Ash Wednesday...Better Late than never

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Please note this is the sermon I preached yesterday on Ash Wednesday:

"Normal" is one of those words in the English language that awakens a variety of responses, depending on where you find yourself at in life right now.  If life has become mundane, stuck in a rut, spinning your wheels on problems that flat out refuse any solution you try to stick to the situation, then normal is not a welcome word.  You want to break out of normalcy, leaving skid marks on the ground as you set off for somewhere, anywhere else.  However, if by chance, life has been chaotic, unsettling, like say moving your family one thousand, three hundred thirty five point five miles across country, trying to buy a house, settle into a new job, new schools, and you are not even sure which box the wrapping paper is located in …I know these are outlandish examples, but stay with me.  If you find yourself today feeling like life is turned upside down and inside out then normalcy might be like an ice cream cone on a hot May day in Sarasota.  The season of Lent is a time set aside in the rhythm of the church year.  And for some, Lent carries with it all this baggage of thou shalt not eat-th meat-th on Friday.  And this whole thing with ashes, are you sure that’s kosher in the UCC?  And then for others, Lent barely registers.  Come on, the weather is beautiful outside, do I really have to focus on my relationship with God and with others right now?  All this talk of prayer and forgiveness and reconciliation, it sounds like a lot of work.  Okay, what if I schedule God in between, say 9:45 am and 9:47 am on the second Thursday next month, does God happen to have an opening then by chance?  Lent is not about being normal.  Lent is about as abnormal a church season as it gets.  Advent at least has a baby born at the end and candles with cool names.  Lent, gets a crown of thorns, a Last Supper, and something called “Good Friday” which is a misnomer if I ever heard one.  With an invitation like that our first honest response might be, Who-hoo.
No wonder UCC folk are leery of Lent.  But what if we could recapture some of what has historically been at the heart of Lent?  What if Lent was not about raining guilt so hard you bring your umbrella to church or about a time of self-denial?  Originally, Lent was about preparation, study, and immersing our whole lives in our relationship with God.  Lent was the time converts to Christianity spent learning about the church, worship, Scriptures and what it means, really means to our lives to follow Jesus our Christ.  Then, on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter, the people would gather.  They would read Scripture for hours, I know I am really selling you on this now.  Wait for it, then those who wanted to join the community would come in, be baptized, and they would have the best party you have ever been to just as the sun was raising in the east ushering in Easter morning.  But in order to get to the party, you need to do some planning.  You need to do some preparation.  If you are going to have guests over, it is work to vacuum, dust, clean the bathrooms and whatever was in that take home container from three weeks ago…I mean besides home grown penicillin!  You plan a menu, you shop, you cook, and you get all ready.  And when it is over, hopefully you think, “That was worth it.”
Lent is about preparing for the transforming mystery of Easter morning.  To be sure, you can do what you’d like for the next forty days, plus Sundays which are not counted in Lent.  But if we are going to somehow grasp hold of the truth the Apostle Paul gives us that Christ’s death is transformative; if somehow, in some small ways after these forty days life is no longer going to be normal, then it does require something of us, some kind of response to God’s presence in our lives here and now.  Paul says clearly that transformation is work.  It means first and foremost that we cannot live only for the unholy Trinity of me, myself, and I.  It is not all about me.  Because God’s love is not some treasure I possess and keep in my pocket.  Paul writes in verse 19  that when Jesus became flesh, took on human skin, that action was for the sake of the whole kosmos.  God’s love is expansive and encompasses the entire universe.  Lent is a time of broadening our understanding and realizing that we don’t have the whole truth in our minds.
Second, Paul says that we cannot just live according to the flesh.  Jesus’ incarnation that is the climax of the Advent season, God in the flesh, and that might invite us to think that as human beings we really are at the top of the food chain.  But, we miss the mark continually.  And not only that, we have a tendency today as humans to skim and slide down the surface of things.  To be human has blessings and we bare the fingerprints of God, and yet, we cannot think we’ve got it all figured out.  Instead we seek to be open and to be guided by grace that will challenge and potentially change us in the coming forty days.  We are a new creation, Paul says.  Or put another way, Richard Rohr says, you cannot think your way into a new way of living, you have to live your way into a new way of thinking.  We set aside time in the coming days, because our time with God is never wasted, it is always valuable.  We need prayer, especially when normal feels about as far away from here as Oklahoma.

What is at stake, Paul says, is the very continuation of Christ’s ministry here on earth.  We are called to be about reconciliation, to be ambassadors.  Now, I know that brings to mind images of Condoleezza Rice or Hilary Clinton, our secretary of state who darts and dashes around the world to solve international problems.  But in Jesus’ day, if you were an ambassador, you had to know, deeply know the heart and mind of the king and queen you represented.  Because you could not call them up with your iphone and ask them a question.  Often ambassadors were sent in to tumultuous situations.  What was at stake was violence and war, and some say that if an ambassador failed to negotiate peace and a new agreement, the opposing king would send the ambassadors head back as a sign.  To be about reconciliation is a matter of life; health and hope; or divisiveness, debates and death.  To be about reconciliation matters.  To be about reconciliation means we need to be willing to change our understandings, to listen and love another person, and to ultimately be open to God’s grace.  Paul invites us to hear this not as some word that comes down from a judge in a courtroom, but from the intimate invitation that is found in our family rooms.  Practicing reconciliation, listening honesty, with openness, and with heartfelt love.  Who knows, maybe that can become our new normal around here this Lent.

May the traces of God's grace guide you these 40 days of Lent.

Also:  Looking for an on-line Lent devotional??  Try Busted Halo's Lenten Calendar!!