A Pleasant Scent

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

February 26, 2012

The First Sunday in Lent

A Pleasant Scent

Mark 1:9-15

“Return to me with all your heart;

rend your hearts and not your clothing.

Return to the Lord, your God…”

(Joel 2:12)

These are the words with which we always begin Lent,

words that are the opening lesson

of our Ash Wednesday service.

All over the world, the faithful of every denomination

hear the same words,

“Return, return to God;

where you have turned away, turn back to God.”

These are our guiding words for the next 40 days,

the 40 days of Lent that lead us to Easter.

These are our guiding words as we are invited,

encouraged,

urged by God to use the 40 days of Lent

as a time for introspection,

a time for us each to look within ourselves

to see where we have gone astray,

where we have turned from God,

so we can turn back,

return to God.

Did you notice that I said nothing about using the time

to look within yourselves to see where you have sinned?

The very word “sin” has become so freighted,

so loaded,

so barnacled over the centuries

that it has all but lost its meaning.

We hear the word “sin” and most of us think

it means something bad,

truly evil.

    

Now, while none of us is perfect,

surely none of us is that bad.   

Standing here this morning I don’t see a murderer,

a bank robber,

or a burglar among us.

The word “sin” isn’t about doing something bad,

doing something evil.

The word “sin” is about turning:

turning from God.

Both the Hebrew word we find in the Old Testament,

and the Greek word we find in the New Testament,

mean the same thing:

“to turn,

to miss the mark,

to go astray.”

Professor Daniel Migliore of Princeton Theological Seminary

has written,

“We misunderstand sin

if we see it only as a violation of a moral code;

it is, instead, primarily

the disruption of our relationship with God.”

It is a disruption because through our sin

we turn away from God,

turn our backs to God,

turn our hearts and minds from God.

It is, as we heard just a few minutes ago,

when we substitute our own will for God’s will,

our own way for God’s way.

It is why our Prayer of Confession each Sunday

is often preceded by the reminder

that we sin in ways both large and small,

in the things we say and do

and in the things we fail to say and do.

One of the Affirmations of Belief that we find in our

Book of Confessions puts it this way:

“In sin, men and women claim mastery of their own lives,

turn against God and their fellow men and women,

and become exploiters and despoilers of the world.

They lose their humanity in futile striving…”

(Confession of 1967, 9.12)

These are strong words, but they are accurate;

they are words that apply to every one of us.

No one can say,

“I’m glad those words aren’t directed at me.”

Frederick Buechner puts the same thought in softer words:

“The power of sin is centrifugal.

When at work in a human life,

it tends to push everything out toward the periphery.

In the process, it pushes God away.

So sin is whatever you do or fail to do

that pushes God away,

that widens the gap between you and God.”

Widens the gap.

Anything, small or large,

anything you say or do,

anything you fail to say or do that pushes God away.

That’s sin, defined simply, accurately.

Defined in a way that reminds us that we all sin

because we all do things, countless times each day

that turn us from God,

that pushes God away,

that increase the distance between us and God.

It doesn’t mean we are bad, much less evil.

But it does mean we are on the wrong path,

a path of our own choosing,

rather than the path God wants us on.

Lent invites us to acknowledge our sinfulness,

not so we can spend the 40 days feeling guilty,

feeling unworthy,

feeling bad,

but so that we can do something about it.

It’s why we begin Lent with a call to action:

to turn back to the Lord.

It is such a profoundly loving invitation.

It is God saying to you and me,

“Yes, I know you are sinners,

but still I love you and I want you closer to me,

not farther.

So return to me.

I stand ready to forgive you all your sins.

Return to me, with penitent hearts

that you might know more fully

my grace, my mercy, my love.”

Why would we not race to embrace this invitation?

Take full advantage of it?

To use the next 40 days

to look at those parts of our lives

where we know we do things,

say things that we know are not godly,

that don’t lead us deeper into holiness?

If we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us,

and we deceive ourselves.

That is what Scripture teaches us.

(1 John 1:7)

We cannot run from that reality.

