The Ash Connection
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Readings
Series I, Cycle C
There is always something we cannot stand about ourselves, something that is unacceptable, something that has reduced us to ashes. There is always some need for us to be reconciled to God. There is always a chance for us to become reconciled to ourselves.
On Ash Wednesday, we become aware of the ashes of aborted plans, miscarried hope, and infertile dreams -- the ashes of having fallen short. We are vulnerable and needy. We need to bring these ashes to God so God can blow them away to reveal to us a new creation. We need to set aside a time to come back home to ourselves.
The setting aside time of the Lenten season, beginning with Ash Wednesday, is an acceptable time for us to speak to God and for God to listen to us. However, before renewed life can happen, we must become ready.
Once there was a dog guide team. The actual assist dog changed from time to time as the years passed and the dog retired. As time went on, the dog's blind partner grew in team skill, gaining many lessons from her dog guides. The initial lesson, however, taught the woman about being ready. When she was ready, having done the prework, she found that opportunity for the next step would present itself to her.
To observers in their small town, it appeared that the dog guide located buildings by magic. Indeed, the dog did guide its partner from their house to a shop downtown after only a two-word command.
First, however, the woman had to determine the route to the shop. Then, using a series of commands, she gave the dog guide block by block instructions until they arrived at the store. Upon reaching their destination, the dog guide received an identifying word -- Safeway. From that time, whenever it was told to find Safeway, the dog required no further instruction.
Becoming successful as a dog guide user necessitates another type of prework. The dog/person team must establish a close relationship. It is helpful, first, for dog users to have come home to the reality of their blindness. Then they can embrace with whole heart the hope of a good working relationship with their dog guides.
A college student who returned to the dog guide training facility within a year for his third replacement dog discovered the impact on his dogs of his inability to accept his blindness. He would continue to have unfortunate experiences with dog guides until he came to terms with his blindness.
Having perceived the student's anger, his first dog had destroyed the man's dorm bed mattress. His second dog became aggressive with other students. The acceptable time of readiness for an honest dog/person work bond would arrive only after the man came home to himself.
The bonding of another dog guide team was immediate. A blind pastor did not know what to expect from her first assist dog. While visiting with a suffering parishioner, the pastor herself was overcome with emotion. Perceiving her feelings, this compassionate dog rose and approached the minister. With profound gentleness, it slowly washed the tears from her face. At that moment, the woman trusted the team to work. Her working dog possessed the unteachable capacity to blow away ashes and extend her human partner's freedom.
Let us view Ash Wednesday ashes now from the perspective of the tangible black stuff from fireplaces that gardeners welcome. Ash feeds the plants of thriving vegetable gardens. An essential nutrient, potash or potassium promotes both healthy stems and plant roots. It improves fruit production. From the ash in the soil, potassium makes its way into cherry tomatoes, snow peas, and other garden produce.
This transformed ash moves on to renew the cells and muscles of the human family and to help maintain the electrical stability of the cells of the human heart and our nervous system. This high source of potassium is the same wood ash that some church folk will use on this day to mark the cross of Lent on their foreheads.
What does all this talk about workable dog guide teams, coming home to ourselves, and a well-fertilized garden have to do with the beginning of the Lenten season? The variety of ash in our lives draws us to a fuller sense of the connectedness of all things.
Consider the symbolism in the natural world of a growing seedling that became first a tree and then the Good Friday cross. Later it might have been burned for fuel and returned to ash. Eventually, it may have re-entered the soil to nourish a new sapling.
Or, let your heart be drawn to the tree that was a palm and whose branches were strewn in honor on the path, the green carpet that Jesus would follow into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Perhaps you placed in a special spot in your sitting room a dried palm frond from Palm Sunday a year ago. Today, you might have burnt it to the ash daubed on your forehead in the shape of a cross to remind you of Jesus' death and resurrection.
Or, consider the phoenix of Egyptian, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese mythology. The large, gentle bird that is said to live from 500 to more than 12,000 years self-combusts, burning to ashes. After three days, this symbol of rebirth and life after death is renewed. The phoenix rises to new life from its ashes.
Let us review also the following signs of renewed life:
• The transformation that a dog guide brings to the uneasy mobility of one who does not see.
• The thick, renewed growth that sprouts from the ashes of a great fire at Yellowstone National Park.
