Episode Transcript
Hello friends. Welcome to this week's episode of Grants in the Gospel. This is an extra
episode. Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. Today is Ash Wednesday when we will be imposing
ashes in our service that will happen this afternoon. I hope that wherever you are,
you have the opportunity to go to an Ash Wednesday service. It is a beautiful service,
one of my favorites, full of prayer and contemplation and a great way to start Lent. So I hope
that you will be doing that. I will also say that Sunday, there will not be a podcast
because we have a guest preacher coming. One of our mission partners from Uganda is
in country and will be preaching at our service. It is always so powerful to
hear a sermon from someone whose first language is not English. So I am looking forward to that
and being able to worship with Pastor Isaac. So let us now prepare our hearts for worship
on this Ash Wednesday. The Lord be with you and also with you. Today's Old Testament
lesson comes from the prophet Joel. We are in the second chapter of Joel, verses 1 and 2 and
then moving down to verses 12 through 17. Hear now the word of the Lord.
Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound the alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of
the land tremble. For the day of the Lord is coming. It is near. A day of darkness and
gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Like blackness spread upon the mountains,
a great and powerful army comes. Their like has never been from old, nor will be again
after them in ages to come. Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart.
With fasting, with weeping, with mourning, rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
abounding in steadfast love and relenting from punishment. Who knows whether he will
not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink
offering for the Lord our God. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast. Call a
solemn assembly. Gather the people. Consecrate the congregation. Assemble the aged. Gather
the children. Even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her
canopy. Between the vestibule and the altar, let the priest, the ministers of the Lord weep.
Let them say, spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery.
A byword among the nations. Why should it say among the peoples, where is their God?
The word of God. For us, the people of God. Thanks be to God. Today as we come together at
the start of the Lenten season, let us once again remind ourselves of the things that we
believe. Friends, what do we believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of
heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy
Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried.
The third day he rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right
hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Let us pray for the needs of the world, saying, Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Holy God, as the ordinary season now turns to Lent, we pray that you will guide us
in the days ahead. As we journey with Jesus Christ, give us an abiding sense of your
presence, an unguarded sense of ourselves, and an awareness of the needs of this world.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Loving God, as we are marked with the ashes of the
earth, we bring before you the frailty of our very human lives, the fragility of our health,
the tenuousness of our accomplishments and plans, the changing nature of even our closest
relationships. Grant us patience and suffering and healing from our ills.
Give us, in equal measure, humility and hope in our pursuits.
Bind us in covenantal love that is both constant yet able to change,
according to the needs and circumstances before us. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Just God, you call us to loosen the bonds of injustice, to care for those in need,
to lift the burdens that bind others. We ask you to increase our courage and our will to work
for the freedom and peace you envision and demand. We pray for an end to warfare and
conflict, accepting our calling to be peacemakers. We pray for an end to hunger and
homelessness, knowing we are called to share our bread and to open our doors.
We pray for an end to false righteousness, evil speech and shallow piety in our lives,
in the church, in our national life and among all the nations. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer. Forever, God, we pray that your kingdom will come in fullness,
that what is perishable will be raised imperishable and that death itself will be
swallowed up in victory. Through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who taught us to pray these
words of praise and thanksgiving. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen. Today's scripture lesson is from the gospel
According to Matthew. We are in the sixth chapter, verses one through six, and then
dropping down to verses 16 through 21. Hear now the word of the Lord. Beware of practicing
your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward
from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so they may be praised by others.
Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left
hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your
Father who sees in secret will reward you. And whenever you pray, do not be like the
hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the street corners,
so that they may be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward.
But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in
secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And whenever you fast,
do not look somber like the hypocrites, for they mark their faces to show others that
they are fasting. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast,
put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others,
but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume,
and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The Word of God. For us, the people of God. Thanks be to God.
I did not grow up in a church that observed any kind of Ash Wednesday service.
So the first time I went to one, I was a little taken aback.
You want me to put what? Where? I thought that was just a Catholic thing.
I've had all kinds of reactions to the Ash Wednesday service.
I run out to my car and quickly wipe the ashes off because I was embarrassed to walk
around in public with ashes on my forehead. I've been proud and almost judgmental of people
who walk around without ashes on their forehead or know what it means.
I've been humbled and moved in the solemn moment when people I respect and love
place the ashes on my forehead. I've even gotten the giggles, don't be shocked, kneeling at
the altar when my pastor came around to impose ashes. It is indeed an interesting practice.
An interesting practice. The men who put the lectionary together are not helpful in
trying to figure this day out either. Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy
mountain, the prophet Joel says. While in Matthew, we're warned against making a
spectacle of ourselves. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets so that they may be praised by
others. So wait, I'm confused. Do I get my trumpet out of storage or not?
And it is Ash Wednesday. How can walking around with a cross of ashes on your forehead
not be a spectacle? I think it all comes down to one question. What is your why?
Why are you here? Why are you coming forward to have ashes placed on your forehead?
Are you doing it as a physical reminder of a time of sacrifice that is lent?
Are you here because the doors are open and you were raised to be in church when
there's a service no matter what? Are you here because you're curious about what an Ash
Wednesday service is all about? Are you in need of being healed and cleansed and you
see this as a chance to start the process? Do you want to go to the mountaintop and blow
the trumpet to tell the world how much God has done for you? Are you here in humble silence
to come and bring all of your baggage and hurt and sin and lay it at the altar?
All of these questions are things that you have to answer for yourself. I can look back
at my years participating in Ash Wednesday services and see where I was on my faith journey
and also what was going on in my life. When I was feeling self-conscious and insecure,
I would leave and wash the ashes off so no one would look at me funny.
I used to care a lot about those things. Now that I've gotten older, not so much.
I've gone to dinner after and stood a little too tall in judgment of people who dared to
walk through life not knowing that it was the start of Lent. I've been moved to tears when
I needed desperately to be healed and loved by God. When I needed the warrior of God to
use his power and might to wash away my pain. What are you bringing with you today?
The good news is that God will be there for you no matter how you show up today.
Whether you're excited to shout from the mountaintops or you need peace and comfort
in a quiet moment with God. You will be met as you are. God loves you as you are.
God wants you to commune with him and talk to him and come to him no matter what you
are carrying when you show up. God wants to be your biggest champion when you need it.
He wants to shout from the mountaintop how much you are loved and how special you are.
And God also wants to be there for you to sit beside you and comfort you when you need a quiet
moment of grief or reflection or repentance. No matter how you come to the altar today,
God will meet you there. That is the beauty of Ash Wednesday. That is the beauty of the faith
that we have. That is the ultimate why for the coming together and worship to begin the season
of Lent. What a powerful and beautiful God we serve. God knows the number of hairs on our
head and God also knows the desires and hurts and loves and yearning of our heart.
What a humbling opportunity we have today to come before him and begin this journey to
Easter with a moment of love and grace. Just like at the table, all are welcome to come
receive the ashes today. They are available to all just like the love and grace of God.
Let us prepare our hearts for Lent as we come together for the blessing and the imposition
of ashes. Amen. As we go throughout our week this week and throughout all of Lent,
let us be reminded each and every day of the grace and power of God,
of the sacrifice and love for us as we sacrifice during our Lenten season.
Because in life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
