Wednesday, February 21, 2007
From AscensionNYC
Ash Wednesday
Psalm 103
Joel 2:1-2,12-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
Psalm 103, which opens and closes with the same exhortation ("Bless the Lord, O my soul") is one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. We find here, on the day that reminds us of our own mortality and begins our penitential season, a long cry of praise and thanksgiving for God's goodness, his forgiveness, his love and mercy, his righteousness, his healing. This cry is made possible by the fact that God and the psalmist David "remembers that we are dust," and it anticipates the glorious outcome of the dark period we are entering. Some of David's language is very familiar to me; I can still hear our Methodist minister, in his frock coat and Cornish accent, as he intoned weekly,
I find it interesting and more than a little puzzling that these texts are more clearly related to the observance of Ash Wednesday and Lent than today's Epistle and Gospel. True, the Corinthian text asserts that "we have commended ourselves in every way" to God's service, but neither there nor in the Gospel passage, which is an appeal to seemly demeanor while praying, fasting, and giving alms, do we find much related to the observance of this special day and season.
Let us return to the psalm for real sustenance.
Joel 2:1-2,12-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
Psalm 103, which opens and closes with the same exhortation ("Bless the Lord, O my soul") is one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. We find here, on the day that reminds us of our own mortality and begins our penitential season, a long cry of praise and thanksgiving for God's goodness, his forgiveness, his love and mercy, his righteousness, his healing. This cry is made possible by the fact that God and the psalmist David "remembers that we are dust," and it anticipates the glorious outcome of the dark period we are entering. Some of David's language is very familiar to me; I can still hear our Methodist minister, in his frock coat and Cornish accent, as he intoned weekly,
For as the heavens are high above the earth,Although the prophet Joel presents the day of God's coming as "a day of darkness and gloom…like blackness spread upon the mountain," his God also pleads, "Return to me with all your heart," for God is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love," echoing the psalmist's God. And so here too redemption rather than darkness and gloom is stressed.
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us."
I find it interesting and more than a little puzzling that these texts are more clearly related to the observance of Ash Wednesday and Lent than today's Epistle and Gospel. True, the Corinthian text asserts that "we have commended ourselves in every way" to God's service, but neither there nor in the Gospel passage, which is an appeal to seemly demeanor while praying, fasting, and giving alms, do we find much related to the observance of this special day and season.
Let us return to the psalm for real sustenance.
Charlie Hill
Comments:
I have always found it ironic that on the day on which we walk around with a very visible marker of our penitence, in the form of ashes on our foreheads, we read the passage about not broadcasting our penitence. It always makes me want to rub the ashes off before I leave the church, though when I leave them on it provides a unique opportunity to talk about my faith to my colleagues.
comment from 
choirgirl : February 21, 2007
choirgirl : February 21, 2007 Post a Comment
