Ash Wednesday

Isaiah 58.1-12 – PSALM 103.8-18 – 2 Cor 5.20b-6.10 – Mathieu 6.1-6, 16-21

The Very Rev’d Bertrand Oliver, Dean and Rector

‘Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’

We come from many places and backgrounds, some of us were born in Montreal, others have come here for studying, for work or for romantic reasons and ended up staying, and some have found here a place of refuge from a situation in their own countries from which they had to move away. Or we may simply be passing through here today, before returning to your home city in due course.

Whatever the reason, we are here today gathered as the wider family of God, the body of Christ, as we enter the season of Lent on this Ash Wednesday.

There has been much change in the world since a year ago – some wars are still being fought and new ones have erupted, we have had to deal with more consequences of climate change from floods to fires around our planet and even in our own province, and we have seen a major shift in world politics, with many countries leaning politically towards systems that had not been seen since before the second world war. The balance of the world feels more threatened than ever.

And so even here in Quebec, we find ourselves today in an economic conflict with our southern neighbours, until not so long ago our allies, and pondering what that might mean for the immediate future in rising costs but also in terms of national security and sovereignty.

And we may be wondering – what has gone wrong, and what is God doing in the midst of all of this.
I was meeting with a group of students from Concordia University yesterday, and amongst the many questions they had for me, there was – inevitably – one about the relevance of religion today. What can we say that is positive about God in today’s fractured world? ‘How do we maintain faith when it feels like the world is falling apart around us’.

For all of us who are baptised and who have sought to grow in our faith, we know that our faith in God does not rely on God intervening directly in solving all the world’s problem.

There are miracles from time to time, but the greatest miracle is that God gave humanity all the tools to manage the world in a way that would conform to God’s initial plan – a beautiful and sustainable eco-system with humanity charged to maintaining it for the ongoing glory of God through the creation.

We have been given the talent to see beyond what is merely visible through our sciences, we have learnt ways in which we can be good stewards of God’s creation by using sustainable methods. And over time, wise leaders have developed political systems to provide for stability and prosperity.

Our sacred texts – from the Hebrew Scriptures to the New Testament – are full of live-giving and life-affirming examples of how to live in community under God, and they also contain many examples of the consequences for humanity when we have not lived according to God’s plan.
War, oppression, death, destruction, power grab and exploitation. Countless prophets have railed against humanity’s excesses, sometimes to good – if not permanent – effect.

Nevertheless, we remain people of faith because God has touched our lives and we know that what Jesus came to teach and preach in words and through his life, death and resurrection, still has the power to change the world today.

The voice of God through the prophet Isaiah which we heard in our first reading reminds us – who are on this path – of what God seeks from us – not empty and visible sacrifices for social media distribution, but instead lives full of meaningful sacrifices that do actually change the lives of others – to loose the bonds of injustice, to remove the yoke from the oppressed. To share our bread, to house the homeless, to provide for those who have nothing.

It is in doing this that God’s light breaks forth in the world. This is the way to heal the world, and this is the way in which we ensure continuing healing for ourselves.

Our faith is intensely communal, and it is in serving one another in our respective ever-changing needs that we honour God and ensure the sustainability of the world.

Jesus, in our Gospel passage, is more direct about the ways in which we should do acts of love in secret, because in the end that is how the world should live – with each and everyone of us looking after one another as a matter of course, as we recognise the divine spark in each other, without needing thanks or affirmation.
For Jesus, it goes without saying that we need to have an ongoing and deepening relationship and dialogue with God, not just as a public show of faith ready for the glare of publicity, but instead, in the quiet of our home or our communal places of worship where we come together as the body of Christ, speak our words and listen for the movement of the Spirit.

We are called to be joy to the world, because we know that the faith that motivates us is one that is open to the world in all its beauty and diversity, and focused on preserving it to the Glory of God. Our Christian badge is not for show nor for amassing wealth, but instead an encouragement to to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6.8).

Today marks the beginning of our time of reflection and preparation before Holy Week and Easter, and during this journey we will be travelling with Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. We will see him being confronted by people seeking to entrap him, being betrayed by friends, being arrested, tortured, killed on the cross. For each of those steps, we will be able to think of people and situations in the world today into which Jesus’s experience speaks directly, but also the reminder that even in the direst of situations there is a promise of resurrection. Even in the midst of death there is life.

We will shortly be reminded, through the marking of a cross in ash on our foreheads, that in the midst of life there is also death. Our human bodies are mortal not immortal, the time we have here is limited.
This is not a morbid thought, but instead an invitation to do our best in the here and now, when we know we can – rather than a future which we might never see.

This year, in particular, doing the best we can involves being gentle to ourselves and nurturing our communities at times of additional stress and anxiety at world events around us.

Theologian Diana Butler Bass proposes that we should especially build ourselves up during this Lent, build ourselves to be resilient to continue on the journey, and she outlines 10 actions for each day:
Wake up, welcome the day, walk, be with others, work, write, watch the news, practice wide sight, weep and wonder.

Whilst prayer can thread through all these activities, I would add to ensure that you nurture your relationship with God by some prayer time and pondering scripture.

In that way will the cross of Ash be a sign not of death, but of a resolute daily living with God, facing a world which today seems to wilfully go against the divine wisdom that has brought up all the way to this day and continue to work for that Kingdom of Love, justice, joy and peace which is God’s promise for his creation. Amen

Bertrand Olivier