"After his baptism"-Sermon for Lent 1, Luke:1-13
As you know, earlier this week, on Wednesday, we began our Lenten journey with the annual remembrance that we are dust and to dust we shall return. And, one might understandably suggest, in this time in human history, in particular, that perhaps Ash Wednesday is somewhat redundant or even unnecessary, for the world around us does the work of reminding us of our mortality quite well without the aid of our religious traditions and church calendar…our annual call to the observance of a Holy Lent…our journey to the cross where love incarnate, as it always is, was crucified at the hands of humans. For, there is open war in Europe for the first time since the end of World War II, even as we continue to contend with a pandemic that is not over, if thankfully, easing…at least for the moment. Such realities, that fill our tv screens, radios, social media feeds, and news apps, are much like a tolling bell…remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
I will admit that I made the conscious choice to restrict my news consumption after the events of Jan 6, 2021 and the presidential inauguration that followed. For at that time, I felt utterly glued to my phone and to KUT lost in worry and anxiety about where our nation was heading. It wasn’t good for my mental health…fear was always at the edge of my consciousness…breaking in with unwelcome thoughts of doom and gloom even when in moments of celebration with friends, family and loved ones. So, though I did not entirely disconnect from the goings on in the larger community and world…as doing that is not necessarily helpful either…for we must have awareness of what’s happening around us if we want to be impactful as God’s own heart and hands in this world…so I didn’t turn all the news off…but I did make the choice to not listen to the news in the car and, instead, I indulged my love of new wave, punk and alternative 80’s music. Over the past year I feel like I have become personal friends with the DJ’s on First Wave…the 80’s new wave station on SiriusXM…Larry the Duck, Doug the Slug, Richard Blade, and Swedish Eagle.
And yet, over the past couple of weeks, I have noticed myself flipping back over to KUT, Austin’s NPR Station, obsessing again over the heartbreaking news flowing out of Ukraine and the heartbreaking proclamations by our elected officials demonizing our beautiful, precious, fragile and life-giving trans-children. And, I have noticed further the feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness and feeling like there is surely more I should be doing or saying welling back up in me…feelings that I am not doing enough…that I am not enough…for the brokenness of the world is a consequence of human sin…of greed and fear of scarcity and fear of difference and desire for power and a desire to hoard rather than share…and, when ruminating on such darkness, I begin to believe that perhaps I contribute to all of that more than I dare admit. And I confess these feelings in a desire to normalize such feelings. If you struggle with some if not all of them yourself, again, the feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness and that sense that I should somehow be doing more about it all…like I am somehow letting the world and those I love in it down…that I am somehow not enough…if any or all of these feelings feel familiar…you are not alone in them. I am right there with you. And, sometimes it helps…sometimes it helps a lot…to just know…it’s not just me.
Now, though very important, I think it is not enough to only normalize our feelings and then stop there. Though together is always better, recognizing and naming that we are not alone in this present darkness, and all the negative self-talk and feelings to which it leads, is to be just the beginning of how we find our way forward…forward in faith…in hope…in love…together…forward into a new day that Jesus’ glorious resurrection points, inaugurates and makes possible. So, it is so important for me to say that…differently than what the world might seek to say to us about our undiscovered future…that the end has already been written…that finding hope is a fool’s errand…or some such…Ash Wednesday’s somber reminder that we are dust is not intended to lead us to any sense of hopelessness, any feelings of powerlessness, any sense of not doing of being enough. In fact, it is intended to do just the opposite. Ash Wednesday is not about endings…but about beginnings. Ash Wednesday is intended to remind us that, when God saw the dust of the earth, God saw life. God saw potential. God saw partners to love and be loved by. Thus, God gathered up the atoms that constitute creation, the dust of the earth, and breathed life into them. And God did so in God’s own likeness and image. Thus, humans are given the power to create, to dream, to form connections, to give, to love…to be powerful…not powerless. And, further, God looks upon that which God made and calls it, calls us, good. We are good…our bodies are good, our hearts are good, our minds are good, our souls are good…so very good. And, all that goodness…that breathtaking beauty that you are…is enough…enough to make meaning of the lives we live, to find purpose, to make a difference for good and for God. The matter from which your very life is shaped, formed and empowered by God matters…infinitely so. And, when we say “to dust we shall return” the suggestion is not that we return to nothingness…that’s not in the bible or the prayer book…but that we return to the hands of the one who created us at the very beginning. We both emerge from and return to the very heart and hands of God…to be recreated from glory into glory…re-forged in the fire of Jesus’ resurrection light from everlasting to everlasting. This is the point of Jesus’ resurrection that follows Jesus’ cross…the eternal promise that nothing that God has made will ever be lost…not a single speck of dust. Let that good news transform any sense of hopelessness into hope.
