Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the penitential season leading up to Easter. In this sermon Revd Wendy calls us to the Lent journey of walking the way of the cross, the way of love.
The Bible readings are:
Play Ash Wednesday Sermon
The text of the sermon:
In Lent we follow the way of the cross, the way of love
These are the words and actions at the center of our children’s liturgy during Lent, both when families gather for Children’s Church and at our All Age Communion service, a simple way to communicate the theme of this season that we embark upon today. As we shall hear in the blessing today and through the comings weeks, the invitation is to be pick up our cross and follow him.
It’s for this reason we have before us the large wooden cross, sparse and somewhat ugly in an otherwise beautiful church building, it stands as a visual reminder of what lies at the heart of our faith, to be baptised, to be Christian is to
follow the way of the cross, the way of love
This simple phrase weaves its way through the weeks of Lent, leading into confession and in Holy Week when all the threads of the story come together the children will remember through a simple song that love is stronger than hate, fear, death, everything.
In Lent we follow the way of the cross, the way of love
Understanding the place and work of the cross in Christian faith is a theme I shall return to in a series of Holy Week reflections drawing on the work of the Revd Dr Samuel Wells in his book ‘A Cross in the heart of God,’ to invite us to consider together more deeply how and why the cross is so significant.
But for now on this Ash Wednesday it is enough to say that at the foot of the cross we see the very heart of God and the very worst in ourselves. The very worst because crucifixion, an instrument of empire to shame and thereby control a population, is also an outworking of all of the hatred and fear that humanity harbours. It may be an extreme example but as we are reminded in taking part in a liturgy of penitence today, the violence we inflict upon ourselves and others begins in our hearts. This ugly cross, now dominating this place of worship, bears witness to the sin of the world which is mine and yours.
The cross shows us the brutal reality of the worst of ourselves but in so doing it shows us the beauty of the heart of God. In the cross of Christ we see the ultimate desire of God, God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit an intimate relationship that is the Divine, reaches beyond to be with us, even though it means Godself being torn apart. As Wells writes:
‘At the central moment in history, Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, has to choose between being with the Father or being with us. And he chooses us. At the same time the Father has to choose between letting the Son be with us or keeping the Son to himself. And he chooses to let the Son be with us. That’s the choice on which our eternal destiny depends. That’s the epicenter of the Christian faith. That’s our very definition of love.’
Following the way of the cross, the way of love, is the path of Christian discipleship and one that we are invited to dwell upon a little more deeply in these weeks of Lent. The traditional Lenten disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving are a simple yet profound way of bringing this to the fore.
Looking for ways to be generous with our money or time
Choosing to give up something we enjoy
Setting aside time to pray
These are little tangible sacrifices, a mere echo of the sacrifice of God, but in so doing invite us to step beyond ourselves to draw closer to God and to one another.
The passages of scripture for Ash Wednesday make it very clear these religious disciplines are not about public posturing and indeed where outward symbols of piety are not matched by acts of justice then they are abhorrent to God. I wonder if certain world leaders who equate their decision making to enacting the will of God have ever truly heard those words from Isaiah that we hear today:
That the fast that God chooses is to loose the bonds of injustice, is to let the oppressed go free, is to share bread with the hungry
Mathew’s gospel too is a clear warning against public piety, but it is also a reminder that religious observance, outwards rituals, do shape the inwards life, our hearts and therefore our behaviour:
Note the language used in the gospel reading:
Whenever you give alms
Whenever you pray
Whenever you fast
Not if you ever…..
The season of Lent invites us to revisit these religious practices to store up treasurer in heaven, to reset and refocus on the things of God, the things of eternity.
So perhaps if this feels a little daunting now might be the right time to consider our other theme for Lent…
We are joining with others in the Church of England to explore through these weeks of Lent the idea of failure, Dust and Glory, a Lent journey of faith, failure and forgiveness, or of how to live will with the mess of everyday life.
We are encouraged to take a fresh look at the frustrations and failings we all experience in our own lives and in what we see around us. To face them head on, to seek to learn from them and grow closer to God through them. Failure, the Archbishops write in their introduction to this little book of reflections, ‘is human, universal and inevitable. The question is what we do with it and, even more importantly, what God does with it in partnership with us.’
Today as we are marked with the sign of the cross in ash we hold those two profound truths together, that yes we are frail human beings, and yet in our fragility, yes even in our sinfulness, God comes to be with us.
‘the sign of the cross, writes Emma Ineson in today’s reflection, reminds us that in Jesus our failure is overcome by God’s glory. God themselves comes to make up the distance we put between the divine and us.’
As you and I embark on seeking to keep a Holy Lent may we do so knowing that the way of the cross is the way of love, and that love is stronger than everything.