Thursday, February 23, 2017

Acceptable Sacrifices, Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2017



Ash Wednesday (Year A)
Wednesday, March 1, 2017

When we receive the cross on our forehead on Ash Wednesday, we are invited to remember that it is in Christ and through Christ that reconciliation is possible. Yet, we are also invited to remember that as we leave the church with the seal of the cross of Christ, we are Christ's ambassadors of reconciliation. We are sent as representatives for Christ, in Christ's stead… This is what ministry is all about.
 – Karoline Lewis, Luther Seminary

Theme: Acceptable Sacrifices

(This is the final segment of a six-part series from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ teachings to his disciples us included! about his mission and his interpretations of scripture.)

Intro:  Put yourself on the hillside one last time, in the tightly knit group of Jesus’ disciples. By this time, you are surrounded by a mass of people who have come to hear this teacher tell people how they are to live. What started with Jesus clarifying his mission has turned into a revival, a call to change the way people worship God and treat one another.

Reflection:  I don’t recall ever deciding to give something up for Lent.

Giving up meat on Fridays was the standard Catholic practice. Classmates discussed giving up soda, candy, desserts or video games for six weeks. I never understood how deprivation prepared one for Easter. (OK, Lutherans give up Alleluias – so we can sing them with joy and gusto starting at sunrise on Easter morn!)

Several years ago, newly absorbed in my faith, in preparing for the Easter season, my mind went the other way – I wanted to add in things for Easter, to enrich my mind and spirit. Prayer, reading, music and worship were at the top of that list.

Several phrases stood out this time when I read the annual Ash Wednesday texts. In Joel 2:12-13a, just before the familiar “Return to the Lord, your God” verses, this stood out, “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.”

Of course, that’s why people deprive themselves of something. A private fast, with respect to Jesus’ admonitions in the final text from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:16-17, to refocus our hearts. Prayer and giving alms also would channel our weeping and mourning for the injustices of our lifestyles and privilege. Inwardly, our failures to live according to Jesus’ guiding should break our hearts.

These texts provide a second gem in the psalm verses of confession, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” from Psalm 51:10-12. But my eyes fixed on verse 17: “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

More brokenness.

Sacrifice is another way of explaining “giving up.” So, our remorse needs to be more than confession, more than saying we’re sorry we’re not living as God’s people. Our hearts aren’t clean and our spirits are dragging baggage. Words and prayers just won’t cut it for the way we’ve broken God’s heart. For me, that translates to healing some open wounds, tracking down people I’ve cast aside, and unloading my pride and shame.

I could use some fasting – beyond food – from harsh words and inconsiderate actions, intolerance and impatience, willfulness and wrath.

Return to the Lord, your God, for God is gracious and merciful.

Return to God with all your heart.

Return.

(Make sure you read the footnote today for a beautiful Ash Wednesday blessing from one of my favorite poets, Jan Richardson)

Faith App: What would you like to give up for Lent – perhaps an unproductive or hurtful habit? The six weeks of the Lenten season provides time to acquire a new behavior. Consider replacing your former habit with something positive.

HYMN/SONG SUGGESTIONS
Once We Sang and Danced, ELW 701
Savior When in Dust to You, ELW 601
Restore in Us, O God, ELW 328
Healer of Our Every Ill, ELW 612
Take, O Take Me as I Am, ELW 814
Change My Heart, O God, ELW 801
Our Father, We Have Wandered, ELW 606
Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling, ELW 608
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, ELW 807
Out of the Depths I Cry to You, ELW 600

Give Us Clean Hands, Chris Tomlin
All You’ve Ever Wanted, Casting Crowns
Kindness, Chris Tomlin
Keep Making Me, Sidewalk Prophets
From the Inside Out, Seventh Day Slumber/Phillips, Craig and Dean/Hillside United
Come, Let Us Return to the Lord, Matt Redman
Restore to Me, Mac Powell/Candi Pearson-Shelton

LESSONS
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful.
or Isaiah 58:1-12 Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
Psalm 51:1-17 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Beware of practicing your piety before others to be seen by them.

Summary of the Lessons: Lesson 6 – Acceptable Sacrifices.  God’s grace is a gift. Period. But our call in this season is to turn back to the Lord and be reconciled, to let God recreate our broken and contrite hearts, restore our humbled spirits with joy. Part of our practice may be a personal sacrifice, like fasting, recommitment to prayer or charitable giving, but it is personal, not public piety God honors.

OPENING LITANY based on Psalm 51:1-17
L:  Lord, here I am, all but hidden beneath my sin,
C:  Hoping you recognize me as one of your own.
L:  My mess covering the God-goodness you created –
C:  Cleanse me, Lord, restore me to newness again.

L:  Lord, I’ve been stuck in this rut since I was young.
C:  My scarred heart held hostage by my guilt and pain.
L:  Break it wide open, set me free with your truth –
C:  Cleanse me, Lord, let joy release my spirit’s despair.

L:  Then, Lord, I’ll dance to the tune of your freedom,
C:  Love’s unchained melody streaming from my lips.
L:  Not one thing I give up could earn your compassion,
C:  My humbled heart turned to you will make you glad.

