Clean Slate is a sign of justice, grace

“You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.”

Isaiah 58:12b

To the beloved in Connecticut: Wednesday, Feb. 17, is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of Lent. According to Bishop J. Neil Alexander, the earliest recorded use of ashes at the beginning of Lent was in the 10th century in Germany. Penitents who wished to return to full participation with the baptized assembly were enrolled by the sprinkling of ashes. They were then extricated from the assembly to the accompaniment of Genesis 3:19, the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden. Adam and Eve’s expulsion sets up a dynamic of human defiance in the face of God’s desire to form a holy partnership — a breach in a relationship — and yet human defiance is not the end of that story. Again and again, God reaffirms the desire to reestablish relationship, extending love and mercy; the only limitations are set when humankind refuses to either repent or forgive or both.

Our Ash Wednesday tradition evolved over the centuries to include the entire assembly in the sprinkling of ashes. In this act, the faithful were sent into the world, marked as mortal and sinful. We continue this practice in the present, as this holy day has become synonymous with ash crosses on the foreheads of the faithful, a material and visible reminder to everyone of the wearers’ sinfulness and their crimes against God and humanity. While these ashes fade within hours of their imposition and are often thoroughly washed away in a skincare routine before bed, the simple washing away of one’s material and visible reminder of their crimes is not a luxury that is afforded to some of our siblings.

Criminal records in our state, like imposed ashes, are visible and material reminders of the sinfulness and criminality of those who have them, despite them having served their sentences and “paid their debt to society.” Unlike ashes that temporarily mark us for hours, these criminal records mark our siblings permanently for a lifetime, systematically and sinfully affecting how they are able to live, study, secure housing, gain employment and reach their full divine potential as children of God who ultimately bear the image of our holy and righteous God.

Just as Ash Wednesday is only the beginning of a season of penitence that urges us on to the cleansing tide of Calvary and the ultimate reconciliation and renewal in the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, our sinfulness and criminality against God and humanity are pieces of our stories that only make sense in light of God’s cleansing grace, redeeming love and resurrection power that make us new creations in Christ, the old having completely passed away and everything having become new (II Corinthians 5:17)! Imagine having ashes imposed on you during Easter services — it would be an offense to the resurrection! Yet this is what we do when we refuse to recognize God’s “Clean Slate” to those with criminal records who have received redemption, completed restitution and demonstrated rehabilitation.

In the power of the resurrection we are confident in God’s grace and mercy and in the knowledge of forgiveness and reconciliation that God provides, Ash Wednesday becomes a call to Christians for self-examination and repentance, sacrificial giving, and works of love.

As Christians, repenting of the systems we have constructed and perpetuated, CONECT calls you to the charitable act and work of love of changing the policy for those who have been convicted of crimes but have completed their prison sentences by promoting Clean Slate legislation. In recognition of the “clean slate” God provides for you in the saving grace of Jesus Christ and to promote justice and grace for all people, please participate this Ash Wednesday in a letter writing campaign to state legislators.

To send a letter supporting Clean Slate to your local legislators, please visit the Clean Slate Action Network page at: bit.ly/C-S2021

To learn more about Clean Slate, visit the CONECT Clean Slate webpage at: http://www.weconect.org/clean-slate-2/.

The season of Lent may begin with a call to repentance, but its substance takes form in the repairing of our brokenness and the raising of the downtrodden from the low places of our society that we all may be restored into one community.

Marked not by our failures but by God’s mercy,

The Rev. Philippe E.C. Andal is senior pastor at Community Baptist Church in New Haven; the Rev. Curtis Farr is rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fairfield; the Rev. Kathleen E. Mills is pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Trumbull.