St. Paul's Episcopal Church

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
425 Cleveland Ave SW
Canton, Ohio 44702
Phone: 330-455-0286
Fax: 330-455-9818
E-mail: office@stpaulscanton.org

Ash Wednesday
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Canton OH
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10

February 17, 2010
The Rev. Barbara L Bond

Reconciliation

I have been reading a fascinating novel entitled Forgiving Ararat by Gita Nazareth. Many Episcopalians are reading this novel during Lent, on the advice of the Diocese of Massachusetts, so I thought I would give it a try.

Just two days ago, I came upon the following scene, the memory of a young woman named Amina, whose father and uncle had manufactured the gas chambers of Nazi Germany. Amina had suffered at the hands of Russians in 1945, and was frozen in her fury at God because of it. She never went to church. But then, in 1953, on the day that Joseph Stalin died, she was persuaded to attend an Ash Wednesday service. Here is the description:

“Why Ash Wednesday? It was such a strange liturgy, the most primitive and ghoulish of all the Christian holy days. How bone chilling for a priest to whisper those terrifying words: ‘Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return,” and then, to be certain his grim message was not soon forgotten, to feel his thumb coated with the ashes of last year’s palms smearing an ugly black cross upon your forehead as a badge of mortification. Yet a miracle of sorts had taken place during the service: Amina heard a more subversive message that afternoon than she had ever heard before. ‘In ancient days,’ the priest had said during his homily, ‘Lent was observed as a time when notorious sinners and criminals who had been excluded from the church were reconciled with the congregation and God.’ As the priest spoke, Amina believed she could actually hear the cries of all the penitents of the world daring to ask for forgiveness, and the joyful weeping when open hands were extended, rather than fists. At that instant, Amina wondered whether this is what Christianity offered the world – not sacred marks and secret words, but reconciliation. On Ash Wednesday in 1953, Amina accepted this offer – on behalf of herself, yes, but, more importantly to her, on behalf of her father and uncle, whose sins committed during the war were unspeakable and who could not ask for forgiveness themselves. Indeed, on that magical Ash Wednesday, Amina sought forgiveness for all things done and left undone and for this momentous act of contrition – because God was to blame for all she had suffered – Amina expected nothing less of God than an end to the long punishment of her family…Perhaps the news of the death of Joseph Stalin [was] a symbol of the truce reached with God on that Wednesday.” (pp. 195-6)

Reconciliation – forgiveness – is at the center of the novel, and at the center of this holy day. Many of us take the forty days of Lent to be a time of discipline, to DO lots of things to keep our minds focused in this period of preparation for the central events of our faith. And truly, the first and third readings today emphasize behavior – do this, don’t do that. But Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians offers a different voice. Paul writes, “We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Be reconciled. There is no action here – rather, it is passive, accepting the reconciliation, the grace of Christ, that is freely offered to us all.

As the character of Amina in the novel was able to hear and accept the reconciliation of Christ, the tight anger of her life began to loosen, like clenched fists relaxed, hands able to reach forward and embrace the love of God, to receive forgiveness on behalf of her dreadful ancestors. There is forgiveness for all, for generations past, and for us right now. There is forgiveness for our complicity in the woes of the world. The long litany of our sins, which we will pray shortly, is a worthy reminder, in case we are kidding ourselves that we are perfect. No, we are just human beings, fallible, perchance lazy and impatient, wasteful – well, the list is coming up soon. But the list is not the important part. The good news is that God loves us and welcomes us back, all the time. As Paul says, “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” There are no obstacles keeping us from returning to the loving embrace of God.