Ash Wednesday Sermon 2018 Preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church On February 14th, 2018 Today, in a strange confluence of events, Ash Wednesday falls on St. Valentine’s Day. In case you are wondering, 1945 was the last occurrence of this coincidence … quite a while ago. The two dates also overlapped in 1923 and 1934 and will coincide again in 2024 and 2029. And so this unusual coincidence had me wondering … who will show up for Ash Wednesday evening worship? Maybe those who don’t have a date? And … who will wear their penitential ashes, received earlier in the day, on a Valentine’s date? Don’t get me wrong, I love the Valentine’s Day holiday. It’s a great time to celebrate romantic love. A time for long-time couples to re-kindle the romantic glow, and for those on-the-brink to ask out a new date, or just a day to send a sweet card to someone who needs some loving. Typically, the Valentine’s Day celebration focuses on the ideals of love. Even now as think back to some of the cards I sent in my younger years, I blush. Commercial cards highlight the very happiest memories of the relationship, it’s a day to extoll the loved ones’ virtues. It’s a day to view ones lover by the light of the moon, to gaze up into the sky, count the stars, to celebrate the very best of human love. Valentine’s Day is a mythic observance, with all the expectations of happily ever after. Ash Wednesday on the other hand, is the other side of the coin. It’s a day to confess our sins. A day to look in the mirror in stark light of day, and be honest about what we have done. It’s a day to be grounded in our mortality. A day to remember that the composition of our bodies came from nothing more that dust and ashes, and that finally that is where we’ll return. It’s a day to get down to earth, not up in the sky. It’s not in the least mythic. You might say that Ash Wednesday is a parabolic observance … by parabolic, I mean contradictory. On Ash Wednesday, we remember that we are dust … literally bringing ourselves down to earth, so that we can fully appreciate the great mercy and love of God. And yet, even while Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday are seemingly opposite there is one common ingredient: hearts. Valentine’s Day and hearts are inseparable, of course. My earliest memories of the day come from elementary school, cutting out that symmetrical shape from folded red construction paper to be embellished with glue and glitter for my mom. There are the classic Valentines box of chocolates, heart-shaped, of course. And the sweetheart candies, with cutesy messages, that are slipped into elementary school lockers. This morning, Pastor Alissa, Samm and I might have been tempted to make the shape of a heart with the ashes we imposed on commuters’ foreheads down at the T station. But we resisted temptation, and continued to use the tradition sign of the cross. Ash Wednesday refers to the symbol of the heart, but in a different way from Valentine’s Day. You may have noticed it in the Bible readings we heard tonight. In our Old Testament reading, the prophet Joel tells the people of Judah that God desires their broken and contrite hearts. God calls them to return to God, with their whole hearts: fasting, weeping and mourning. According to Joel, the people have experienced terrible devastation, from the armies of the empires that surround them. The prophet calls the people to repentance, although he does not specify what sin it is that they are to repent from. A clue to their sin might be found by looking ahead in the short book of Joel. In chapter 2 there is another famous passage, which is quoted in the book of Acts, when the gift of the Holy Spirit comes. Joel says that “in those days” God will pour out God’s Spirit on all flesh: sons and daughters, old men, young men, male and female slaves. These are groups that would fall into “us and them” categories for Joel’s audience. People of the “other” group are the people who often become the scapegoat. In our culture that might mean immigrants, Muslims, homeless people, or people of different gender identities or sexual orientations from what is assumed to be the norm. Joel looks forward to the Day of the Lord. It is a day when there will be no more “us and them” distinctions, when the Spirit is poured out on all of humanity. And so, we can be assured that this prophet cares most about relationships. Certainly the relationship between the people and God is of concern, but so is the people’s relationship with one another and with the rest of humanity. Although the Day of the Lord sounds quite terrible for the disobedient Judahites, Joel calls on them to return to God with their whole hearts. He assures them that God’s response will be forgiveness. God’s concern is not for outward displays of repentance. God’s concern is for a changed, or broken, heart. God’s concern is for a heart that is broken open to relationship, not only with one special person, but with those we think of as “the other.” If I dig deep tonight, I know that I am not living in right relationship with God and with others. Can I honestly say that I do not get irritated with the driver who seems not to understand the rules of the road, and then glance quickly, noticing their ethnicity as I pass them? Can I say that I do not think uncharitable thoughts about the person squeezed next to me on the subway whose dining choices bring about a certain odor, or that I do not avoid the lurching person I follow on the street who looks a little shifty and might hit me up for some cash? There is a gap between us and our fellow human beings, says writer Parker Palmer. This gap is between what is and what could be in our relationship with the rest of humanity. And the stress of holding that gap can break our hearts. Do you feel heartbroken about a friend or relative you can no longer talk to, because our political views have become so polarized these days? Or, perhaps, you are heartbroken because have had to end an abusive relationship, or maybe you are broken hearted because you have refused to see a loved one until they seek help for an addiction. Palmer sees two ways for the heart to break in these situations. One way is for the heart to splinter into a thousand shards … to “become shrapnel aimed at the source of our pain.” In this case the heartbreak is an “unresolved wound [carried] around … as the heart broken one tries to resolve the pain by inflicting the same wound on others.” In the second way, the heart can be imagined as “a small clenched fist.” In this case, the heart can be “broken open … into a greater capacity to hold one’s own and the world’s pain.” This kind of heartbreak can increase our empathy for others and it can lead to acts of compassion and reconciliation, rather than revenge. Palmer quotes the Sufi master, Hazrat Inayat Khan, who says “God breaks the heart again and again and again, until it stays open.” I believe that this it is this kind of broken heart that God desires of us. Even in Ash Wednesday thinking, the heart symbolizes love. But it is a deeper, real-life kind of love, than romantic love. It is the kind of love that’s hard … the exhausting love of a parent for a colicky, sleepless baby … the tough love of the one who refuses to be an enabler for an addicted person … the aching love of the spouse of one whose mind has be taken by dementia. Palmer sees the broken-open heart in the image of the cross. He says that on the cross, God’s heart “was broken open for the sake of humankind … into a love that Christ’s followers are called to emulate.” The cross reaches in four directions … left and right, up and down. But the arms converge in a center, in a heart, that can be pulled open … by the tensions of life . Palmer sees this as God’s heart: “a heart that can be opened so fully it can hold everything ... that … is how Jesus held his excruciating experience [on the cross] …. as an opening into the heart of God.” [1] Romantic lovers may well exchange hearts, chocolates and flowers this evening. They will enjoy dreaming of the ideals of love, and happy endings. We all need a little myth in our lives sometimes. But, you and I … we have chosen to take the contradictory path … the path of broken heartedness in order to become whole … whole in our love for all people and in our love for God. And so, we’ll receive our ashes, not in the Valentine’s heart shape, but still the shape of love: the love of our broken hearted God for our broken hearted world. Let all God’s people say, Amen [1] http://www.couragerenewal.org/PDFs/Parker-Palmer_politicsbrokenhearted.pdf
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