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Ash Wednesday, 03/05/2014
Sermon on Matthew 11:12, by Phillip Gagnon
"The future is something to be concerned about because we're going to be spending a lot of time there" someone once said. And as such, the future has our fingerprints all over it, at least in our minds it does. Certainly our present times do. We have the tendency to want to take control of our surrounding, our loves and the future. "The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force" (Matt 11:12) Jesus said, and so it is.
Trying to take control of something like the kingdom of God and bend it to our will and ways will end in failure because the creatures who attempt to do so are frail, weak, sinful, people who do what their nature demands. On Ash Wednesday we remember that no matter what we might try to do or how we might do it, it matters not. "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return" the liturgy forcefully reminds us. Hard for dust to control anything. The wind blows it where it wills and it settles where it wills.
But we do try to control our world and our future. So much so that we will take what God has given us in his word and Son and twist it to suit our ideas of success, present faddish preoccupation and cultural relevance. In effect, we don't have or live a way of life based upon a biblical understanding of the word, but a theology of convenience which is based upon consumerism and in turn based upon me, myself and I, the unholy trinity.
And we wonder why in this sin-soaked world at once filled with many wonders, beauty and God's presence can the body of Christ be doing so poorly in the West? At least in many quarters? Do we not have the word of life? Do we not have the good news of God's reconciliation in Jesus Christ to all of creation? Do we not have the sacraments and stories of God's faithfulness? I mean, that's pretty good, isn't it?
This battered raw wound of a world needs this word of hope, life and promise.
But, and it's a big but (and I'm not talking about my recent weight gain, but I digress...) we fail to take into account our sin in the midst of all our planning and proclamation. In our efforts to be relevant (there's that word again) we massage the good news so much to reach this materialistic, self entitled, groovy, granola crunching, addicted to self western world that we have lost the face slapping reality of sin being dealt with in such raw terms as the crucifixion and the truth of what must happen to us in order to know the future that God has in store for us in his Son.
It reminds me of that old Walt Kelly cartoon, Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Or in modern reflection in Obama's optimistic tripe, "We are the people we have been waiting for." My friends, if we are who we've waiting for, we are in a boatload of trouble.
No amount of technological innovation, of societal twittering, face booking, coffee quaffing, jazz band, grooviness is going to solve the issues of sin, death and the devil. The promise of God is unlike the promises of this world no matter how well we try to dress it up. And the promise is founded upon a theology that involves our dying to self, a message this world does not want to hear. The theology of the cross is not very popular. And what pretends to be "radical" cross-centred is often another version of what is being critiqued, just the snappier, cooler and more relevant version dressed up more pretty like and appealing.
It's one thing to woo the world by meeting it at its point of deepest need, it's another thing to actually have something to say that kills and gives life. We would rather point out a few clothing faux pas's, which would explain why the Church is perceived as not being cool or effective anymore than point out that the emperor is wearing no clothes and has no substance. Of course, to dress up nothing with something becomes somehow rather self-defeating doesn't it? Like when I go into my closet after gaining weight and saying I can't find anything to wear... Maybe I need to look at my diet, the way of life I have living including what I eat and shed some pounds and not worry about getting some new clothes?
We can pretty up the way in which we transmit the good news in all sorts of ways, but if we do not confess with our lives what we profess with our lips and live the good news out in truth and love about ourselves and the world around us, we might as well put lipstick on a pig. But as one song put it, "it's hard to be like Jesus" because we are addicted to our sin and only one thing and one person can break that addiction's consequences, and that is the cross of Jesus. And that, my friends, is truly relevant.
No, the reality is that we are dust, and dust knows nothing of success and grooviness, coolness or relevance except in confession of sin. Hand-wringing concern and the crafting of neat messages on various social media will not solve any problems at the personal nor institutional level, only the confession of our sin. We have sinned and we have not loved, taught clearly and faithfully, preached faithfully, given, respected, or honoured God and his people in spiritual love "as we ought," and here is the grace, but "as we are able." This is what I love about the liturgy, it reminds me clearly of my sin, but also of God's love and grace.
We are dust and to dust we will return. Our sin and unfaithfulness has led us where we are. This we confess and humbly receive the forgiveness of the Lord of heaven and earth, if in fact, we truly believe this to be true and if we are able to acknowledge our sin. Our only hope is not, in the end what we can do, but in what God will do and has done for us in Christ: a new life born from the ashes.
To be contrite in pottery terms is to be "crushed to dust" and a broken and contrite heart the Lord will not turn away (Ps) . The Potter re-creates from that dust and God's fingerprints are visible as he takes the dust of our lives and recreates a vessel fit for his purpose and love and he will place that vessel where he wills, just as the Spirit deposits the dust where he wills, and we are no judges at all of where that ought to be. Thanks be to God. Amen.