AuburnChick's Adventures

On Sunday, one of my church’s pastors preached a very inspiring, thought-provoking sermon.

The sermon was about Ash Wednesday, Lent, and what these words mean to Christians.

Tom is my church’s newest pastor.

He is young, full of energy, and possesses a zeal for the Lord.

His sermons are fiery.

He reminds me of the pastor who headed up the small, country church I grew up in.

Tom is also very funny, and he had the congregation laughing at his opening statements.

Things got very serious, though, as he began delving into the meat of his sermon.

Ash Wednesday.

Lent.

These are terms that I have grown up with.

On Sunday, Tom made me think of them in a new way.  I hope he won’t mind if I share snippets of his sermon here…all credit to him and God.

First – Ash Wednesday.  What is it, and why do people walk around with “mud all over their faces,” as Tom said?

The dust, which is applied to the forehead in the shape of a cross, is a reminder that people were formed from dust, and we will return to dust one day.

Heavy.

Mortality.

Never a fun topic.

We will die because we are a race of sinners.  Death entered this world because of sin.  We are, thus, called to die.

The fact that the dust that is placed on Christians’ foreheads on Ash Wednesday is put there in the shape of a cross is important.  Why?  This speaks to the hope that Christians have because Jesus died on the cross.

It is precisely because Jesus died and rose again that Christians can find joy in the midst of the sadness that surrounds Lent.  In fact, “Bright Sadness” is the theme for the Lent reader that my church just created (logo created by a member of the church, who, I hope, won’t mind if I post)…

People who aren’t Christians don’t understand how we could find joy in death.

First of all, there is joy in knowing that God didn’t just hand down a bunch of mandates and remove himself from our lives.  God, who knew no limits, took on the limits of a mortal life.  God, who knew only life and love, experienced death and hate.  He took on the shame that we should one day feel at judgment, when we stand before God.

You know…it’s never fun to stand in front of someone and admit that you did something wrong.  As sinners, we should be the ones doing that before God.

Jesus took our place.

There is joy in that.

It is important to remember, though, that there can be no glory without suffering.

Jesus suffered.

He suffered mightily on His journey.

In Tom’s words, “The road to the cross is a prerequisite to the resurrection.”

I know a little something about prerequisites.  I just finished two classes that were prerequisites for the two classes I am currently enrolled in.

I couldn’t get to Point B without traveling through Point A.

When Jesus told us to “take up our cross and follow Him,” He meant that we would have to travel down the same road that He did.

And thus we get to Lent.

Lent is the 40-day journey.

Lent has, traditionally, been a time of giving up something sacrificially and drawing ever closer to God.

Tom made the point that people allow things to determine who they are.

What a lie the world has fed to us.

We are not defined by the things in the world.

We are defined by our relationship with God.

Giving up things that we consider important to us has the potential to bring us closer to the Lord.

And so Tom challenged us.

The first thing that happened was that the ushers passed out pads of sticky notes.

We held on to our stickies as the sermon was presented.

I already knew what we were going to be asked to do.

A word stuck in my head immediately.

As Tom spoke, my heart started beating faster, and I got tears in my eyes as I realized that this word was something that I’ve used to help define myself.

Tom eventually asked us two questions:
1. What is God telling you to fast from during Lent?
2. What is God calling you to replace it with?

You see, Lent is not supposed to be a legalistic ritual.

Every religion can turn into legalism.

Lent is about drawing closer to the Lord, so whatever you give up should be done with the intention of replacing it with something that honors God.

I continued to mull over the word that was in my head.

Then, Tom asked us to write down something that we would give up, along with the thing we would replace it with.

I wrote.

I had tears in my eyes.

I was embarrassed.

I was also ashamed.

We then had communion.

As we walked to the front, we placed our sticky notes on the altar…

I am so glad someone took a picture after the sermon.

As I sat down after taking communion and watched others go to the front, my heart was moved.

I watched elementary age children put stickies on the altar.

Lessons learned in youth…

A nation of believers in the making.

I honestly cannot remember a previous Sunday when the congregation, as a whole, had been immediately affected in that way.

What had started off as a funny morning had grown quite serious.

Salvation is like that.

It’s not something you wait around for.

It’s also not something you take for granted.

Salvation is a GIFT that you CANNOT earn with good works and crossed fingers.

There is such joy when you understand this very basic precept.

And so, during Lent, I will be giving up something that has grown to mean a lot to me…

I’ve been justifying my extended viewing of it by saying that my shows help me to relax after all of the stress I’ve been under each day.

Phooey.

What a load of baloney I’ve been feeding myself.

But I will admit that I am not overly thrilled.

Shows like Survivor, Dancing With the Stars, Amazing Race, Criminal Minds, and American Idol have become staples in my living room.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the finale of The Bachelor.

Guys, I waste countless hours each week in front of the TV.

How many hours do I spend studying my Bible and praying?

Not a whole lot.

And so I am committing myself to studying God’s Word and praying for at least an hour each day.

I could easily use the excuse that my schoolwork is too heavy of a load to do this, but I know that I’m only fooling myself.

Every afternoon when I get home from school, I spend/waste 45 minutes watching the Days of Our Lives episode I’ve recorded that day.

Sheesh.

Do you want to know what’s also ironic?

On Saturday, after getting home from my certification classes, I thought to myself, “I hope I don’t get distracted by all of my shows.  There are so many starting up right now, so my TV schedule is going to be heavy.”

Thanks, Lord.

I owe you one.

Actually, I owe Him my life.

He gave His instead.

Giving up TV for forty days is chump change considering that I will be spending eternity with Him.

Will you consider giving something up?

What if you’re not a Christian?

Will you consider spending forty days searching and praying for God to reveal Himself to you?

I will pray that you do.  I will pray that you come to a saving knowledge of Jesus’s atoning work on the cross so that you, too, may experience the “bright sadness” of Lent.

Filed under: Christian | Tagged: Ash Wednesday, Christianity, Lent |