Ashy Wednesday

2024 02 14 Ash Wednesday Sermon

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Ashes are humbling

Do you hear Jesus echo Joel? For centuries, the spiritual practices mentioned by Joel have been essential to the people called Jews. These practices of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer have been key to the relationship between God and God’s people.

In Jesus’ time, some people did them for show instead of as a demonstration of the relationship between them and God. They were intent on showing the “other poor saps” just how faithful they were. It’s like they were walking billboards for their own faithfulness. Jesus called them out on it. God doesn’t need a billboard to see into their hearts.

Just as key as the three spiritual practices has been the idea of graciousness and mercy. The Hebrew word is hesed. It is everywhere in the Hebrew scriptures. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. God is full of hesed!

On Ash Wednesday, these themes: sinfulness and the need for repentance, collide with God’s hesed. Ashes have been used as a sign of grief and repentance – grief over our sinfulness – for thousands of years. One famous example is the way Job sat in ashes, so great was his repentance at the end of his story.

Ashes are humbling. We remember that when our bodies have died, and the worms and critters, or the fire of cremation, have finished with us, we are nothing but a pile of ashes. Applied to our foreheads, ashes remind us that our earthly bodies are finite, and we can’t take whatever we own with us. In the grave it’s just us, crumbling away into the earth. We are out of chances to make amends with God or anyone else.

How much better, then, to have spent our lives in a way that pleases God! When King David realized – actually when the Prophet Nathan forced him to realize – the sinfulness of claiming Bathsheba as one of his wives – David spent significant time confessing his sin and guilt. He sought God’s forgiveness through prayer and music. He asked God to cleanse him through and through.

Lent is a time for heart work, a time to discover, again, that we are sinful beings. We may not think we do wrong things, but we often fail to do the right things. We are not always kind, we do not always share, we do not always forgive. When we ponder the ways in which we have hurt others, we may feel like David: contrite, needing forgiveness and a clean heart.

When we confess our sinfulness, we ask God to cleanse us, too. When we take time to pray, give alms, and fast in Lent, we are reminding our hearts that we are not perfect. We are reminding ourselves that we are so dependent on God’s grace that we dare not forget we are baptized and forgiven.

So, today, we receive ashes on our forehead as a sign of our sinfulness. But we don’t have to leave them there. We can pause at the font and wash the ashes away as we remember we are baptized and forgiven children of God. Our hearts have been made clean through the grace and mercy of our loving God.

Amen

 

  

Spending time with Jesus

 2 Kings 2:1-12; Mark 9:2-9

In today’s gospel story of the transfiguration, we have Jesus and the three lead disciples, plus Moses and Elijah and Elisha.  We have a mountain, which usually signifies something big is going to happen.  We have a mysterious transformation in appearance of Jesus. And we have Peter, who as usual speaks before he thinks. 

So, what’s going on? The story of Elijah and Elisha tells about the time when the prophetic gift is transferred from one to the other. More importantly, as Elijah rides off in the golden chariot, it seems he doesn’t die. Forever after, there is an expectation that he will return. At the Passover table every year, a place is set for Elijah, and the door is opened to invite him in. Here on the mountain with Jesus Elijah represents the prophetic history of the people, and the long history of God’s promises to God’s people.

Most of us probably know more about Moses than about Elijah. Moses also represents the long history of the relationship between God and God’s people through the Commandments.  While we often refer to Moses as bringing the Law, he really brings the promise of God to care for and about the people. 

While Moses and Elijah seem to be about the past, they are also the vision of the future in which God reminds the folks of Jesus’ time that the ancient promises still hold true. And that the promises will be expressed in a new way, through Jesus, God’s Son.

Let’s imagine we are Peter. We aren’t sure just what we are seeing. Jesus is glowing with heavenly glory, with Moses and Elijah at his sides. Who among us doesn’t wish to be there?  Wouldn’t we, too, want to set up our folding chairs and have a long chat around the campfire?  Wouldn’t we, too, want to rest in the presence of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus?

Pastors often chide parishioners that the mountaintop experience doesn’t last, and we have work to do. There are hungry people to feed, sick children to care for, prisoners to visit, and so forth. These pastors say, Let’s go down the mountain and get busy. It’s true that after the mountain, Jesus and disciples get busy healing the sick, casting out demons, etc.

But … These pastors forget something important. It’s hard to give so much to others if we haven’t taken the time to rest in Jesus’ presence, to nourish our spirits through time with the Holy Spirit.

So let’s think about spending time with God. I suspect some of you pray a lot, and are even good with long periods of silence.  I suspect some of you begin each day with a Bible study and prayers for loved ones and an end to war. And I suspect that some of you find silence difficult to experience for more than 30 seconds, that even the pause during the confession is too long.  

Last week, we experimented with using meditative chants in worship. I heard feedback from several folks that it was helpful, enjoyable, worshipful. I personally find it hard to meditate in absolute silence.  My mind wanders all over. But if I put a simple chanted song into the silence, I can meditate for a long time. After a while, the words disappear and I find myself in God’s presence. 

Another way I have found that works for me is a breath prayer. This is a short saying, like Psalm 46:10. ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ With breath prayers, we breathe and pray, thinking part of the saying as we breathe in and part as we breathe out. ‘Be still and know’ as we breathe in; ‘that I am God’ as we breathe out. Breath prayers are sort of Taizé-style chants without the music.

Using an image, a picture, or even a candle to focus on is another helpful way to pray. In this case, the candlelight reminds us how Jesus shone that day with divine light.

Individual prayer is an essential part of being a person of faith in any religion. So is corporate prayer, when we pray together for the same thing or things. Praying together is powerful. Think about the message that is sent out when a group of people pray together to grieve, to protest. In recent years, silent or sung prayer has given voice to inequality and unjust treatment for people of color in the US. Prayer often takes time to “work”, but it does bring access to God’s power.

It was the united prayers in East Germany that aided in bringing down the Iron Curtain. Every week at St Nicholas Church in Leipzig, East Germany, and in cities throughout the country, hundreds and then thousands of people gathered to pray. For seven years, these nonviolent prayerful protests took place. The police and military knew what to do when violence occurred, but these prayer gatherings were left unhindered. And they succeeded in bringing down the Communist government.

I believe that corporate as well as individual prayer is essential for congregations in transition. When we are all praying for direction for the congregation, and for the pastor who will be called to be here, we are tapping into the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, let’s remember to spend some time on the mountain with Jesus in his divine glory. Let’s pray just to enjoy God’s presence, let’s pray for those things that are heavy on our hearts, and let’s pray for this congregation and for the next pastor to serve ULC.

It makes sense for us to try this today. I sent an audio file to the balcony. It’s of a church group singing ELW 752, Lord, listen to your children praying. Please listen, sing along if you wish, and be present with God for a few minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh9ivThjOz4&ab_channel=GoodShepherdLutheranChurch