Ash Wednesday

A little boy had just returned home from an Ash Wednesday church service. The little girl from next door asked him what the smudge was on his forehead. He replied, “It’s Ash Wednesday.” “What’s Ash Wednesday?” she asked. “Oh,” he replied, “It’s when Christians begin their diet.”

Ash Wednesday is about more than giving up chocolate for Lent. It is about examining ourselves in the light of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. And the central question which we ask ourselves today is, “Which is it: Pretense or Performance?”

Eugene Peterson recounts a story that he read in a book of Ann Tyler’s titled, Morgan’s Passing. The title character in the book is an unusual young man who has an impact on the lives of others. Morgan is attending a puppet show one day when one of the puppeteers requests the presence of a doctor. Morgan, calm and professional, offers his medical services. The puppeteer explains that his wife is in labor, and he wants a doctor to go with him to the hospital, just in case the baby comes early. Morgan and the young couple head for the hospital.

On the way there, the labor intensifies. The young man pulls the car over, and Morgan sends him to a corner newsstand to get paper, to serve as makeshift sheets and towels. Morgan coolly and expertly delivers the baby, then drives the new family to the hospital, so mother and baby can be checked out. Then Morgan leaves. The young couple inquires about this wonderful Dr. Morgan, but nobody seems to know where to find him.

Months later, the young couple run into Morgan on the street. Proudly, they show him their healthy baby, and lavish praise on him. They explain that they looked for Morgan everywhere, in order to show him their gratitude, but nobody knew where to find him. Morgan then admits that he is not really a doctor. Actually, he manages a hardware store. He had pretended to be a doctor because the young couple had needed a doctor. He went on to say that in the “honored professions,” such as medicine and law, image was as important as knowledge. All his life, Morgan had pretended to be a member of these honored professions, because he could easily get away with it. He admitted to the couple, “You know, I would never pretend to be a plumber, or impersonate a butcher–they would find me out in twenty seconds.”

I’m not certain I would want Morgan operating on me, even if he did have the image of a doctor down pat. I believe I would want the real thing. But, as the old television show of the same name reminds us, there are PRETENDERS among us.

Even the head of the Girl Scouts of America can be a pretender. Juliette Gordon Low was in her 50s and already going deaf when she met General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts. She became an instant fan of his group’s female counterpart, the Girl Guides, and when the Girl Scouts of the USA was organized in 1915, Low became its first president and greatest financial supporter.

Rather than fall victim to her increasing deafness, she used it to her advantage as the Girl Scouts grew and required more money. When friends tried to beg off committing to donations, she pretended not to hear them. “What was that you said? Did I hear you say you were giving a hundred?” But everyone appreciated her efforts and, largely as a result of them, Scouting is still popular today.

Advertisers pretend all the time. Have you ever caught yourself gazing longingly at a food advertisement in a magazine? How come when you cook the same dish it doesn’t look as colorful or tempting as the pictures? It could be because the “food” in those pictures isn’t real food. Food stylists are the people responsible for making food advertisements look so yummy. They have a number of tricks for making their products look better than the real thing.

For instance, ice cream doesn’t photograph well, and it melts quickly under hot lights, so food stylists often use Crisco vegetable shortening instead. A glass of champagne looks so festive in holiday ads; but that’s not real champagne at all, it’s ginger ale with a dash of salt added to increase bubbles. Coffee tends to look oily in photographs, so molasses is used instead.

Pretenders. They’ve always been with us. Jesus knew about pretenders. These were people who pretended to be more righteous than they really were. They loved to be recognized in their community for their piety and their charity. They only gave when there was a telethon on television so their name would be read out over the airways. They gave more to the University than to their church, because the University would give them honored seats at the football game or would name a building after them.

And when they prayed, they did it loudly so that everyone in the restaurant would know that they were saying grace–unlike the unwashed heathen around them.

Jesus never said these were bad people. He did not say they were going to hell. All he said was that they already had their reward. They really didn’t have that much to look forward to. Why? Because they were pretenders.

Ash Wednesday is a good time to examine our heart and ask if our faith is pretense or performance.

Is our commitment influenced by the people in the grandstand who observe us daily? Do we need Christ to give us a fresh experience of his presence and his purpose to reinvigorate our discipleship? Or are we going through the motions for others?

Here’s the second question with which we need to examine ourselves as we begin the forty days of Lent: Do we have a heart for the needy? This is a harder question.

We would really prefer that people with needs be invisible. They make us feel guilty. We wonder if they really couldn’t do more to help themselves. But we live in a world of needy people. Some of those needs are physical and material. But some of those needs are emotional and spiritual. And we are confronted with a choice – to ignore those needs or to respond like Jesus would respond.

You may have heard about the schoolteacher who injured his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. It fit under his shirt and was not noticeable at all. On the first day of the term, still with the cast under his shirt, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in school. Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, he opened the window as wide as possible and then started to teach. When a strong breeze made his tie flap, he took the desk stapler and stapled the tie to his chest. From that moment onward, he had no trouble with discipline.

It’s tough being a follower of Jesus. We would like to harden ourselves against the people who have a claim on our charity, our compassion, our discipleship. But Christ calls us to be vulnerable that we might not turn away the needy.

And this brings us to the last question for today: Are you willing to give your all to Christ? 

Now most of us will never be asked to die for Christ. But we are asked to live for him. That is really what Ash Wednesday is all about.

A little girl had gone with her family to her church’s Ash Wednesday service. She was upset that her mother was not taking her to the altar rail with the rest of the family. She was overheard exclaiming: “But I want to get a tattoo just like Daddy’s!”

The mark on our forehead is not exactly a tattoo. But it is a symbol of what we are and whose we are. We belong to Jesus. So, let’s keep it real, act like Christians, and live for Jesus.