And God calls us to acknowledge that reality,

especially during Lent

so we can learn how to turn from sin and repent.

Imagine for a moment, the sweet fragrance of lavender

blowing softly in a summer breeze;

imagine you can smell the alluring  scent of lilac,

so calming and soothing;

Smell the steaming aroma rising from a hot cup of coffee.

These are such sweet pleasant scents,

scents that make us feel good.

Barbara Brown Taylor very creatively suggests

that we heighten our sense of smell during Lent

attaching scents to sin and repentance:

pleasant smells to repentance,

acrid, alarming, irritating scents to sinful actions,

things that turn us from God.

Attaching scents to sin and repentance,

thinking of sinful acts as having an unpleasant odor,

while penitent actions release a fragrant perfume

is just another way to approach how we think

of sin and repentance.

Once we sensitize ourselves, heighten our awareness,

we can more easily smell the sin that fills our lives,

and then turn from it,

in search of the sweet scent of repentance,

confident in the promise that,

“If we confess our sins,

he who is faithful and just

will forgive us our sins

and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

(1 John 1:9)

Lent is a time to re-commit ourselves to God,

to remind ourselves that God doesn’t want a part of us,

God wants all of us,

utter and complete surrender.

Now of course, none of us has 40 days to go on Retreat,

to spend time in the desert away from jobs, family

and other responsibilities.

So we each need to figure out

what will work for each of us each day

between now and Easter.

As a minimum set aside 15 minutes each day;

surely you can give God that much time.

Fifteen minutes for prayer, for reflection,

for thinking about where you’ve gone astray.

                                   

Paul has lots of helpful lists scattered among his letters

in which he calls us to refrain from sinful actions like

strife, enmity,

jealousy, anger, quarreling,

dissension, factions, envy

(Galatians 5:20)

Another list that might be helpful

is one that isn’t to be found in the Bible,

but is probably familiar to you: the Seven Deadly Sins.

This is a list a sixth century pope put together,

and while certainly not authoritative,

it can be a helpful resource.

With whom have you quarreled and exchanged angry words?

That’s wrath and

that turns you from the godly path of reconciliation.

What are you hanging onto too tightly:

money, possessions, time, a relationship?

That is avarice, greed.

In our greed we forget that all we have

comes from God in the first place.

Sloth is the next word on the list,

and we think of someone who is slothful as lazy.

But the word has a broader meaning,

a meaning that well may include you,

for it means filling your life

with the wrong kind of activities,

things that may keep you busy from dawn till dusk,

but are not activities that will help you grow

in godliness and holiness,

that will not draw you closer to God.  

Who among us hasn’t had moments of excessive pride,

forgetting that God calls us to live humble lives?

We can still walk tall, shoulders back, confident,

even as we walk in humility,

humble before the Lord our God.  

Who doesn’t envy someone else something?

And gluttony isn’t limited to eating too much;

it is taking too much of anything.

We are gluttons of our earth’s natural resources,

wasting much too much of what God created,

of what God calls good,

and in which God delights.

And lust isn’t limited to sex.

It can reflect any kind of behavior.

These are simply some starting places

for how you might approach your Lenten practice,

for how you might heighten your sense of smell

for sin and for repentance.

There are certainly other ways things you can do.

including, of course, coming to the

Thursday evening Lenten series we’ll start this week.

We’ll look in more detail at sin,

repentance, and forgiveness.

One of the key questions we will ask

is why we find it so hard to forgive others,

when we ourselves have been forgiven by God in Jesus Christ,

remembering that when we fail to forgive, we sin.

        

Lent is not a time to give up French fries or ice cream;

it is not even a time to give up Downton Abbey.

It is time to give up sin,

to starve sin,

to root sin out of your life.

Lent is a time to rend your heart,

as you look deep within yourself,

so that you can turn back to God,

our Loving God,

the one who stands eager,

waiting to say to you, to me,

“Know my mercy,

know my forgiveness,

that you will know more completely my love,

that you will know more fully

the love I give you through my Son,

Jesus the Christ.”

AMEN