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February 2009 |
Sackcloth and Ashes
It is fascinating that in our faith-denying culture comments have recently been made about those in the finance industry needing to appear ‘in sackcloth and ashes’. Such phrases are a reminder to us that Christian faith and practice are deeply embedded in much of our language and culture. They should also alert us to the moments when as a society we are struggling to express something for which we have no alternative vocabulary.
Does the mention of bankers wearing sackcloth and ashes simply betray a desire to see the mighty fallen, in humiliation, or does it also express a longing for the deep meaning of repentance? The biblical notion of repentance is about a willingness to turn around and live differently; a commitment to abandon the pathway to disaster and destruction, and to choose to live in a new and life-giving direction. This surely is what is required of all of us as we acknowledge our part in living to financial excess and bolstering false dreams.
Whilst we no longer literally clothe ourselves in sackcloth and ashes as a public demonstration of our penitence – even in Lent(!) – this season of the Christian year does afford us a timely opportunity to recall ourselves and others to those Christ-like values at the core of faithful discipleship. In doing so we glimpse, in the words of St Paul, “a yet more excellent way”: the way of love. If the season of Lent is to be truly a time for repentance, it is not about wallowing in remorse and regret, and it is certainly not about calling for the humiliation of others. Real repentance will be a conscious seeking of new pathways, that will help us to walk in mercy, justice and compassion. It will bring us to a renewed commitment to the most generous human qualities that money cannot buy. It will remind us of our interdependence not through money markets but in face to face human community. It will recall us to the economy of God’s abundant grace.
May our willingness to be led through the place of sackcloth and ashes lead us towards the place of flourishing human community, which is the deep longing of God for all people.
Liz Smith
Chair
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