Its Mardi
Gras! Fat Tuesday. An excuse for partying. Carnivale.
A time for preparation. Shrove
Tuesday (the past tense of “shrive” – an old word for cleansing from one’s
sins).
Some of us eat pancakes (and the
fatty meat which usually accompanies them) and burn last Palm Sunday’s leftover
branches to make the ashes for tomorrow’s Ash Wednesday. The idea is to use up all the fat in the
house before Lent, when we do not eat it (as a sign of fasting and penance). But Waffle House and IHOP have rendered the
practice not nearly so meaningful. The
idea is to burn the brittle palms of our broken promises (All Glory, Laud, and Honor to Thee, Redeemer King) to remind us of
our human mortality and deep dependence on God’s grace.
Humble,
human, humus – all derive from the same root, which means “earth.” Being confronted with our humble, human
mortality can be a “terrible imposition” when it does not occur on the day we
have ritualized it. But it is also our
highest hope, because . . .
Ashes are
both ending and beginning! The rotting
dirt of the dead tree is also the most fertile soil on the forest floor. The end of all carbon-based life forms
becomes the beginning of new life. The
seed dies to become the fruit. Good
Friday and Easter are inseparable. We
cannot have either without the other.
This is the lesson and the life of Christian discipleship.
So, while it
may be commendable and even spiritually helpful to give up something for Lent, the far-more holy discipline would be
to take up something for Lent. Do something that makes you different. Do
something that makes the kind of difference God makes in the world.
Eat a
doughnut today. Then pick up a handful
of dirt. Prayerfully reflect on what God
is growing in you and through you. Then set about helping God do this.
That’s a
real excuse for a party!
Pastor Miles
Pastor Miles
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