Ash Wednesday St. Mary’s 21st February 2007: Revd. Julia Boothby


Probably like many of you last night I made pancakes for my family, and due to the gift of a new frying pan that my parents bought me, they were very good! I am something of a traditionalist when it comes to the topping though…lemon juice and a little sugar. Other people go for all sorts of toppings from syrup to ice cream to fruit to cream to alcohol….I spoke to our eldest son at university last night who was on his way to his fourth pancake party and he seemed to have tried every topping you can think of. People have their own favourites and their own traditions….and so it is with Lent.

For some it is a regular time of giving something up…be it chocolate or alcohol or cake. Some people take up things….going to the gym, helping out with a charity or raising money for a good cause. Other people have a collecting box in which the money they would have used for pleasure they collect and then give to those in need. Of course these are only the outward signs of what Lent is about. What is most important is the reason why we do these things, the spirit in which we approach them. Lent is a time when we are to think deeply and seriously about our sins, a time to reflect on our relationship with God and an opportunity to deepen our faith through prayer and bible study. What matters are not the outward signs, the giving up of things, but the change in our hearts as we seek to follow Christ more closely. And that is surely what Christ was telling us in the reading that we heard from Matthew’s Gospel. Give secretly without telling anyone, fast without any outward signs of it, go into your room and pray in secret.

It struck me quite forcibly as I read this passage again that it surely has something very interesting to add to the recent debate about wearing the cross in public. As perhaps you are aware BA earlier this month announced that it was changing its uniform policy to allow all religious symbols to be worn openly, including a cross and chain. This follows the furore that broke out last autumn when a BA worker was banned from wearing a cross necklace. I was of course, supportive of the lady and her desire to wear a cross at work, but I was also wary of the implication in some of the reporting at the time that wearing a cross made someone a Christian. Many thousands of people wear a cross in one form or another, but for many different reasons. Some wear it as a kind of good luck talisman, others simply an attractive piece of jewellery, others as a reminder of perhaps a childhood baptism, and of course many wear it as reminder of their own faith. I myself wear a cross on a chain and have done so for years. But, my faith is not dependent on wearing it.

Being a Christian is not about the outward symbols but of a deep commitment to Christ. It would be very easy for us tonight to come up and have a cross put on our foreheads and not engage with the call for soul searching and repentance that it calls for. It is in fact much easier to give up chocolate or alcohol, than to honestly and openly before God take stock of your relationship with him. It is much easier to give away money and possessions, than to let go of self and offer yourself to God. The true meaning of what we do tonight, the true meaning of Lent is to be found not in what we do but who we are. Because, of course, the simple truth is that when we put God on the throne of our lives then we live differently and the need for outward symbols, whatever they might be, becomes superfluous. Our whole lives then become one symbol of our love of God.

This is not to say that there is no value in outward signs and activities, because, done in the right way they can draw us closer to God. However, it is very easy to forget the deeper commitment and call that is asked of us at this season.

This Lent, then, may we challenge ourselves not to be involved in the outward but the inward. Let us look to the much harder challenges of prayer and bible study, repentance and service and as we do so draw nearer to him who sees our hearts and minds.
Amen