St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
February 22, 2023
Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Psalm 103
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
“Heart Work”
I think it’s safe to say that Ash Wednesday is one of the more peculiar days on the Christian calendar.
Each year, on the first day of Lent, we interrupt our usual midweek routines to gather together.
Each year, we hear Jesus warn us against showing our piety in public…and then we have ash smudged on our foreheads…where everyone can see it.
And we get reminded that someday we are going to die.
By now, I know many of you well enough to know that you are not here because you want to show off how religious you are – that’s not how you operate, not at all.
And, besides, these days no one cares, anyway.
And I doubt that many of us need a reminder that someday we will die.
One of the gifts of St. Thomas’ is that each time we come here we can’t help but see the graves of people who were once like us.
They, too, had fears and hopes, setbacks and triumphs.
They, too, loved and were loved.
And, in most cases, just like us, they gathered right here, bathing these old walls in prayer, receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, placing their trust in the God would not let go of them, no matter what.
So, today is certainly not about showing off and it’s not even so much about getting a reminder of our deaths.
No, today and all the Lenten days ahead, are really about our hearts.
In today’s collect, our opening prayer, we asked God to “create and make in us new and contrite hearts.”
That’s what today - and the forty days ahead - are all about.
Ash Wednesday and Lent are about asking God to open our hearts – allowing God to work in and through our hearts.
Our Lenten “heart work” begins with the ashes, which, more than a death notice are really a reminder of our total dependence on God.
Our Lenten “heart work” continues by setting aside, even just a little, whatever might be getting in the way of God and us – too much drinking or too much busyness or too much cable news or too much internet, or just too much.
Our Lenten “heart work” might mean trying to heal a broken relationship or finally asking forgiveness for something wrong we have done.
Our Lenten “heart work” is making even just a little bit of time for God and us, maybe getting up a few minutes early to say a prayer or to jot down thoughts in a journal or just to look out the window and breathe.
Our Lenten “heart work” might include giving a little more than usual, or coming here more regularly than usual, or maybe getting involved in some good work we’ve been feeling called to do.
But, all we really have to do is take our “heart work” seriously, and God will take it from there – opening our hearts – making in us new and contrite hearts – and then working in and through our beautiful new hearts.
What could be better than that?
I wish you all a holy and heart-felt Lent.
Amen.
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