Ash Wednesday
Psalm 51:1-18
Sinfulness
51:1 ¶ To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
16 For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in thy good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
On this Ash Wednesday my Lenten journey begins...
I am like a fisherman who launches his boat at dawn on the way to deep waters... The morning seas are calm; but the fisherman knows a storm can come with little warning. The boat may be buffeted by wind and waves before the journey is done. It may even capsize...Nevertheless, carefully equipped for the journey, he launches his boat, he pushes out. . He trusts that his journey will be successful and be good. . .
My boat is my self; the waters are my life a new course; . . I am making a new effort to direct me to God to live my life in Christ...... I am on my way to deep waters of faith. My morning seas are calm, but I know that winds of unrest, discontent or discouragement may lie ahead. My boat may even capsize... Nevertheless I push out. I trust that I will have a good journey because Jesus goes with me...He will guide me through the words of the Lenten scripture reading. He will help me to understand better through them the journey through death He himself has taken. And he will give me courage to follow. .
The strength of his presence in me will help me to forgive, accept, persevere, and love through the weeks ahead........ I will join with others, family, friends, the children, other parishioners, who are also on this journey. Together we will turn to God in prayer and ritual . . Jesus, present among us, will join his pray to ours........
I am eager to push out from shore.......... I have the words of the Ash Wednesday challenge in my ears: "Repent and believe in the Gospel." I am ready to begin." 1
Our Lenten journey begins with the Psalms, Psalm 51. In this Psalm, David is confessing his sin and his need for forgiveness. He says:
"according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment." RSV
David is saying he deserves punishment for his sin. He knows he is a sinner in the eyes of God. The question can be asked, can you? Can you acknowledge that in the eyes of God you are a sinner. It is because of you and me that Christ died on the cross. Yes, not only for me and you did he die, but because of us. Because of our sins, Jesus died.
The Psalmist says:
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
We are born into sin and live our whole lives as sinners.
Someone once said:
The difference between God and us is seen in the mud. God molded the mud, blew on it and created life. We mold the mud, blow on it, and end up with---mud. We like to play God. We like to pretend that we are as wise and powerful as God. But we still end up with mud.
We still end up with lives that fall short of God’s expectation of us. We always fall short of God’s expectations of us, always. That is what Ash Wednesday is all about. We are sinners, we fall short of God’s expects of us.
David knew that as he says in the Psalm, he needs to be clean, he acknowledges his sin before God. He understand the human predicament, he knows that he can only make mud, period. He wants to be wise like God, he wants to be all powerful like God but in the end, he only makes mud.
You and I are mud makers, period. We need to remember that. We too have grand ideas of who we are and what we are, but trust me, we are all mud makers, period. We continually fall short of what God expects of us.
Listen to this modern parable and see if you see yourself in it:
"There are six people gathered around a dying campfire on a dark and bitter night. Each one has a stick which they might place on the fire. But, sadly, one by one they decide not to give what they have to keep the fire going. The lone woman does not give because there is a black man in the circle. The penniless tramp does not give because in that circle there is a member of the idle rich. The rich man does not give because he reasons his contribution would obviously help someone who was lazy and shiftless. Another didn’t give because one of the six didn’t belong to his church. The black man hung tight to his wood, because it was his way of getting even or back at all the whities. Still another would not give because he believed in giving only to those who also gave. And each one felt if he or she were asked to give with a personal invitation, or if they knew the need was really great, then they would give.
The parable ends with these words: Six logs held fast in death’s hand was proof of human six, the sin of pride, ego, and selfishness. They didn’t t die from the cold of that night, the cold without, they died from the cold within each heart." 2
Can you see yourself in those six people? Each found a way not to give. Each found a way to remain in sin. Each found a way to make mud.
Our human predicament really sounds hopeless, doesn’t it. As we journey through Lent toward Easter we will find that there is hope, because out of the despair of sinfulness comes the hope and promise of the Easter resurrection. The Easter resurrection reminds us that God makes something out of mud, us. The Easter Resurrection reminds us that God is still in charge, thorugh His Son’s death on the cross there is hope.
I would like to close with a long illustration. As you hear this, find the despair, the sin, and finally the hope.
Listen:
There was once a great and noble King whose land was terrorized by a crafty dragon. Like a massive bird of prey, the scaly beast delighted in ravaging villages with his fiery breath. Hapless victims ran from their burning homes, only to be snatched into the dragon’s jaws or talons. Those devoured instantly were deemed more fortunate than those carried back to the dragon’s lair to be devoured at his leisure. The King led his sons and knights in many valiant battles against the dragon.
Riding alone in the forest, one of the King’s sons heard his name purred low and soft. In the shadows of the ferns and trees, curled among the boulders, lay the dragon. The creature’s heavy-lidded eyes fastened on the prince, and the reptilian mouth stretched into a friendly smile.
