Sunday 03/05/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s (Ash Wednesday)
Sermon Title: “Lent is about renewal, not shame and guilt”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 51:1-17
New Testament Scripture Lesson: 2 Corinthians
5:20b-6:10
Gospel Lesson: Mathew 6:1-6, 16-21
Brothers and
sisters, welcome on this night, on this Ash Wednesday. Welcome on this first
day of Holy Lent, the season where we prepare our hearts, our minds, and our
souls for the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord. In this 40-day
Lenten Season we are called to be introspective, and to look at our lives, and
to see where we are falling short before God. We are called in this season to
look at those areas where we are still in the bondage of sin. Whether our sin
is doubting the power of God, jealousy, envy, greed, or etc., we all have sin.
Lent then is a
time to be repentant and penitent before almighty God. A time to ask for
forgiveness, to admit our own brokenness, and to come to the realization that
we need God’s love and grace in our lives, in order to be complete and to be
whole. Given all of this, I say to you on this night that “Lent is
about renewal, not shame and guilt.”
You
see what I mean by this, is in this season we are called to explore the areas
of our lives that need to be more like God, but Jesus Christ does not want us
to be miserable during this season. For when we realize our own brokenness, and
our own need and thirst for God, it is then that we throw ourselves down before
the Lord, and we say, “We repent, won’t you fill us Lord?” Then our pain, our brokenness,
and any shame and guilt that we have put on ourselves, turns into joy, turns
into laughter, and then all of this turns into spiritual renewal.
I wonder
though if what I am describing is how you experienced Lent as a child, or maybe
even how you experience Lent now? Or perhaps you never adhered to the Lenten
Season before?
For me growing
up, I did not remember Lent as a fun time. It was a time where I felt like God
was angry with me. That I was an awful sinner, and that I needed to be
miserable for these 40-days of Lent, as the Sundays between now and Easter don’t
count as part of the 40-Days of Lent.
I remember some
of the women of my family in particular sitting around the dining room table and
talking about what they were giving up for Lent. Yet as they talked, sometimes
it almost seemed like that they were discussing a chore that they had to check
off on their “to do list”.
The reality though
brothers and sisters, is that Lent is a time to repent and ask God for
forgiveness, but more than this, Lent is a time for renewal. You see when we
examine our hearts and our minds, we can see where we are broken and lacking,
and then we can let Jesus Christ forgive us, heal us, and restore us.
The Psalm reading
for tonight says, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” You see brothers
and sisters, God knows you. He knows your “transgressions,” both inside and
out, and in this Lenten Season, Jesus says to us all, won’t you come back to me
with a full-heart? Won’t you repent and follow me? Our repentance, our
surrender to Jesus is the pathway to our spiritual renewal in Jesus Christ.
We will soon wear
ashes on this night to display our brokenness before God, and our need for Him.
We will soon wear ashes on this night to show us and the world that we are but
broken vessels, seeking to be made whole by Jesus Christ. That were are but
ashes and dust. That this life is a moment, but that God is forever.
In his second Epistle
or letter to Corinthians, the Apostle Paul tells the church in Corinth, to “be
reconciled to God.” Tonight let us all seek to “be reconciled to God”. The
Apostle Paul than says, “We are treated as impostors, and yet we are true; as
unknown, and yet are well known, as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished,
and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making
many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
Holy Lent my brothers
and sisters, is about “Renewal not shame and guilt.” So let this Lent be an
opportunity for us all to root out of our hearts, our minds, and our souls all
that separates us from God. Let us also seek to not just give up things in Lenten
Season, just for the sake of giving then up, but rather let us give up something
that will help us draw closer to God. Let us give up anger, envy, pride, greed,
and etc. Further, let us give away some of the love and the mercy that God has
given us to others.
This is what
Jesus teaches us in tonight’s gospel reading from Mathew. Jesus says, “Beware
of practicing your piety before others in other to be seen by them; for you
have no reward from you Father in heaven.” When we give up something for Lent, to
just go through the motions of Lent, we miss the renewal. When we focus on the
shame, the guilt, and the ritual only, we lose the growth of our faith in Jesus
Christ.
So in this
gospel reading for this Ash Wednesday, Jesus asks us, “do you act pious, do
give alms, do you pray, and do you fast.” Jesus then says, but why do you do
those things? Do you do those things to seem as if you are being a good
Christian, or because you truly want to know me more?
Brothers and
sisters, let us in this Lenten Season do as Jesus Christ said in our gospel
reading for tonight, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moth and rust consume and were thieves break in and steal; but store up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, when neither moth nor rust consumes and where
thieves do not break in and steal.”
In this Lenten
Season then, how can become more holy like Jesus? Will we repent to the Lord of
life and ask for forgiveness? Will we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us? To give
us joy, peace, and renewal? Will we then allow this renewal to well up inside
of us so much that we go forth into a world that knows Jesus not, to give,
love, and serve? You see Lent then isn’t just about what we give up, it is also
about what give away to others, as “Lent is about renewal, not shame and guilt.”
Amen.
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