Episode Transcript
Hello friends and welcome to yet another episode this week of Grids in the Gospel. I am so thankful that we are moving into the Easter season. These holy days, these days of reflection, this time of lent, moving into Easter is just such a precious time. And I'm so thankful that I get to celebrate it with you. This year I am preaching an Ash Wednesday service up the road with another United Methodist Church. And we will be in communion together and community together. The connection of the United Methodist Church is a strong one and it's a great thing that we get to worship together on this Ash Wednesday. Let us come together now in a time of worship. The Lord be with you and also with you. Today's Psalm is the 51st Psalm versus 1 through 17. Here, now the words of the Psalmist as they plea for mercy. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blood out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you alone, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth and the inward being, therefore teach me wisdom and my secret heart. Perge me with hisseup and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be wider than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. How'd your face from my sins and blood out all my iniquities? Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore me the joy of your salvation and sustain me in a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. For you have no delight and sacrifice. If I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. Let us pray. Do all our we come to you today so humbled that we get to receive an outward symbol of our inward faith. We are so thankful that we are every day, every single day covered by your grace. Let these ashes be a symbol to everyone that sees them of that very grace that you have given so freely. Here is now as we pray the words that your Son taught us to pray. 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. Let us now say the words that are the tenets of our faith. 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 siteth 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. Amen. Today's scripture gospel lesson is from the gospel according to Matthew. We are in the sixth chapter, the first six verses, and then skipping down to verses 16 through 21. Here now the gospel lesson. Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them. For then you have no reward from your Father and 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 that 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 hypocritm. 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 make their faces to show others their 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 treasure on earth. We're moth and rust consume, and we're thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures and heaven. We're neither moth nor rust consumes, and we're 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. Would you pray with me, to all our we are so thankful for this beginning mark of this season of Lent? May we have a fruitful time of prayer and giving and fasting as we move through the season of Lent, and to the rejoicing and hope and joy and love of Easter. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer, amen. My grandmother, Gloria McAfee, when, or Gogi to all who knew her, played bridge with the same group of women for almost 65 years. The group of women gathered once a month for decades, and ate together and played bridge, and caught up on life. And if we're really being honest, they did more catching up and eating than they did playing bridge. Gogi kept a notebook of every menu she ever served them, so she didn't ever repeat a lunch. And eventually, all of those lunches they shared produced a cookbook called Table Talk from Bridge to Brunches. The book was given at just about every bridal shower and welcome to make in basket that was put together in the late 1900s. It has been out of print for a long time. There are some stashes here and there mainly with the original members' daughters, but every once in a while I find a copy at a use bookstore. They are quite the treasure. When I found one, I would always call Gogi and let her know she was always a little insulted when I found one. Open it up and see if it signed. Who would give away such a treasure, Katie? I mean, it has Gogi's famous tree's muffin recipe in it. So who indeed would give away such a treasure? The electionary text is quite ironic this Ash Wednesday, is it not? Beware practicing righteousness before others. Do not sound a trumpet when you give, but do it in secret. Do not pray on the street corner, but go in a room and shut the door. And the hardest one for me would be to fast and not let anyone know you are going without food. That one is almost impossible. My stomach would give me away, but with the growling it would do. We are told to treasure things in our hearts, not to make a spectacle of our faith, but to make it personal and private. We are told to do this on the one day where we take ashes and mark a big cross on our foreheads. Saddle, right? How are we supposed to reconcile the two things? This is the one day of the liturgical calendar where we do make a physical spectacle of our faith. We do not show our faith in secret, but using the trumpeting of ashes to declare that we are people of faith. So it begs the question, how do we make sure we're not performing our faith, but treasuring it? Are we going to church just because our mamas and grand mamas told us to? Are we faithful only when people are looking? It's all about the sincerity of our faith. To me, as someone who stands up at least once a week and prays and makes a spectacle of her faith, it is not that we should never stand up and declare what we believe in. It is not that we should not pray in front of people or give to the poor while others are watching. It is that we should not only pray in public or give to the poor while other people are watching. The wonderful work of the food bank would never happen if we had to do it, where those that are served could not see who was serving them. That is part of what good work is done here in Boroughville. When you give food to people who need it, you're not just giving alms, you're giving a friendly face. You're making sure they're cared for and loved not only physically but emotionally. It's all about your motivation to give, not just that you do the work so that people can see it. That is the true treasure that you're giving people, and one that I'm sure you get more up and return. Those are the things we are called to store up in heaven. Those are the kinds of treasures we should be working for, not the earthly kind, but the ones of the heart. We should be seeking out ways to treasure our own faith so that when we do put ashes on our foreheads or publicly show how God is working in our lives, it is the treasure that people see first. The overflow of love from our own tanks should be so powerful and bright that we don't have to make a skeptical of ourselves. Not all of Guggie's bridge friends were great cooks. At times, at any time, certain members hosted bridge club, they either took everyone out to lunch or had someone help them make the food. So in the cookbook, when we see the menu for lunch at Betty's, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Guggie knew that all the recipes were someone else's. She knew that her friends were the treasure and not their food. The treasure of that cookbook for Guggie was the time she spent with her friends, the care and work that went into the project. That is why giving a copy of Tabletalk to the friends of the library was just unfathomable to her. It wasn't about the book itself, but the thing that it represented. Years of friendship are seen in those pages. They grew up together, went to high school and college together, had babies and grand babies together. They nursed each other back to health after illnesses and were there with food, of course, when each other's parents and husbands passed away. The treasure for all of them was the stories and the lives that they shared that built those precious pages. It's the same way for our faith. All of the prayers and giving and fasting that we do are because of our grace-filled lives of faith. They are built on the real heart of our beliefs. At the time we share with God in quiet when we are hurt and grieving and mourn and when we are joyful and hopeful, that is the time that we build our faith. We build our faith so that when we wear the ashes on our head or take the love of God to our community, it is sincere and full of love and not empty in vain. I still find table talk book out in the wild. It's a true treasure hunt. When I find them, I love to give them away so that other people can treasure it as much as I do. It's a gift that shows you took time and effort and care and work to find it. The out of print treasure that I love so much. I have my own copy that is one of my personal treasures. Not because of the recipes in it, because there are a lot of jello molds in there that are somewhat suspect. But because of the inscription that is written in the front of mine. And her very distinctive handwriting. On December 25th, 2002. My grandmother wrote. Katie, Colin. Hope you will enjoy using this cookbook in the years to come. Go, Guy. I'm not sure that she thought about giving the cookbooks and sharing these treasures as the way I would enjoy it the most. But that's exactly what it's become. People see just how special it is to me. That connection and love that went into each page by women that were kind and loving and cared deeply about me. They see that and want to be a part of the legacy and love that comes with it. Don't you think it should be that same way with our faith? People see just how special our faith is to us. The kindness and mercy and grace. Enjoy that we find not just in church, but with our God. And because of it, they want to be a part of that legacy, that treasure hunt of life, just like we are. The private moments of faith that become the treasures that we hold fast to and share with others. So on this day, this first day of Lent, let us come together to receive that outward treasured symbol of our faith. The mark of the ashes that says, I am a person of faith, moving toward Easter, reflecting on the sacrifice and love that comes with the community of faith. Such a treasure indeed. Amen. As we go, not just throughout the sweet, but throughout Lent, let us remember the sacrifice, the love, the joy, and the light that can overflow in our reflection of God to our communities. Because in life, in death and life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. Amen.