Now you may be thinking…Miles, Stacey preached a very good sermon on Ash Wednesday…why are you preaching a second Ash Wednesday sermon on the first Sunday of Lent…haven’t we moved on. Well, fair enough…I’ll try now to get us there. You see, Luke begins today’s gospel lesson recalling Jesus’ 40-days in the wilderness by telling us that Jesus enters the wilderness directly following his baptism. Luke writes, “After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” And, though the baptism itself is not recounted in today’s reading, perhaps you recall that just a few verses earlier at Jesus’ Baptism God shares a special message with Jesus…a blessing, words of never-ending love that we get to overhear. God says, “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” You see, before Jesus enters the wilderness, which I see as a time of preparation for all that will follow…all the heartache and pain, his own and others, that Jesus will enter and endure…all the illness and heartbreak he will see, feel in his gut, and heal…all the humiliation and ridicule he will face…the betrayal of his friends…the temptation to be a conquering king rather than a suffering servant…the torture and violence he will endure on the cross…even his painful, suffocating death…before all of that for which he prepares in his 40 days of prayer, fasting, and contending with the devil in the wilderness…before all of that…God reminds him…that he, that Jesus, is God’s own beloved child, that his heavenly parent loves him from forever to forever, that God is so very pleased with who he is. And, I think Jesus took God’s words of affirmation of power of hope of goodness of enough-ness to heart and, further, that they carried him all the way through…forward…all the way through to the cross and on to Easter…where Jesus’ own body, his own life, was re-forged in the fire light of his resurrection…from everlasting to everlasting.
And I hope that sort of sounds like what I described about what Ash Wednesday is trying to say to us…to remind us of…as we contend with all the challenges, suffering, anxiety, and loss that beset us in our own day. For like Jesus our brother, God is saying to us…you are my beloved child, I love you from forever to forever, I am so pleased with you. You, who were created in my own image and have the power to create, to heal, to connect, to give, to love. I am so pleased with the goodness that lives in you…you are enough. You are mine and all that you are…every speck of dust that makes up your life both came from me and will return to me…you will not be lost…so do not lose hope. And, if like Jesus, we will take these words of affirmation of power of hope of goodness of enough-ness to heart they will carry us through as well…forward…through our own wilderness times of want and anxiety and temptation and uncertainty and suffering…all the way through the crosses we bear to Easter…where our own selves, souls, and bodies, the dust from which we are made, will be re-forged in the fire light of resurrection…from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.
And, one might understandably suggest, in this time in human history, in particular, that perhaps Ash Wednesday is somewhat redundant or even unnecessary, for the world around us does the work of reminding us of our mortality quite well without the aid of our religious traditions and church calendar…our annual call to the observance of a Holy Lent…our journey to the cross where love incarnate, as it always is, was crucified at the hands of humans. For, there is open war in Europe for the first time since the end of World War II, even as we continue to contend with a pandemic that is not over, if thankfully, easing…at least for the moment. Such realities, that fill our tv screens, radios, social media feeds, and news apps, are much like a tolling bell…remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
I will admit that I made the conscious choice to restrict my news consumption after the events of Jan 6, 2021 and the presidential inauguration that followed. For at that time, I felt utterly glued to my phone and to KUT lost in worry and anxiety about where our nation was heading. It wasn’t good for my mental health…fear was always at the edge of my consciousness…breaking in with unwelcome thoughts of doom and gloom even when in moments of celebration with friends, family and loved ones. So, though I did not entirely disconnect from the goings on in the larger community and world…as doing that is not necessarily helpful either…for we must have awareness of what’s happening around us if we want to be impactful as God’s own heart and hands in this world…so I didn’t turn all the news off…but I did make the choice to not listen to the news in the car and, instead, I indulged my love of new wave, punk and alternative 80’s music. Over the past year I feel like I have become personal friends with the DJ’s on First Wave…the 80’s new wave station on SiriusXM…Larry the Duck, Doug the Slug, Richard Blade, and Swedish Eagle.
And yet, over the past couple of weeks, I have noticed myself flipping back over to KUT, Austin’s NPR Station, obsessing again over the heartbreaking news flowing out of Ukraine and the heartbreaking proclamations by our elected officials demonizing our beautiful, precious, fragile and life-giving trans-children. And, I have noticed further the feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness and feeling like there is surely more I should be doing or saying welling back up in me…feelings that I am not doing enough…that I am not enough…for the brokenness of the world is a consequence of human sin…of greed and fear of scarcity and fear of difference and desire for power and a desire to hoard rather than share…and, when ruminating on such darkness, I begin to believe that perhaps I contribute to all of that more than I dare admit. And I confess these feelings in a desire to normalize such feelings. If you struggle with some if not all of them yourself, again, the feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness and that sense that I should somehow be doing more about it all…like I am somehow letting the world and those I love in it down…that I am somehow not enough…if any or all of these feelings feel familiar…you are not alone in them. I am right there with you. And, sometimes it helps…sometimes it helps a lot…to just know…it’s not just me.
