ASH WEDNESDAY: An Acceptable Sacrifice

It’s always so easy to slip into a fixed pattern of doing things. It’s almost as if our minds look at times for ways to go on auto-pilot so that we don’t have to be burdened with thinking too much about all of the different options or opportunities in front of us. It’s easy to rush through the take out line at your favorite fast food restaurant when you know that meat and veggies cooked at home will be better for you. It’s easy when you’re feeling low to head to the store or get online and purchase that item that you know will make you feel better. It’s easy in an election season to not do any in-depth reading on the candidates or choose the one that just best fits your pre-existing beliefs – because after all – we have such little say in who will actually be elected. It’s easy to come home tired from work and turn the television on for the children while you rest on the couch.

Our bodies and minds are very naturally inclined to doing things the easy way – the way that to our thinking causes the least amount of pain or discomfort. If this weren’t true, then wouldn’t we all be in the gym every morning at 7am? If this weren’t true, then wouldn’t we all cook our meals at home and spend quality time with our families and friends? If this weren’t true, wouldn’t we find very meaningful times to spend in prayer, regularly seeking God’s wisdom on the important decisions – and even the not-so-important ones - of our lives?

What we know from simply observing our lives is that if left up to ourselves without any intentionality at all – it would seem very natural to choose the comfortable and easy path most of the time.

The Israelites in Isaiah’s time had gotten into very comfortable ways of living. It was easier for them to become like the nations around them – to simply live for the marketplace, to worship in the high places the gods they believed would make the land more fertile, to marry their children to the children of unbelievers to strengthen economic or political ties, to live in fear of the great military powers of their time like Egypt, or Babylonia, or Assyria – even though in their history they had witnessed the amazing power of their God, Yahweh. Their worship had even become rote. Rather than experience a life-giving relationship of faith with the God who had brought them through the Exodus, it had become easier for them to simply go through the motions of sacrifice – to play at religion rather than do the work of faith.

It’s in this context that God inspires Isaiah to cast a vision of something different. It’s not that God wanted the people of Israel to do without good things, to sacrifice abundance for holiness as if the two were diametrically opposed to each other. God, rather, as He had shown over and over in the history of the people of Israel, wanted his people to live within the larger vision of an amazing blessing.

What this blessing looked like might be unrecognizable to us today. Perhaps we, like the Israelites, have become too much like those who don’t confess God as sovereign. Or maybe, worse yet, we’ve recast the major teachings of our faith so that they reflect not the radical, compassionate, and community-oriented nature of Jesus, but rather we’ve cast them to mirror our consumer-minded, individualistic, social-climbing culture that we find ourselves living in, breathing in, being shaped by, and being accommodated to.

The stridency of Isaiah’s voice is so powerful because Isaiah knows that God’s people have been called to a much better life than what they’ve chosen to settle for. They have, in fact, chosen the easy way. God’s way may seem tough at first. But it is in the end the only life that really has any sustainability.

Jesus, perhaps seeing the look on the face of his disciples as he taught them about the way of God reassured them, “My yoke is easy, my burden is light.” Jesus knew something his disciples didn’t. That they were already on the road to pain. Oh the path of the world, the path of accomodation might seem easy. Tough choices, discipline, and deep holiness might be able to be put off for the time being. But that’s just for the time being. Real life, real joy, real love can only be experienced under God’s blessing and provision. In the end, it is God’s way that is light and easy. Any alternative path as both scriptures and our own experience attest is just simply death.

Ash Wednesday in the tradition of the church marks the beginning of what the church has called the season of Lent. By observing Lent we don’t transform into some ritualistic high church that substitutes going through the motions for real life giving faith. By observing Lent we are simply acknowledging that there are seasons of our life, even seasons of our community life, where we may as a community prepare ourselves to experience the power of the resurrection of Jesus.

That was all Isaiah was saying to the Israelites. Remember what God has done for you? Remember his power and glory as he freed you from being slaves – not just slaves to the Egyptians, which you were – but slaves to your own defeatism, your own despair, and the enslavement of your mind. You are free! Isaiah proclaims! Now live as people who are free.

Whenever the prophet speaks, we are reminded that we don’t really have to settle for less. We don’t have to take the easy route of “what’s comfortable” or “what will make me the most money” or “what will push me further or higher than everyone else.” We have the freedom NOT to be enslaved by these demonic powers.

Rather, as we approach our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, we can be intentional about some things. We can do something we rarely do and be intentional about being clear about what exactly are the powers and demonic influences we are allowing to exercise influence in our life. We can name them. We can call them out and recognize their influence.

We can be intentional about breaking the power these things have over our lives. Traditionally, people have given something up for Lent as a way of recognizing their choice in the matter of rooting out negative behaviors and influences. This Lent, rather than give something up I personally plan to do something intentional about my health. You see, I recognize that how I take care of my body has immediate impact on my mood, my emotions, my energy levels, and indeed my spiritual life. If I’m feeling low in the spirit, it affects my ministry; it negatively influences my most intimate relationships. I hear God’s voice saying to me you can minister and love and parent with strength and authority and energy.

Tonight you have an opportunity to lay to rest, or to speak theologically, to put to death, things in your life that are keeping you back. What’s holding you down? What’s enslaving you? What’s pushing you to take the easy route and accommodate to culture? What’s robbing you of your joy? What is siphoning your life from you? Think of what these things are. Be intentional about taking the time to identify them. And tonight as we receive ashes and communion, declare these things dead to you. Leave them here in the dust.

Begin your 40 day journey with Jesus today, saying to him, I want to know the power of your love and resurrection. On Easter Sunday, I want nothing less than to experience what Jesus experienced the moment he was resurrected. I want nothing less than to live in the confidence and the boldness of a God who has defeated death itself.

That choice begins with a decision – the decision to receive Jesus’ vision for your life knowing that some things will change. But also having the confidence that you are safe in the arms of God and he desires good things for your life. He wants us to live inside His blessing. He wants us to say “yes” to his invitation of life.