“Choices 1: A Lenten Practice to Prepare for Easter Joy” - Ash Wednesday sermon Feb 10, 2016

“Choices 1: A Lenten Practice to Prepare for Easter Joy”
Sermon, Year C, Ash Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016
Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI
©2016 Rev. David J. Huber
Focus Scripture: Mt 6:1-6,16-21





We have arrived at another season of Lent, our yearly through the dark spaces and the shadows of life. The shadows in our own souls. We have come to another season of Lent here on this Ash Wednesday that starts our forty day journey that leads us into Easter.

Lent is a time of penance. Which is not the same as self-flagellation, or beating yourself up, or feeling that you are not worthy of God’s love. We’re not looking to make anyone feel bad here. But penance, which is simply to confess sin. To confess where we have missed the mark. And also to receive absolution. Because with God there is never a confession without there being absolution, without forgiveness. God never leaves us in a state of not being forgiven. There can be no confession without God’s absolution, without God’s forgiveness. Confession not to make us feel bad, but to remind us of God’s love and where we have missed the mark, and to get back on following God’s path. Following Jesus’ path.

Lent is this time to consider our sins. To consider also our dark places. Our nature of often choosing poorly, or not as well as we could have. And in penance, and then repentance, to change our course. The word sin means “to miss the mark”, it’s that you aren’t on the right track. So go back on the track to follow in Jesus’ way.

We do this not because God wants us to feel terrible about who are, or to wallow in fear, but because God wants us to be honest about who we are. To be honest about who we are, and to know that with God we can be honest, because God loves us. God wants us to be honest. Not to hold it over our heads, but to be honest because it makes us better disciples when we are honest about where we have missed the mark, and where we need to realign our path to be with God.

It helps our discipleship to be honest.

So Lent is also this time of course correction. “Am I following in Jesus’ path? No? Well, then, how am I not following in his path?” And we answer ourselves, “It is because I am doing this, or not doing that, or not doing the other thing as well as I should…” whatever those things might be for you. Then say, okay, I’ll repent, trust in God’s grace, and then try to get your footsteps back with Jesus.

Lent is a time of contemplation of our faith journey. But it is a contemplation that is always done with the empty tomb at the end of the track. At the end of the path, there is always an empty tomb. Easter always comes. Never will our forty day journey of Lent end without an Easter. Always, always ends with an Easter, God’s final word of life, new life, eternal life, through Jesus Christ. No matter our sins, no matter who we are, it always ends with Easter for everyone. For all of God’s people.

During our Lenten journey this year, we have re-arranged our worship space. We have a path leading up to the empty tomb of Easter. As Lent continues, we will add more to the path. TOnight we have a table at the beginning with ashes and a cross on it, and a couple footsteps on the path coming up to it. Each Sunday we will add another installation/prayer-station on the path leading up to the empty tomb. And on the table at the end, we have a tomb - though it has a rock laid over it for now. The rock will be rolled away on Easter morning.

In Lent, we are marching toward the joy of Easter morning. Lent is not a place for us to stay in, but a good place to go through to remind us of who we are. To remind us of our darker sides, and of the darker side of life. It is a period that we go through, but always with the promise of Easter. The promise of God’s love. So this Lenten time is a time to consider our own lives. The impermanence of our bodily existence. To consider the frailty of our flesh. To consider that we are made from dust and to dust we shall return. That is also part of the path for all of us. We are made of dust, and to dust we shall return. But also that the dust is God’s dust. It is God-stuff. It comes from God.

Lent is a symbolic journey into the shadows and valleys of life, and it is a time of honesty about the shadows and the valleys of life. The scars and the wounds that we build up over our years. The dashed hopes, the sense of failure, the hard days, the difficult days, the “I want to give up” days, the “I can’t take any more, God!” days. To contemplate also what has happened to us because of our poor choices, or happened to others because of our poor choices, or happened to us because of the choices that others have made. Or even just those random events that happen in the world that are completely out of our control that are no one’s fault at all. The random times and events beyond our control. Lent is the time to consider those as well, and what it means for our faith and who we are as God’s people.

I like to think of Lent not as a time to suffer, or to make us feel unworthy or that we’re terrible people,I don’t think that’s a good spiritual discipline, nor do I think it what God wants from us. But a time to remember that we are with God. Or perhaps much more so, that God is with us. That our own dark times end with the glorious light of Easter. That with God there is always hope for new life. Hope for renewal. Not that things have to go back to the way they were. We know that doesn’t happen. Whatever we are mourning, grieving, or missing in our lives are not going to come back. But that we can continue moving forward. That we can still go forward with hope, following the light of Jesus. The star that shines brightly before us that we are to follow.

I’m going to end with a blog post from a pastor, Anne Robertson, who serves a church in Massachusetts and talks about an experience of an Ash Wednesday that she had some years ago, that also touches on the common Lenten practice of giving something up, or taking on a spiritual practice. I came across this, and I thought it is worth reading and sharing because I think you will like to hear what she has to say.

Lent is a time when I used to respond to the call to give something up for 40 days. But as life got harder and loss piled upon loss, I began to resent being told that I had to give up something else for Lent.

So then I entered the phase of doing something positive for 40 days instead. While better than giving something up, I began to resent that certain days on an already busy calendar demanded yet more from me. I struggled to find an approach to Lent that truly prepared me for Easter.
And then came THE Ash Wednesday. I stood in front of a congregation, imposing the ashes as I always did. But this time was different. A woman came forward to receive the ashes, but she struggled. She had dementia and couldn't find the front. The congregation guided her and she stood before me. My mother. I looked into her eyes--the woman who still knew me but soon would begin to forget--and put ashes on her head saying, "Dust you are and to dust you shall return." She had to be guided back to her seat and the bowl of ashes in my hand became mixed with my tears. A gut-wrenching decade later I received the box of dust that had been my mother via the postal service.

That Ash Wednesday made me quit debating whether I should give something up or do something positive. Now Lent is my reminder that, as the Shirelles so wisely sang, "Mama said there'd be days like this." Well, Mama learned that from God. God said there'd be days like this--harsh days, desert days--and that one hard day often stretches into 40 days and 40 days can stretch into periods of years. When the number 40 crops up in the Bible, it is not meant literally. It is symbolic of a really hard time. Noah had it, Moses had it, the Israelites had it, Jesus had it. And in the harsh fires of those deserts, a new thing was born.

These days I don't give anything up and I don't add anything to my habits. Instead, I reflect on the truth that there are stretches of life that no amount of positive thinking will change. There are deep pits where we feel abandoned, alone, and hopeless. All of us. If you haven't been there yet, you will. And when you've lived with that reminder for 40 days, the power of the Easter message at the other end will literally throw you out of bed and into a place of joy like no other.

I've found the Lenten practice that actually prepares me for Easter. (http://annerobertson.org/lost-in-ashes )

So on this ash Wednesday evening, the first day of our journey through Lent, may you all find your Lenten practice, and may you know and feel Jesus’ presence with you in this wilderness journey, so that you may be taken to a place of joy like no other on Easter morning. Amen.