Relatively Speaking

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

March 9, 2014

The First Sunday in Lent

Relatively Speaking

Psalm 32:8-9

We’ve made Lent complicated.

We’ve made Lent confusing.

What are we supposed to do,

really do,

during Lent?

When we hear the worship leader issue an invitation

encouraging the faithful to “observe a Holy Lent,”

words I say each year as part of the liturgy

for our Ash Wednesday service,

what does that mean?

It sounds like an invitation,

but yet it also sounds weighted, fraught.

I can understand the confusion

when the response comes back,

“Okay, I will observe a Holy Lent.

Just tell me how.

Tell me what to do.”

Over the centuries, we’ve reduced Lent to a time

for giving up pizza or chocolate,

ice cream or French fries,

even as we gear up for the March Madness

of college basketball tournaments and spring breaks.

But even as we might agree to give up something,

we draw a line:

we’ll give up only what we can live without for six weeks;

something we might miss,

but something we don’t consider a necessity.

Lent isn’t about giving things up;

all that is, is taking the spiritual discipline of fasting

and turning it into something that is

no stress, no strain,

no fuss, no muss,

…. and also no gain.

It becomes an empty gesture.

Lent calls us deeper,

it calls us to do something that changes us,

transforms us.

As one author put it,

“To observe [a holy] Lent

is to strike at the heart of complacency.”

To observe a holy Lent is open ourselves to renewal.

We should be different, changed,

transformed at the end of Lent,

transformed as we gather on Easter Sunday

to shout out “alleluia!”

Lent calls us to take an

introspective picture of ourselves,

an introspective “selfie”,

so we can see where we have

strayed from God’s path,

strayed from God’s will.

This introspective picture is one

we are to take of ourselves,

each of us,

not you of me,

me of you,

but you of you,

me of me.

The point of doing the introspective “selfie”

is to see where we have turned from God,

to see where we need to turn back,

to see where we have strayed,

fallen short of God’s teachings,

to see where we’ve bent Jesus’ words

to suit ourselves.

That’s the beginning,

the necessary first step for transformation,

for observing a holy Lent.

Repentance is the overarching theme for Lent.

To repent is not to feel guilty,

not to don sackcloth and sit in ashes.

That’s something we might have done

if we still lived in Old Testament times.

Job’s final words to God were,

“I repent in dust and ashes”.

(Job 42:6)

We still use ashes, of course;

we used them this past Wednesday

to remind us both of our mortality

and our sinfulness, our waywardness,

of how we have missed the mark.

But we are people of words,

and it is words that can help us

express our penitence,

express our desire to repent,

turn back to God.

Words can help us move

from complacency to holiness.

Words lifted up to God in prayer,

heartfelt, honest… your own words.

Yes, it can be hard to find the right words,

but we have the Bible for help.

                                   

Start with Psalm 51,

words King David spoke and wrote,

to express his own waywardness, his own sin,

his own repentance.

Make his words your own:

‘Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
   blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
   and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

“I know my transgressions.”

Do you hear what David is saying,

what he is doing:

he’s taken his introspective picture,

and recognized his sin.

And right there may be

the biggest hurdle we have

to observing a holy Lent:

recognizing our sin,

acknowledging our sin –

you recognizing your own sin,

me recognizing my own sin.

We find it so much easier to acknowledge our sin

relatively speaking,

comparing ourselves to others:

“Yes, I have sinned.

But compared with most people,

I’m pretty good.

I do not have murder or larceny in my heart,

I go to church regularly, more or less;

try to say my prayers;

try to live a decent life.

Yes, compared to others, I am good.”

That’s not introspective.

That’s not acknowledgement.

That’s remaining complacent.

It was the 13^th century theologian and mystic

Meister Eckhart who said

that those who have the most difficult time with Lent

are the “good people”.

People like you and me: decent people.

We have the most difficult time

because we see ourselves as basically decent,

and so we really don’t see much need to change.

We become complacent,

resistant, stubborn.

And it is to you and me, good, decent people

that God speaks the words of our lesson:

Don’t be stubborn.

Don’t resist the offer that is before you to look within.

Don’t resist the invitation that Lent extends.

“Do not be like a horse or a mule,

without understanding”

Eugene Peterson paraphrased our lesson this way:

“Let me give you some good advice”, says the Lord,

“I’m looking you in the eye

and giving it to you straight.

Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule

that needs bit and bridle to stay on track.”

Don’t be so sure of yourself, says the Lord our God.

That’s the wrong path to walk.

The right path, the holy path,

is the humble path,

the path we walk with head bowed,

asking God for guidance to help us look within

and see where we have strayed,

where we need to repent, turn back.

As Barbara Brown Taylor has written

“Recognition …

is the first step toward setting it right again.

There is no repair for those who insist nothing is broken.”

(Speaking of Sin, 59)

As Scripture teaches us,

“if we say we have no sin,

we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Lent provides us with an invitation

and an opportunity,

an opportunity for new life,

a holier, more godly life.

Lent provides us with the opportunity to understand

what John the Baptist meant when he said,

“Christ must increase,

… I must decrease.”

(John 3:30)

The Christ within us must increase –

the Christ of goodness, of mercy,

of forgiveness, of compassion,

of grace and of love.

And the I within must decrease,

the I within each of us who is judgmental,

self-righteous,

cold, quarrelsome,

confident of one’s own goodness…

relatively speaking.

“Everyone must submit to being made over.

… especially the religiously secure …

says William Willimon.

That means you, that means me.

Each of us is called to the opportunity of Lent,

each of us called to respond to the invitation of Lent,

each of us called to the hard work of Lent.

so that we can grow through these next six weeks,

so that we can increase in Christ.

Start your work with Psalm 51.

Then turn to Psalm 32.

Make the psalmist’s words your words to God:

“While I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
…Then I acknowledged my sin to you,

and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’,

and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

                 

I acknowledged my sin;

I did not hide my iniquity;

I will confess my transgressions;

I will repent.

Then go to Psalm 25, again,

making the words your own:

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
   teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me…

Good and upright is the Lord;
   therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
   and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
   for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

For your name’s sake, O Lord,
   pardon my guilt, for it is great.”

God will instruct us, you and me,

teach us the way to go,

provide us with counsel as God keeps his eye on us.

But, of course, God can only instruct us

if we are willing to learn,

if we are not stubborn,

if we are humble,

if we accept the invitation,

the invitation that is before here and now,

to observe a holy Lent.

AMEN