Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis' Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; Ash Wednesday, o1 March
2017
Year
A RCL: Joel
2:1-2,12-17; Psalm
103;
2
Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew
6:1-6,16-21
Jesus says: Store up
treasures in heaven, not on earth.
What a brief stewardship
talk!
Look around at us about to
get ashes on our foreheads. What are we thinking?
“I've got to go
the store. Do I leave the ashes on?”
“Oh no! Will we take up an
offering? I forgot my checkbook.”
“How long is worship going
to take? I've got so much to do.”
We can have so much
on our minds that we have too little time to do anything. We can have times
that take forever, like watching the car heading at us for a head-on
collision or sitting near a loved one's bed as they slowly die.
Lent reminds us to shift
our perspectives.
Lent offers us time to focus
on stewardship, to be good stewards of ourselves, our assets, our
gifts & skills. Our scriptures today point us to the refreshment
& the renewing Lent offers. This refreshment & renewing
require change in what we do & why we do it.
In our scriptures we hear
Isaiah & Jesus use many action verbs to show us the
connection between WHAT we do & WHY we do it.
What we do & why matter
to the individual, to the Body of Christ, & ultimately to the
world.
Isaiah tells us what God's
justice looks like. What does it look like in our context? What does
it look like when we loose the bonds of injustice? When we help free
the oppressed? When we share food with the hungry, provide housing &
clothes for the poor?
It
looks like St. Francis parishioners gathering supplies after
Hurricane Matthew; working at the Soup Kitchen; collecting money for
the refugee family we helped years ago, who now have health issues.
What about when we are
the ones who need to have bonds of injustice loosed by family
members? What about when we are oppressed, hungry, poor
in spirit, hungry for time for ourselves, oppressed by our
self-imposed demands?
Isaiah reminds us: We are
to build relationships among people – with our
brothers & sisters in the human family, God's family.
Jesus echoes Isaiah &
tells us to practice our religion for the right reasons AND to
be joyful in what we do.
Jesus'
words make me ponder why
we impose
visible ashes today. His words make me ask: Where is
my treasure? Where is
my heart? What do
I have to change? How
long will
change take?!
When
we get lost as we drive somewhere [something
most of you know I do easily!],
it takes longer to get to our destination. I can't count how many
times I've had to turn around & get back on track. Even using GPS, I can get lost like after Hurricane Matthew when it wanted me to take
a route where a bridge was out. Humans [who
appeared in answer to my prayer for help in the restaurant parking
lot I pulled into]
told me where to turn around to get on the right road.
Lent
offers us a fresh opportunity to turn around,
to change what needs changing, to give
up
something & to take
on
something to get on the right road.
Remember:
When Jesus sends the disciples out, they have to leave some things
behind & take some things with them. As Jesus' disciples, we must
keep what we need to do
the work God calls us to do. We must give up what gets in the way of
our ministry.
Taking
on something & giving up something we hold dear is
hard. How long did that New Year's Resolution last? We know from
experience it takes at least 21 days for a new routine to become a
habit.
We
are blessed! Lent gives us 40
days
to take on & to give up. This can seem so long. I encourage you:
Be patient with yourself as you walk into a new reality during Lent.
How
you use your time is
part of stewardship. Stewardship is
part of all
aspects of our lives: our money AND time AND how we use our other
gifts & skills.
Writer
C.S. Lewis says
our self-discipline's reward can be “self-mastery...[and]
its danger [is]
pride.1
Writer
Henri Nouwen speaks to this, saying: “God's mercy is
greater than our sins.”2 He warns: “There is an awareness of sin that does not lead to God
but to self-preoccupation.”
We
need balance.
He
says: “Our temptation is
to be so impressed by our sins & failings & so overwhelmed by
our lack of generosity that we get stuck
in a paralyzing guilt. It is
the guilt that says: 'I am
too sinful to deserve God's mercy.' It is
the guilt that has become an idol...a
form of pride. Lent is
the time to break
down this idol & to direct our attention to our loving Lord.”3
Lent is a time to consider
God's perspective. As you travel this Lent in your disciplines,
guided by the Holy Spirit, remember the difference between human
perspective & God's perspective. For example: Think how God views
time.
A
man prays & asks God if he can ask a question. God says: “No
Problem. Go ahead.”
The
man asks: “Lord, is it true that to you a million years
is but a second?”
“Yes,
that's true.”
He asks: “Well, what's a
million dollars to you?”
God says: “A million
dollars to me is but a penny.”
“Ah,”
the man says. “Lord, may I have a penny?”
God says: “Sure! . . . . .
. Just a second.”
I
pray each of you has a positive Lenten experience.
I
hope not one of us is giving up joy & laughter!
Embrace
what Lent offers us:
a
new opportunity to grow in grace.
Bibliography
A
Clean Heart Create in Me: Daily Lenten Reflections from C.S. Lewis.
Ed.: Mark Neilsen. Creative Communications for the Parish. 2003.
Cathcart,
Thomas. Daniel Klein. Plato
and a Platypus Walk into a Bar....Understanding Philosophy Through
Jokes.
New York: Penguin Books. 2007.
Christ
Our Hope: Daily Lenten Devotions of Henri J. Nouwen.
Ed:: Paul Pennick. Creative Communications for the Parish.
www.creativecommunications.com.
Douglas-Klotz,
Neil. Prayers
of the Cosmos: Reflections on the Original Meaning of Jesus's Words.
New York: Harper One. 1994.
Harper’s
Bible Commentary.
General Ed.: James L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers. 1988.
Holy
Bible with the Apocrypha.
New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press,
1989.
New
Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha.
Eds: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New
York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Words
of Our Worshop: A Liturgical Dictionary.
Compiled by: Charles Mortimet Guilbert. New York: The Church Hymnal
Corp. 1988.
3
Ibid.
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