Closer to God

Sermon-Ash Wednesday-Feb. 22, 2012
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

How many of you are wearing a cross right now-a necklace, a pin, somewhere on your person? How many of you have a cross in plain view in your house? We surround ourselves with crosses-why?

I went to a very strange high school. There was a large Catholic high school in our area and almost all the Catholic kids went there. And there were a lot of Jewish kids in our area, so I went to school knowing a lot of Jewish customs, but pretty ignorant of Catholic ones. One of my good friends was Amy Otis, who showed up at school one day with dirt on her head. I grabbed her and started teasing her, “Amy”, I said, “you’ve got dirt all over your face-you better go in to the bathroom and clean up!” She began laughing at me, “don’t you know anything? It’s Ash Wednesday!” I continued to give her a hard time (this was high school) and finally she said something like this: “This is who I am.”

Today most of you will come forward to receive a cross of ashes. We could have put the ashes in a circle, or heart shaped, or just a smudge, but instead we put them in the shape of a cross. They are supposed to represent our humanity, our mortality, our brokenness . “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return”. We begin Lent by wearing ashes to represent that we are human-but we aren’t only human. We wear the ashes in the shape of a cross because we believe that we are more than just ashes, we are claimed by Christ.
In the 1890s Max Beerbohm wrote a book called, “The Happy Hypocrite”. There was a man named Sir George Hell. He was “A worldly man, he is a dandy, fond of gambling, drinking, womanizing, and the like. When he spots a young and innocent dancer named Jenny Mere”. He falls madly in love with her, but she tells him that she will only marry a man who has the face of a saint. He is crestfallen. He goes to the city and stumbles upon a small shop where a man makes lifelike masks. He buys a mask that is fitted for his face that looks like a saint. That evening he proposes to Jenny and she accepts. He continues to wear the mask afraid that she will see who he really is if the mask comes off. And even more, in order to fool his new wife he begins living like a saint-being generous, honest, caring, forgiving. A month after they are married a woman from his past finds him. She wants to expose him for who he really is in front of his new wife, so she rips off his mask. And underneath his face has assumed the contours of the mask. He now looks like a saint.
That is what we do in Lent. We put on these ashes, admitting, confessing that we are only human. But we put them on in the shape of a cross, asking God to change who we are by Easter so that we look more like him. This cross of ashes is our saint’s mask. The ashes are who we are, the cross is who we hope to be.
In your bulletin is a 3x5 card in an envelope. On this card, write one thing you will do the next 40 days to become closer to God. 1 thing. It can be something you’re leaving behind-a bad habit, a debilitating tendency, a crippling practice. Or it can be one thing you’re taking on-a new discipline, a positive routine, a healthy habit. Write down one thing that you will do this Lent that will bring you closer to God.
These are some of the suggestions from Alyce MacKenzie, one of my favorite preachers : “It might be to leave behind unhealthy eating patterns, drinking, or abuse. It might be an unhealthy spiritual diet: the habit of gossip, of jealousy ,of consistently seeing the worst in people and situations. It might be indifference to the condition of the homeless and the lonely in our community. It might be the habit of judging and categorizing others to maintain our sense of superiority. It might be something positive like seeing the good points of a troublesome family member, to show more affection to our spouse, to keep in better touch with our extended family, too participate in a ministry of care in our community.” What can you do this Lent to change what your face looks like?
We will give these back to you mid way (March 19th ) through Lent so you can see how you are doing. Write your full name on the outside of the envelope.
This Lent we are going to put on our saint’s mask to see who we can become in 40 days. This Lent we are going to say, this is who we are-we are ashes, but we are in the shape of a cross. We are broken, mortal, and human-but we are moving towards Easter and becoming someone new. This is who we are. Amen.