An Ash Wednesday Sermon Insert

There are still a few days of my time in Kenya to blog about and I plan to do so in the next few days.  Meanwhile, ministry calls me to account here in Granville!  Today is Ash Wednesday.  I thought some of you might like to read my sermon for the day, so here it is:

Each year at this time, I remember well an Ash Wednesday from my early seminary days in the 80’s. That year I was near perfect in my observance of a day of penitence and fast. I dutifully participated in the office of the day and worshipped at the mass. I was diligent in measuring my food portions so as to make sure that all of meals for the day were less than the equivalent of two full meals. By the end of the day, my stomach was letting me know that I had indeed fasted! But my heart was not participating in the fast my body was undertaking. On the outside, my piety appeared to be perfect, but my heart was not humbled. My heart was “secretly” planning a coup d’etat and my piety was successfully overthrown. You see I stayed up to the stroke of midnight for the purpose of studying or so I thought. I learned better when at the stroke of midnight I was on the phone to Domino’s ordering a large pepperoni pizza!

I think each year as the anniversary of this coup d’etat rolls around, God get a little chuckle. Don’t you remember a time when a child you were close to (a son or daughter, niece or nephew or grandchild) pulled a fast one and thought they got by with something? You probably even let them think they actually did. Eventually you used it as a teaching moment. Don’t you laugh about it now? It may even have become a favorite family story. I think that is how that Ash Wednesday is for God and me.

What I remember about Lent from my childhood years was that it was about denying myself something I really liked and following a few rules like fasting on the appointed days and not eating meat on Fridays. I remember going to confession on Holy Saturday so that on Easter Sunday I would be properly disposed to receive Communion. This was all fine as far as it went for a child and perhaps I’m simplifying things a bit, but the point is Lent can be so much more than this.

In today’s reading from Joel, we hear the prophet calling the people of Israel to repentance. He speaks of a God who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.” He then says in effect, ‘If we repent of our sins and return to the Lord, perhaps he will turn from judgment and punishment and forgive us.’ There seems to be some element of doubt expressed in Joel’s call, but he calls on the people to trust that God might just relent and forgive them.

In our own lives, doubt as to whether or not God will forgive us or even as to whether or not we are forgivable can dissuade us from repenting and returning to God. Why bother we might say, it won’t make any difference. I’m doomed anyway. There’s no way God will forgive me for what I’ve done. Hogwash! If you are in anyway tempted to believe this, I particularly invite you to keep a holy Lent.

This is the season in which we are pointed towards Christ’s suffering, death and ultimate resurrection from the dead while at the same time calling to mind the distance that may exist between us and God. We are called to wrestle with this juxtaposition. It is this wrestling that removes any doubt about our being forgivable.

We are called to be mindful of our own sinfulness during Lent so that we can identify Jesus’ sacrifice as necessary for the forgiveness of our sins and to remember at the same time that his suffering and death alone were not the means of our reconciliation with God, but also Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead.

I invite you to discern for yourself a Lenten discipline that will bring you into a humble presence before the Lord. What practices of alms giving, prayer, study, fast, and/or acts of love will bring you into that humble presence before the Lord? How can you best acknowledge your sinfulness and limitations before God, keep your eyes upon Jesus as you follow his way to the cross and prepare yourself to receive once again the truth, the revelation, and the promise, that through faith in Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven?

Discern what Lenten discipline will do that for you. It need not be a matter of public knowledge, but rather something between you and God. If however, you find yourself having difficulty maintaining your discipline perhaps it would be helpful to talk to a priest or any person of faith that can help you examine your chosen discipline, revise it if necessary and provide support and accountability if needed.

We do this not only for ourselves, but for the sake of others. We not only need to repent and return to the Lord as individuals, but also as communities; as church, village, city, state, and nation and as citizens of “this fragile earth, our island home.” This can be accomplished not by dictate, but by individual example. When we live in the truth of the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God we have through Jesus Christ, we will be truly the light of the world which, will direct others to the One who is the source of our light. As we walk towards the light of Jesus, we can walk in no other path, but that of love, peace and justice. As we walk this path, we will live into the reality that Jesus came to reconcile the whole world with God.

As Paul says, “now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation.” Let us choose today, to repent and return to the Lord.