Ritual Customs: A Sermon for Ash Wednesday

It can take years - even decades - for new rituals to take hold and become a custom. But after we have wrestled with the meaning and purpose of these new rituals and they become a part of our routine, they can end up taking on an unintended life of their own. That certainly is the case in the Episcopal Church. The 1979 Prayer Book, among many things, introduced some new rituals into our worship - particularly as it pertains to Lent and Holy Week. Never before until the 1979 Prayer Book had there been the option to come to church, take your shoes off, and have somebody wash your feet. This particular ritual was met with a good bit of trepidation before it became a custom. After all, if we Episcopalians are anything, we are dignified and decorous. But after a few decades, the Maundy Thursday liturgy has now become known to many as the “foot washing service.” And people have come to expect to have their feet washed - and to wash someone else’s feet - when they come. 

A consequence of our being caught up in all of the hoopla around washing feet - whether we were advocating for it or against it - was the fact that the primary ritual we celebrate on Maundy Thursday is the Last Supper, and the resulting institution of the Holy Eucharist. But somehow, believe it or not, the Last Supper narrative has fallen in the shadows of foot washing on Maundy Thursdays. And so we now are moving towards having a “foot washing service” with an incidental celebration of the Eucharist.

And the same goes for Ash Wednesday. The 1979 Prayer Book’s introduction of the imposition of ashes was also met with a great deal of resistance. Along with going against our proclivity for dignity and decorum, it also just seemed far too “catholic” for the Episcopalians who leaned more to the Protestant side of the Anglican spectrum. No explanation for one’s disapproval was necessary beyond “it’s too catholic.”

But now, after a few decades, the imposition of ashes - like foot washing - is one of the newly-introduced rituals that has evolved into a custom. Nowadays, in the days leading up to Ash Wednesday, folks now call the church and ask, “when can I come get my ashes?” And of course in our context now, the questions and resulting essays and blog posts have been geared towards “how can we safely administer ashes during a pandemic?”

What all of this tells us is that the 1979 Prayer Book experiment as it pertains to Ash Wednesday and Holy Week worked. What once once met with resistance and apprehension has now become a custom in most churches. But as I mentioned before, there have been some unintended consequences in our adaptation of these “new” rituals.” We have never had anyone call the church and ask, “when can I come participate in the Litany of Penitence?” or “what time is the invitation for us to begin our observance of a Holy Lent?” 

We must remember that the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday came centuries before the custom to put a cross of ashes on our foreheads. It reads, "And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” That is why the original practice was to sprinkle a small amount of ashes on top of one’s head - so that the person receiving the ashes could hear and reflect on their own mortality in hearing the words - “remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” but they wouldn’t run afoul of Christ’s instruction to refrain from displaying our penitential practices to others. 

So, given our context today, we have been given the opportunity to try a new ritual - which is actually a very ancient one - and some would argue the proper way to observe Ash Wednesday. Regardless of our opinion on how we are administering the ashes today, my hope is that in our wrestling with this issue, we will not lose the forest for the trees. Our worship service today is first and foremost a way of ritualizing the beginning of the holy season of Lent. 

The Prayer Book’s invitation to a holy Lent tells us that in generations past during Lent, “the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.” As such,  “We are invited, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” 

The primary way that the Prayer Book invites us to begin this practice is through the public recitation of the Litany of Penitence, which we will do in a few moments. Sadly, if this part of the service were removed, I likely wouldn’t get any complaints - many might not even notice. But this litany is essential to the Ash Wednesday liturgy. Yes, we are tactile, sensual people, and physical rituals help us embody the words that we recite. That is why we eat bread and drink wine after the prayer of Great Thanksgiving. And that is why we impose ashes on Ash Wednesday - regardless of the manner in which we do so. 

But let us not forget that ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, and God cast them out with the words “remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” we too live East of Eden. And we too are dust, and to dust we shall return.

But after the rather long and sobering Litany of Penitence, I will offer the words of absolution. On behalf of the Church, I will say, “[God] pardons and absolves all those who truly repent, and with sincere hearts believe his holy Gospel.” I will ask God to “grant us true repentance and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do on this day, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy.” 

So in the midst of our reflection on our own mortality; in the midst of our being reminded of humankind’s fall and subsequent residence East of Eden, we are also reminded of God’s everlasting grace and mercy through the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us faithfully repent; and let us faithfully live into the great Good News of God’s grace and pardon.