Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This evening we begin the season of Lent. But just what is Lent? I know you should know because we do the Lenten thing every year, but is is kind of hard to explain, isn’t it? Lent, we have been told, is a time of sacrifice for Jesus. It is traditional to give something up for Lent—like ice cream or chocolate. Lent, we have also been told, is time of preparation for Holy Week and Easter. It is a time of self-denial, repentance and prayer. It’s a somber time when we don’t even get to sing “hallelujah!” in worship. That’s why we stuffed them all into that jar over there, where they will patiently await their release at Easter. That is, unless some kid doesn’t sneak over there and release them sooner. And while all of this may be true, I think it confuses people.
What I find to be the most helpful explanation of Lent is that it is a spiritual spring cleaning. Just like a house needs a good, deep cleaning every year, so do our souls.
I have a hard time convincing people of this, but Lent isn’t supposed to be a downer time. I know that goes against the prevailing ideas about Lent. I was just listening to a podcast with Lutheran theologians from Luther Seminary in Saint Paul and even one of those heady professors admitted he didn’t like Lent because it was too much of a downer. But that’s just not so. If you are one of the many persons out there who thinks Lent is a downer, hear me out. I’m going to attempt to convince you otherwise.
The whole 40 day tradition came from the early Christian converts who would prepare themselves for Baptism on the vigil of Easter. In order to get ready, they would engage in repentance practices, like dumping a bucket of ashes over their heads. You know how in the cartoons when a bomb goes off, the dust clears and everybody is standing there totally black, covered in ash? I imagine that’s how they looked.
That’s why we’ll impose ashes on your forehead tonight—it’s in keeping with that early repentance ritual. Yes, the ashes represent our mortality. When you are imposed with the ashes you hear the familiar words: “remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” And then you’ll get to spend the rest of the evening with a big messy cross on your head.
But what I think we often miss is that the ashes symbolized something else in the ancient church: cleansing. Before they had soap and pear-ginger scented body wash like we have today, people used ash to wash themselves. Yes, ashes are about cleansing. They are about letting go of what keeps us from God—scrubbing that away so that we can turn around and run back into the loving arms of God.
No, this is not a downer season. In fact, I would argue it has the potential to be the most joyful time of all. We all need to clean our spiritual houses. All of those resentments and grudges and free floating anger hanging around inside us—these things aren’t helping us. We know this. God knows this. But now’s our chance to really let it go—to draw nearer to God so that we can be cleansed and made new.
There is a story that comes from the ancient desert fathers. It goes like this.
Abbot Lot came to Abbot Joseph and said:
Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation and contemplative silence; and according as I am able I strive to cleanse my heart of thoughts; now what more should I do?
The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He said: Why not be totally changed into fire?
I have always been captivated by this story because it reminds us that the Christian life isn’t about following rules. It is not some simple prescription formula. What more should we do? Why not be totally changed into fire?
Imagine for a moment what life would be like if God took a hold of you—I mean really took a hold of you—and transformed you completely. Picture what your life would be like if this happened. The fire of the Holy Spirit burns in you so brightly that everything in your life is different.
Heartache about person who hurt you so many years ago and all those secret fantasies you have had about about telling them off or hurting them back? Gone. Burned away by the fire of God. Now all that’s left is love.
Distress over your financial situation? Worries about whether you can stay afloat? Gone. Burned away in the fire of God. All that’s left is trust that God will see you through. In fact, it is so solid that you have even the courage to share your resources.
Fear about death, especially because of your deteriorating health? Wondering if you’ll really be saved—if you have enough faith or you’ve done enough good? Gone. Burned away in the fire of God. All that’s left is peace—peace that passes understanding because you know you are saved by God’s grace and nothing can take that away from you. Come on, death, you say. You have no power over me. I am not afraid of you at all.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to have the capacity to love everybody—even those people who are so terribly hard to love? Wouldn’t it be incredible to be able to go about your daily business without any fears at all because you know God will care for you? Wouldn’t it be liberating to truly release your fear of death and simply live in the peace that death doesn’t matter, that Christ has saved us and that’s that?
Then why not become totally changed into fire? That’s my question for you this Lent. May the ashes on your forehead be the start of a whole new fire that will burn away all your old stuff. May the ashes remind you that this life is so important, so wonderful that you have to dive in and live even more fully than you’ve ever lived before. May the ashes give you a new bravery because they remind you that you belong to God and because of this, all things really are possible.
Now how can a journey to this kind of life be a downer? It’s not. Lent is an upper. It’s the time to leap to your feet and say yes! Yes, I want to be totally changed into fire. For the next 5 Wednesdays, we will meet here at 6:30 to invite the Spirit to do just that. We’ll have a time of song, of scripture, of some rich and meaningful silence and we’ll feast on the sacraments. We know that God is present to us in them and so we’ll remember our Baptism and partake in Holy Communion each week. This is going to be a unique format for worship and one that I think will help us change the way we live. I invite you to be a part of these services so that together, God can make us totally fire. Amen.
© 2012 Laura Gentry
