WHY ARE WE HERE? ASH WEDNESDAY SERVICE This strange, simplistic, archaic service that most of our own brothers and sisters on the Christian Way do not know about or cannot be bothered with. Why are we here? Today is the beginning of Lent, but so what? Who cares? What does it matter? More symbolism I suppose. Forty days in the wilderness like Moses; like Jesus. But my next forty days are not going to be spent in any wilderness. It s going to be busy too busy. Which is exactly why it is so likely to turn into a wilderness. But even while that is true, and meaningful to me, I also feel a little reticent to compare my little wilderness with their great big wilderness. On the other hand, if I do not have nerve enough to identify, how do I get into the story? Getting to the real point: Why would I want ashes on my forehead? To impress somebody with my holiness? Actually, it looks sort of ugly. And a much bigger question: Is my remorse or repentance genuine enough to carry this symbol? Do I need to repent? Do I need further reconciliation with God? Actually, for myself, I could have stopped several sentences back. I need to be here. I am glad I get to be here. My good deeds, like my sins, are mostly petty little things. Yet both are extremely significant to my own life. And adding to that the billions of other petty little sins and good deeds of all those who live on this globe with me, that is what describes our world and the quality of life here. So I need this Lent, and Ash Wednesday to begin and define it. WHAT IS A PENITENT? Lots of people grow up in our culture and never learn how to say they are sorry. I have been one of them. Somewhere in childhood, taught or untaught, I picked up the crazy notion that if I was ever wrong or made a mistake, nobody would ever like me again. And since it was not possible to keep from being wrong or making a mistake from time to time, I resorted to the usual: pretending it hadn t happened; sloughing over it; maybe even trying to make up for it, but never actually admitting it. What happens if we do not admit our mistakes? We make them over again. There are no exceptions. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 1 OF 9
ASH WEDNESDAY SERVICE Penitent = one who looks honestly at life; one who is sorrowful about their own contributions to life s chaos and pain; one resolved on amendment (per dictionary). No Christian is supposed to go to sleep, beginning on Ash Wednesday, until they know the answers to these three questions. 1.) Is there something wrong in your life that needs to be set right? Frequently we do not have the power to take care of such things, but Christ does. 2.) Is there something you want in your life, but there is no room for it the way things are? 3.) What will you give up this Lent to make room for something more important something you want even more than what you have? No Christian is supposed to go to sleep, beginning on Ash Wednesday, until they know the answers to these three questions. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 2 OF 9
Ash Wednesday Romans 3:19-28 I.) Perhaps the most frequent mockery of John Calvin, and hence of Puritans (who, like it or not, are our spiritual forebears), is aimed toward the teachings and sayings that might be lumped together under the title, The Depravity of Man. People do not like to be called depraved. At least whenever I call somebody depraved, they don t seem to like it. In any case, while we may each know some individuals we would consider depraved, we certainly do not consider it fair or accurate for someone to put us into that category. We make mistakes, and it is uncommon for any of us to consider ourselves perfect, but neither do we think of ourselves as depraved. It should not particularly surprise us that there are those who like to pick up on a word or phrase and, without any interest in where it comes from or what it really means, use it as a springboard for their anger toward religion in general and Christianity in particular. That very phenomenon is strong evidence for some of Calvin s conclusions, though not exactly in the way these same people might think. In any case, Calvin was no Calvinist any more than Jesus was a Christian, at least not according to most popular misconceptions of these terms. And while it is not my purpose to persuade any of you to love Calvin or even to convince you to like the word depravity I still think it s a shame when children dislike their parents because somebody lied about them. Just as an aside: Calvin was a great proponent of Convergence Christianity. Of course, nobody was using that title for it yet. I suspect it was because Calvin s favorite book in the Bible was Paul s letter to the Ephesians, and Ephesians is probably the greatest champion for Convergence Christianity ever written. Anyway, it is true that depravity means wicked, or perverse; moral corruption; distorted, crooked. But behind the current definitions, you can still feel the bondage yes? Something has been taken away. There is no depravity until we are depraved that is, nobody can be depraved until they are deprived of something. Depravity, by definition, is a distortion. God created us good. If that is not true, then depravity is not a possibility. Depravity means the rightness has been lost or taken away. In theological terms, the glory of God has been dimmed, twisted, or taken away. The rightness with which we were created has been distorted until we are deprived of it. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 3 OF 9
