Ash Wednesday - Bishop Anashuya Fletcher

Wellington City Combined Ash Wednesday Service
Wednesday 5th of March - Metropolitan Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Wellington

I want to begin with a confession. There have been many an Ash Wednesday over the years when I’ve said to someone, “I’m so sorry if I’m a bit glazed over today - I’ve given up coffee for lent.” Or perhaps when someone asks how I’m doing “Oh, I’m a bit headache-y coz I’m going without sugar.” And - because I’ve been sitting in these passages of scripture in preparation for today - I’ve been convicted about my own tendencies to publicise my self-denial, and I’ve been much more aware as friends announce what they’re doing for Lent.

On one hand, this could be viewed as an exhortation that encourages others to reflect on their own practices over the lenten season. On the other, there is something about these public announcements that speak to our cultural phenomenon of being performative.

It’s an age-old problem; part of the human condition. I can see myself reflected in God’s people who excel at religion. The prophet in Isaiah points to these people who are busy with religious activity - except it’s essentially a performance. It’s no surprise that virtue signalling - while it might work on our own sense of piety - doesn’t work on God. We can easily confuse right practices with righteousness.

I also see this beautiful growing tide of people across different generations returning to “spiritual disciplines” with rhythms of prayer and fasting - people are reclaiming the practices that are foundational to our faith. And both the Matthew and Isaiah readings encourage us to continue with our practices - fasting, prayer, giving, sabbath. Yet it’s so easy to distort these disciplines so that they are devoid of God’s transformative presence. We can so easily prioritise the practice over the presence.

We live in an age of self-promotion, of self-interest. We are constantly being pressured to perform.

We live in an age of self-help, of self-improvement. We are constantly being pressured to reform.

It’s exhausting - yet so easy to give in to the pressure. And then it’s more exhausting! It’s a vicious cycle.

In the midst of it all we forget that it’s not our practices that will save us. We have already been saved by the death and resurrection of Christ. Our performance and our practices don’t earn us favour with God. Instead, in Christ God has already done everything needed to save us and set us free. We ARE already a new creation.

So what of our practices? In this season when we are typically encouraged towards greater self-denial, reflection and repentance am I suggesting that we give up our practices of prayer, fasting, giving or sabbath? No! Not at all. But we must remember why they exist. They exist so that our re-creation in Christ becomes a tangible, lived, reality. They exist so that we may be transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ, that we might reflect God’s own righteousness. And God’s righteousness is most clearly displayed in the way we act towards the “other.”

That’s what’s at the heart of the prophet’s words in Isaiah. It tells us what righteousness truly looks like. It is generous mercy and justice. It is a willingness to disadvantage oneself in order to advantage the wider community. It is self-giving love poured out for the others that brings healing, restoration and flourishing.

Righteousness is a reorientation towards walking the way of the cross for love’s sake.

Just before we gathered here tonight, a group called Aotearoa Christians for Peace in Palestine presented an open letter across the road at Parliament signed by various church leaders from multiple denominations. Amongst other things, the letter asks the government to grant immediate emergency humanitarian visas to Palestinians in Gaza who have family in New Zealand. I signed the letter. But signing it didn’t cost me anything. The third request in the letter is for the government to “provide robust resettlement assistance once these families arrive in New Zealand.” Here’s the thing - what God actually asks me is Ana, will you provide resettlement assistance to these families if they were to arrive in New Zealand? Will you expend yourself, your family and your own resources on their behalf? Will you personally befriend and care for them? Will you love them as I have loved you?

One of my cousins wrote on Facebook today “Tis the season when I remember the year I gave up coffee for Lent and became 100% less like Jesus.” It’s funny, but it’s also true. Lent isn’t about doing more or trying harder. It is about hearing and responding to God’s good invitations to each of us so that we might be transformed more and more into the Son’s likeness.

In this lenten season, as we repent and turn away from our self-obsession - what are we being invited to turn towards, to pick up, that embodies God’s righteousness?

In this lenten season, as we participate in self-denial - how are we being invited to make room for the other especially the most vulnerable like Jesus?

We will know that they are God’s invitations for us, because they will not simply be performed, but move through us being reformed, to seeing ourselves and our world transformed to better reflect the Kingdom of God. Let me finish by reading those words from Isaiah again that speak of the new creation, the new life that is possible when God’s people see, hear and act:

Then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong;

And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

May this be true of us.

Amen.