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Ash Wednesday
February 9, 2005 Sermon by Rev. Aron Kramer, Associate Rector

May we all have a Holy Lent.

The following is a poem I stumbled across this week, by Betty Jo Phillips:
We each have our own cross to bear
And who am I to say that mine is heavier than yours?
Yours looks, much lighter.
I’m sure I suffer more.

This is the first part of the poem, I will read the rest in a minute, that captures the trap that we set for ourselves in these days long since removed from our Gospel readings. Not many of you present today will, as Jesus warns against, go out on the street corners and declare how penitent you are, not many of you will fast and make yourselves to look terrible so that everyone you come across will know that you are fasting. No, in this day and age, those old traditions, for good or bad, have gone by the wayside, they have been replaced with different hypocritical acts, different ways of making sure that people know how much each of us is suffering. This poem captures well, I believe the sentiment many of us may feel at times. The essence though, of what Jesus was speaking about in this Ash Wednesday Gospel is still strong in our new ways of showing everyone our suffering and our righteousness.

Jesus made it clear that when the hypocrites do the things he warns against, they are separating themselves from the community. Likewise, when we place our suffering above or greater than another’s we are separating ourselves from the community and fragmenting the gathering of people we belong to. We set ourselves apart, not as God intended, as a community set apart, but as individuals with special needs and special privileges. That is what this Lenten season is all about, reconnecting with God, and seeing how we have separated ourselves from God, how we have broken the covenants we have with God.

So during the time you take for personal reflection this Lent do it delving inward, deep into the soul and core of your being. A tradition that the United Sates no longer values but is still very present through out the rest of the world is that of rending one’s clothing. People rend their clothes when they are in pain or trouble, when they are experiencing deep emotional upheavals, which we all may be experiencing as we journey through this lent, seeking to reconnect and mend the brokenness we have created in our relationships with God and one another. But remember one thing, in this personal journey in Lent, rather than rend our clothes, let us rend our hearts. Tear your heart open so that God can enter into the core of your being. The heart, not the mind is the seat of all wisdom and intellect. It is our hearts we must open to God, not our minds; it is our hearts that truly accept people, not our intellect. Our minds and out intellect go a long way in teaching us that is probably good to be an inclusive people, our heads help us to understand that is probably wise to open our arms in welcoming embrace. It is our heart however, that truly welcomes and embraces all people. Because it is in our heart that God, a God full of love and forgiveness sits waiting to be experienced. So rend your hearts wide open, seek God deep in the core of your heart.

Now for a moment you lay your cross down, and I
Can see clearly the torn flesh, where it
Has cut deeply into your being.
I did not know.
You always smiled and walked on bravely.
Perhaps it is not the weight of the
Burden at all, but the manner in which we
Bear it,
That is the true essence of our lives.
I will carry my cross with new strength now,
Then turn my face to the sun and smile,
For in your face
I have seen the strength of God’s love, and it
Made me remember that he loves me too.

This is the second half of the poem and it is more important than the first. I have talked about our personal journeys above, but our personal journeys are nothing if we do them truly alone, isolated and separated from this community. We must see each others crosses, we must see the wounds that each of us bear on our shoulders and backs from carrying the cross of Jesus, from bearing the burden of being a disciple of Christ. We must open our eyes, so our heart can see and understand that we do this together as a community. Each of us is has the same value in Gods’ eyes. Not a single one of us is better or worse than another. We must reach out and care for each other in love. For if we do not, we will falter, we will die, our community will disappear.

This time of lent is so important, because it is a time of reflection, of personal searching and discovery. It is a time where we give up and take on things that help create discipline and order in our lives. It is a time when our community pleads to God for forgiveness and love. It is a time when we are reminded of the covenant relationship we have with God, a relationship signed and sealed in love and passion for life. Back during the time of the prophets it was a time where the community made sure to let God know that God was honor bound to maintain that covenant relationship with God’s people, or else other Gods, lesser Gods would take over, would prove that the God of Israel was nothing more than a hoax and a sham. Likewise we need to call on our God, the God of Israel, the same God the prophets called on to forgive and bless us and our faith community. Because if God does not our voice will be drowned out, our voice will be silenced and we will be washed aside in the wave of fundamentalism and secularism. The God of love and forgiveness that we worship will be replaced by the fundamentalist God of judgment and punishment, a God that is stuck in a box and not at all a God of compassion and love. Or God will be replaced by nothing, our God, a God of love and forgiveness will be thrown out of all arenas, both public and private, and made to be a personal God that is present only to individuals in a therapeutic way, a powerless God that offers little love and no forgiveness.

So you see the importance of presenting ourselves in our brokenness and in our pain, you see the importance of gathering as a community to worship this God of ours, a God of love and forgiveness, you see the importance of demanding that God continue to honor the covenant we have with God. This lent, let us be more intentional than ever about how we are turning back to God, and seeing each others pain. We are a faith community called by God to be in relationship with God and with each other. Let us look closely and intently at what that looks like for us.

And may we all have a holy lent.