In that light, I suspect there are some among us who would not find it hard to go along with the notion of The Depravity of Man just from thinking of some of the devastating experiences and situations we have lived through in the last one hundred years. If so much death, torture, disease, and starvation could be attributed only to natural causes, we might merely conclude that we live on a depraved planet. But a very high percentage of the devastation is not only perpetrated by fellow humans, but perpetrated on purpose. It s tough to admit, but hard to escape: There is a lot of EVIL going on in this realm. There is a lot of EVIL in and around us. The Seven Deadly Sins run rampant. There is no family, church, company, government, organization, group, or individual anywhere on earth that is not crippled in some fashion by the Seven Deadly Sins. This means that nothing anywhere on earth is running according to its rightful design, or according to the way God s Creation was designed to run. Depravity means we are not living according to our design we are not matching the glory by which we were created. In short, we are in rebellion, estranged, alienated running by our own will and way rather than by God s. There can be many reasons for this depravity, this veering off the Path: ignorance, fear, loneliness, pride, greed and all the situations and circumstances that lead to such things (bad environments, accidents, betrayal, pain, loss, poverty, and so on). To be sure, none of this would be happening if God had not given us free will. On the other hand, none of the value of what God designed and created would have any meaning without free will. Stalemate. At least on the outside. Increasing numbers of us are wondering if extinction is galloping toward us. Of course, it always has been; our worst fears are seldom irrational. But a person newly awakened to the dangers all around us is often convinced that this time it is really serious. When John wrote about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he was in dead earnest. He knew the Four Horsemen were riding back in one hundred A.D. Only the ignorant and the unaware think the Four Horsemen will ever stop riding. A world estranged from its Creator will always be in grave danger. The plagues of Egypt were not just tricks Moses was doing to make Pharaoh free the Hebrew slaves. Pharaoh was playing God he had usurped the place and role of God and the result was that all of nature was coming apart at the seams. False gods cannot hold creation BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 4 OF 9
together. Today some people want us to weep for all the first-born Egyptians who died. We can do that, and there are plenty of others to weep for today as well. But I suspect most people don t hear the story. If God had not taken back the authority if God had not stepped in to right what Pharaoh was undoing nobody and nothing would have survived. The question is not Are we afraid? The question is Do we still trust God? How can anybody frighten us with doomsday scenarios when we have been living in the midst of doomsday realities ever since any of us came to this planet? Certainly we want to be on the side of light and life, and to do what we can to make life better and maybe even make it last longer here on earth. Just because we trust God doesn t mean we don t care. But neither will we live in fear starting the moment we know and receive the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Fear is not our friend. Some people think if we can just get everybody scared enough, we will all get together and fix things. But fear is not the great healer of the nations. Fear is not our friend. Jesus is. So if we live in a broken world, wondering genuinely how much longer it can last, what have we got against the concept of depravity? Perverse and foolish oft I strayed... I don t have any trouble identifying with that, do you? ( The King of Love My Shepherd Is, Pilgrim Hymnal ) There are a lot of people we love even though they are not perfect. It does not feel good or right to call them depraved even if they do sometimes lie, cheat, hoard, screw, get angry, or fail to perform in ways we think would be more appropriate. Okay, so they are depraved, but we don t want to talk about it or think of it in that way. They also do some very wonderful things doesn t that count too? Yes, it counts, but does one side cancel out the other? So you see, it is possible to be full of love and enthusiasm for life, full of gratitude and even joy, and still be very aware of The Depravity Of All Humankind and both at the same time. In fact, a great many Calvinists and Puritans were exactly that. They had great regard for their own lives and the lives of those around them, yet at the same time they felt a conscious awareness of the gap between us as we are and the glory of God. The real difference between us and the Puritans, I suspect, is that we do not think about the glory of God as much as they did. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) That does BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 5 OF 9
not mean we have failed to be God. It means we have not come close to the design of God to the pattern and possibilities that God has actually built within us. We are not what God made us to be. And the full force of that statement is not merely that we fall short of what it would be wonderful for us to be like. It is much worse than that: We are made truly wonderful, yet we are not living by our true design. Something is being allowed to corrupt, sidetrack, reduce, spoil, and warp us. I do know some people none of you, of course who think they are doing things pretty close to right; they have no desire and no intention of making any significant changes in how they live or what they are living for, not even with the Spirit s help. The Puritans were a lot more optimistic than that. They did not think they were as good as it gets. They knew that Jesus still had a lot of unfinished business with them. Isn t it interesting that the concept of our depravity is built on the assumption that we are created truly wonderful? If you aren t much to start with, depravity is not even relevant. You were born a piece of crap and you will always be a piece of crap. There is no depravity in that. Depravity is the amazing claim that something has gone terribly wrong. Most of all, depravity is the Puritan s awareness that God is incredibly wonderful but that, in our present condition, we are not matching that glory we are not beings of character or behavior that fit in the Kingdom or company of God. In short, Calvinism (Puritanism) did not think itself inferior to what was going on all around it in this world. But in thinking of the majesty, purity, beauty, love, kindness, truth, and purposes of God, the Puritans realized they had a real problem: They knew they fell far short. They were a long way from home, and not just in time or distance. The quality of life, love, thinking, and intention was way below what it needed to be, what it wanted to be, what it was designed to be. A society that spends very little time thinking about the glory of God cannot comprehend what the Puritans meant by depravity. We think it was some kind of inferiority complex, and it was but not in contrast to other humans; only in relationship to God. We think they felt unworthy, and they did but not in comparison to other humans; in comparison to what God wanted and had created them to be like. When I start to sense and realize the great distance between where we are and what we are designed to be like, it makes me weep not from mere sadness, but from a great and powerful longing. If it does not make you want to weep for longing, I feel really sorry for you. Depravity is bad enough, but to be intentionally blind, deaf, and dumb as well? That is really sad. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 6 OF 9
