Message for Ash Wednesday, 5 March 2014 from The Los Angeles Episcopal Area of the California Pacific Conference of The United Methodist Church
Bishop Carcano's Message for Ash Wednesday 2014
Beloved Sisters and Brothers,
Joel 2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
and sound an alarm in my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of Yahweh comes,
for it is close at hand:
2 A day of darkness and gloominess,
a day of clouds and thick darkness.
As the dawn spreading on the mountains,
a great and strong people;
there has never been the like,
neither will there be any more after them,
even to the years of many generations.
12 “Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
13 Tear your heart, and not your garments,
and turn to Yahweh, your God;
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness,
and relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion!
Sanctify a fast.
Call a solemn assembly.
16 Gather the people.
Sanctify the assembly.
Assemble the elders.
Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts.
Let the bridegroom go out of his room,
and the bride out of her room.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar,
and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh,
and don’t give your heritage to reproach,
that the nations should rule over them.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
Psalm 51:1 Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions.
My sin is constantly before me.
4 Against you, and you only, have I sinned,
and done that which is evil in your sight;
that you may be proved right when you speak,
and justified when you judge.
5 Behold, I was born in iniquity.
In sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.
You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean.
Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all of my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a right spirit within me.
11 Don’t throw me from your presence,
and don’t take your holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
Uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways.
Sinners shall be converted to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation.
My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 Lord, open my lips.
My mouth shall declare your praise.
16 For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it.
You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
2 Corinthians 5:20 We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
6:1 Working together, we entreat also that you not receive the grace of God in vain, 2 for he says,
“At an acceptable time I listened to you,
in a day of salvation I helped you.”[a]
Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed, 4 but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, 5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; 6 in pureness, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, 7 in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8 by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
Footnotes:
a. 2 Corinthians 6:2 Isaiah 49:8
Matthew 6:1 “Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does, 4 so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
5 “When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
16 “Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face; 18 so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
19 “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Blessed Ash Wednesday to all of you. As people of Christian faith on this day we begin to journey toward the Resurrection of our Lord. We join Jesus in his suffering and come face to face with our own mortality. Along the way our sinfulness will also become evident if our journey is filled with prayer, fasting, and the study of the Bible for this season. Repentance for our sin will be the only worthy response to our God who loves us unconditionally. Healing and wholeness will be the gracious gifts we will receive in our repentance; the faithful promise of the One who is our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
Being a disciple of Jesus the Christ requires holy discipline. Lent reminds us of the discipline of staying close to Jesus so that we may live as his disciples. If taken seriously the Lenten journey is not for the faint of heart, but it is an opportunity to experience the Holy One in transformative ways.
All of us can participate in this journey because the Holy Spirit is our guide and sustainer along the way. The Holy Spirit will illumine our path, show us the way and assure our arrival on the eve of Easter Sunday just in time to meet our Risen Lord!
Be of good faith. Let us pray without ceasing. May our fasting be one of setting aside all that obstructs the rightful place of Jesus in our lives. In the desert places of Lent let us drink of the word of God, the only water that will truly quench the thirst of our souls.
Peace,
Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño
Los Angeles Area Resident Bishop
The United Methodist Church
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