Sermon; Ash Wednesday 2020

Over the past few weeks I have been preaching about how Jesus transformed the law, moving beyond the simple black & white of the words to get at the heart of the law. This transformation asked us to see us as light and salt. It asked us to move from “Do not murder,” to, “Do not be angry.” And it culminated with the transformation/transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain. This process lead us to see the law as life-giving and freeing, not punitive and constricting, and it lead us to see Jesus as not only human, but as God incarnate.

The law was transformed. Jesus was transformed. We shall also be transformed.

This transformation, particularly our transformation, is really what Lent is all about. Giving up sweets or caffeine or Facebook or Candy Crush or whatever can be a good practice in discipline and self-control, but how is any of that transforming you? As Jesus worked to draw us closer to the heart of the law, and as his transfiguration drew us closer to fully understanding who he was, how do our Lenten disciplines draw us closer go God?

As the prophet Joel proclaimed on behalf of God, “Return to me with all your heart . . . rend your hearts, not your clothing . . . Return to the Lord.” And in the gospel Jesus is asking us to transform how we use religion – from something designed to make us look good to the world, to something based in faithful relationship with God.

And this is the point of Lent – not sacrifice for the sake of being miserable or being noticed by our neighbors, but sacrificing those parts of us that distance us from God so that we may draw closer to God. During Lent we are called to sacrifice the selfish parts of us so that we can be transformed into the people God intends us to be.

This transformation I'm talking about is also another way of saying, “Establishing better habits/routines.”

Lent asks to transform us through acts of self-discipline, study, meditation, repentance, and forgiveness. But these acts we perform are not to be performed only throughout the season. If we commit to controlling our temper in Lent, that doesn't mean we get to curse at someone who cuts us off in traffic on our way home from Easter services. The season is here to help us shape new habits and new ways of being so that we can continue to live as God intends and draw ever closer to holiness.

So rather than thinking we'll “give something up for Lent,” because that implies we can pick it up again after the season, think of Lent as a course on changing habits. If you choose to give up a bad temper, rephrase that to say, “I'm going to take on a calmer way of being.” Or if you choose to give up sweets, rephrase that to say, “I'm going to live healthier.”

During this Lenten season, let us work on transformation. And then, as we recall that we are dust and to dust we shall return, we can look forward to returning to the dust transformed, knowing we came that much closer to living as God intended, reflecting the light of a transformed and transfigured life to a world that badly needs transformation.

Amen.