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| St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Waco, Texas |
Grace and peace in the name of Jesus Christ,
This is a call to repent.
I feel as though we all have a lot to repent for just now.
In light of our Wednesday services that are upon us today, where every member of the Body of Christ throughout our Diocese has the opportunity to receive ashes in some form, I wanted to take this opportunity to elaborate on why I believe our confession and repentance matter, particularly as we enter this season of Holy Lent.
Repentance and Ash Wednesday are ancient observances kept by God’s holy Church. From the earliest days of Christianity, faithful believers prepared themselves in anticipation of the feast of our Lord’s passion and resurrection; Lent became a time of penitence and fasting when those preparing for Holy Baptism were taught to repent of their sins and reconciled to the fellowship of God’s faithful people before being washed clean in Christ’s Name. Lenten discipline, therefore, is not some private expression of guilt masquerading as piety. It’s how the Church remembers and celebrates the Gospel: pardon and forgiveness aren’t just concepts. They are sacramental, and every Christian needs regular restoration through repentance and faith.
For that reason, please hear this call to repentance as offered on behalf of the Church for the sake of your soul: Let us observe a holy Lent, by the mortification of self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and abstinence; and by reading and meditating upon God’s holy Word. If you need a starting point, start here. Come to worship this Lent.
Read the Collect appointed for the day, and pray to God that he will “create and make in us new and contrite hearts.”
Take up God’s Word anew: the exhortation of Joel to “Return to the Lord”; the words of Isaiah that fasting from pride and selfishness breaks every chain and binds up the wounds of neighbor and community; St. Paul’s plea that we “Be reconciled to God”; and Matthew’s gospel where our Lord instructs us to pray, to fast, and to give alms—not for others to see, but in the quiet intimacy of our Father who sees what is done in secret.
Come to worship if you can, and if we have accessible services in your area, please come to receive ashes as well. It is a startling sign and moment to be reminded of our mortality. We sit under words that we spend the majority of our lives trying desperately to avoid hearing: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
The words aren’t meant to shame us into obedience, but set us free from delusion. We are reminded that we are dust. Mortal. Finite. Broken. But the ashes don’t end there. They are impressed upon each member of Christ’s Body who is reminded that while we are dust, we belong to the Crucified and Risen Son of God who is all mercy. The God who declared all of creation good at its making still loves His Creation, and in Christ Jesus he embraces and forgives all who truly repent.
The reason Lent is so important for embodied spirituality is that Christianity is not disembodied spirituality at all.
Followers of Jesus do not deny our bodies when we confess that we sin in thought, word, and deed. Nor is repentance simply the correction of bad ideas. God has graciously placed himself within our flesh and tick of time: through breath and hunger, tears and touch; through bodies kneeling and bodies standing, through water and oil, bread and wine.
Lent reminds us that grace is big enough to meet us where we are: to transform the embodied habits that make us who we are. How do we eat? How do we rest? How do we speak? How do we spend money? How do we love? How do we react when we’re tired? When we’re scared? Fasting isn’t a punitive exercise. It’s training ourselves to listen with our whole selves. Self-denial isn’t self-loathing. It’s learning the discipline of joy. Prayer moves our bodies. We don’t just think about Jesus—we go to Jesus.
It is a time for telling the truth, about how prideful we are; about how impatient we can be; about how we neglect to pray; about how we’ve hurt our neighbor; about how we take this good earth for granted. and crying out with the psalmist, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” It is a time to practice loving our neighbor as concrete, embodied people. It is a time to repair what has been broken; to care for what we’ve ignored; to practice generosity; and learn to rejoice in obedience once again. This is how repentance becomes more than regret over our sin. It becomes the lifelong work of turning heart, mind, and body toward the Lord.
Please know that whether you are joining a church in person this Lent or worshiping online from your kitchen table with your phone in your hand, you are not alone. Let us go to the Lord our maker and redeemer, kneel before him, and make a right beginning. That by His grace, we may work out our salvation in fear and trembling, trusting that He is able to accomplish this good work in us, to the praise of His glorious Name.
Faithfully in Christ,
+The Bishop of the Diocese of Texas
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