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Ash Wednesday

February 6, 2008
The Rev. David R. Hackett

How is your soul today? Did you know that this was once a common salutation among Christians? They greeted one another not by saying, “Hello” or “How are you?”; instead they greeted one another by “How is your soul today?”

How is it with your soul this day? Is your soul happy? Weary? Sad? Content? Most of us, on reflection, will have to answer it is some of each. We have moments of joy, of sadness, times of confusion, of weariness, of satisfaction. Ours is an endless tide of emotion and states of being. We are not static. We don’t remain constant. We bear witness with ourselves of the truth expressed by St. Augustine, “O God, thou has made us for thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in thee.”

Fred Buechner, in a meditation on the season of Lent, wrote:

“Jesus went off all alone in the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question of what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves.”

Jesus had to figure out his ministry, his purpose. All too often we tend to think that Jesus always knew who he was and what he was supposed to do. But read the New Testament again. He went into the wilderness to be tested and to test his vocation. He had to struggle to know to what God was calling him.

So, here we are again, beginning Lent again, talking about ashes again; being quaintly liturgical and irrelevant to most modern people; quoting the Bible like it means something; changing the appearance of the liturgical hangings like somebody is dead or dying. And being serious, some might say being morose or pessimistic about the human condition. And for what? We’ve done it all before. And here we are again.

Just maybe we do Lent because we have this continual need to be asking, “How is my soul today?” In this sea of life in which we sometimes feel we are doing more sinking than swimming, Christians need to check the bearings on their spiritual compass. This is a time to step back, in order to step forward. A time to examine the authenticity of our life in Christ, so that we may more fully become that which we are: the Body of Christ. We have to keep doing this because it is so much easier to intend to be a Christian than to be one. As Martin Luther said, “The old Adam in each of us is a mighty strong swimmer and does not easily drown in the waters of baptism.”

Lent is the time of regeneration in Christ. Where should we start? The apostle Paul said that we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Let me suggest that one way of doing that this Lent is to be specific about who we are in relationship with others. Here is a checklist that I’ve found helpful. I offer it to you.

  • What is your relationship like with the most significant persons in your life? Your Spouse? Your partner? your children? Other family members?
  • What is your relationship to your work? Are you a slave to your work?
  • What is your relationship to money? To food? To alcohol? To prescription or non-prescription drugs?
  • What is your relationship with your body? Your mind? your emotions?
  • What is your relationship with the poor? The sick? The suffering?
  • What is your relationship with people of different color or ethnic origin than your own?
  • What is your relationship with what you believe to be your purpose in life?
  • Finally, and most importantly, what is your relationship With Christ? What is your relationship with prayer? With scripture? With worship and the sacraments? With the reality of your own sin?

The purpose of Lent is not moral rearmament. It is not to think right, do right, or be good. It is not to give up something to make ourselves feel righteous. All of those attempts to spiritually pull ourselves up by our bootstraps are feeble and doomed for failure. Our Lord, in today’s Gospel, cautions against outward displays of piety.

Lent is a time for taking stock. And giving up ourselves to God for his redeeming work to begin in us. Let to the devices and desires of our own hearts we are powerless to help ourselves or to heal ourselves. Only Christ can do that.

How is your soul today? When we draw near in faith to Jesus our Lord we will find our souls healed and made new.

It is Lent again. And the ashes will be smeared on our foreheads not to show others how good or how righteous we are, but to impress upon ourselves that left to ourselves we indeed “are dust and unto dust we shall return.”

And we wait. And we ask God to redeem us. We ask God to make us new hearts and souls. And we live in the promise that in Christ we will know Easter and move from the dust and ashes of the grave of sin and death into the resurrection and the life. Amen.