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NRS Jeremiah 6:26 O my poor people, put on sackcloth, and roll in ashes;
make mourning as for an only child, most bitter lamentation: for suddenly the
destroyer will come upon us. 27 I have made you a tester and a
refiner among my people so that you may know and test their ways. 28
They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze
and iron, all of them act corruptly. 29 The bellows blow fiercely,
the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked
are not removed. 30 They are called "rejected silver," for
the LORD has rejected them.
Today is the
first opportunity we have to worship in the season of Lent and in a short while
I will share with you the tradition of the ashes that comes to us through the
history of God’s chosen people. But we begin this season of Lent reflecting on
who we are, whose we are and who we are supposed to be. My thoughts move me to
question how we can reflect if we don’t first put into perspective what it
means to be redeemed. We are a people redeemed and claimed. We are a people adopted as the children of
Jesus Christ. A people promised an inheritance beyond the measure of human
understanding. Before there was sin, God loved creation. When sin came into the
world God still loved creation. The more we disobey, the more God desires us
back. How is it possible that we can fall so short of the glory of God and yet
God still desires to be in relationship with us? These are the things to
reflect on.
The aspects of prayer and reflection,
meditation and peace have been a part of the Judean experience from the
beginning.
At the time of Moses, prayer and meditation were an integral part of the life
of individuals as they worshipped God. The people of Moses day looked to God to
provide them salvation, strength and leadership in their lives and they
communicated this to God through prayer. Often they would use ashes or torn
cloth to symbolize their repentance and their sorrow.
The
concept of ashes comes down to us through centuries of use. In the time of Jesus, ashes were often used
in times of sorrow or grieving when a loved one had been lost or a great sin
had been committed. In was an outward sign of an inward anxiety asking God
for help and assistance to be restored. All of this tells us that as we
celebrate the season of Lent, it is not a Catholic holiday that is no longer
appropriate for protestant faiths. Rather, it is the perfect time to lift
ourselves back out of the world we have become so integrated into and restore
our relationship with God.
I want to share
this story with you today. It is a story I heard some time ago and the author
is unknown to me. It involves a woman and her daughter. They live in the mountainous
region of South America. A remote region, probably rural like the region we
live in, maybe even more so than that. Money is not something that is abundant
supply and the young girl desires more. So one day she takes off for the big
city. Her mother scared of what might happen to her begins to pray for her well-being.
She then gathers what meager money she has and uses it to print up flyers with
her daughter’s picture on it and a short comment at the bottom. She follows her
daughter into Rio, searching for her in all the places that she can think of.
You know the places, the places where crime and violence are a way of life. She
leaves the flyers on the walls of bus stations, bars and seedy motels. After
searching for some time, she doesn’t find her daughter and her money runs out.
So she heads home empty handed. Several months later her daughter coming down
the stairs of one of those motels sees her picture on the wall in front of her.
Intrigued, she steps up to the picture. And she reads these words.
“No matter where you have been, No matter what you have
done, I love you!
Please come home!”
You see that is
the message that God is sending us tonight. It doesn’t matter where we have
been, what kind of life we have led or what we may have done in that life.
God’s love for us is unwavering and never ending. And God wants us to come
home. In this case home is in relationship with God.
There are many
religious understandings in the world. And some would argue that many know God.
But the truth is that the God of Abraham, Moses, and David is the God of
creation. The God who calls us even now is the God who formed us from the dust
of the earth, breathed into our lungs life and even now works in the world to
maintain and renew that creation. But even more significant than that, if it is
possible to be more significant than creation itself; is that this God loves us
so much that God came down into the world. Jesus, God’s son, walked among us,
shared our joys and our sorrows and shared our gladness and our pain. Jesus
born the son of a human mother came into the world in the most humble
surroundings. As He grew He learned a trade just as many of us tonight learned
how to be teachers, engineers, factory workers and productive people in our
communities. At the young age of thirty He began a ministry that showed us how
to interact with the world. He showed us how to have compassion in the face of
adversity and how to resist temptation. These are the stories of his life found
in the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And then He showed us how much we are
loved. Without breaking any law or committing any crime, he went to the cross
for each of us. Without committing any sin he shed as he was brutally beaten,
each lash representing one of our disobedient acts and then his blood on the
cross weeping its way down the cross like the tears of the mother who searched
in vain for her daughter among the people of Rio. And then He died!
Is Lent
a time of self-denial? This evening, Jesus speaks to us through His Word, and He
tells us that Lent is a time of self-denial, a time to give up something. But Jesus isn’t concerned with chocolate
and fat – He’s concerned with what’s going on in our hearts. Lent is a time
to give up those sins in our lives. It’s a time to give up the sin of hypocrisy
– acting like a Christian on the outside, but being proud and self-centered on
the inside. Lent is a time to give up the sin of duplicity – being a Christian
on Sundays, but being an unbeliever on Fridays. It’s a time to give up the sin of
being lethargic – “someday I’ll get my act together spiritually. Right now,
though, I’m just too busy focusing on everything except God.” What is Lent?
Lent is that man who stood in the back of the temple, and looked down at the
ground, and prayed to God, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Lent is a time
for us to be like that man, to give up our sinful habits, our sinful attitudes,
to stand before God and to ask him to forgive us, to wash our sins away, and to
empower us to turn away from our sinful past and to live new lives that are
dedicated to God. And after we lay our sins before Christ, Lent is also a time
to give up our guilty feelings. Just as that tax collector walked home
justified before God, so can we walk away, knowing that we have been forgiven.
“I no
longer have to feel guilty about my sins. I no longer have to beat myself up
about the way I’ve been living. I have been forgiven. My sins have been washed
away by the blood of Jesus Christ. I can start over. I can work hard to be
someone who obeys God, who worships God every day with the way I live my life.”
Lent is an attitude, isn’t it? It’s an attitude of honesty and humility, as we
confess our sins to God.
I heard a story that I want to share with you this morning about a
boy and his boat. The author of this story is not known to me. Tom carried his
new boat to the edge of the river. He carefully placed it in the water and
slowly let out the string. How smoothly the boat sailed! Tom sat in the warm
sunshine, admiring the little boat that he had built. Suddenly a strong current
caught the boat. Tom tried to pull it back to shore, but the string broke. The
little boat raced downstream. Tom ran along the sandy shore as fast as he
could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight. All afternoon he searched
for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, Tom sadly went
home. A few days later, on the way home from school, Tom spotted a boat just
like his in a store window. When he got closer, he could see -- sure enough --
it was his! Tom hurried to the store manager: "Sir, that's my boat in your
window! I made it!" "Sorry, son, but someone else brought it in this
morning. If you want it, you'll have to buy it for one dollar." Tom ran
home and counted all his money. Exactly one dollar! When he reached the store,
he rushed to the counter. "Here's the money for my boat." As he left
the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, "Now you're twice mine. First, I
made you and now I bought you."
The message of
this story is the message of God. This is the message of Lent. He created us
and then paid the price for us when we became lost so that we might again be
found. God believed in us so much that God would offer his life for ours. As we
enter into the season of Lent, let us reflect on what that means. Are we living
our lives in such a way that others would see our actions, words and deeds are
worthy of that kind of sacrifice? Are you living your life focused on selfish
things or unselfish things? Is your life all about you or about how you can
serve the world? Do we walk this journey feeling our perfection or focused on
becoming perfect? These are the questions of Lent. This Lent season reflect on
your life and how your life mimics the life of Christ. God thinks your life is
worth dying for. Would you wallow in the ashes for Him, the one who died for
you?
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