Joel 2:1–2, 12–17
Psalm 51:1–17
2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10
Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There is a picture book that I read to preschoolers during Lent about a boy and his grandparents. The boy in the story, Tyrone, is always getting into trouble. He helps his grandfather in the garden, and then gets stung by a bee. He helps his grandmother dry the dishes, and then drops a plate. His dog takes a bite out of his teddy bear. Things keep breaking in Tyrone’s life, and he cries out for help with the refrain that is the title of the book: Fix it, Grandma, Fix it. Wise grandma offers her own refrain to the sorry boy when she says “Bless you heart. God will help you feel better” And she tends Tyrone’s wounds, glues the broken dish, and stitches up the torn stuffed animal. Tyrone finally says “Grandma, you can fix anything.” And wise grandma says “No, I can’t, but God can.”
(Fix it, Grandma, Fix it by Kathy Long; illustrated by Ann Iosa Minneapolis: Augsburg © 1995)
In a picture book that I have given to kids receiving First Communion, called Every Day and Sunday, Too, the author combines descriptions of the parts of worship with images from everyday life. This is what she says about Confessing Sin:
When we’ve done something wrong, we admit it, we say we’re sorry, and try to do better next time. It’s that simple. It’s that hard. Maybe when cats lick each other after a fight, they are saying they’re sorry.
(Every Day and Sunday, Too by Gail Ramshaw; illustrated by Judy Jarrett. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress © 1996)
Today is the Christian Day of Repentance, equivalent to the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, the shofar is pulled out, a type of bugle made from the horn of a ram, and the call to repent is blasted from the shofar remembering the prophet Joel:
Blow the trumpet in Zion: sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast… Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, “Where is their God?” (Joel 2)
Back when I was a card-carrying member of the thespian society, best actor in high school and all, my senior year in high school, an hour before showtime, I would sit still for Karen my make-up artist. She would draw dark lines in the wrinkles on my foreheard. She would fill in my teenage crow’s feet. She would spray my hair with a graying color. And in good time, I would turn into somebody other than my true self: Tevye, the Fiddler on the Roof.
When Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount criticizes the outré practices of piety, almsgiving, praying, and fasting, citing as bad examples the hypocrites, he is really saying that they are hiding behind their masks. Like me with my make-up on, they are acting for the crowd rather than truly connecting with God the Father, who sees through all pretenses.
Today is a day for a reality check.
It’s a day for a spirituality check.
It’s a day to repent, to think, and then to think again.
It’s a day to say we’re sorry.
It’s a day to take off our masks, and instead to receive an ashen cross.
In this solemn assembly, we admit that we are human, limited, and sinful. We remember that things do not last forever, and that we all have a terminal condition. We will all die.
We say we’re sorry for our greed, for the ways we ignore or reject God, for our intractable injustices and cruelty, our conscious and unconscious contribution to wasting earth’s precious resources.
Keeping in mind the global financial crisis created in part by corporate America, we may come to terms with the possibility that our treasures can be stolen and squandered. And we can reconsider what’s really important, what is our true and dearest treasure, what’s really important in life.
I will soon invite you to join the journey of those in exile toward the promised land. I will invite you to with others in this community to make a holy Lent. I will invite you to make a return to your baptisms, throughout the forty days, onto to the paschal mystery celebrated in the Three Days of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
The resources of the church are a gift. We are a praying church, and will include weekday prayer at 11 am and 7:30 pm, with simple supper together at 6:30 pm. This Sunday at 6:30 pm we will gather for a simple Prayer Around the Cross. Heidi Jakoby has invited us to subscribe to electronic devotions called Living Earth through the ELCA e-Advocay Network, and I have started receiving them yesterday. We will be distributing Bread for the World Table Prayers and Readings on Sunday. We have a limited supply of an ark calendar and Bible Stories for the 40 days for families. Won’t you be attentive to God in prayer?
We are a giving church. We have just collected donations for the World Hunger Appeal which are designated for direct relief, education, and advocacy. During Lent, Steve Hansen will help us to know about and contribute toward the work of Heifer Project International and their attention to the economies of rural communities. And our weekly weekday offerings will be designated for the Mount of Olives’ Housing Project, which will be on the site of Lutheran World Federation’s property on the Mount of Olives, and will keep Palestinian families from being forced out of Jerusalem. Won’t you help your neighbors in need?
We are a fasting church. We make our worship more simple, creating more austere decorations and keeping silence. We will eat simply together on Wednesday evenings, no cookies, just soup and bread. We are all invited to refrain from some of the excesses that harm our bodies and our minds, whether it is in fat or sugar, television, or the internet. I am looking to offer time to exercise together through a program called Stretch and Pray. Let me know what times work best for you, so we can grow healthier together. Won’t you make choices that strengthen body, mind and spirit?
We will fail. We are bound to fail. So we also rely on God’s grace. In yet another children’s picture book called Sunday Morning, the author says this about repentance:
We ask God to smile on us.
We are all in need of God. Ten people sick with leprosy begged Jesus to heal them, and he did. We too pray that Jesus will show us mercy. And Jesus does.
Lord, have mercy.
(Sunday Morning by Gail Ramshaw; illustrated by Judy Jarrett. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications © 1993)
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
| CtK Home
| Back to Pastor's Page
|