II.) That brings us to a second point: the awareness of our depravity that is, awareness of the contrast between where we are and what God designed us to be like. To the Puritans, the awareness of our loss and lack was the beginning of spiritual awakening, the beginning of real LIFE. Contentment is for cows. If the stars do not call to you, if love does not scorch you, if you are not compelled and humbled by what you lack, then what kind of conversation can the Holy Spirit have with you? We say we are so tired of correction and challenge; we want to be accepted the way we are; we want to be told we don t need to make any more improvements; we want to wallow in unconditional love. Really? What does that lead to? What could be more insulting? Notions of depravity never led to discouragement or depression or despair like the modern notions of I m OK you re OK do. Notions of depravity led to real hope: maybe we really do need God! And the spiritual transformations were not merely pious on the inside, though that was the driving force and is far more powerful than most folk in our culture seem to comprehend. The spiritual transformations led to outer effort the so-called Puritan work ethic : we are here to accomplish, to build, to achieve, to settle for nothing less than God s Kingdom realized in us and around us. We used to say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Well, few would agree, but I think depravity tastes a lot better than most of the adjustments and reassurances of our modern-day psychology. It seems clear to me that humanity is still depraved and we still live in a broken world. One of the realities of spiritual awakening is that we become far more aware of how much we still need to grow and learn to be fit for God s Kingdom. That is not a put-down or a discouragement. The awakened will live for what they have come to realize what they have seen and felt is a deeper, greater, unconquerable TRUTH. Long after our brief training ground here, this drama and pilgrimage will go on into eternity. You cannot discourage a Puritan. Oh, they have their bad moments of course, but you cannot discourage a pilgrim not in the long run. Or a real Christian, either. I mean, if they are not afraid of death, what are you going to do to them? They sing things like: This world is not my home, I m just a-passing through... Or He Who Would Valiant Be one of my favorite hymns. And who wrote that? John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim s Progress, the book that used to be called the New Testament of the common people. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 7 OF 9
III.) ASHES: For some of us, the ashes are not just a ritual, or just a game, or just for show. They are about true remorse and a very real spiritual longing. Not everybody uses the ashes of Ash Wednesday in the same way. Some are conscious mostly of our sorrow for crucifying Jesus. Some are aware of broken promises declarations made on a Palm Sunday and never kept. Some are aware of personal and private sins errors, mistakes, blunders, things withheld from Christ, and things not done for Him. Some just wallow in a private, personal Slough of Despond, as Bunyan called it, with no particular desire or expectation of ever getting out of it. Some say they feel like worms in contrast to the glory of God. But watch their lives before you judge their phraseology. Moses was meek, but only before God. Puritans were depraved, but only in contrast to the glory of God. And it never meant they were content to stay that way. It meant they really wanted to change: to be open to, respond to, and trust the mercy and grace and providence of God in Christ Jesus their Lord. They named it depravity and did not like it! We leave it unnamed and seem halfway content to settle for it. Contentment is for cows, and unrepentant sinners. In any case, some of us claim these ashes for real this night. They stand for our sorrow, our shame, our longing; for awareness of depravity, awareness of the gap; for a great hunger to get closer both to our Lord and to who we really are. Those two always go together, don t they? Getting closer to our Lord and getting closer to who we really are. He who loses his life for my sake will find it. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 8 OF 9
PRAYER I am sorry, Lord, that I am so far away from what You made me, so far away from knowing and loving You, so far away from obeying and pleasing You. And somehow the road toward You the road toward our true Home always starts afresh with awakening: with sorrow and repentance. These are the ashes: the symbols of what is not working; the symbols of what is burnt out, used up, wasted, destroyed, crooked, bent, distorted. We come to You with ashes, and You give us New Life: unimaginable forgiveness, undeserved mercy, unfathomable grace. If we come to You with anything else, at least in the beginning, You just wait... wait for us to awaken. May we not be asleep this night. Amen. SERVICE OF ASHES If you have sorrow, unfinished business with God, things you need to change, vows to make about amends that you owe come to the ashes. But let your only sorrow be for life lived apart from Jesus for life that does not remember or include the Holy Spirit. Remember that you are created a true child of God s. Remember that you are created in the glory of God. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 9 OF 9