The Rev. Anne MacNabb
"Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” And here we are on Ash Wednesday beginning our season of Lent. In my experience, the people who come to Ash Wednesday services are the people who take Lent seriously. They are the people who acknowledge the season of Lent, remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us throughout the season and eagerly anticipate the arrival of Easter. Sometimes people give up something during the season as a thanksgiving to God in their own sacrifice. Sometimes people sacrifice by taking something new on that they normally wouldn’t do – such as participating in the Wednesday night Study or making time for daily prayer and devotions. But today, we start here. We start by remembering that we are dust and to dust we shall return – thus our need for God in our lives in the first place. We will receive a cross of Ashes on our foreheads and go out into the world.
"Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
When I was first discerning a call to the priesthood, some 12 years ago now, the Rector of my church gave me 2 books to read. The first was “The Christian Priest today” by Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey. The second was “A Living Reminder” by Henri Nouwen. “A Living Reminder” is a book about Christian service Nouwen’s point is that anyone who is in Christian service has a call to be a Living Reminder of the life, ministry and salvation of Jesus Christ. My Rector and I had extensive conversations about what this means and, in particular, what the effect of wearing a white collar around a black shirt means. I’m not talking about the sacramental duties of a priest or pastoral duties of a priest. I’m talking about when a person wears a priest’s collar out in public – what happens?
Well, the first thing that happens is people notice you. Everyone notices you. Then with that comes an analysis – an analysis of your behaviors – are you kind? Are you forgiving? Are you judgmental? With that outward sign of a collar people have expectations. Being a woman, I also get a lot of strange looks – looks of confusion, looks of curiosity and sometimes people are bold enough to ask the question… “what are you, some kind of nun?” It’s amazing that we live in the most powerful city in the world, where people from all over the world come, a place that is so diverse and yet a woman priest is still very uncommon. Sometimes, when I really just don’t want to deal with it, I just don’t wear the collar in public.
The other thing that happens, usually when I don’t wear a collar and I’m meeting people for the first time – I’ll be having a perfectly lovely conversation with someone and eventually the conversation turns to “what do you do for a living” and I say with a smile “I’m an Episcopal priest.” Very often I can see the look of hesitation in the other person, they are replaying our conversation thusfar and often say, “I hope I haven’t said anything to offend you.”
What I am aware of in all of this is that the white collar that I wear, reminds them of God. It is a visual reminder of the holy. People automatically know that I am Christian and I live my life in the most Godly way that I am able.
Today as you all receive the ashen cross on your foreheads, you get to be in this club a bit. As you leave here and go on about your day or evening, you’ll go into public places and people will see this black mark on your head. (you know you are not supposed to wipe it off, right?) People will know that you are a Christian, just by looking at you. They will automatically assume and expect certain things from you – kindness, gentleness and forgiveness. It’s really a lot to live up to. We represent Christianity especially to those who are skeptical or doubtful about God’s existence and those who are of other faiths.
The truth is, all of us have that responsibility of being a Living Reminder – every day, not just on days when we have ashes on our heads or are wearing collars. The truth is we are called to live lives of kindness, gentleness and forgiveness every day as if every action of ours is being judged, because it is. We are the living, breathing Body of Christ and it is our job to bring God’s message of love to the world and to show the world how to love God and love our neighbor.
As we go through this season of Lent, we have the opportunity to be more dedicated to these commandments of Jesus. Starting next Wednesday night we are going to be looking at the Parable of the Good Samaritan and are going to be talking about how we might become the best examples we can be of loving God and loving our neighbors. We are going to be talking about how, no matter what our outward appearance, we might be Living Reminders of Jesus’ love for the world.