In Defense of Ash Wednesday and Lent

 The Affair of the sausage was an event that tool place in Zurich during Lent 1552.  Ulrich Zwingli, the reformer of Zurich, a Roman Priest with Reformed ideas, decided to launch his version of the Reformation by preparing sausage during the lenten season.  

Now of course it was traditional at that time, and still is in Roman and some high church Anglican parishes, to forego the eating of meat during lent.  With the exception of Fish on Fridays.  Zwingli knew what he was doing and knew this would controversial and a clear break with Rome.  

Since that time it has become a Presbyterian lenten tradition to argue about what Reformed Christians can and can't do during Lent.  This has carried over into Anglicanism with low church and evangelical Anglicans writing articles and blog posts about the error of lent contra their Anglo-Catholic and high Church friends.  

So what should we make of Ash Wednesday and lent?  Let's start with Ash Wednesday and the imposition of ashes.  Some have Interpreted this practice to be a violation of the gospel lesson appointed for that day.  There Jesus specifically confronts the error of the pharisees in putting ashes on their face for the world to see.  But what we do on Ash Wednesday and what Jesus confronts aren't the same day.  

No...  the ashes are for us.  Not for other people to see.  It's a reminder of our mortality and the weakness of human flesh.  "From dust you have come and to dust you shall return."  

The question is should we contemplate such things?  Or should we always and at all times focus on the good news of resurrection.  I firmly believe that it is absolutely crucial for us to think about both equally and at different time.  The Bible says that it is better to go into the house of mourning than the house of feasting (ecclesiastes 7:2) and it says this because in contemplating mortality we are able to redirect ourselves to things that are important to our Christian lives.  

That's what Lent is all about.  It reorients us from joy to penance.  It helps us focus on the things that really do matter. Iife, death, sinfulness and repentance aren't things that we should avoid.  The Christian life should not always be a continues high.  We need these moments to remind us how good the good news really is so that we never become complacent in our daily Iives.  

So let us keep the fast