Preparing to journey to the Cross and beyond

I can't remember if I went for the service for the beginning of Lent last year. But I am still touched and moved by yesterdays service in leading us towards the beginning of our journey to the Cross. The meaning of Lent became clear to me, its true meaning, in the introductory note in the Ash Wednesday Service booklet.

Here is what it said:

This Ash Wednesday Liturgy leads us into the penitential season of Lent- a season marked by stripping away the non-essential and the unimportant, by listening in quietness to the groaning of all creation as it writhes in sinfulness, by reflecting on our own sinfulness and on God's gift of forgiveness which comes through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

We begin the season with powerful prayers of confession, greatly expanded over our usual brief corporate confession. We stand before God with contrite hearts, knowing our weaknesses and failings and not hiding from them.

At this point in most acts of confession, we receive the absolution of forgiveness but tonight it is delayed. Instead, firstly we hear the words:" Remember that you are dust , and to dust you shall return,"and we are so marked with the dust of ashes. The non - essential is stripped away. The unimportant is removed. In this act, we finally confess that all our finery, our clothing, our possessions, our abilities- all that we think that makes us who we are- is not at all who we are. We are only dust, and in and of ourselves stand as dusty beings before the Lord.

I had the privilege of reading the old Testament passage for this service taken from Isaiah 58:1-12

The true meaning of fasting

True Fasting

58 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
² For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.