Ash Wednesday
on ancient Scriptures that speak today
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, for most Christians. In my Pentecostal tradition, we have not particularly emphasized the rhythms of the Church calendar, although I see more of us recently giving attention to it as part of our practices.
Quite a few years ago, I shifted my own daily prayer practices to incorporate the Church calendar in my own Scripture reading, and in the way I prayed. Raised and now pastoring in a tradition that emphasized my personal relationship with Jesus, that emphasized being daily filled with and led by the Holy Spirit - which I still intentionally value - I nevertheless wanted to submit my spiritual growth to something outside of myself, a structure offered by voices from the greater Christian community.
So I bought an e-book, “The Act of Prayer: Praying Through the Lectionary,” by John Birch.1 It offers weekly written prayers - four each week - that correspond with the lectionary scripture readings. I imported daily lectionary Scripture readings into my calendar, via this website.
And these have been my primary go-to’s for a good while now, in my own morning prayer times. Reading Scriptures on a schedule bigger than my own preferences. Praying prayers that are more than my own hot-takes and concerns.
It’s been good for me.
Now more than ever.
Because … well, it seems that the world (as I had known it) has gone crazy.
I’ll just leave it at that.
And so, today, on Ash Wednesday, I wake up even earlier than usual. I felt that I needed to, on this day, as we begin forty days of returning to God.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. On us. Sinners.”
It is a prayer I whisper multiple times a day.
Today’s scriptures are reassuring, grounding. (Click here to see them, but be aware that I usually shift to the New Living Translation, quoted below). Our faith has not changed. These priorities and invitations of God have not changed.
First, the ancient prophet Joel speaks - sometimes in God’s voice, sometimes his own, poetically - calling those who hear him to return to God.
“Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
but tear your hearts instead.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
The words of another prophet, Isaiah, are as on-point today as they were when he first spoke them (2,700 years ago, give or take). He criticized the people of God who do the religious things while completely missing God’s priorities. Isaiah dramatically speaks in God’s voice too.
They ask me to take action on their behalf,
pretending they want to be near me.
‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
and you don’t even notice it!’
“I will tell you why!” I respond.
“It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
you keep oppressing your workers.
What good is fasting
when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
will never get you anywhere with me.
You humble yourselves
by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
Do you really think this will please the Lord?
“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
Feed the hungry,
and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.”
I turn to the words of Jesus, spoken centuries later.
“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven…. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues (or churches) where everyone can see them…. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting…. Comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth…. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
And finally, the Apostle Paul, writing to God’s people - followers of Jesus - in Corinth, part of the ancient Roman Empire.
We are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
I finish. Deep breath.
“Come back.”
Our faith has not changed. Nor is it lifeless or rigid. It is ancient and grounded and living and beautiful. It calls out the things in my heart I had conveniently not noticed. It challenges me to actually live what I claim to believe.
And so, on Ash Wednesday, in a world that often distresses me, I turn my eyes back to God. His priorities have not changed. His invitation still stands.
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”2
I prefer not to link to the only place I can find it for sale, but I think you know how to search things. It will take you about 1.5 seconds.
This is not part of today’s Scripture readings, but it came to mind and seemed a fitting way to end. It’s found in Psalm 27, and honestly, that whole Psalm is worth re-visiting too.
The lectionary does that—it pulls you into a conversation that has been going on for centuries. And it’s striking how those passages from Joel, Isaiah, Jesus, and Paul still speak so directly to the same human problems we see today. The call is always the same: return to God, care for the oppressed, practice faith quietly and sincerely. That continuity across thousands of years is honestly one of the most beautiful things about the tradition. I’ve been reflecting on that same sense of returning to God in the present moment here: https://theeternalnowmm.substack.com/p/the-surrender?r=71z4jh