Hi everyone,
Welcome to our Ash Wednesday service, which lands on March 5, 2025.
The bulletin for this service can be found here. You can use it to follow along with the service or just with the words on your screen. The sermon is also found in the bulletin as well as on this page below the video.
May God’s blessing and wisdom grant you strength and peace, this Lent and always!
O Lord, by your Spirit open to us your Word of Life, that your truth might spring up in us and never fail, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
You know, I’ve never really been one to reuse a sermon, but I have to admit, I was reaaaally tempted to do so tonight.
I mean, I had a pretty busy week. Two funerals, a joint worship service, and to top it off, Jean isn’t in the office to back me up when I need it. That means I had to make the bulletins for the funeral that happened yesterday, I had to set things up for tonight, and I had to remember to put up a sign on our front door this past Sunday reminding people that we were worshipping in a different location. Well, 2 out of 3 isn’t bad, I guess.
And so with all this stuff going on this week, time and energy was a bit scarce for me. Not to mention that the highly anticipated Daredevil series premiered on Disney+ last night, so that meant I had even less time to prepare for today. So because of all that, you can see why I was really tempted to just reuse an old sermon tonight. That, and… well… this is Ash Wednesday we’re talking about. Not exactly the most popular Wednesday of the year. Not even the most popular Wednesday of this week, and that’s quite a feat seeing as how it’s the only Wednesday we get. At any rate, we usually don’t get very many people to show up for this service. We usually don’t get all that much interest. We usually don’t have too many ears that will be hearing these words that are being spoken tonight.
And not only that, but Ash Wednesday gets the same readings every year. While most of the Sunday texts at least are on a three year rotation, thanks to the Lectionary, Ash Wednesday isn’t afforded that luxury. So if my complex calculations are correct, that means this would be my 16th time preaching these same exact texts over the past 16 years. That’s a pretty big selection of old sermons out of which I could have just picked one to reuse.
So I really wondered if I should have even bothered to write a new one.
I mean, it’s not like anyone would notice, right? I’m sure that these sermons, how ever wonderful and profound they might be, are eventually forgotten in the years, the months, or even the minutes after they’re preached. I’m sure that no one here would recognise something I say tonight as something I’ve said before. And even if you did, it’s not like you would take the time to look back through my past sermons to verify it. Furthermore, even if I did decide to repeat an old sermon, I’m sure that you all would have been understanding and gracious enough to say that it’d be ok.
Then promptly fire me for mismanaging my time and plagiarizing myself.
Of course, I’m kidding. I know you wouldn’t fire me for that. For being obnoxious, obtuse, and oblivious, maybe, but not for plagiarizing myself. But I am serious about really wanting to reuse a sermon tonight. This week I just felt so busy, so tired, so distracted that I didn’t know if I had it in me to come up with something new for this Ash Wednesday. But it was in that struggle, it was in this moral dilemma that I was facing, it was in this almost feeling like I was at the end of my rope that I saw where the gospel could actually be seen by me and hopefully by you in this beginning of the Lenten season.
Like I was saying, these are the same texts that we get year after year. And this isn’t the most popular or most attended day of the church calendar. This whole season of Lent isn’t even marketable in any way. I mean, it’s not fun to bring up and reflect upon our shortcomings. It isn’t encouraging to check ourselves and bring to light what we need to repent from. It’s not something to look forward to when we are asked to be more disciplined and make sacrifices. It’s just Lent. A season to be overlooked. A time to be forgotten. An excuse to just reuse a sermon.
But because this season is seen as this season is why we need this season. Let me explain. We’ve been conditioned by the world to think that we need to keep busy in order to look important. We are told by society that we need to horde as much power as we can through whatever means necessary in order to be respected. We have been raised to believe that we must always have the best because we deserve nothing less.
And in this global or at least Western mentality, we begin to think that we don’t need a season like Lent. We think that we don’t need to be called out for where we might be lacking. We think that we don’t need to be humbled enough to see how we have been forgiven, redeemed, and loved by God.
When in fact, maybe we really do.
Because in weeks like these when we are super busy and perhaps stressed out and feeling spread thin, we just need a break. In times like these when the world seems to be so up in the air, corrupt, and power hungry, we need to stop and catch our breath. In our lives that are so full of distractions and demands on our time that suck up all our energy and emotion, we need to be reminded that we are but dust, and to dust we shall return.
This isn’t to say that we don’t matter because we are so temporary, but it does mean that we need a time in which we can peel back the layers of this dog eat dog world. It means that we need the space to temporarily drop things that aren’t imperative to our community, our service, or our joy. It means that we need a whole church season to help us to examine the things that are holding us back, the things that take away our focus, the things that distract us from seeing the truth of who we are, whose we are, and the purpose and meaning that is given to us in life.
I get it though. Often we think our importance is based on what others think of us and letting our left hand know what our right hand is doing. That our respect comes from how we can perform and outperform and how generous and self-sacrificing we can look. That our identities are seen in what we do, how well we do, and how much we do.
But the purpose and meaning that God gives isn’t something to brag about, but it is something to proclaim. It isn’t to be used just to impress others or lord it over them, but it is something that can be used to help, encourage, and support others. It isn’t even for patting ourselves on the back in thinking that we’ve done good, but it is showing us how God loves us, blesses us, and calls us to live in community as the body of Christ in the world.
See, this purpose and meaning that we’re reminded of in this season of Lent shows us that our contribution through our participation and service matters, reveals to us how our connection to each other in community is important, and reminds us that through it all, through the ups and down, the stresses and burdens, all the things that distract us from the truth, that we are and always will be God’s dearly beloved.
See that is what Lent is about. It isn’t just all gloomy and sad. It isn’t all somber and strict. It isn’t about giving things up for the sake of giving things up.
Instead, it’s for the good of our souls in giving us the chance to heal from what ails us, to grow from underneath the distractions, and to be prepared for the salvation that we’ll see not at the foot of the cross, but in the empty tomb. Lent provides for us the space to contemplate that promise. Lent affords us the time to regroup and refocus on what matters. Lent gives us the tools and the strength to rise up from the distractions and to see how God’s love for us isn’t dependant on us, but solely on God’s benevolent grace and merciful blessing.
I don’t know, maybe I should have reused a sermon after all. But this season of Lent, I’m going to try to do away with some of the unreal expectations I put on myself, those that distract me from my faith and service, and the things that block me from seeing my identity as a beloved child of God, saved and redeemed not because of what I can or can’t do, but because God is, for you and for me and for all people, forever, eternal, and unending love.
In this season of Lent, let us be strengthened by God’s grace, lifted up by God’s mercy, and focussed on God’s love. Thanks be to God. Amen.