Bow Down Before the LORD

This past Wednesday, I began the season of Lent with ashes by engaging in the nearly 2-decade old taking-it-to-the-streets practice of “Ashes to Go.” While most of those who drove or walked up were parishioners or Roman Catholic neighbors who could not be at an Ash Wednesday service for one reason or another, the encounters that deeply touched me were with those we might consider outsiders. The practicing Hindu who inquired if this was available to her also, and then skipped away with a look of joy on her face and a smudge on her forehead. A long discussion with an enthusiastic Baptist neighbor about his spiritual calling, and his desire to go and learn more about this practice in which he had just participated. The struggling man who declined ashes, but took the time to speak of his journey to be with those who support him and in whom he finds solace.

During this time of imposing ashes I found myself lamenting the millennium-old schism in Christ’s Church between East and West, and how on this day of repentance that divide felt so visceral to me. Orthodox friends would indeed begin their own Lenten Fast in mere days, but on this day they were not only outsiders, they were invisible. The hymn “In Christ there is no East or West” was echoing in my mind, mocking the seeming hypocrisy of this day. It wasn’t until after we were finished with “Ashes to Go,” and the counts were recorded in the all-important Service Register, that I noted an amazing coincidence – this was the first time in nearly 100 years that the beginning of the Islamic Fast of Ramadan and the western Christian Fast of Lent fell on exactly the same day. We fast together.

Nearly four billion people in the world today are professed adherents of Christianity or Islam. In our world torn by strife and discord, where religion is twisted by politics and used as a weapon to divide one from another, this year half of the world’s population is pausing to engage in prayer and fasting at the same time. Separately, yet together, in this serendipitous confluence of prayer to the same God we serve and worship, we bow in prayer.

During Lent a Solemn Prayer is said in place of the blessing at the Eucharist. As the Celebrant calls the people to prayer with the bidding, “Bow down before the Lord,” the congregation either remains kneeling or bows their heads. This year during that time of prayer, as we ask for God’s grace, mercy, and compassion, and as we say that we put our whole trust in God’s strength, take a moment to pray for, or even just to hold a vision of, the billions of God’s children throughout the world who are kneeling with heads bowed or prostrate before God, all holding the same prayer of submission to God. Separately, yet together, we bow down before the LORD. Let it be so.

The Rev. Tom Broad
Diocesan Ecumenical and Interfaith Officer