The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Wednesday, February 26, 2020 was preached using this manuscript. The gospel text was Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21.
Rend your hearts,
not your garments.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Change your hearts.
Change your plans.
Come back to God.
Rend your hearts, not your garments.
This is one of my favorite phrases from Scripture.
In this passage,
Joel tells the Hebrew people
and the church tells us,
that God doesn’t want us
to make showy displays
of trying to do better.
In his recent book Signs of Life
priest and church planter Rick Fabian
points out that for Joel and his original audience
the heart was not the seat of emotion.
Joel is not calling God’s people
to just feel bad and mope
about how we’ve messed up and continue to mess up.
Joel is calling God’s people
to rend their hearts,
where their plans were made.
Change your hearts.
Change your plans.
Come back to God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
As we start this Lent,
we start a journey
from the dryness of ashes
to flowing streams of grace in the baptismal font.
Since the Second Vatican Council,
as embodied for us in our Prayer Book,
Lent has been refocused on
“recovering the church’s mission
of discipling people in the way of Jesus,
and realigning our worship practices
to support that mission.”
Change your hearts.
Change your plans.
Come back to God.
Before the Middle Ages,
Lent was the very last part of an at least three year period
of teaching people how to live like Jesus.
They learned to
(and were expected to)
care for the poor, the sick, and the orphans
tend to the needs of those on the margins,
and wrestle with their own habits that distracted them
from love of God and of neighbor.
They learned to
(and were expected to)
continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
the breaking of the bread,
and the set prayers of the church.
They learned to
(and were expected to)
read and pray through theBible,
listening for God’s call of repentance
and coming to know God’s assurance of grace.
During Lent the rest of the church joined them,
remembering their own trip to the font
starting with the dryness of ash and hearing the call
Change your hearts.
Change your plans.
Come back to God.
Year after year we hear that call,
and Jesus’ directions on giving, praying, and fasting.
Giving, praying, and fasting,
are the three historic, traditional disciplines
one may personally undertake
as they prepare to remember their own baptisms.
We’re mostly familiar with
“Giving up” something for Lent,
which can either be fast
or simply repentance.
As the Rev. KD Joycec pointed out on Twitter last week,
if it’s something bad that you’re giving up,
that’s repentance!
If you’re letting go of
seeking of your own will
instead of the will of God,
thus distorting your relationship with God,
with other people,
and with all creation —
how the Prayer Book defines sin —
give it up for good!
Don’t take back up gossip at Easter!
To fast, however
think of something you enjoy,
that isn’t inherently bad,
but that needs some reflection on
and can be a part of the Paschal Celebration.
Change your hearts.
Change your plans.
Come back to God.
Every year we mark our faces
with the dryness of ash
in the place where we’ve received
and Amy will receive
fragrant in the shape of a cross.
Every year we hear Jesus warn
about looking dismal and disfiguring our faces
showing others that we’re fasting.
Every year I get to remind God’s people,
that getting ashes isn’t about recognition.
I won’t be saying,
“Good job, champ”
when you come forward in a few moments.
As we start the last leg road to the font
for ourselves and with Amy
I’ll be reminding that you are God’s creation
and that you will die.
Remember that you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.
As we undertake our own pieties this Lent
whether they be giving, fasting, prayer, or a combination,
we’re starting with the dryness of ashes
and working our way to living waters
that leave us never thirsty.
As we undertake our own pieties this Lent,
they reorient us to God
who is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Change your hearts.
Change your plans.
Come back to God. Amen.