A sermon for Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday Sermon Reconciliation with God “Be reconciled to God.” The Bible is comprised of many different kinds of texts: stories like that of Adam & Eve, King David, and Samson and Delilah; poetry like the Psalms; and wisdom literature like Proverbs; as well as all the legal texts like Numbers and Deuteronomy.
And the New Testament includes much of the same, from the stories of the life of Jesus in the Gospels to letters from folks like Paul, Peter, and John. And we shouldn’t forget that both testaments have prophecy.
What do all these texts from different Genres have in common? Well, many Christians think that all these stories, and laws, and prophecies, and poems are all really telling one story. They tell the story of God working to be reconciled with his creation. From the curses in Genesis 3 to the last chapter of Revelation, God is working to overcome the distance and separation between himself and humankind. This story is a history of Salvation.
And this story reaches an apex in the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the one that the Father “made to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” What we are offered through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is a chance to be reconciled to God, not by anything we do, not by anything we earn. There’s nothing we can do that Christ hasn’t already done on our behalf, and he’s done it better, perfectly, because he is God.
But Paul does want us to understand that even though God makes us righteous — we don’t earn it — there’s still a kind of living that befits the gift of righteousness. Paul encourages us to be virtuous and true, wise, patient, kind, and above all charitable and loving. Why? Because we’ll get a reward? Because it’ll make us popular? No! Because this is the kind of living that is faithful to a relationship with God. This is the kind of living that is authentic to claiming to be reconciled to God. This is how you behave if you claim to be the friend of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God.
The season of Lent invites us to an annual reflection on our lives as lives of divine reconciliation, to examine ourselves, not as those who earn righteousness but who have received it as a gift. Does your public life reflect the incarnate, crucified and risen Lord? Or does it reflect a piety that draws attention to you? In other words, how do you tell your story? Is it all about you?
This is a hard question, one not easily answered, but Jesus asks us nonetheless. What he asks of us, however, is not impossible; he’s already done the impossible in the history of salvation. Rather, he asks us find ourselves, our stories, in that larger story of salvation. This morning, the Church invites you to participate in the global history of salvation by receiving the mark of your mortality and remember who it is that descended from heaven to experience that mortality for himself, and who overcame death and grave by humbling himself in obedience even to death on the cross. Let these ashes help you retell the story of your life in terms of humility, obedience, and salvation.
Friends, be reconciled to God.
