Sermon

St. Mary Nanoose Bay

March 3, 2019

Luke 9:28-36  

Create in us, O Lord, clean and responsive hearts              

Today is the last Sunday before Lent. On Tuesday, we celebrate the day before Lent begins with Shrove Tuesday and yummy pancakes in the company of lively children! And the day after is Ash Wednesday with a service at 11am.             

Some people I know avoid Ash Wednesday because it’s “heavy” and painful. They don’t want to feel guilty or ashamed. OK, I get that! Who would willing want to wade into that water?!            

So I want to propose that Lent can offer something very different – the opportunity to choose freedom over slavery, connection instead of feeling left out or lonely, and gratitude rather than feeling insatiable.            

Freedom over slavery looks like letting go of the things we do, say and believe that keep us stuck. Often these are ideas of ourselves and others that control us and keep us from seeing and experiencing the love and freedom God offers us. For instance, judging ourself and others, and judging events, is something we all do. Judgment keeps us in right/wrong thinking which is a dynamic that excludes God’s love.  When I can admit that my thoughts or behaviour aren’t serving me without condemning myself (which keeps me focused on myself), I can bring my yearning for change to God. That yearning in itself is a prayer. To yearn for change, release, relief is a form of question and we’ve been told, “Ask and you shall receive.” We don’t have to come up with the answers or solutions, we just need to let go of what no longer serves us. And that openness allows God to work in us.             This dynamic reminds me of the Konmari method of de-cluttering. How many of you are familiar with this?             Basically, the premise is to handle each thing you own – a book, a piece of clothing, your kitchen utensils – and ask yourself, “Does this give me joy?” and if it doesn’t you release it knowing that you brought it into your home for a good reason. In other words, you let go of stuff that no longer serves you and allow it to be used by someone else.            

Someone posted on FaceBook that using this method, they‘ve been able to release “the vegetables, their girdle, the electric bill, the scale, a mirror and their treadmill.”            

A good joke, yes, and to the point that much of what we do and own does not give us joy. And joy is one of the key signs that people are living in closer relationship with God.             

I think of a friends of ours who was a star rugby player in his younger years. People looked up to him, especially women, and he never stopped to think of the damage to his or others’ bodies as he literally threw himself into the game. He was considered an animal, and he loved it!            

Now, all these years later, he is a gentle, kind and compassionate person. He is concerned with his inner life, assuming little, checking in with himself and others that he’s giving as much as he is receiving.            

So Lent is a time to let go of things and behaviours that stand between us and God’s love. Focusing for 6 weeks on this “letting go” is good practice.            

And Mary Holte’s upcoming workshop  “What Gives you Joy” on March 13th is an opportunity to start moving away from the things that might have once given us joy but no longer do. Sometimes the things that used to give us joy now do the opposite and it’s clear, it’s time to move on and try something different.            

I used to love to sew. I made my own kids’ clothing, I sewed birthday and Christmas gifts. These days when I sew, I find it stressful, I can hardly thread the needle. I still have a sewing machine but once we move into our tiny home, who knows? I may gift it to someone!            

Joy is important. I remember as a mom of teenagers having one or the other son say, “Mama, why don’t you do something fun, or nice for yourself?” My friends would say, “Wow, your sons are so caring and considerate!” And yes, they were. But more than that, they were smart. They knew first hand that if Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. So when I got resentful and nasty, they knew what to do – encourage me to do something that would bring me joy!            

We all have stories about having been left out, or being lonely. Lent can be a time to examine those stories and let them go. Do you feel ignored by God or others? Maybe it’s time to reach out and be present to others instead of focusing on your self. We have been created for relationship, we find life in relationship, and we have so much to offer others, even when we don’t believe it. Looking at the stories we have about ourselves is one way to free ourselves from those stories and become open to how the Holy Spirit might guide us into relationships that are mutually nurturing. Read the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke’s Gospel. And if you can get a copy of Henri Nouwen’s book on that gospel story, spend time with and pray with it. God is just waiting for each one of us to return, not in a static way, but waiting with baited breath, ready to jump up, and run out and embrace us as soon as we come into view.            

We each also have stories about how we are good and how we are bad. These stories do not serve. They keep us stuck being the “good girl or boy” and keep us hiding the things we do not feel about. Constriction is never good for us. It keeps us from being able to move freely through life.            

As the sermon suggested last week, we are like seeds that have been sown in radically different settings, full of potential. Can we, in this Christian community, nurture each other, accepting that we are all growing under different circumstances; in different places and stages of our lives?              

When we don’t genuinely feel gratitude, it’s a sign that we are stuck. We are outside of the divine exchange; the economy of God’s love which is continuous giving and receiving.  Lack of gratitude is a wake up call to move closer to God.  Not only to ask for, and receive all that God offers, but to ask for the eyes and ears to see and hear how God’s care for us arrives every moment of our lives.            

A good prayer to start each day during Lent could be, “Holy One, open my eyes and ears to all the ways in which You will bless me today….”            

So Lent is not a time to beat yourself up and withdraw even more from community. Yes, it is a time for honest reflection but with the goal of opening your heart more fully to God. Yes, it is helpful to spend more time in quiet but for the purpose of contemplating of God’s presence and action in your life.            

So I invite you to embrace the potential of Lent as we will pray on Ash Wednesday, “Create in me, O God, a clean heart;” a heart more capable of, and responsive, to Love.

AMEN.