A Lenton Reflection - by Sarah Kerr

This is a message given by friend Sarah. Sarah is a graduated of Wheaton College and Duke University Sarah and I met at Teen Missions International during the summer of 2000. Enjoy.

"This year, Ash Wednesday falls February 25th, about ten days after Valentine’s Daya holiday that is supposedly all about the heart. It’s a day filled with greeting cards covered with hearts, heart-shaped chocolates tucked in heart-shaped boxes, and flowers arranged in heart-shaped vases. If somehow you missed Valentine’s Day this year, though, you’re in luck, because our texts for this Ash Wednesday tell us that today is also a day about the heart. In Matthew 6, Jesus says,

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”And in Psalm 51, which we will read later in the service, the psalmist prays: “Create in me a clean heart, O God...” and,“A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”According to these texts, like Valentine’s Day, Ash Wednesday is also a day about the heart.

Ash Wednesday is different from Valentine’s Day, though; instead of focusing on happy, sweet and sentimental hearts, this day in the church calendar deals with our real three-dimensional hearts, hearts that are sometimes full of joy and gladness, but at other times are empty or broken hearts that feel torn in two.

So what does Ash Wednesday have something to do with our hearts? Today we are starting Lent, a time that in one way focuses on external, physical actions, what Jesus calls “practices of piety” in our gospel reading. If you take a look at our Gospel text, you’ll see that Jesus mentions three different things that his disciples will practice: fasting, praying, and giving. He assumes that his disciples will do these things, saying not “if you fast or pray or give” but “when you fast or pray or give.” Jesus is clear that those three practices must not remain just external actions, things that we do for the sake of appearances: “Do not disfigure your face to show others you are fasting.” “Do not stand and pray to be seen by others.” “Whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you.” Jesus tells us if our Lenten discipline remains on the outside, then we will miss the “reward” that awaits us during this season. There are spiritual rewards that await our hearts during Lent if we are ready to embrace them.

What does each of these three practices have to do with our hearts? The first one he mentions, fasting, is probably the practice we think of first as we get ready for Lent. Lent is the season when we allow the Christian practice of fasting to shape our everyday lives, so for many of us, Lent is about giving up something for several weeks, chocolate or meat or even (gasp!) email. But what does this physical practice of fasting have to do with our hearts? Fasting during Lent is right and good, but we don’t do it just to find out if we have enough willpower to resist that bar of chocolate. If at the end of 40 days, all I have learned is that I can go that long without chocolate, then I’ve missed out on the real purpose of Lenten practices. If we only fast without also praying and giving, we may come to the end of Lent with our hearts untouched.

And that brings us to why the second practice Jesus mentions, prayer, is such a necessary part of what we do during Lent. Putting prayer and fasting togethergives a spiritual dimension to the physical disciplines we take on. Prayer allowsour fasting to touch us on a heart level. Fasting without prayer is like getting your house ready for a guest and then never inviting them to come over. Fasting is the way we make space in our lives for God, and prayer is the way that we ask God to come over, to come into our hearts and change them. When we decide what to give up for Lent, we should think about how giving that thing up will create space for us to encounter God. For example, a friend of mine gives up listening to the radio in the car during Lent. Instead of listening to music or talk radio in the car, she uses that time and space to pray. Other people give up a meal once a week and spend that meal time in prayer or Bible study. Prayer makes our fasting more than just an outwardly observance, more than something to check off our spiritual to- do list; it helps us to remember the real reason for any of this Lent business, which is to grow closer to God and to become more like Jesus.

So Jesus mentions fasting and prayer, and he also mentions one more practice – giving to the needy. This third Lenten practice calls us to move our attention off of ourselves and on to other people. Sometimes during Lent as I fast and pray, hoping for transformation, my contemplation can become self-centered, so that my Lenten practice becomes all about me and my personal piety. Jesus has told elsewhere in the gospels that when we give to the least of these, it’s like we are giving directly to him. If this is so, then praying and fasting without giving is like getting your house ready for a guest, inviting them over, and then never offering them something to eat. The practice of giving reminds us that Lent is about making space in our lives not just for ourselves, not even just for God, but for others, because so much of our sin lies in how we think about and treat our neighbors. When I was in seminary, I saw this Lenten practice of giving in action for the first time. The chapel encouraged students to fast for one meal each week and then give the money that we would have spent on that meal to someone in need. By giving of the time and the resources that we consider “our own,” we learn to imitate Jesus, who gave freely of himself for the sake of others.

And that is the purpose of Lent, to form in us the heart of Jesus, the one who loved God and loved others, not in merely a sentimental way but in a real and deep way. As we walk with Jesus through Lent, we learn the patterns of how his heart responded to God and to those around him, and we begin to take on those same attitudes. During Lent, we will probably discover the ways that our hearts don’t much resemble the heart of Jesus yet. When we fast, we may find that impatience rises to the surface of our hearts after a few extra hours without food. When we pray, we may find how easily we give into distraction and how difficult it is for us to enter into silence. When we give, we may find that our treasure actually lie in earthly things. As we discover what is in our hearts, we are likely to find some sin: brokenness, alienation from God and from others, and self-centeredness.

However, our texts for today, especially Psalm 51, tell us that discovering sin in our hearts is not a matter for despair. For no matter how surprised or disappointed we might be by what we find within us, God will not be surprised. God our Father, who “sees in secret,” knows that our hearts often don’t look like pretty and sentimental Valentine’s Day Hearts. Instead we often have Ash Wednesday hearts, hearts of ash and stone, hearts of sorrow and of sin. And yet God does not look down on such “heart conditions”; as Psalm 51 tells us, “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” In our Sunday services every week we hear the call to “Lift up your hearts” to God. Notice that it doesn’t say “Lift up your heart if it’s full of pleasant things; otherwise keep it to yourself.” Unlike on Valentine’s Day, your heart doesn’t have to be in a certain condition for you to join in the celebration. Lift up your hearts, whether they are beautiful or ugly, full or empty, whole or broken, because you lift them up to a God who sees our hearts and is patient with us; because Lent is a journey that eventually ends with the joy and hope of Easter.

As you come forward tonight to receive the ashes, ask God to show you what is in your heart during this Lent; and whatever you discover, lift it to the Lord in prayer and ask for transformation. If you haven’t had a chance yet to think about how you might practice Lent this year, take a few moments to ask God for guidance. As we fast, pray, and give, God will bring us through these 40 days, teaching us truth in our inward beings and creating in us new and clean hearts – hearts that are renewed in love for God and for neighbor, hearts that have been formed to be a little bit more like the heart of Jesus.Amen.

Ash Wednesday Sermon, February 25th, 2009 St. Thomas Episcopal Church, St. Petersburg, Florida Sarah Kerr (also given at St. Luke's in Durham, NC in 2007)"