We have an Ash
Wednesday service every year. We have
had for a long time, probably as long as this church has been here. That means every year at this time--and I
hope at other times, too, but especially at this time--we confess our sins to
God, we ask for God’s forgiveness, and we ask for God to help us change our
lives.
Now, when you
think about it, if every year we ask God to help us change our lives, it must
not be working very well, right? I mean,
if we’d really changed our lives last year, if we really were now God’s people,
we would not have to do this again, would we?
The fact that we’re here again this year means, pretty much by
definition, that we failed to change last year.
And the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that,
and on and on and on.
Why is that? I mean, I’m assuming that we’re serious about
this. And I’m not just saying that, I
really do think most of us are serious about it. Most of us know what our sins are. We know how far short we fall of who God wants
us to be. We know we need God’s
forgiveness. We know we need to change
our lives. And yet, we never seem to do
it.
Now some of us
do, at least to an extent. What that
extent is varies a lot, of course. There
are some of us whose lives truly have changed, who are much different people
than we used to be. There are others of
us who’ve made a few changes around the margins, who may have managed with
God’s help to improve ourselves in a few areas, but who have not had any
serious change of heart. And there are
others of us who never really change at all, who continue year after year to be
pretty much the same people we’ve always been.
Why?
I don’t think
it’s because we don’t want to change. I
mean, that may be true for some of us, but I think the fact that everybody here
took the time to come out tonight and come to this Ash Wednesday service means
that everybody here really does want to change.
After all, it would’ve been a lot easier for us all to just stay
home. The fact that we’re all here, that
we’re going to confess our sins and ask for God’s forgiveness, means we are
serious about wanting to change.
I think what
happens a lot of times is that life just kind of beats us down. We get busy.
We get tired. We get
distracted. After all, it’s not an easy
thing to really change our lives, even if we’re serious about wanting to. It takes a lot of effort. It’s takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of focus.
And when we get
busy, when we get tired, when we get distracted, sometimes it seems like it’s
more effort than we can make, more time than we can take, and more focus than
we can manage. And so we slide back into
living the same old way we always have.
It’s easier. It’s simpler. And besides, we tell ourselves, it’s not like
my old lifestyle was so bad. I was not
hurting anyone. I was not cheating
anyone. In fact, I’ve been doing some
good things. And so we don’t change much
of anything, not because we don’t want to, but because we just don’t really
think we can.
Which, of course,
brings us to our Bible reading for tonight.
A man comes up to Jesus. He asks
Jesus a question. It’s a very good
question, I think. In fact, if you or I
were able to talk to Jesus, it might be one of the first questions we’d
ask. He asks Jesus what good thing he
has to do to get eternal life.
Now, the fact
that the man asked Jesus this question shows that he knew, just as we know,
that he needed to change his life. In
fact, I think it shows that he wanted to change his life, just as we come here
tonight wanting to change our lives.
And Jesus gives
him an answer. He tells him certain
things to do, based on the Ten Commandments.
And the guy says what we might say.
He says, basically, “Yeah, yeah, I know all that, but it’s not enough.”
In other words,
he knows, again just as we know, that our current lifestyle is not enough. He’s thinking, just as we think, I’m not
hurting anyone. I’m not cheating anyone. In fact, I’ve been doing some good
things. But it’s not enough. I know I’m missing something. I know I need to change my life.
And Jesus tells
him, yes, you do need to change your life.
He tells him, you need to sell your possessions, give to the poor, and
then come follow me. And we’re told the
man went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Now, the point here is not that we
have to sell everything and give to the poor.
Most of us, including me, could make do with less and give more to the
poor, and it would probably be good if we did, but that’s not the point for
tonight.
The point is that if we truly want
to change our lives, we need to get rid of everything that gets in the way of
serving God. We need to get rid of the
distractions. We need to get rid of the
things that take our time and our effort away from serving God.
For this man it was
possessions. That may or may not be what
it is for you or for me. It could be
possessions, but it could be a lot of things.
It could be work. It could be a
hobby that’s taking up too much of our time.
It could be too much enjoyment of free time.
It could be more
than one thing, of course. It could even
be something that’s not a bad thing in and of itself. In fact, it could be something that seems
like a good thing, but that has gotten too important in our lives and is taking
our time and attention and effort away from changing our lives and being the
people God wants us to be.
And the thing is,
we don’t necessarily have to totally do without those things. Jesus told the man “sell your possessions and
give to the poor”. He did not say he had
to get rid of all his possessions and
give all his money to the poor. Some
translations say that, but from what I’ve been able to learn that’s not
accurate, and I think it takes away from Jesus’ point.
Jesus was not
saying that all possessions are bad.
Jesus was saying that anything, including things that are good or things
that are neutral, become bad when we lose our perspective on them. Anything becomes bad when it becomes more
important to us than it should be.
Anything becomes bad when it distracts us from making the changes we
need to make in our lives. Anything becomes
bad when it gets in the way of you and me becoming the people God wants us to
be.
I don’t know what
those things are for you. I not even
sure what all of them are for me. I have
some ideas, though. And if you’re honest
with yourself, you do, too. And as you
and I think about it some more, we’ll get more ideas about things that have
become more important to us than they should be and that are distracting us
from making the changes we need to make in our lives.
Thinking about
those things, of course, is only part of the battle. It’s an important part, but the really
important part comes next. It’s the part
the man who talked to Jesus could not do.
It’s actually being willing to make do with less of those things that
have become too important. It’s actually
either de-emphasizing or totally getting rid of those things that are getting
in the way of us changing our lives and being the people Jesus wants us to be.
The man Jesus was
talking to could not do it. The
disciples wondered if anyone could. And
Jesus says no. No one can. Not on our own. The only way we can do it is with God. All things are possible with God.
So, as we enter
this season of Lent, let’s ask God for help.
Let’s ask God to help us get rid of the distractions. Let’s ask God for help to help us get rid of
all the things that get in the way of our serving God. It won’t be easy. It’ll take a lot of effort. It’ll take a lot of time. It’ll take a lot of focus from us. In fact, it takes so much that we cannot do
it on our own. The only way we can do it
is with God. By letting God’s Holy
Spirit come into our hearts and into our souls.
By giving up our own will and surrendering our lives to God’s will.
Is that
easy? No. But we can do it. In fact, if we want to really change, this is
the only way we can do it—by surrendering our lives to God. Because remember, for human beings this is
impossible. It’s only possible with God.
All things are possible with God.
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