CONFESSION
L:  Tonight starts a new season for us, a time to repair –
C:  To learn to reconcile, to God and one another,
L:  To allow God to restore our commitment to justice,
C:  To recognize our sin and return to our merciful Lord.

L:  Tonight we begin a season of reflection and preparation –
L:  Grace is pure gift; we are forgiven by God’s mercy.
C:  Earthly wealth is fleeting, unlike kingdom treasure.
C:  Dust is what we were, what we are, and what we will become.

L:  Tonight we commence a season of self-examination –
C:  Considering our practices of sacrifice, prayer, and service,
L:  Choosing to take up our crosses for the hurting and poor,
C:  Cleansing ourselves from finger-pointing and privilege.

(Silent reflection, or a setting of “Return to the Lord, Your God”)

L:  In our confession, we pray together,
C:  Most Merciful God … Create in us clean hearts, Lord, and renew us by setting our spirits right with you. Don’t let us stray from your presence, but guide us with your Holy Spirit always. Refresh us again with delight at your abundant grace, and let your Spirit uphold us forever.

Hear this Good News:  The prophet Isaiah says “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places.” God continually waters those places in you that need refreshing. Even when we wander into the wilderness away from God’s presence, God stands ready to restore us into relationship, repairing the breach we cause. Accept and rejoice at the gift of God’s forgiveness.
In the name of…
Amen.

PRAYER OF THE DAY
L:  We pray together, 
C:  Steadfast God … guide us into Lent transformed through your teachings, set into right relationship with you and each other. Keep working to repair the breaches we cause, to see in strangers and those who struggle the faces of brothers and sisters. Help us to walk the way of the cross with you now, as humble disciples, choosing your ways of healing, justice, hospitality and generosity.  Amen.

COMMUNION BLESSING
L:  We pray together,
C:  We give you thanks, most gracious God, for satisfying our parched places through this simple gift of bread and wine, shared with our family in Christ.  Thank you for your steadfast love that allows us to return to your mercy, again and again. Rend our hearts, Lord, for those who suffer in our world. Send us out, each day empowered to speak and act in the ways of justice and your love. Amen. 

SENDING
L:  We respond to God with a willing spirit,
C:  When we honor the Lord with service,
L:  When we are humble in prayer and giving,
C:  When we truly understand how loved we are.

L: Go now, marked with the cross of Christ, to love and to serve the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God!

First Reading Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: The “Day of the Lord” to us is a promise, something on which we set our hopes. For Joel, who prophesied 400 years before Jesus, the “Day of the Lord” spelled doom. He calls the people to repent.

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near—
a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains
    a great and powerful army comes;
their like has never been from of old,
    nor will be again after them
    in ages to come.
Yet even now, says the LORD,
    return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
   rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the LORD, your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
    and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the LORD, your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
    gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
    assemble the aged;
gather the children,
    even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride her canopy.
Between the vestibule and the altar
    let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep.
Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD,
    and do not make your heritage a mockery,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

OR
First Reading Isaiah 58:1-12 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: This Isaiah text should sound familiar, as it was read just a few weeks ago. Isaiah urges the people to service and justice for their neighbors to honor the Lord. Later, Jesus the teacher would expand on the words in the last of three sections of Isaiah, probably written by three different authors.

Shout out, do not hold back!
    Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet day after day they seek me
    and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
    and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments,
    they delight to draw near to God.
“Why do we fast, but you do not see?
    Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
    and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
    and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
    will not make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
    a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
    and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
    a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of injustice,
    to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
    the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
    you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
    the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
    and your gloom be like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually,
    and satisfy your needs in parched places,
    and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
    like a spring of water,
    whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
    you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
    the restorer of streets to live in.

Second Reading 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: Paul wrote to the church at Corinth multiple times, two of which are included among Paul’s epistles. Paul often had to contend with false teachers, so this section reminds his readers of what he and his colleagues have gone through for the sake of the message of Jesus.

We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,
“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
    and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet 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.

Gospel Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: It’s likely the Sermon on the Mount was a teaching session, not a sermon, as Jesus was sidetracked during this passage to teach the disciples how to pray. The word “hypocrite” means actor. Wrapping up his teaching, Jesus contrasts acting for people with being humble before God.

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

An Ash Wednesday Extra


Rend Your Heart
A Blessing for Ash Wednesday
By Jan Richardson, The Painted Prayerbook

To receive this blessing,
all you have to do
is let your heart break.
Let it crack open.
Let it fall apart
so that you can see
its secret chambers,
the hidden spaces
where you have hesitated
to go.

Your entire life
is here, inscribed whole
upon your heart’s walls:
every path taken
or left behind,
every face you turned toward
or turned away,
every word spoken in love
or in rage,
every line of your life
you would prefer to leave
in shadow,
every story that shimmers
with treasures known
and those you have yet
to find.

It could take you days
to wander these rooms.
Forty, at least.

And so let this be
a season for wandering
for trusting the breaking
for tracing the tear
that will return you
to the One who waits
who watches
who works within
the rending
to make your heart
whole.

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