Ash Wednesday
Sermon
Psalm 51:2-5
"Sinner"
2 Wash me
thoroughly from my
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my
transgressions, and
my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee,
thee only, have I
sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art
justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment.
5 Behold, I was
brought forth in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Grace and peace to you from our Lord
and Saviour Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
Ash Wednesday begins our Lenten
journey. A journey that leads us through the season of Lent, to Maundy
Thursday and Good Friday and then finally to the Easter Resurrection.
Along this journey we will see the
grace and love that God has for us through His son Jesus Christ. A love
that transforms us into what God had intended for us to be all along.
And part of that journey needs us to
realize who we are. We are not gods, we are not perfect, we are not
what God intended for us to be. We are sinners.
On this Ash Wednesday we need to
realize just that fact. We are sinners in need of God's grace. Without
God we are nothing.
Someone once said:
The difference between God and us is
seen in the mud. God molded the mud,blew on it and created life. We
mold the mud, blow on it, and end up with---mud. We like to play God.
We like to pretend that we are as wise and powerful as God. But we
still end up with mud.
We still end up with lives that fall
short of God's expectation of us.
We need to be as honest with
ourselves as the writer of the Psalm as he says:
3 For I know my transgressions, and
my sin is ever before me.
The ashes of Ash Wednesday remind of
our sinfulness before God.
A pastor wrote:
" The first thing the ashes of
Ash Wednesday remind us of is WHO we are. As the sign of the cross is
traced on your head, the first mark is in the shape of a capital "I."
An "I" that stands for someone who is uniquely "me." Me with all my
strengths and weaknesses. With all my talents and all my sins.
It's the "I" that also separates me
from God. The capital "I" that forms part of the cross etched into my
forehead is also the "I" that stands in the middle of my "sin"
&-; that state of being separated from God. The cross of ashes
etched into our forehead reminds us of our uniqueness, of who we are,
and of how we stand in need of God's grace.
The ash cross on our forehead not
only reminds us who we are, it also reminds us WHOSE we are. In
imposing the ashes, the vertical stroke of the capital "I" is followed
by the horizontal stroke, which crosses out the "I." The "I" that is
crossed out is the "I" that leads to feelings of alienation from God.
It is as if in the horizontal stroke the loving arms of Christ are
stretched out to welcome me back home. The wiping out of the "I" that
separates me from God also gives me the freedom and ability to reach
out to my brothers and sisters. I am reminded of whose I am as I am
held in the arms of my savior and as I reach out in solidarity with my
brothers and sisters in Christ. " 1
The capital "I" is the sinful part of
me that wants to play God but can only make mud. The capital "I" is the
part of me that during this Lenten season I must acknowledge as the
sinful self, so that the redeeming miracle might engulf me with all of
its splendor.
For if I do not see my sinfulness,
then I cannot accept the grace of God through Christ which died on the
cross for me and rose on Easter so that I might have eternal life.
"The ashes of Lent do indeed remind
us of our human frailty,of our mortality.But they also remind us that
God takes us just as we are,frail and human and prone to sin,but also
recoverable,forgivable,forgiven.Lent is a time to sweep the debris from
our lives, to wash down the walls of our souls.It is not tidy.
One of my favorite Lenten resources
reminds us that "Our windows need washing,our temples need
cleansing,and the earth itself needs a good bath....Winter doesn't
leave without blustery battles that push things over and mess things up
and even break things.Lent,if we honestly face its fury,will leave the
landscape littered with bits and pieces of ourselves."23
Ash Wednesday begins the process of
cleansing our lives so that the miracle of the resurrection might begin
anew in us. Today is the day that we must acknowledge that we do need a
good bath. We need the rains God's grace, of his forgiveness to wash
over us, so that we can stand in the redeeming light of Easter.
We need to let the horizontal stroke
of the cross wipe clean the "I" which wants to be in charge. We need to
surrender ourselves to God so that "I" can be cleansed and redeemed.
A pastor tells this Ash Wednesday
story which I think tells us all about the Ashes of this Wednesday.
" Avery - a quiet but faithful member
of the Church who was always there.
He was not a tall man, but he was an
imposing person.
Avery had a larger than average
totally bald head, and it broad and well shaped so as to be the envy of
all of us men. It was Avery who helped me get a more satisfying
perspective on Lent. But this will become clear later.
This seemed the perfect time to try
out the Lenten services in my new book, "From Ashes to Fire."
We followed the suggestions in the
book. First the ushers passed out slips of paper on which the
congregation was invited to write down some past sin, or some harmful
habit that they would like to be forgiven for or delivered from.
Then these were collected and burned
ceremoniously in a metal basket. Then these were mixed with darker
ashes burned from palm branches - and now for my first experience at
the imposition of ashes.
As the people knelt across the altar,
each worshiper received a cross marked on his or her brow.
However, I soon knew I was in
trouble. Many women were wearing a flip hairstyle with their hair
pulled across their forehead, leaving no space for the mark.
As I struggled to find a place,
sometimes the ladies would lift their hair and make room to put the
mark on the forehead. But then it might partially disappear when the
hair was released. Even the men had extra long hair. This was not going
as I had expected. I was sweating profusely.
Then, moving to the middle of the
last group, I saw Avery and that magnificent large, bald head - an
oasis in the desert - a giant canvas on which to portray the fullness
of God's love and forgiveness.
My eyes lighted up. Happiness welled
up in my soul. It was a struggle not to laugh out loud with joy, and
from the stark contrast to the stingy spaces I had been dealing with.
After standing for a moment gazing
down at the greatest opportunity any one could ever dream of for the
imposition of ashes, it became clear that I was free to draw as large
as I wished. I was not even limited to the forehead - his whole head
was an inviting space.
With great abandon, the cross was
drawn across that vast expanse - manifold times larger than any that
had gone before.
Then, triumphantly and with great
joy, I turned to the congregation and pointed to the cross I had just
drawn. They celebrated with me and broke out in applause.
After the congregation had left, I
sat for long time in the Sanctuary contemplating the lesson of Avery.
It seemed as if God had been showing
through the difficulties in finding room for the cross that our lives
are so filled up and there are so many barriers to his touching our
lives."4
As we saw in that cute story, there
are all kinds of barriers in us, including hair, which can keep out the
forgiveness of God.
Today on the Ash Wednesday, we need
to lower those barriers and let the forgiving power of the cross enter
our lives.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale
1 Steve Jackson NewSong Community
Church Cumming GA 300-40
2 Peter Mazar,A Lent Sourcebook,p.vi
3 A Sermon Preached by The Reverend
Gale W.Robb The House of Hope Presbyterian Church Saint Paul,Minnesota
4 Rev. W. T.(Bill) Reynolds,
Assistant to the Pastors Fairlington U.M.C.,Alexandria, Va.