Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:1-2,12-17; Psalm 103; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

Bless the LORD, O my soul!

What a good way to begin the season of Lent.  Psalm 103 reminds us of our mortality, but only to compare our limits to God’s unfailing goodness and love.  Episcopalians and many others will recite Psalm 51 at church, and will confess their sins, but even there the deeper message is God’s faithfulness and compassion.  God desires our return, and breathes a sigh of relief when we bless God in our turn.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all God’s benefits (103:2): forgiveness, healing, redemption, satisfaction.  Sometimes those may be absent, or delayed.  We can get mad at God then and turn away, and do our best to either get these things by our own power or do without them.  Neither of those strategies will work for long.  By ourselves, we are not enough.

Walter Wink reminds us that between our prayer and God’s response we also encounter the powers that would thwart that loving will, and it may take a long time to overcome them.  We need to keep knocking, and praying, and blessing.

I recently read of a woman who was trying to learn to pray.  She asked God, “How should I pray?”  Immediately she heard the response: “Pray thanking, not asking.”  She gave thanks, then wondered about the people and situations that needed help so badly.  Could she not pray for them?  Again came the answer: “Pray thanking, not asking.”  So she thanked God for caring for those people, for giving her the will to care, for all the little actions and interventions that serve as signs of love in hard times.

The world is hurting.  We ourselves arrive at prayer with hurts and wounds, and with the weight of the hurts and wounds we inflict on others.  Today, we can release them into the loving arms of God.  And give thanks.  And bless.

Bless the LORD, O my soul!