Land of Ash

This is the introduction of a booklet I put together for my congregation to use throughout Lent. It contains prayers, Saint Foci, and songs. It’s not exhaustive. Its inadequacies are evident from a quick glance. Some is outdated and some of it just anticipates the future. Some landmarks are mislabeled. My directions will always point in the general direction, but sometimes you’ll have to do some investigating, and scramble around unmarked barriers. It is the very incomplete nature of this book that I think will add to its usefulness. Hopefully, you’ll find yourself saying, “There’s too much about . . .” or, “Why not say something about . . .?” or, better still, “I knew that.” As you travel Lent, becoming aware of how woefully inadequate my guide is, you’ll become more dependent on God and less dependent on your place in the kingdom of this world.

This bit, I hope, stands on its own:



The other day I saw a static sticker in a car window that said, Greed Girl. I guess I was supposed to be shocked by that defiant statement against our culture’s assumed values. Maybe it’s a sad reflection, but Greed Girl disappointed me for all the wrong reasons. She thought she was standing up to the system, flipping the bird to the man. We all know the mantra: greed bad, temperance good right? We hold generosity and charity dearly. Greed Girl stands opposed to all that is good in us.

But Greed Girl was just saying what we’re really all about. Instead of being counter-cultural, she’s camped out in the center of our most basic, unspoken values. Unless she’s being ironic – something I highly doubt -- she’s more a part of the system than she’d ever want to admit.

I think if I had to pick things to represent late 20th and early 21st century living, MTV would be near the top of my list. I know -- Music Television is an easy target when we’re lamenting the demise of Western civilization. MTV is about hedonism, sexism, and the degeneration of music mere image. Beyond that, by taking rock and roll from the rebel fringe and making it mainstream, MTV has effectively killed it. MTV has meant the death of cool.

Beneath the hype, behind the pretense, and between the silicone, MTV is about consumption – over-consumption, actually. A long time ago, back when they played music videos on that channel, they ran an ad campaign whose tag line was, “Too much is never enough.” In a lot of ways, that phrase is part of modernism’s out-wash into postmodernism. Get yours. Get more. You deserve it. And on and on.

We live in a world dominated by consumption -- more and more, and more and more, the primary metaphor through which we interact with each other and with the world is that of buyer-seller. I’ve written commentary on Social Security, and argued that the part of the short-sightedness of that debate is that we see ourselves as customers of governmental goods and services, not citizens of a democracy. But it's more that Social Security. Students think of themselves as customers of universities. Evangelists are purveyors of salvation. I even read once a proposal by a pastor who wanted to have a brochure of pastoral products he could provide to his congregation (from visits to baptisms to funerals) and prices. No longer a spiritual leader, he wants to be a purveyor of fine religious products and services.

It’s not going too far to say we Westerners worship the ancient god Mammon. Jesus mentioned Mammon, saying it’s impossible to worship it and God at once. Mammon isn’t simply money; Mammon is more insidious. And we don’t call it Mammon any more. Consumption its new name. Its temple is the nebulous “Market Forces”, which dictate our every move and crush the weak. To a world sacrificing at that altar, “too much is never enough” and to say otherwise is blasphemy. In our world, there’s no such thing as enough. A punk rock song said, “We choke on our fill/ we live in excess/ but we lie, die and kill/ in pursuit of happiness.” In the end, unchecked Consumption will consume us.

So that brings me to this strange season in the Church year called Lent. Lent is a gift from the early Church to the postmodern Church. It’s like finding a time capsule from your great grandparents from the old country, filled with treasures that you can still use, even in this age of wireless communication. In the face of Consumption, Lent says, “Enough really is enough.” Lent understands that just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Lent reminds us that looking to ourselves or our systems for answers or reality or sustainability is a futile hunt. Far from a museum piece or an esoteric practice for “other kinds of Christians”, or a pleasant exercise for the holy huddle, Lent is an in-your-face-here-and-now prophetic voice against the kingdoms of this world and for the kingdom of God.

There is a radical disconnect between what the world tells us about living and what the God revealed by Jesus wishes for us. The world tells us to survive, to get ahead at any price. God in Jesus tells us that life comes through death, and love is the highest good.

Because it involves fasting and other disciplines, Lent is sometimes seen as mournful and drab. I’ve begun to think of Lent as a reminder of the true beauty of life in the image of God. In releasing certain pleasures, we tame them and bring them back into relationship with us.

Isaiah said, O Taste and see that YHWH is good! To encounter Jesus sets everything in its proper place. Our hearts are given words by Kahlil Gibran in his reflection on the woman taken in adultery in John 8. Having been released by Jesus, she says,

And after that all the tasteless fruit of life turned sweet
to my mouth, and the scentless blossoms breathed fragrance into
my nostrils. I became a woman without a tainted memory, and I
was free, and my head was no longer bowed down.