Ash Wednesday, 2024 - Thinking Out Loud

I bear on my forehead ashes made in the sign of a cross—an indication that I have attended an Ash Wednesday worship service. The service spurred a multitude of thoughts and reactions. So, while they are still fresh, I am putting them down on paper—a kind of thinking out loud for those of you who care to eavesdrop.

Ash Wednesday is traditionally about sin and repentance. The yearly liturgical readings develop the theme by drawing from Psalm 51, the prophet Joel, and the prophet Isaiah. Sin, repentance, human frailty (dust and ashes), and the prospect of death are all woven into the traditional Ash Wednesday service. These “heavy” themes commonly overshadow the faithful love of God expressed in grace and forgiveness.

It strikes me that we church folk are obsessed with the concept of sin. We are quick to proclaim how we fall short—i.e., our sinfulness. Our worship services commonly include confession liturgies along with prayers of confession—as did tonight’s Ash Wednesday service. The six-weeks Lenten journey is based upon the themes of sin and repentance. All of this talk about sin and repentance dances around (upon?) the guilt and shame which are an inherent part of our human condition. No wonder we get hooked so easily!

Just thinking out loud—this (what is to me) over-focus on sin and repentance keeps the focus on us. We are center stage. Talking about how we fail to measure up—i.e., sin—keeps the spotlight on us. It seems to me the focus of worship is God—a response of the heart to who God is, to the beauty of God’s character, to the steadfast love of God, to God’s ways of grace and forgiveness, to the transforming work of God in our lives through the Spirit.

Just thinking out loud—this (what is to me) over-focus on sin and repentance reflects merit-based, deserving-oriented thinking. Because we fail, we deserve judgment and condemnation. (Hear the language—deserve.) Confession and repentance commonly precede any proclamation of forgiveness, suggesting they are something we have to do in order to be forgiven. Again, merit-based thinking—if we repent, then God will forgive. It seems to me God’s grace and forgiveness precede any confession or repentance. It is God’s faithful love, expressed in grace and forgiveness, that frees us to deal honestly with our sin and wrong. Confession and repentance are responses to God’s grace and forgiveness.

Just thinking out loud—this (what is to me) over-focus on sin and repentance keeps us focused on behavior, stuck in trying-harder-to-do-better. Our religious life is defined by morals—what we should not do. As I understand what Jesus taught and how he lived, authentic spirituality is reflected in relationships—loving God by loving others. The Spirit is at work within us, leading us to love as Jesus loved.

Just thinking out loud—this (what is to me) over-focus on sin and repentance seldom leads us beyond our sins. Our confession rubs a bit of salve on our sense of guilt, but it doesn’t lead us to deal with the specifics of our sins, much less their source—why we keep repeating them. Jesus identified the heart as the source of the problem. “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within” (Mark 7:20-23). It seems to me God’s desire for us is transformation, not reformation—a cleansed heart and renewed mind that produce a transformed life (Romans 12:2), what Paul called a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Spirit empowers us to love as Jesus loved by engraining the character of Christ in the depths of our being—in the heart.

Just thinking out loud—this (what is to me) over-focus on sin and repentance reflects a failure to come to terms with our humanness. Being human means being in process, not yet full grown. As a result, mistakes and failing to measure up are normal, unavoidable realities. It seems to me that shaming our failures—calling them sins—prevents us from learning from them. (Failure is one of the ways we learn best.) Fearing the shame that we attach to failure, we seek to avoid acknowledging any kind of failure. Like the man and the woman in the garden, we hide the truth of our choices from God, from others, and from ourselves. We shift the blame rather than accepting responsibility for our choices.

Just thinking out loud—this (what is to me) over-focus on sin and repentance denies the gospel. The good news Jesus proclaimed was about who God is and how God relates to us. It was about the steadfast, faithful love of God. It was about the grace and forgiveness with which God deals with our sins and the lavish generosity with which God gives them to us. It was about God’s embrace of us as beloved children, even “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8). Such love, expressed in grace and forgiveness, frees us to embrace our humanness, including our failure to measure up. It calls us to lay aside our identity as “sinners” in order to embrace our identity as beloved children of God, created in the image of God, being recreated in the likeness of Christ.

Just thinking out loud—this (what is to me) over-focus on sin and repentance fails to lead us to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Matthew 22:37-40).

Just thinking out loud—I have grown tired of what Rohr calls the sin management focus of churches.  I am ready to move beyond sin and repentance, beyond guilt and shame. I want my spiritual journey—including Ash Wednesday and the Lenten journey—to be about growing “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18) so that I might love God with my whole being and love the way Jesus loved.