Getting the Real Point of Ash Wednesday and Lent
It is
the morning of the Day of Carnival as I begin writing this article. The term “Carnival,” which is a prominent
name of the Christian festival held on the
Tuesday immediately before Ash Wednesday,” literally means “farewell to meat
(carne).” Carnival is intended to mark,
in the name of Christ, the final “happy” celebration prior to the Lenten
season of renunciation of a long list of pleasures that includes eating red
meat. For this reason it is traditional
for many Christians to pick their own pet pleasure and personally deny it until
Easter Sunday (as the day of Christ’s resurrection it ends the Season of Lent). Now I for one am of two minds in regard to
the season of Lent. On the one hand,
in-so-far-as it points ahead in our Church calendar to Jesus’ death on the
cross on Good Friday, then this season about that focus is extremely powerful
in directing our personal priorities.
There is a very real sense in which Lent is a penitential
season. On the other hand, I consider
this matter of renunciation a complicated issue. Why, for example, do our liturgies remove all
celebratory aspects of worship for both Lent and Advent (L&A),
including the “Glory to God in the Highest”? For three reasons I judge these omissions to
be wrong-headed! Firstly, since Christ is risen from the dead,
in the context of our worship (including L&A) we today have every confidence
that Jesus lives and reigns and rules today!
Secondly, in light of Easter we hold that, despite the awful historical
reality of the crucifixion, the symbol of the cross now looms as the very power
of God for our salvation even in the past but also in the present (Romans 6:3,4). Thirdly, the traditional ploy of renouncing generally
a single one of our vices, utterly misses the point of what the Gospel of Jesus
Christ calls every single person to do. Further
it also understates the necessity of Jesus’ death on the cross as the only
means our receiving forgiveness and redemption (John 14:6).
As the
title of this essay implies, the word “sin” in one vital context is expressed
in two forms: in the plural “sins,” and in the singular, “sin.” On the one hand both forms share the same
meaning which is literally falling “short of the glory [purposes] of
God” (Romans 3:23a). Now for the three
distinctions:
1.
“Sins” (in the plural) represent specific
ways in which we “fall short of the glory of God.” In Lutheran liturgies in particular we
confess that we “have sinned in thoughts, words, and deeds, by the things we
have done and the things we have not done” and “we have not loved you [God]
with our whole heart and we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” The list of specific verbal moral obligations
include the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), but also include our inner thoughts
(Matthew 5). The same pattern includes
the example of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:21). As if this is not hard enough, St. Paul’s
Letter to the Romans further highlights convicting standards that are knowable even
to people who never open a Bible. Examples
include firstly 1:18-32 which indicates that evading truth places one under God’s
judgment. Secondly, 2:1-5 warns that
people who judge others by a standard of their own making will render
themselves liable to God’s judgment under that same standard (also “Matthew 7:2). In conclusion, none of us have any grounds to
prevail before God’s holy standard with our record of sins (Isaiah 64:6).
2.
The word “sin” (in the singular) denotes the fundamental
objectionable feature of sin which is our self-centeredness as opposed to God’s
will that we be God-centered. The is, “sIn” has been described
as the “great I
disease” in which we reframe our demands to center around the “me, myself, and I.” This posture is effectively an act of
rebellion against the rightful authority of God by which He is rightfully the
Master of all creation. This isn’t an
arbitrary demand by a tyrannical despot, but a rational expectation in an
orderly and harmonious creation in the same way that beautiful orchestral music
can only happen when every player follows the lead of the conductor.
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