Ash Wednesday 2010
You have mercy on us all, O Lord, and abhor nothing you have made.
This morning I preached to you about fasting. It is, of course, no longer commanded. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t good.
Jesus himself says in the sermon on the mount, “When you fast . . .” and then goes on to describe how we are to go about it. Not to gain attention. At best, in secret. At the very least, without making a big deal out of it. That’s how the first Christians did it. Paul did it regularly. Jesus did it once for forty days. When we fast, we are in good company.
When we fast, we do it because we recognize this sin-filled world is not our home. The things of this world are good, but we aren’t held hostage by them. To fast, then, is to set them aside and say that God is what we love more than anything--not the things he gives us. We can take them happily from His hand, but if God ever takes them away, we are just as content to go on without them, so long as we have Him.
Fasting is about learning to be content. If the Lord hands us an egg, we are thankful. If He takes it away, we are content because he is with us. In the end, our fasting is nothing but practice for the day when we may have to say, “The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”
So go ahead and give up your red meats, your chocolates, or your eggs. And do it happily. If you have Christ, then you have everything. All your material things and all of your physical blessings are a good gift from God’s generous hand, but not one of them should control you. Not cigarettes, not sex, not money, not wine. Not holidays, hobbies, work or pleasure. All of it for your body, but none of it taking over your body. You were bought at a price. You are no longer a slave to the things of this world.
But now I want to change the subject. I want to teach you about something more important than fasting.
It is possible to observe every good custom in Christianity--like fasting--and still be far away from Christ. Jesus touches this nerve when he calls the Pharisees whitewashed tombs. Outwardly they were irreproachable. Inside, they were full of everything that repels and disgusts.
Of course, he was talking about repentance. If the heart isn’t renovated, all of the outward renovation is worthless. It’s like a house with a beautiful façade, but inside it has leaky plumbing and exposed wiring. We start by gutting the inside, not cleaning the outside. Once the heart is clean, the actions will follow. Lent is about cleaning up your house from the inside out.
Tonight, let’s begin on the toughest part of the renovation: forgiveness. More people leave the church over this than anything else. Women’s ordination, evolution, the verity of Scripture, liturgical customs--all of these are small things in comparison. The real problem is grace. Many simply refuse to forgive.
Forgiveness impacts so many other things in our lives. For instance, without forgiveness, there can be no genuine love. Think about it. Don’t we despise and make fun of the people we haven’t forgiven? We certainly don’t help or visit them much. We always hold something back from those we hold something against.
A lack of forgiveness means that every handshake, every compliment, every cocktail party comment like “How nice to see you!” is dishonest. A lack of forgiveness turns us into phonies.
Eventually, this lack of forgiveness rots away our love for others so much that we want nothing to do with them. We call them hypocrites, but lose the capacity to see our own hypocrisy. When that is the reason we leave organized religion, then we have actually left Christ. We cannot take Him with us when we leave the church. We cannot say we love God but despise the brothers and sisters He loves. When we are finished with someone else, we are finished with Him, too.
How in the world could it get so bad? I’ve thought long and hard about this, but it was only recently that someone handed me the answer. It happens whenever we say, “I’ll forgive when you show suitable regret.”
Of course, what this really means is, “You’ve hurt me. I’ll forgive you after you have removed my hurt.” The way we expect that hurt to be removed is never going to be easy on the offender. We set up some conditions. Setting conditions isn’t forgiveness.
That's not the life Jesus hung on a cross to win for you. He's the Lamb who took away the sin of the whole world. Every sin is atoned for in His death; every sinner is reconciled to God by His Blood. When you look at a person who "owes you one," see that person as one for whom Jesus died. Does he know that? Will he know that from you, by your words and your forgiveness?
Luther says in the Large Catechism that, when you forgive another person, that's an audible sign to you from God of your forgiveness. The forgiveness you speak is not your own; it belongs to Jesus. "I forgive you all of your sins"--spoken by Jesus to you. And then spoken through you to those who sin against you. That's the forgiveness of the forgiven.
You leave here tonight forgiven. This is your renovation. The inside gets cleaned first, and Jesus pays the bill, "not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death." Before we regretted anything, when we still owed him one, Christ just up and died. We did not deserve it. But we have it all the same.
So, Brothers and Sisters, let us forgive one another. Let us not think about why. We will never be able to figure that out on our own. There is enough to think about. We can only think of reasons not to forgive each other. Let us forgive. Right now, in a kind of deep breath, say: “Lord, help us to forgive. Lord, renew all these relationships.”
What a chance is given here for love to triumph! Will our answer be yes or no? Are we gladly accepting it? Or is it something which we must do just because it is on the calendar--today, ashes and sorrow over sin, tomorrow something else . . . none of it ever touching the heart?
NO! This is the crucial moment. This is the beginning of Lent. This is our renovation of the heart, our springtime of repair, because forgiveness and reconciliation are the powerful renewal of everything that has been ruined.
Can the forgiven not forgive? Hardly. Let us forgive one another as he has first forgiven us. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Amen.
The Reverend Sean M. Smallwood
cruxprobatomnia -- the cross tests everything
With gratitude and thanks for the words and inspiration of The Reverend Bill Cwirla, the late Father Alexander Schmemann, and the late Bishop Bo Giertz.
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