• The resilient human spirit of determination and concern for oneness of people worldwide that rose from foot upon foot and yard upon yard of ash sludge at the World Trade Center site.
Consider in our lives any journey from life to death to renewed life and the hope that ascends from ash of despair at the acceptable time. Consider the fresh start, the new creation, that comes into our being at the right time. Consider, amid the ashes, the discovery that we are fully alive. We who, like the people of old Corinth, thought we had nothing, in fact possess everything.
Hear anew the Apostle Paul telling us of God's promise, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you" (v. 2). Hear the charge to come back home to ourselves. Hear the beckoning to move toward the new creation of reconciliation with ourselves, with God and Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 5:16-20.) Now is the time our hearts can become ready to hear the words from Revelation as words for us, that God stands ready to listen to us and to wipe away our tears of suffering. (See Revelation 7:17.)
As we move through this time of coming back home, let us notice the curious placement of pre-Easter scripture. These passages offer us segments of Second Lesson letters to the Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Hebrews. These selections draw us toward two queries: How best can we use Lent as a time to acknowledge suffering? Why is Lent the time to put suffering into perspective? These Lenten texts lead us toward a greater reality of how things are with us so that on Easter morning we will be able to hear for ourselves God's promise of hope.
After Easter Sunday, in case we did not get it the first time, we will spend several weeks with the book of Revelation. This book of the Bible offers a journey through the metaphorical expression of Lent reflection and Easter promise. Ascension Sunday returns us to Paul with his note to the Ephesians.
When is the acceptable time to ask God to listen to us? When is the acceptable time for God to bring help? Such questions rise from within the chaos of suffering and wondering if God has deserted us altogether.
Does this acceptable time depend in part upon when we are open to accept it? Is making ourselves ready a prerequisite? Do we have to wait until when the acceptable time has come for God to be ready? Drawing upon similar words from the Hebrew prophet Isaiah (49:8), Paul reminds us that now is the acceptable time: "For he says, 'At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.' See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!" (v. 2).
Now is the time for our hearts, yours and mine, to become ready to hear the words from Isaiah to 2 Corinthians to Revelation as words for us. God stands ready to listen to us and to wipe away tears of suffering. (See Revelation 7:17.) This holy now can come at any time because of the promise by God that the God of grace is by our side.
On Ash Wednesday, we become aware of the ashes of aborted plans, miscarried hope, and infertile dreams -- the ashes of having fallen short. We are vulnerable and needy. We need to bring these ashes to God so God can blow them away to reveal to us a new creation. We need to set aside a time to come back home to ourselves.
The setting aside time of the Lenten season, beginning with Ash Wednesday, is an acceptable time for us to speak to God and for God to listen to us. However, before renewed life can happen, we must become ready.
Once there was a dog guide team. The actual assist dog changed from time to time as the years passed and the dog retired. As time went on, the dog's blind partner grew in team skill, gaining many lessons from her dog guides. The initial lesson, however, taught the woman about being ready. When she was ready, having done the prework, she found that opportunity for the next step would present itself to her.
To observers in their small town, it appeared that the dog guide located buildings by magic. Indeed, the dog did guide its partner from their house to a shop downtown after only a two-word command.
First, however, the woman had to determine the route to the shop. Then, using a series of commands, she gave the dog guide block by block instructions until they arrived at the store. Upon reaching their destination, the dog guide received an identifying word -- Safeway. From that time, whenever it was told to find Safeway, the dog required no further instruction.
Becoming successful as a dog guide user necessitates another type of prework. The dog/person team must establish a close relationship. It is helpful, first, for dog users to have come home to the reality of their blindness. Then they can embrace with whole heart the hope of a good working relationship with their dog guides.
A college student who returned to the dog guide training facility within a year for his third replacement dog discovered the impact on his dogs of his inability to accept his blindness. He would continue to have unfortunate experiences with dog guides until he came to terms with his blindness.
Having perceived the student's anger, his first dog had destroyed the man's dorm bed mattress. His second dog became aggressive with other students. The acceptable time of readiness for an honest dog/person work bond would arrive only after the man came home to himself.
