It’s a huge change of pace….from Super Bowl Sunday to Ash Wednesday – and in between, the Parade of Champions celebrating Gang Blue’s Giant accomplishment and Super Tuesday Election Primaries….with Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro…carnival in Trinidad and Tobago – here we are on Ash Wednesday….the organ is quiet, and the paraments are black. Here we are mustering a sense of penitence, all with a huge dash of reality…we are not in parade of champions drowning in tons of confetti but we are in a parade of sinners seeking to be drowned in waters of baptism. This evening we stand together and publicly confess that we are sinners…..we have sinned against God by our own fault, by our own most grievous fault….and our sin is ever before us. “Against God and God alone have we sinned,” says the Psalmist. So we come here because we need to come, but more importantly because God has invited us to repent of our sins and to trust God’s mercy…..God’s Spirit has called us here and we come to rend our hearts and not our garments….perhaps God will relent and leave us a blessing. In a while we will be marked with ashes of last year’s palms….and as we hear and absorb the truth about ourselves, “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” we receive this word alongside an even greater truth: God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

I really do want to hold on to the grace of God, and I want you to do the same thing….to hold on to nothing else but the grace of God during Lent and beyond. I want us to grow in God’s grace and in our experience of God in our lives and in our midst. I don’t want us to trust in any other notion besides the grace of God. I know there are many Lenten notions that folks will entertain as good things to do during the next 40 days, and yet, as is true for every year, there will be struggle to keep doing those “good things” for Lent. Some of us will “give up” movies, meat, chocolate, or alcohol for the forty days of Lent. Others will fast. Still others will vow to be more “spiritual” during Lent…..maybe attend more Sunday services or pray a little more, or read the bible a bit more. Well, kudos to you if you can “give up” something for the next 40 days (God in fact knows what you need to give up!) And kudos to you if in fact you can develop positive disciplines like fasting, praying, and giving alms (we would like to see some evidence although Jesus said we shouldn’t be public about such things). In any case it can be a powerful personal statement about our faith commitment given the current culture of excess and indulgence that attempts to claim us. Each of us can think about our own approach to Lenten discipline….being engaged in an activity that glorifies God. Someone told of a scholar whose spiritual advisor urged him to give up reading during Lent. The scholar said that it was the perfect prescription for him because he was addicted to books, reading and ideas. I am thinking I would give up following politics for the next 40 days because I am following too mush as it is…..but this is such a ripe political season…..we’ll see how this goes.

But the deeper truth here is that I don’t want you or me to think that “giving up” something during Lent is going to save us or make us any more spiritual. More than giving up something let us think about giving up ourselves to the mercy of God. You and I will bear the ashen sign of the cross on our foreheads……that sign that reminds us of our sin and our repentance…it also points us to who our God really is…”gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” The power of Lent is not what we can do to earn favor with God….for we cannot do this…it is rather what God has done for us….it is not what we can give up during Lent, it is rather what God has given up…God gave His Son to the death on the cross, a death that saves us from sin, evil, death, and the devil. For that we cannot thank and praise God enough.

So this evening we come not to give up something as though we could save ourselves, but we come out of our own neediness. Just as I am without one plea/But that Thy blood was shed for me/And that Thou bidst me come to Thee/O Lamb of God I come, I come. Our society may be duped into thinking of itself as self-sufficient and as having no need for God….but you and I come here recognizing and gladly confessing our need. Some needs are obvious….the locusts have come and stripped away whatever security we may have had in our jobs or homes or health or savings. Some other needs are buried under layers of denial…..we have sinned against God in our negligence of worship and prayer, in our indifference to God’s Word…in our service here in the congregation and beyond. We have sinned against each other in our coldness and lack of forgiveness, in our pulling down when we should have been building up, in thinking that we are better than others, and in ignoring the needs around us. We have sinned because we think that sharing the gospel with East Orange and beyond is an unimportant matter. We have sinned by withholding our heart from God.

So in the midst of our great need we come to follow the One, born of Mary, who gave himself for us, for you, for me. We come because the Spirit draws us to follow Him, share in His life, to take deep into our being his Word of life, be strengthened to follow him to the cross of Good Friday, and even more, to the new life of a Resurrection Day. And as we come, this is all we have…..a promise that if we confess our sins God is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And in that promise we walk wet – wet in the waters of baptism knowing that Christ is in us and we are in Christ…..that God is creating a clean heart within us…..that God will open our lips so and we will show forth his praise.

Thursday, February 14
The Shadow of Betrayal (Mark 14:17-21)

Thursday, February 21
The Shadow of Servant Leadership (John 13:1-15)

Thursday, February 28
The Shadow of Denial (Luke 22:54-62)

Thursday, March 6
The Shadow of False Accusations (John 18:25-19:1)

Thursday, March 13
The Shadow of a Last Chance (Luke 23:32-33; 39-43)