"Don’t be alarmed," said the dragon, as gray wisps of smoke rose lazily from his nostrils.
"I am not what your father thinks."
"What are you, then?" asked the prince, warily drawing his sword as he pulled in the reins to keep his fearful horse from bolting.
"I am pleasure," said the dragon. "Ride on my back and you will experience more than you ever imagined. Come now. I have no harmful intentions. I seek a friend, someone to share flights with me. Have you never dreamed of flying? Never longed to soar in the clouds?"
Visions of soaring high above the forested hills drew the prince hesitantly from his horse. The dragon unfurled one great webbed wing to serve as a ramp to his ridged back. Between the spiny projections, the prince found a secure seat. Then the creature snapped his powerful wings twice and launched them into the sky. The prince’s apprehension melted into awe and exhilaration.
From then on, he met the dragon often, but secretly, for how could he tell his father, brothers or the knights that he had befriended the enemy? The prince felt separate from them all. Their concerns were no longer his concerns. Even when he wasn’t with the dragon, he spent less time with those he loved and more time alone.
The skin on the prince’s legs became calloused from gripping the ridged back of the dragon, and his hands grew rough and hardened. He began wearing gloves to hide the malady. After many nights of riding, he discovered scales growing on the backs of his hands as well. With dread he realized his fate were he to continue, and so he resolved to return no more to the dragon.
But, after a fortnight, he again sought out the dragon, having been tormented with desire. And so it transpired many times over. No matter what his determination, the prince eventually found himself pulled back, as if by the cords of an invisible web. Silently, patiently, the dragon always waited.
One cold, moonless night their excursion became a foray against a sleeping village. Torching the thatched roofs with fiery blasts from his nostrils, the dragon roared with delight when the terrified victims fled from their burning homes. Swooping in, the serpent belched again and flames engulfed a cluster of screaming villages. The prince closed his eyes tightly in an attempt to shut out the carnage.
In the pre dawn hours, when the prince crept back from his dragon trysts, the road outside his father’s castle usually remained empty. But not tonight. Terrified refugees streamed into the protective walls of the castle. The prince attempted to slip through the crowd to close himself in his chambers, but some of the survivors stared and pointed toward him.
"He was there," one woman cried out, "I saw him on the back of the dragon." Others nodded their heads in angry agreement. Horrified, the prince saw that his father, the King, was in the courtyard holding a bleeding child in his arms. The King’s face mirrored the agony of his people as his eyes found the prince’s. The son fled, hoping to escape into the night, but the guards apprehended him as if he were a common thief. They brought him to the great hall where his father sat solemnly on the throne. The people on every side railed against the prince.
"Banish him!" he heard one of his own brothers angrily cry out.
"Burn him alive!" other voices shouted.
As the king rose from his throne, bloodstains from the wounded shone darkly on his royal robes. The crowd fell silent in expectation of his decree. The prince, who could not bear to look into his father’s face, stared at the flagstones of the floor.
"Take off your gloves and your tunic," the King commanded. The prince obeyed slowly, dreading to have his metamorphosis uncovered before the kingdom. Was his shame not already enough? He had hoped for a quick death without further humiliation. Sounds of revulsion rippled through the crowd at the sight of the prince’s thick, scaled skin and the ridge growing along his spine.
The king strode toward his son, and the prince steeled himself, fully expecting a back handed blow even though he had never been struck so by his father.
Instead, his father embraced him and wept as he held him tightly. In shocked disbelief, the prince buried his face against his father’s shoulder.
"Do you wish to be freed from the dragon, my son?"
The prince answered in despair, "I wished it many times, but there is no hope for me."
"Not alone," said the King. "You cannot win against the dragon alone."
"Father, I am no longer your son. I am half beast," sobbed the prince.
But his father replied, "My blood runs in your veins. My nobility has always been stamped deep within your soul."
With his face still hidden tearfully in his father’s embrace, the prince heard the King instruct the crowd, "The dragon is crafty. Some fall victim to his wiles and some to his violence. There will be mercy for all who wish to be freed. Who else among you has ridden the dragon?"
The prince lifted his head to see someone emerge from the crowd. To his amazement, he recognized an older brother, one who had been lauded throughout the kingdom for his onslaughts against the dragon in battle and for his many good deeds. Others came, some weeping, others hanging their heads in shame.
The King embraced them all.
"This is our most powerful weapon against the dragon," he announced. "Truth. No more hidden flights. Alone we cannot resist him." 3
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale February 21, 2006
1 Today’s Parish, Feb.,1966
2 Author Unknown
3 from Laugh & Lift Daily Issue for Feb 20, 2006
The Dragon
(By Melinda Reinicke, Parables for Personal Growth, [San Diego, CA: Recovery Publications, Inc., 1993], pp. 5-9.)
