Ash Wednesday February 26, 2020
Isaiah 58:1-12 Ps.103
1 Cor. 5:20b-6:10 Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21
Welcome to our annual face painting event. Our foreheads were painted with the invisible oil of Chrism when at our baptism it was said, "You are sealed with the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ own forever." We belong to Christ in our life.
Tonight the ink is the black of palm ashes. We recognize our dual natures; our spiritual and our physical. In the creation story, we were made with dust and deity as the Spirit formed the human person from the clay to become our body and the Spirit left something of the divine upon us in the formation. The conjoining of spirit and dust left a mediating soul, nephesh, a soul of mind, emotions and will, to negotiate between our bodies and the divine image spirit upon us.
Today we cherish the unity of body, soul and spirit, even as we know that at some point in the times of our lives this unity will suffer division. The body, our flesh, will like a wooden home burned by fire, will eventually return to dust. Our bodily home will return to dust. And we use the ash paint to retrace the mark of our first branding. We confess that we will still belong to Christ in our deaths.
We know that our bodies will return to dust, and so we prepare for this, in part in this Ash Wednesday liturgy. The ashes represent in our imaginations the fast forwarding of our bodily lives to their ashen state. Like Native American Braves going to war, we paint our face with the image of our future state as preparation and as spiritual, emotional, and intellectual inoculation of our lives against the death that we know that we will face.
This is not a macabre scene of Goth-like face painting; this is a poignant reminder to cherish our lives in which our souls and spirits are unified with our bodies. It is to cherish our lives and the lives of other with the best of holy living as the only way to celebrate the unity of body, soul and spirit.
This is event is not an event of private piety even though we feel it in a very personal way; it is a deeply social event because just as we are personally connected in body, soul, and spirit, we are also irretrievably connected with each other and with all brothers and sisters in our world. We don't live alone; we live in community. We are our brothers' keeper; we are our sisters' keeper. The law was given to us to let us know that we belong to each other, together caring for each other and being committed to justice for each other.
We know that our bodies are connected to this earth as well. And if we steal from the good earth by mistreating our environment we are harming our brothers and sisters of the future.
Today, you and I are invited to a holy Lent. I would suggest to you that as the words of Jesus rebuked the hypocrites of his day, the actors of piety who did not perform justice, so too, we are the hypocrites who bear the rebuke of the words of Jesus.
And if we be hypocrites, I would suggest there is only one kind of hypocrite to be; let us be the good kind of hypocrite, what I would call "recovering hypocrites."
How do we become hypocrites? We divide the first and second great commandments. We might say that we love God and point to all of our religious behaviors as proof of our love of God. But these practices become hypocritical if we do not show an equal commitment to love our neighbors.
The Isaian prophet was rebuking his people for having religious fasts and religious behaviors without having the behaviors of care for the people who were neighbors in obvious need.
So today let us admit our hypocrisy. Let us admit that we often are proof of "do as I say and not as I do." The positive aspect of being a recovering hypocrite is the fact that we always proclaim a perfect standard which we always are failing at completely living up to. God is holy and perfect and asks us to keep and profess this high standard even while we know that we can never attain it.
So it should keep us always as humbled recovering hypocrite, always on the path of repentance. Let this day be the first day of our Lenten program to admit ourselves into the program of recovering hypocrites. Let this Lenten season inspire us to plan some recovering behaviors, of more prayer, more study, reading the Bible, giving up bad habits to devote our energy to causes of care for other people and our earth.
Would you join me in this season of Lent in a program of recovering from hypocrisy? With the help of Christ and the Holy Spirit, may we become more successful at holding together the first and second great commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your life resources and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Amen.
Tonight the ink is the black of palm ashes. We recognize our dual natures; our spiritual and our physical. In the creation story, we were made with dust and deity as the Spirit formed the human person from the clay to become our body and the Spirit left something of the divine upon us in the formation. The conjoining of spirit and dust left a mediating soul, nephesh, a soul of mind, emotions and will, to negotiate between our bodies and the divine image spirit upon us.
Today we cherish the unity of body, soul and spirit, even as we know that at some point in the times of our lives this unity will suffer division. The body, our flesh, will like a wooden home burned by fire, will eventually return to dust. Our bodily home will return to dust. And we use the ash paint to retrace the mark of our first branding. We confess that we will still belong to Christ in our deaths.
We know that our bodies will return to dust, and so we prepare for this, in part in this Ash Wednesday liturgy. The ashes represent in our imaginations the fast forwarding of our bodily lives to their ashen state. Like Native American Braves going to war, we paint our face with the image of our future state as preparation and as spiritual, emotional, and intellectual inoculation of our lives against the death that we know that we will face.
This is not a macabre scene of Goth-like face painting; this is a poignant reminder to cherish our lives in which our souls and spirits are unified with our bodies. It is to cherish our lives and the lives of other with the best of holy living as the only way to celebrate the unity of body, soul and spirit.
This is event is not an event of private piety even though we feel it in a very personal way; it is a deeply social event because just as we are personally connected in body, soul, and spirit, we are also irretrievably connected with each other and with all brothers and sisters in our world. We don't live alone; we live in community. We are our brothers' keeper; we are our sisters' keeper. The law was given to us to let us know that we belong to each other, together caring for each other and being committed to justice for each other.
We know that our bodies are connected to this earth as well. And if we steal from the good earth by mistreating our environment we are harming our brothers and sisters of the future.
Today, you and I are invited to a holy Lent. I would suggest to you that as the words of Jesus rebuked the hypocrites of his day, the actors of piety who did not perform justice, so too, we are the hypocrites who bear the rebuke of the words of Jesus.
And if we be hypocrites, I would suggest there is only one kind of hypocrite to be; let us be the good kind of hypocrite, what I would call "recovering hypocrites."
How do we become hypocrites? We divide the first and second great commandments. We might say that we love God and point to all of our religious behaviors as proof of our love of God. But these practices become hypocritical if we do not show an equal commitment to love our neighbors.
The Isaian prophet was rebuking his people for having religious fasts and religious behaviors without having the behaviors of care for the people who were neighbors in obvious need.
So today let us admit our hypocrisy. Let us admit that we often are proof of "do as I say and not as I do." The positive aspect of being a recovering hypocrite is the fact that we always proclaim a perfect standard which we always are failing at completely living up to. God is holy and perfect and asks us to keep and profess this high standard even while we know that we can never attain it.
So it should keep us always as humbled recovering hypocrite, always on the path of repentance. Let this day be the first day of our Lenten program to admit ourselves into the program of recovering hypocrites. Let this Lenten season inspire us to plan some recovering behaviors, of more prayer, more study, reading the Bible, giving up bad habits to devote our energy to causes of care for other people and our earth.
Would you join me in this season of Lent in a program of recovering from hypocrisy? With the help of Christ and the Holy Spirit, may we become more successful at holding together the first and second great commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your life resources and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Amen.
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