendar.

Lent is not about Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday is meant to be a good reminder of why we should take this sacred time seriously but it is definitely possible to have Lent, even a very good Lent, without those Ashes on the forehead.

Forty Days!

Whether counting from the Monday that just passed or the day just ahead or the next in our list of Sundays is all about God's Time and not ours. We are dealing with a Biblical number not a mathematical one.

It is about hearing God's call to us - a call to examine honestly, the seek to do better and commit to take more seriously. God is calling us to give to God the time that God needs for the Holy Spirit to enable us to be more fully, more richly who God has created us to be. God is eager to send/pour forth that Spirit to shake us to our very core!

So it's hearing God to say, "Hey, you and I have got some serious work to do! Let's get busy!"

And Lent is about us replying, "OK, let's go!"

If you need Ashes to call you to that moment, go for it.

And if you do not, go for it still.

The time has come to embrace the call to make of ourselves more beautiful people so that we can be a more beautiful Church so that we can build a more beautiful society so that we can all live in a more beautiful world!

Happy Lent!

Thank you for your service!

 I grew up when (and I know that I am dating myself here, but that is no big deal!) words and phrases like, "Can I help you?" and "Please" and "Thank you" were rather commonplace. A shopping experience, for example, would often be interspersed with such phrases.

Out on the street a "Good Morning" or "Good Evening" or even a folksy "Howdy Neighbor" broke any silence.

Then, somehow, somewhere something began to change.

I cannot document its beginnings but, apparently, someone got the idea to get a bit more personable. And so a greeting was given.

"Have a nice day!"

And, behold! that greeting seemed to catch on like wildfire and it spread everywhere and under almost all circumstances.

Checkout clerks were inviting us to have that nice day and bank clerks were joining the chorus and, I suspect, even a pastor or two sent religious congregations out after a service inviting them to "Have a nice day!"

In fact I think that one of the few places where we were not told to "Have that nice day" was the funeral home.

Without much real thought, speaking out of force of habit, well wishers have invited us to that "Nice Day" even at eight in the evening.

It has become a greeting without much real significance or meaning.

And more recently a still newer phrase, limited in usage to be sure, has emerged.

"Thank you for your service."

With our growing fascination for the military and law inforcercers and public servants in general, there has now emerged that phrase of gratitude. We learn that the person alongside us served in Iraq, "Thank you for your service." A firefighter? Thank you . . .  Works the emergency room? Thank you . . .

The gratitude phrase is becoming commonplace and almost expected. Why, even Pat Sajak now says it on Wheel of Fortune when discovering a public servant.

And while the phrase is becoming commonplace and even in danger of becoming trite, I was caught by surprise recently. I was at a funeral. The Mass was soon to start and I was traversing from paying respects at the bier to my place for the coming time of prayer. I was clearly and evidently clergy. Had all the right attire for it. I could also be discerned as having a rather sufficient number of years behind me. The accumulation of years is evident.

And as I walked innocently from point A toward point B, one of the other participants in the event noticed me, stopped and surprised me with that greeting. "Thank you for your service, Father!"

It was a first and it was a surprise and, not ashamed to say it, it was a welcome blessing.

But then came the real surprise.

I don't know where this came from, probably one of those Holy Spirit moments, but, honestly, without giving thought or preparation to it, I responded. And I am very certain that my response surprised my greeter. I do know that it did surprise me.

"And thank you for being Church!" I responded.

Surprising! Certainly!

But true? Hopefully.

Is not that exactly what Christians, Disciples of Jesus, are to be all about? Should that not be the gratitude that each of us merits? Deserves?

Granted, there will be many in our world, in our time who will not be terribly grateful to be in the presence of those making the sincere effort to live as disciples of Jesus. There will be those who criticize, who tell us that we should keep our religious stuff to ourselves.

Thing is, though, that Jesus did come to reclaim this world and all of its flawed and failed social structures. He came to reclaim this world in the Name of its Rightful Owner. He came to establish the Kingdom of God and that will often go against the values that so many wish to live by.

Meekness? Mercy? Builders of peace? Foot-washers? Servants? Sisters and brothers? Walking the extra mile and turning the other cheek?

What sort of world would that be?

Well, perhaps it is time to try and find out.

Perhaps it is time to do the sort of things that just might cause someone to declare to us, "Thank you for being Church!" Perhaps it is time to take Jesus seriously in His teachings and not try and diminish their potency.

Another Lent is here.

Forget the candy and stuff like that, the stuff of our childhood.

How about giving up the things that are not "Of Church"?

And how about getting busy doing the things that enable us to be called "Church"?

How about a Forty Days that move in the direction of inviting someone, maybe THAT Someone to say to us, "Thank you for being Church."