Ash Wednesday

Readings:

Joel 2:1-2,12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12

Psalm 103 or 103:8-14

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

Today is Ash Wednesday, when we are reminded that we don’t have all the time in the world.

This is an excellent video meditation produced by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Phoenix, AZ:

Today begins the season of Lent, when the church tries to slow itself down and take a good look around its house and do some spring cleaning. A lot of mess can accumulate over a year. When you’re in a rush, going from one crisis to another, you don’t really notice the papers piling up on the table or the beans growing fungus in the fridge. But just because you’re not paying attention to the mess doesn’t mean it isn’t there. What if company dropped by? As soon as they walked in the door, every dirty sock, every piece of string on the carpet and every smudge of peanut butter on the counter would have a neon sign pointing at it.

Lent is one time in the church year when we remind ourselves that we’re expecting company. Just like we got together before the Bishop’s visit to clean up our house physically – wash, vacuum, throw out, rearrange...., we also need to clean up our “house” spiritually. And it’s not just a one-person job. It takes all of us.

Consider these thoughts on Lent from the Very Rev. Tony Clavier, rector of St. Paul’s in LaPorte, Indiana:

"Too easily our [Lenten commitments] begin to look like holy variations on New Year’s resolutions, and we know how long they last!
Part of the problem is that we individualize Lent. We begin with me. Because we begin with me, the whole thing slides into another form of personal spirituality, perhaps somewhat ruined by our sly hints to others about just what it is we are sacrificing.
Sacrifice in Christianity, as with our Jewish ancestors, means the offering of life. Its culmination is Jesus’ offering for us on Calvary.
...
Lent’s forty days prepare us for the Cross and the Resurrection, and no good intentions about giving up something gets us to that “Green Hill far away.” True, once our goal for Lent is established, fasting and abstinence is a way to keep us on track, but the goal comes first. The goal is simple but profound. It begins with our parish church. How does our community of the faithful intend to spend Lent together? What extra acts of worship or study will be added to the calendar? In what ways will the parish reach out to the world? We begin there. These extras on the calendar are not for the holy few. They determine how each of us may spend Lent, and guide us to choose individual acts of love that fit into that wider program.
At the same time, we remember that what we do doesn’t earn us God’s love. The question rather is how may I, and we, as a parish, become worthy of Christ’s death and passion? How do we deserve His conquering death for us and giving us eternal life?
On the one hand, we can’t earn and can never deserve God’s love for us in Christ. But we can open ourselves to the gift and seek to rid ourselves of those things that get in the way of God’s redeeming grace. We used to call these impediments the Seven Deadly Sins. Obviously gluttony was among them. Those old sins – do look them up or Google them – were neat ways of reminding us just how “self” gets in the way of service. Now, of course, you may feel you do pretty well in avoiding these failings and fallings. But just ask your partner, your children, your parents, or your best friends. With a little nudging they will come up with examples of bad temper, feeling sorry for yourself, being envious, or angry.
The point isn’t that we dwell on these things, but that we offer them daily to God in our devotions, certain that God forgives and strengthens us.
The gospel today reminds us that the smudge of ashes on our foreheads may either be a boast, or it may be a sign to us and to others that this Lent will be about more than giving up chocolate; it will be a time when God’s redeeming work transforms each of us and our parishes.
So may it be."

Here at St. John’s, we’ve been given an opportunity to slow down and take a close look at what we’ve been doing as a parish and consider what we want to do next. During Lent, we need to take that task seriously and clean up around here.

We need to fix things that are broken – relationships, models for doing ministry, whatever isn’t working right.

We need to throw some things out – old grievances, rotten attitudes – whatever is cluttering up the place and making it stink.

We may even need to let go of some successes and things that were good at one time if they’re not relevant to what God’s calling us to do now.

Some of the things you’ll come across, you won’t want to throw out because you have fond memories of them, and you hope you can use them again. This will really be a challenge for St. John’s especially. I hear y’all talking a lot about your past. But I think God is envisioning for us a future. We’ll have to let some things go to have an open hand to receive something new. Another thing that can happen when we begin a deep cleaning is that we may find treasures we forgot or didn't know we had, and that's something to look forward to.

Some of the dirt and gunk you’ll come across, you won’t know who put it there – it doesn’t matter; if you see a mess, clean it up. God is constantly having to clean up after us, so one way to express gratitude for that is to graciously clean up after each other when we have an opportunity.

We did a good job cleaning up the building for Bishop Doyle's visit. Now let’s work on cleaning up the rest of our church – inside as well as out - to be a functional home for Christ to live in and work from.

Amen.