Wednesday we marked the beginning of Lent with our Ash Wednesday Service with Aptos Methodist. I want to thank Eileen for leading the ecumenical bell choir, and all of you who came to be marked by ashes of Lent. We had almost 50 people which was just about double our expectations. More importantly we started this journey through Lent, our time of self-examination together as church family. I loved having both Anthony and myself placing ashes on each person’s forehead after calling them by name.
I have been hearing from some of you that you have given something up for Lent, like no complaining. In years past I heard of people giving up chocolate or alcohol, TV, even swearing. Now this practice can be effective in reminding us on a daily basis that Jesus gave something up for us. Every time we long for chocolate we remember that Jesus longed for life, but surrendered his for us. Moreover every time we slip up and swear we remember how hard it is to do something in a disciplined fashion, like Jesus did in his sinless life.
Now I have also heard some of you are not giving something up, rather you are taking up a new practice. You have taken up the d365 devotional and you are enjoying having a simple practice of reading scripture and prayer before you start your day. I did mine recently and I was called to honesty with God and with myself. So helpful to see ourselves as good and worthy of God’s love even when we examine the ways we fall short in God’s sight. For our self examination must be balanced and loving. But above all it must be honest.
Have you seen the credit card commercial with a couple on their first date with the cab door open, she says she had a lovely time call me. He then says, “I will wait a couple days before I send you a vague text leaving you uncertain of my level of interest.” She says, I’ll wait two days before responding. He says, “We will never see each other again, will we?” And she says, “Nope” and disappears. Honest.
Jesus is brutally honest even when his body and very self do not want him to be. He has fasted for 40 days, hungry beyond belief. I have a hard time fasting for 36 hours for a medical procedure. Just imagine how hungry you are after 40 days! The very first temptation is “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Tempted by what Jesus wants and needs most- bread. And yet, Jesus was honest when it hurt, honest when it did not feel good, honest especially when his faith demanded it. He replied, “We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus is tempted by desire for life, by pride, and by greed, the three greatest things that make us dishonest and derail us from faith. Yet Jesus prevailed.
How about you? Are you honest in your self-examination? Can you face the temptations of life and remain faithful? Lent is a time we look honestly at ourselves, our behaviors, our practices, our faith. On Wednesday I mentioned King David and his honesty after having been caught committing adultery with Bathsheba and sending her husband Uriah into battle and his certain death. Psalm 51 reveals his honesty, but I am sure he was so brutally honest because he was caught be Nathan in what he had done. The question is can we be that honest with God even if no one else knows?
This week Attorney General Jeff Session is starting to look at how he is telling his account now that people know he spoke with the Russian Ambassador. What they said we have no idea, but how we hear the story changes with new information.
In our second gospel reading, Jesus is faced with a woman caught in adultery. Now let’s be clear, Jewish law required the people present to stone the woman, because adultery along with murder and idolatry were punishable by death (Gospel of John 2, Barclay, 2). So even though the religious leaders were trying to trap Jesus, they all had a clear duty to stone her. And yet they don’t. Why? I have often thought of this as a wonderful testimony to how convincing Jesus was in asking them to look inside and do some self-examination; saying the one without sin be the first to throw the stone. But then a commentator mentioned Jesus bending down to write on the ground. Jesus does this twice. What is he doing? Now there are several ideas about this, but the one I like comes from looking at the Greek. The word to write in Greek is graphein. But the word used here is katagraphein which can mean to write down a record against someone. “The suggestion is that Jesus was writing in the dust the sins of the very men who were accusing the woman” (Barclay, 3). Jesus knows their sins and writes them on the ground!!! They drop the stones; they lay down their weapons, because Jesus sees them for who they are. Jesus writes their sins in the dust on the ground. If Jesus were here he too would write your sins on the ground. Not to punish you. Not to embarrass you, but to help you see that we are all sinners in the sight of God. Then we can lay down our judgment of others. We can lay down our self- justification for the things we have done wrong. We can be honest with God about who we are and what we have done! That is true self-examination, when we know God sees everything we have done and we are really only becoming honest about it with ourselves.
Then we are not so concerned with our needs and the “bread” that tempts us, rather we can see beyond ourselves. Then we can lay down the stones, lay down our judgments, and lay down our hurtfulness. Then we are free to pick up something new, something that will make our lives better, something that will strengthen our faith.
Lord Joseph Duveen, American head of the art firm that bore his name, planned in 1915 to send one of his experts to England to examine some ancient pottery. He booked passage on the Lusitania. Then the German Embassy issued a warning that the liner might be torpedoed. Duveen wanted to call off the trip. “I can’t take the risk of your being killed,” he said to his young employee.
“Don’t worry,” said the man, “I’m a strong swimmer, and when I read what was happening in the Atlantic, I began hardening myself by spending time every day in a tub of ice water. At first I could sit only a few minutes, but this morning, I stayed in that tub nearly two hours.”
Naturally, Duveen laughed. It sounded preposterous. But his expert sailed, and the Lusitania was torpedoed. The young man was rescued after nearly five hours in the chilly ocean, still in excellent condition. The small steps of faith can have life changing/saving effects.
May this Lenten season be a time for us to practice a daily devotion, maybe try the new one d365 online, or spend just five minutes a day reading scripture, or spend some time taking your own inventory so you can see in black and white the person you are as God sees you. When you lay down the stones, you can pick up honesty; pick up a daily faith practice. When you lay down your stones our hands are free to pick up communion with our Lord. Amen!