The bonding of another dog guide team was immediate. A blind pastor did not know what to expect from her first assist dog. While visiting with a suffering parishioner, the pastor herself was overcome with emotion. Perceiving her feelings, this compassionate dog rose and approached the minister. With profound gentleness, it slowly washed the tears from her face. At that moment, the woman trusted the team to work. Her working dog possessed the unteachable capacity to blow away ashes and extend her human partner's freedom.
Let us view Ash Wednesday ashes now from the perspective of the tangible black stuff from fireplaces that gardeners welcome. Ash feeds the plants of thriving vegetable gardens. An essential nutrient, potash or potassium promotes both healthy stems and plant roots. It improves fruit production. From the ash in the soil, potassium makes its way into cherry tomatoes, snow peas, and other garden produce.
This transformed ash moves on to renew the cells and muscles of the human family and to help maintain the electrical stability of the cells of the human heart and our nervous system. This high source of potassium is the same wood ash that some church folk will use on this day to mark the cross of Lent on their foreheads.
What does all this talk about workable dog guide teams, coming home to ourselves, and a well-fertilized garden have to do with the beginning of the Lenten season? The variety of ash in our lives draws us to a fuller sense of the connectedness of all things.
Consider the symbolism in the natural world of a growing seedling that became first a tree and then the Good Friday cross. Later it might have been burned for fuel and returned to ash. Eventually, it may have re-entered the soil to nourish a new sapling.
Or, let your heart be drawn to the tree that was a palm and whose branches were strewn in honor on the path, the green carpet that Jesus would follow into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Perhaps you placed in a special spot in your sitting room a dried palm frond from Palm Sunday a year ago. Today, you might have burnt it to the ash daubed on your forehead in the shape of a cross to remind you of Jesus' death and resurrection.
Or, consider the phoenix of Egyptian, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese mythology. The large, gentle bird that is said to live from 500 to more than 12,000 years self-combusts, burning to ashes. After three days, this symbol of rebirth and life after death is renewed. The phoenix rises to new life from its ashes.
Let us review also the following signs of renewed life:
• The transformation that a dog guide brings to the uneasy mobility of one who does not see.
• The thick, renewed growth that sprouts from the ashes of a great fire at Yellowstone National Park.
• The resilient human spirit of determination and concern for oneness of people worldwide that rose from foot upon foot and yard upon yard of ash sludge at the World Trade Center site.
Consider in our lives any journey from life to death to renewed life and the hope that ascends from ash of despair at the acceptable time. Consider the fresh start, the new creation, that comes into our being at the right time. Consider, amid the ashes, the discovery that we are fully alive. We who, like the people of old Corinth, thought we had nothing, in fact possess everything.
Hear anew the Apostle Paul telling us of God's promise, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you" (v. 2). Hear the charge to come back home to ourselves. Hear the beckoning to move toward the new creation of reconciliation with ourselves, with God and Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 5:16-20.) Now is the time our hearts can become ready to hear the words from Revelation as words for us, that God stands ready to listen to us and to wipe away our tears of suffering. (See Revelation 7:17.)
As we move through this time of coming back home, let us notice the curious placement of pre-Easter scripture. These passages offer us segments of Second Lesson letters to the Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Hebrews. These selections draw us toward two queries: How best can we use Lent as a time to acknowledge suffering? Why is Lent the time to put suffering into perspective? These Lenten texts lead us toward a greater reality of how things are with us so that on Easter morning we will be able to hear for ourselves God's promise of hope.
After Easter Sunday, in case we did not get it the first time, we will spend several weeks with the book of Revelation. This book of the Bible offers a journey through the metaphorical expression of Lent reflection and Easter promise. Ascension Sunday returns us to Paul with his note to the Ephesians.
When is the acceptable time to ask God to listen to us? When is the acceptable time for God to bring help? Such questions rise from within the chaos of suffering and wondering if God has deserted us altogether.
Does this acceptable time depend in part upon when we are open to accept it? Is making ourselves ready a prerequisite? Do we have to wait until when the acceptable time has come for God to be ready? Drawing upon similar words from the Hebrew prophet Isaiah (49:8), Paul reminds us that now is the acceptable time: "For he says, 'At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.' See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!" (v. 2).
Now is the time for our hearts, yours and mine, to become ready to hear the words from Isaiah to 2 Corinthians to Revelation as words for us. God stands ready to listen to us and to wipe away tears of suffering. (See Revelation 7:17.) This holy now can come at any time because of the promise by God that the God of grace is by our side.
