Today is Ash Wednesday.(1) On Ash Wednesday, the Church remembers two connected realities: sin and death. The wages of sin is death (that’s the connection). Ashes to
ashes. Dust to dust.
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked will I
return. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord.”
So today we are confronted with sin and death, our
mortality, and I remember the warning that a long-time, beloved Episcopal
priest of the Coastal Bend
So on this Ash Wednesday, following the words of my mentor, permit
me to share my basic understanding of my own sin -what I think I’ve learned about myself.
I try to keep it simple.
For example, when it comes to sin in my life, I know beyond doubt that my next sin won’t be my first.
I remind myself of this truth at least once every day so that I won’t perpetually torture myself in the face of important, new decisions.
Yes, I want to do well.
Yes, I want to glorify God in all that I do. Yes, I want each step to bring me closer to
my Savior. But what if I misstep? What when I fall? Is hope dead? Is all lost? By no means.
Despite my best illusions, I am not about the task of preserving my sinlessness. I lost and gave up that game a long, long
time ago. I am a sinner whose next sin
won’t be my first - or (very likely) my last. In this
life, at least, I will never not need the forgiveness of God.
If this is true, that I will never not need the forgiveness
of God, then conversion is not just (or even primarily) for the pagans out
there. Conversion - being converted, the
changing, transforming, and renewing of the mind – is for me. Always for me. Not just for the Bedside Baptists, the
heathens who worship each week at Church of the Holy Comforter. No, conversion begins in here. Conversion is always for me. As a Christian, as a priest, I have never
exhausted the steps made possible, made open, to me. I press on.
The pilgrim walk is long and beautiful, with a charge not completed
simply because I find myself within these walls.
There is always more of God to discover and enjoy. Always obstacles that
might be removed that would further open to me the vast expanse and brilliant
landscape of the Kingdom of God: deeper in forgiveness, wider in mercy, fuller
in self-offering and the love that we know on the cross.
A friend of mine tells the story of E. Stanley Jones. (Have you heard of him?) Stanley Jones was a missionary in India India
this story:
In the Ashram, we gave the servants, including the sweeper,
a holiday one day each week, and we volunteered to do their jobs for them. The sweeper’s
work included the cleaning of the latrines before the days of flush toilets. No
one would touch that job but an outcaste, but we volunteered.
One day I said to a Brahmin convert who was hesitating to
volunteer: “Brother, when are you going to volunteer?” He shook his
head slowly and said: “Brother Stanley, I’m converted, but I’m not converted
that far.” (2)
The pilgrim walk is long and beautiful, with a depth not
exhausted – a charge not completed - simply because we find ourselves within these
walls. There is always more of God to discover
and enjoy.
“I’m converted, but I’m not converted that far,” he said.
This Lent, may I ask you:
How far are you converted?
How would you describe the always present call of conversion,
the active and living work of the Spirit, in your life today?
Always present, always growing, churning, stretching,
pushing, dynamic.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians about the acceptable time, the
just-right day to live into reconciliation, full life, with God. Christ has made this reconciliation possible,
says St Paul
Today is Ash Wednesday.
Also, the first day of Lent. Lent
began as that time in which the Church historically prepared converts for
initiation - baptism - into the life of Christ.
But you and I know that the good and restless work of conversion is
alive in us and so this time is God’s gift to us as well. The opportunity to go deeper in forgiveness,
wider in mercy, more fully in self-offering and the love that we know on the
cross.
Can I offer some unsolicited advice as you open this
gift? Don’t ad-lib it. Be intentional. Sit
down and sketch a flexible plan. Scribble
down the question: in what ways would you like to grow closer to God? This question is a blank check that only
requires a desire for God to write it.
Ask for help. Use your friends,
engage the Holy Scriptures, pray. But
see the opportunity. See the
opportunity, and seize the opportunity. Ask
the question. The open door of
conversion is the Good News that our sin and self-disappoints do not have the
last word in our lives. Christ is the
first and last word and his life, death and resurrection call us nearer and
closer, always nearer and closer, until we taste, touch, and see the goodness
of God. Don’t give up on yourself. God hasn’t.
The wages of sin is death.
Ashes to ashes. Dust to
dust. But today, ash and dust in this moment take the shape of the cross. That blessed, holy cross. That’s how we receive them. Here
is our hope: as sisters and brothers, converted again, moved closer, again, by the way of the cross, to the heart
of Him in whom is our health, our life, and our salvation.
Amen.
_________
(1) Well, yesterday was. This is a sermon preached at St C's on Ash Wednesday, 2012.
(2) Borrowed from Father Matthew Gunter's tremendous blog. Originally found in Devotional Classics, Selected Readings
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