Sermon
Ash Wednesday 2020
Over the past few weeks I have been
preaching about how Jesus transformed the law, moving beyond the
simple black & white of the words to get at the heart of the law.
This transformation asked us to see us as light and salt. It asked
us to move from “Do not murder,” to, “Do not be angry.” And
it culminated with the transformation/transfiguration of Jesus on the
mountain. This process lead us to see the law as life-giving and
freeing, not punitive and constricting, and it lead us to see Jesus
as not only human, but as God incarnate.
The law was transformed. Jesus was
transformed. We shall also be transformed.
This transformation, particularly our
transformation, is really what Lent is all about. Giving up sweets
or caffeine or Facebook or Candy Crush or whatever can be a good
practice in discipline and self-control, but how is any of that
transforming you? As Jesus worked to draw us closer to the heart of
the law, and as his transfiguration drew us closer to fully
understanding who he was, how do our Lenten disciplines draw us
closer go God?
As the prophet Joel proclaimed on
behalf of God, “Return to me with all your heart . . . rend your
hearts, not your clothing . . . Return to the Lord.” And in the
gospel Jesus is asking us to transform how we use religion – from
something designed to make us look good to the world, to something
based in faithful relationship with God.
And this is the point of Lent – not
sacrifice for the sake of being miserable or being noticed by our
neighbors, but sacrificing those parts of us that distance us from
God so that we may draw closer to God. During Lent we are called to
sacrifice the selfish parts of us so that we can be transformed into
the people God intends us to be.
This transformation I'm talking about
is also another way of saying, “Establishing better
habits/routines.”
Lent asks to transform us through acts
of self-discipline, study, meditation, repentance, and forgiveness.
But these acts we perform are not to be performed only throughout the
season. If we commit to controlling our temper in Lent, that doesn't
mean we get to curse at someone who cuts us off in traffic on our way
home from Easter services. The season is here to help us shape new
habits and new ways of being so that we can continue to live as God
intends and draw ever closer to holiness.
So rather than thinking we'll “give
something up for Lent,” because that implies we can pick it up
again after the season, think of Lent as a course on changing habits.
If you choose to give up a bad temper, rephrase that to say, “I'm
going to take on a calmer way of being.” Or if you choose to give
up sweets, rephrase that to say, “I'm going to live healthier.”
During this Lenten season, let us work
on transformation. And then, as we recall that we are dust and to
dust we shall return, we can look forward to returning to the dust
transformed, knowing we came that much closer to living as God
intended, reflecting the light of a transformed and transfigured life
to a world that badly needs transformation.
Amen.
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