Ash Wednesday, Feb 18, 2015, "Ambidextrous Righteousness"

Psalm 51:1-17 II Corinthians 5:20-6:10 Life is a set up! From earliest days we are taught, Do right and you will be rewarded, blessed, thanked. However when you do wrong, if you break the rules, you are punished. The sheep are always on the right, goats to the left. But the Bible speaks to a different reality! Good people do suffer, and at times it seems people get away with terrible sins. Whether right or left, good or bad, suffering or reward, there is still God. We can get angry, but we cannot escape God. All receive righteousness, sometimes through hardship, sometimes through blessing! Relationship with God is Ambidextrous coming through right and left! We read the Bible differently than other literature. You would never read 3 sentences of a Novel once a week. While we may enjoy a good line, or dialogue of conversation, you would never claim one line or one conversation encapsulated what a film or story were all about. Yet we read 17 verses of one of 150 songs, and 10 verses out of one letter between people having on-going conversations, from which to describe our faith in God. Most often as we read the Bible, it is a parable or a story, or if Prophecy the Word of God or the Word of the Prophet. Tonight's readings are different, these comprise a lament, a plea for reconciliation, good or bad that Creation no longer be broken. The Psalmist recognizes they have/we have done wrong, and wails for forgiveness. The Old Testament based on Law, followed a legal system that when we did wrong, the wrong rippled outward as debt, affecting the individual, emotionally and physically, their relationship, their community, infecting the whole world, even wounding God. The payment for this debt was a sacrifice, blood for blood, that which was created from ashes burned to ash, in order that the sacrificial prayer for the life taken would rise to heaven like the smoke from incense. The smudge on our foreheads is indication that we are marked by our sins. Just as if we leaned in over the burning smoke, and our sacrifice to God marked us. But we are too experienced at commercial trade; money, labor, a debt loses value, as we go through the motions of routine, and our sacrifices begin to feel like manipulation. Forgiveness can begin to feel like New Year's resolutions, we know we will not keep, but still we say we will. I do not have to feel remorse, I do not have to feel guilt, I only have to say I am sorry, I only have to pay the debt, more even because forgiveness leaves us wary that the sinner will do so again. In the early writings of this church, I came across something I had never seen before, that the Session understood, when we sin, when we do harm to one another, it is not only between us, but however private or public we have wounded God, we have crucified Christ. I am offended whenever cultures of anti-semitism claim it was the Jews who crucified Jesus, because I did, every time I have done harm, said something, or refused to, I crucified him. Years ago, I took training in what at the time was called Bio-Medical Ethics. The course was filled with Doctors, Nurses and Attorneys, and I happened to be the only minister. One day in the men's room, one of the attorneys in the group took a swing at me as he said “You Church people offend me, do you know how many times I have had to go to court fighting against the church?” I tried to say, “but there are also those of us in the church who have fought for a person's right to choose.” But the words fell on deaf ears. The President recently compared ISIS to Christianity in the Crusades/ Inquisition committing atrocities. Christians did, but we learned painful lessons of humanity from this, and Christians were also responsible for Civil Rights and Public Education, and compassionate changes to American culture. Over the years, I have come to believe that when such wounds exist, there needs to be more than the debt to be paid, we wounded God and Created Balance, the point is not only between the individuals, but to balance creation there is need for a gift of atonement. The Psalmist pleads for more than forgiveness more even than atonement, here the Psalmist begs for re-creation. In being marked with ashes, we are reminded from dust we come, to dust we return, and all of life, the spirit and hope within us are gifts of God, without which we are dead, we are nothing before God. As a Preacher, you know something profound has happened when instead of being greeted at the end of the service with a limp handshake and the words “Nice sermon pastor” months even years go by, and someone reminisces that they have been working on a sermon idea. Recently we had a wedding, at which one of those who grew up in the church sought me out to say, “What I remember most was Ash Wednesday. Sunday mornings before church, Mom would check us over to make sure our faces were clean and hands were washed, but this night you looked us in the eye and put soot right up between our eyes, all the while saying we were forgiven. I was surprised how that night, and for the next several days, I felt ashamed that everyone could see my sins, what happened, and the residue of forgiveness. But the more I thought about it, I realized this was one of the most honest feelings I ever had. I could not hide that I had been touched, it was right there on my forehead, and I had been forgiven. Even though no one else could see the mark of the ashes, I could, and it made me feel... hopeful. I knew I was not the person I wanted to be, but that mark was God saying I know what you can be, I forgive you so you can be!” There are numerous places throughout Scripture which describe a Day of Atonement, A Day of the LORD, a time to Repent, a day of Reconciliation. This letter from Paul to Corinth, is the only place naming “This is the Day of Salvation, the Acceptable Day!” Such a time, is not a day of conquering, but a night of coming to the table together, the table where we recognize our brokenness and hope. What has astonished people about the new Pope has been his humility and humanity. Would that our world leaders, instead of attempting to display having all the answers would humbly confess, I do not know, so I trust our experts to advise us on what they know. I rarely remember my dreams, so when I do, I think it might be important. During Doctoral Study, I had a dream of arriving late for worship. I got to the church, and instead of walking in the front doors, or walking past the Chancel, I recall coming through the Cellar. As I came up the back stairs, the ushers did not escort me as pastor up to the Chancel, or as a Bass to the Choir, but instead to sit in the back row. I recall the realization, you are the Pastor of the Church, you are a Doctor among learned colleagues, but in the church your role is to sit in the congregation as a person in need of forgiveness like everyone else. Sunday, as Mario was preaching, he told the story of having been a child who often got into trouble. Immediately it occurred to me that when our parents wanted one of us, they called all of us: “Doug,Keith,Craig,Mark come here!” But when we were in real trouble, they addressed us by our First and middle names, what are routinely called our Christian names “Craig Jonathan!” How odd and perhaps how appropriate that the only times in life when our Christian names are used are when we are in trouble, when we have sinned, and at holy occasions, our Baptisms, our Confirmations, Weddings, Ordinations and our Burials. I believe the times we recognize our sins and the times we celebrate life are times of Ambidextrous Righteousness, when we stand most in need of our Savior. This is the Day of Salvation, this is the day of our True Acceptance for who and whose we are.