Now, though very important, I think it is not enough to only normalize our feelings and then stop there. Though together is always better, recognizing and naming that we are not alone in this present darkness, and all the negative self-talk and feelings to which it leads, is to be just the beginning of how we find our way forward…forward in faith…in hope…in love…together…forward into a new day that Jesus’ glorious resurrection points, inaugurates and makes possible. So, it is so important for me to say that…differently than what the world might seek to say to us about our undiscovered future…that the end has already been written…that finding hope is a fool’s errand…or some such…Ash Wednesday’s somber reminder that we are dust is not intended to lead us to any sense of hopelessness, any feelings of powerlessness, any sense of not doing of being enough. In fact, it is intended to do just the opposite. Ash Wednesday is not about endings…but about beginnings. Ash Wednesday is intended to remind us that, when God saw the dust of the earth, God saw life. God saw potential. God saw partners to love and be loved by. Thus, God gathered up the atoms that constitute creation, the dust of the earth, and breathed life into them. And God did so in God’s own likeness and image. Thus, humans are given the power to create, to dream, to form connections, to give, to love…to be powerful…not powerless. And, further, God looks upon that which God made and calls it, calls us, good. We are good…our bodies are good, our hearts are good, our minds are good, our souls are good…so very good. And, all that goodness…that breathtaking beauty that you are…is enough…enough to make meaning of the lives we live, to find purpose, to make a difference for good and for God. The matter from which your very life is shaped, formed and empowered by God matters…infinitely so. And, when we say “to dust we shall return” the suggestion is not that we return to nothingness…that’s not in the bible or the prayer book…but that we return to the hands of the one who created us at the very beginning. We both emerge from and return to the very heart and hands of God…to be recreated from glory into glory…re-forged in the fire of Jesus’ resurrection light from everlasting to everlasting. This is the point of Jesus’ resurrection that follows Jesus’ cross…the eternal promise that nothing that God has made will ever be lost…not a single speck of dust. Let that good news transform any sense of hopelessness into hope.
Now you may be thinking…Miles, Stacey preached a very good sermon on Ash Wednesday…why are you preaching a second Ash Wednesday sermon on the first Sunday of Lent…haven’t we moved on. Well, fair enough…I’ll try now to get us there. You see, Luke begins today’s gospel lesson recalling Jesus’ 40-days in the wilderness by telling us that Jesus enters the wilderness directly following his baptism. Luke writes, “After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” And, though the baptism itself is not recounted in today’s reading, perhaps you recall that just a few verses earlier at Jesus’ Baptism God shares a special message with Jesus…a blessing, words of never-ending love that we get to overhear. God says, “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” You see, before Jesus enters the wilderness, which I see as a time of preparation for all that will follow…all the heartache and pain, his own and others, that Jesus will enter and endure…all the illness and heartbreak he will see, feel in his gut, and heal…all the humiliation and ridicule he will face…the betrayal of his friends…the temptation to be a conquering king rather than a suffering servant…the torture and violence he will endure on the cross…even his painful, suffocating death…before all of that for which he prepares in his 40 days of prayer, fasting, and contending with the devil in the wilderness…before all of that…God reminds him…that he, that Jesus, is God’s own beloved child, that his heavenly parent loves him from forever to forever, that God is so very pleased with who he is. And, I think Jesus took God’s words of affirmation of power of hope of goodness of enough-ness to heart and, further, that they carried him all the way through…forward…all the way through to the cross and on to Easter…where Jesus’ own body, his own life, was re-forged in the fire light of his resurrection…from everlasting to everlasting.
And I hope that sort of sounds like what I described about what Ash Wednesday is trying to say to us…to remind us of…as we contend with all the challenges, suffering, anxiety, and loss that beset us in our own day. For like Jesus our brother, God is saying to us…you are my beloved child, I love you from forever to forever, I am so pleased with you. You, who were created in my own image and have the power to create, to heal, to connect, to give, to love. I am so pleased with the goodness that lives in you…you are enough. You are mine and all that you are…every speck of dust that makes up your life both came from me and will return to me…you will not be lost…so do not lose hope. And, if like Jesus, we will take these words of affirmation of power of hope of goodness of enough-ness to heart they will carry us through as well…forward…through our own wilderness times of want and anxiety and temptation and uncertainty and suffering…all the way through the crosses we bear to Easter…where our own selves, souls, and bodies, the dust from which we are made, will be re-forged in the fire light of resurrection…from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.