Ash Wednesday, 2022

Friends,

This evening we begin our Lenten journey.

If one were asked “What is tonight’s Gospel about?” one could raise a litany of answers:

  • it’s about not being religious just for show;
  • it’s about not giving alms as do hypocrites—a miserly reflection of one’s disregard for the poor;
  • it’s about not praying like the hypocrites with grand gestures and great oration “… full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”;
  • it’s about not fasting like the hypocrites who hoard good things while others do without;
  • it’s about not being so in love with one’s wealth as to eclipse one’s love for God;
  • or it’s about not working for heavenly reward, a thing to which all Christians do well to be allergic.

Tonight’s Gospel is all over the map.

But there is a thread which runs through the whole of it and it is this:

Jesus has a fundamental concern for community life and lives lived in community. And Jesus fundamentally understood that it is faithless for me to improve my lot at the expense of that of my neighbour. It is wrong of me to strive for fullness of life if doing so diminishes the life of my neighbour.

If that sounds familiar, it’s simply because this is what Jesus said was important.

“Love your God with your whole being and your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew, Mark and Luke) “I am come that you might have life and life in all its abundance.” (John) “Love one another as I have loved you.” You will hear those words, also from John, at the far end of Lent, on Maundy Thursday, as we meet again at night to take up the Great Three Days.

Jesus’ central message had to do with love of God and love of neighbour. He said that love is a sign of Christian discipleship. Everything else is elaboration. Jesus contemplated life lived in community and the interdependence of all who walk our way. During Lent we remind ourselves of that truth as we contemplate, individually, our lives lived together and the lives of others who depend upon us for a place under the sun.

In recent days, we have seen with our own eyes the evil wrought by a malevolent dictator. Insofar as the good of our Ukrainian neighbours depends upon us, we have work to do. Insofar as we can bring justice to injustice, we have work to do. Insofar as the good of the poor depends upon us, we have work to do.

Lent always proclaims “we have work to do”.

Lent is about teasing out those places where the living of our lives can promise fullness of life where such fullness might not otherwise prevail.

Lent means salving the cracked, the bruised and broken places of God’s world to let hope’s light shine through.

Lent involves me figuring out, and you figuring out, the difference I can make, and you can make, by bringing love to life.

Silence.

May the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in God’s sight. And let the church say “Amen.”  R/ Amen.

André Lavergne, CWA (The Rev.)
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Kitchener