Ash Wednesday 2007
Fasting and Feasting in Lent
Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

As we begin a new Lenten season in the cycle of our church year, Jesus warns against the risks of giving alms, praying, and fasting in as much as when we do these things to feel pious, to feel as if we doing something to merit God’s favor or human admiration, we are as hypocrites -- those wearing masks – who only pretend to be something as actors on a stage.  Rather, these are to be inward disciplines used to build the treasures of God’s kingdom in the spiritual space of our lives.

When the means of worship become the object of worship, we have truly missed the mark.  Perhaps one of the clearest statements of the purpose of LENT is that it is a time to consider the giving up of what we are for what we may become.

There is a tradition in Judaism that teaches everyone should have two pockets in their coats with a slip of paper in each.  One slip says: "I am but dust and ashes."  The other, "For me, the whole universe was created."

Sometimes we need to remember that first slip of paper, as we will when we come to be marked with the ashes of repentance, to remember what we are.  And sometimes we also need to be reminded of the second slip – to remember whose we are.  And we shall also do that as we join in thanksgiving at the altar in a bit.

From the earliest days of the church, this season we call Lent had three goals, three purposes:

(1) It served as the final, intense preparation for those to be baptized at the Easter Vigil.  Theirs was not a Christian culture and admittance to the community put new converts as well as the community at risk - -socially, economically, politically.  Becoming a Christian meant making a great commitment and required much teaching and testing.

(2) It was a period leading to restoration for those alienated from the church, the Christian community.  Those who had withdrawn or fallen away and sought restoration were problematic for many in the early church.  Thus a time of examination and producing evidence of sincere repentance were required.

(3) It was a time of preparation for all the faithful leading up to the annual celebration of the paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ.  In our time, Lent is associated with asceticism, with giving up something to prepare for the celebration of the Resurrection but “Giving something up for Lent” was not foremost in the early church.  From Chrysostom and Leo to Benedict in his sixth century Rule, Lent is what the whole year should be like.  Lent is the time to concentrate on doing more perfectly what one habitually does regularly.  In Benedictine communities, only after prayer, holy reading, and compunction of heart is abstinence mentioned.

Abstinence, in the early church, was primarily abstinence from sin – to fast without fasting from sin is not really Christian fasting, and to “enjoy food while having no taste for sin is a far better kind of fasting” (John Chrysostom, Sermon 44:2).

The forty-day period is symbolic of the forty days spent by Moses and Elijah in the wilderness; during the days of Noah, God made it rain for forty days and forty nights (though they were in the ark for a year); the Jews wandered forty years traveling to the Promised Land.  Jonah in his prophecy of judgment gave the city of Nineveh forty days' grace in which to repent.  Jesus retreated into the wilderness and fasted for forty days of temptation to prepare for his ministry.

The Lenten period of forty days owes its origin to the Latin word quadragesima, originally signifying forty hours.  This referred to forty hours of complete fasting, which preceded the Easter celebration in the early Church.  The main ceremony was the baptizing of the initiates on Easter Eve, and the fast was a preparation to receive this sacrament.

In the early church, a strict schedule was adhered to in teaching converts.  There are records to indicate that near the end of the fourth century, classes were held throughout seven weeks before Easter for three hours each day.  With the acceptance of Christianity as the state religion of Rome in the 4th century, its character was endangered by an influx of new members.  To combat the loss of character and commitment, a fast and practices of self-renunciation were required of all Christians and the less zealous of the converts were thus brought more securely into the fold.

Later, the period of fasting was extended to correspond with the weeks of training necessary to instruct the converts who were to be baptized.  The English word lent came from ancient Anglo-Saxon name of March -- lenct (since the main part of lent before Easter usually was in March).

And so we come that second slip of paper, the one that reminds us that we have been adopted by God in Christ - that through him we are joint heirs of all that is and has been made.

Lent should be more than a sober time of fasting.  It should also be a joyful season of feasting.  Lent is a time to FAST from certain things and to FEAST on others.  Several years ago, one of the Roman Catholic web sites began to post a list of possibilities for fasting and feasting in Lent.  Having made the rounds, the list has grown and is open to new additions to help in a Lenten discipline for anyone who might choose to use it.
 
It is a season in which we should:

FAST from judging others; FEAST on the Christ indwelling them.
FAST from emphasis on differences; FEAST on the unity of all life.

FAST from bitterness; FEAST on forgiveness.
FAST from discontent; FEAST on gratitude.
FAST from anger; FEAST on patience.
FAST from worry; FEAST on faith.
FAST from self-concern; FEAST on compassion for others.
FAST from discouragement; FEAST on hope.

And so the list can grow as in this spirit of fasting and feasting, we open the door to God at work in our lives. 

As we receive the sacrament of God's love for us in Christ Jesus we can sense the energies -- sorrow and joy, repentance and forgiveness, humility and joyful confidence, fasting and feasting, death and life -- around which our lives in Christ revolve.  These are the things that speak to our hearts and our minds and our souls.  AMEN

The Rev. Dcn. John Burton

February 21, 2007

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