World's Greatest Valentine

Isn't it strange that Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine's Day this year? One holiday is a somber day for reflection, a day to repent for our missteps and failings, the beginning of Lent's 40 days of self-sacrifice to prepare for Easter. The other holiday is a time for romance, for extravagant celebrations of love and lovers. Ashes and fasting versus roses and fine chocolates. How odd - even jarring - to have both holidays on the same day. And yet, maybe it's fitting to have Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day happening on the same day.

"On Ash Wednesday, many of our Christian brothers and sisters receive the mark of ashes on their foreheads. As the mark of ashes is made, the priest pronounces the words, 'Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.' The ashes are a symbol of humility and repentance. The ashes remind us that we have nothing to boast of, that we will not live forever, that morally we are something less than perfect. On Ash Wednesday we are told what most of us already know all too well -- that alienation from God and from each other is a fundamental fact of our existence.

The question that burns, then, deep in our hearts is: How can we be lifted out of this helpless state? The answer that, hopefully, we will learn along our Lenten journey this year is that God's reaction is not to condemn us, but to save us ... by loving us. 

What does a suitor do when his or her verbal professions of love are not heard or are rebuffed by the beloved? Quite often he or she steps up the campaign to a higher level by turning from mere words to acts of love and devotion. The old stand-bys are flowers, candy, or other gifts.

As we move into Lent, God, the 'hound of heaven,' who has been pursuing his wayward world for centuries through the words of the prophets, is about to step up his campaign. He is about to act personally, not through the spoken word, but through the incarnate Word, his Son, Jesus, to show us how much he loves us.

The Cross is God's great act of love for us. It is a graphic display of God reaching down and providing a way for us to lift our heads and become really human - in the highest, most wonderful sense of that word. The whole rationale for the cross is that I am helpless to free myself from cares and troubles and worry and idolatry and all the evils that enslave me, so God provides a man, a man just like me in all respects but one - he is free from sin. The man is Jesus Christ. So if I bind myself to him in faith, I can rely on his obedience, his righteousness, his victory. He can count for me before God.

What grabs me the most, what changes me down to the core, is the realization that God loved me and thought enough of me, valued me so highly, that he sent his Son to die for me. He did that all for me! What affirmation I feel when I realize how far God was willing to go to save me. Can I do any less than to so love and affirm you?" 

The best relationships make us better people. That's certainly true of a relationship with God. Understanding how much God loves you -- ashes and all -- is life-changing. When you are filled with gratitude for that love, and when you realize that God loves your neighbor just as much, how can you help but extend God's love to your neighbor, too? What starts out as Ash Wednesday ends as Valentine's Day -- between us and God, and between us and our neighbors. That's a February 14th to remember.

From: "Love's Last Invitation,"
"Ashes," & "Ash Wednesday Meditation - 1988"

Rethinking Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is a time for confession, so here’s one for you: I confess that Ash Wednesday has never been one of my favorite Christian holidays. After all, who wants to be reminded of his sin and mortality? The words that are usually spoken when the ashes are placed on a worshiper’s forehead sound so grim: “From dust (or ashes) you have been made, and to dust (or ashes) you shall return.” 

When I recently read my father’s last two Ash Wednesday meditations, though, I learned that he had a surprisingly upbeat take on the meaning of the day. Here’s what he had to say that is causing me re-think my dour view of Ash Wednesday:

“Over and over again we read in the scriptures about Godly men and women who ‘repent in sackcloth and ashes.’ This is a sign of humility, not humiliation. That is, we need to realize that a realistic assessment of our worth in human terms depends on the grace of God and not our own doing. It is not that we are not worth something. The modern adage is true: ‘God doesn't make junk.’ To put it in scriptural terms, ‘God saw all that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.’ However, it is necessary to point out the underlying fact that God made it. The goodness is all derived goodness. We live in the glow of God’s reflected glory. God is love, and all love comes from God.

It is sin that has spoiled God’s creation. Sin twists and mars and makes ugly.  That is why we symbolize it with ashes on Ash Wednesday. The message of Ash Wednesday is negative in a positive sort of way. It says that only by taking a realistic and not inflated assessment of ourselves can we really make, by God’s grace, something worthwhile out of our lives.

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The answer that, hopefully, we will learn along this Lenten journey which is before us is that God saves us not by condemning us but by loving us. We listen to Jesus as he stands by the woman caught in the act of adultery. He says to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’ [See John 8:1-11] The effect of his words is not to push her further down into the dirt, but to lift her up and help her believe in herself and what the power of God working in her can make of her. This is God’s way with us.

Yes, we are dust, but it is Almighty God who made us out of dust and breathed his own breath, his own Spirit, into us. To negate a human being is to blaspheme God the Creator. The way to raise a creature of dust to a new and higher level is to affirm what God has done and is doing in that person. This opens the door even wider for more of God’s transforming activity in that life. Being negative and judgmental never works. It only begets negativity, hostility, and finally hopelessness. On the other hand, the positive approach, the affirming word, begets openness to you, openness to God, and a new attitude of hope.

What grabs me most, what changes me down to my core, is the realization that God loved me and valued me so highly that he sent his son to die for me. He did that all for me! What affirmation I feel when I realize how far God was willing to go to save me. Can I do any less than so love and affirm you?”

So as I go to worship this Ash Wednesday, it will be with a new focus: God is calling me, through these ashes, to acknowledge that my worth comes from him as my Creator, not from my own efforts -- which are only possible because of God, after all. And what am I worth as God's creation? I'm worth the greatest sacrifice ever made, and so are you.

From: "Ash Wednesday Meditation" (1988 & 1989)