Now Is the Acceptable Time

Lectionary reflections for Ash Wednesday

By Susan Russell

Readings for Ash Wednesday, Year C, Feb. 25, 2004

• Isaiah 58:1-12 (or Joel 2:1-2,12-17)
• Psalm 103
• 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
• Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

We have arrived at Ash Wednesday again – the entry point for yet another 40-day Lenten journey toward Easter. We hear again the words as familiar as their outward-and-visible signs etched on our foreheads: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” On this Ash Wednesday, as the liturgical season shifts from Epiphany to Lent, we are called to make a shift, too. During these weeks since Christmas our lessons have focused on the “epiphanies” of those who encountered Jesus along the way and knew somehow, at some point, in some perhaps indescribable way, that they had experienced the holy: experienced what a clergy colleague once called one of the “Ahas!” of God.

And now our focus shifts, as it does every year at this time, from stories about those outward manifestations of God's presence among us to a more interior place as we journey with Jesus on the road we know leads to Golgotha – to the cross – and ultimately, to the resurrection. And so, on this Ash Wednesday, here is my annual advice for the journey ahead: Don't give up epiphanies for Lent.

Let us, by all means, pray silently to our Father who is in secret, but let us at the same time proclaim loudly to those who would dismiss our activism as “agenda driven” that our agenda is a GOSPEL agenda: that our call to do justice is rooted deep in the roots of our history as a people of God.

Let us not become so inwardly focused that we forget to notice – to give thanks for – to respond to – those encounters we can and will have with the holy in the next 40 days. Let us not become so focused on our own “journey with Jesus” that we forget that as long as there are still strangers at the gate, walking humbly with our God is not enough: let us not forget that we are also called to do justice. Let us do an even bolder and more prophetic job of claiming “justice doing” as essential to our identity as Christian people – as Lenten pilgrims. Let us, by all means, pray silently to our Father who is in secret, but let us at the same time proclaim loudly to those who would dismiss our activism as “agenda driven” that our agenda is a GOSPEL agenda: that our call to do justice is rooted deep in the roots of our history as a people of God – in these words of the prophet Isaiah:

"Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?"
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
    and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
    and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
    will not make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
    a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
    and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
  a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
  to loose the bonds of injustice,
  to undo the thongs of the yoke,
  to let the oppressed go free,
  and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
    when you see the naked, to cover them,
    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing shall spring up quickly;
    your vindicator shall go before you,
    the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
    you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

On this Ash Wednesday 2004, I wonder if the wilderness we are being called into is labeled “Election Year.” I can already feel the costliness of the challenge to those of us who are called to be peacemakers – justice seekers – reconcilers – as the divisive and polarizing rhetoric of a presidential election amps up.

“Here I am,” our God promises – ready to lead us through whatever wilderness we face: to accompany us wherever the journey goes. On this Ash Wednesday 2004, I wonder if the wilderness we are being called into is labeled “Election Year.” I can already feel the costliness of the challenge to those of us who are called to be peacemakers – justice seekers – reconcilers – as the divisive and polarizing rhetoric of a presidential election amps up. Yet that is the wilderness into which we are called this Lent. If we are to be a people who have bread to share with the hungry we must challenge those who would spend all our resources on arms for an immoral war that continues to kill Iraqi citizens and take American lives. If we are to serve the God whose fast is “to let the oppressed go free” we must speak out when gay and lesbian families are in danger of becoming sacrificial lambs on the altar of election year politics. If we are to choose the fast Isaiah offers us this Lent, we must continue to undo the thongs of the yoke of racism that holds this country and this church in its grasp.

Now IS the acceptable time. And may the God who calls us into this wilderness be with us and bless us on the journey.

The Rev. Susan Russell is executive director of the Claiming the Blessing coalition, and president of Integrity . She also serves as the online community manager of EveryVoice.net , and is a long-time board member of the Episcopal Women's Caucus . Susan may be reached by email at revsusanrussell@earthlink.net .