Ash Wednesday: Confronting Our Sins, Embracing Our Vulnerabilities

Ash Wednesday:

At one time Advent was my favorite season of the church year. The happiness, the joy of anticipation, the hope of a manger, the birth of a child… it all added a hopeful newness to my soul.

But our culture ruined Christmas with the rabid consumerism and those lame made for TV Christmas specials.

But now, it’s different. Now that I’ve been in ministry for fifteen years and a priest for almost 12, I see things a little differently.

I see Lent, and especially Ash Wednesday, much differently than I did ten years ago. Lent is a time to remind ourselves of our brokenness.

Humility like that confuses our culture to no end. We don’t know what to make of a day that reminds us of our sinfulness. Culture isn’t comfortable “Remembering you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.”

Today is really about sin.

There’s a tendency to understand sin from opposite poles.

Some say… ekkk…Sin… what an antiquated work. If we admit we are sinners, that implies we have psychological damage that causes low self-esteem. That’s the argument many of my friends from seminary make.

Then others equate sin with standards of behavior.

I heard a preacher today on the corner of Stanford and 23rd st. … signs out… microphone… “Harping about apes, and how we're going to hell and under judgments because of gay marriage…

I didn’t see any softness, humility,…. Or brokenness.

….. One of the greatest sins of our time is refusing to be vulnerable enough to admit our brokenness.

So one end of the church tells us that sin is an archaic notion and we shouldn’t mention it so we can feel better about ourselves.

Then the other end tells us that sin is the same as immorality and entirely avoidable if you are a good Christian with a checklist of who you marry and what you think about monkeys.

If we boil sin down to low self-esteem or morality, it then becomes something we can limit or even control.

Reality is I can’t free myself from the bondage of the self. I will always fight my innate disposition to save myself instead of giving myself away to God and others.

Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, described sin as “Incurvatus in se” – The Latin for “an inward curve to the self.” Not a turn… a subtle curve… Never abrupt, usually offering a good reason behind its fear. The curve tells us to worry about self-protection instead of self-giving.

The ego says, “Save… your…self”

In Lent, we tend to focus on what we eat or don’t eat. However, the Holy Spirit’s call to vulnerability, now that’s something that reminds me of how broken I really am.

Spending too much time on Facebook or overeating sugar isn’t the problem.

My problem…and maybe yours too, is that I piece out my heart to things that cannot love me back.

It’s possible to piece our hearts out to the love of false promises and self-indulgence. One theologian said; “the toxicity of ‘things’ seems to preserve the human heart like formaldehyde.”

Move

For the next 40 days, we will journey through the desert of Lent. Deserts have a way of bringing about spiritual clarity… Thankfully we will walk this desert road of repentance with Jesus. Lent will offer us the opportunity to hack through the jungles of selfishness.

I’ve learned to embrace the beauty and the pain of Lent. It is during Lent that I reflect on my hang-ups and heart-aches; my sins and fears... Lent is when I’m called to repent.

Repentance… the lowering of our armor, our walls, our defenses… and allowing vulnerability.

Conclusion

In late November 1943. The U.S. Navy and Marines spent three days attacking the Japanese stronghold of Betio in the South Pacific. It is known as the Battle of Tarawa.

More than a thousand sailors and marines died. Navy gunner Harry Starner was among the 3000 wounded. Medics surrounded him to give him a life-saving transfusion.

Harry looked at the label on the plasma bag and saw something that changed his life…. his name: he donated the blood while stateside several months before and now, on an island in the south Pacific he received life from the blood he gave up.

Those who wish to save their life must first give their life up to God.