Lent 1 Yr A March 5, 2017

So, I had a sermon written for this morning. There was nothing wrong with that sermon at all. BUT ever since Ash Wednesday, something has been nagging at me. And then two separate Bishops got involved. First I read Bishop Audrey Scanlon's (Central Pennsylvania) weekly blog (http://compasspointsmappingtheway.blogspot.com) in which she shared Jan Richardson's poem Rend Your Heart: A Blessing for Ash Wednesday (more on that in a bit). Second, our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, visited the diocese this weekend. As I said  good bye to him on Saturday night, he put his hands on my shoulders and said (referencing today, Sunday), "Preach well, my sister." As my seminary professor the Rev. John Colacino was fond of saying, his words convicted me. I could take the written sermon and preach it. Or I could stand in the midst of you and preach. Preach that which was on my heart and in my soul. And so...here we go. [what follows is my memory of what I said, since I did the two sermons at 8 and 10 , without notes, except for the Book of Common Prayer and the text of Jan Richardson's poem.]
Lent is not a time for dreariness, and wretchedness. Lent is a time for tearing open our hearts, reaching deep into our souls and laying all that weighs us down in front of our Creator. It is a time to get honest with ourselves--really honest---and to shed light on those things that linger deep within us, things that cause us shame, things that disgust us, things that sadden us, things that embarrass us.
Lent is time for freeing up space and time for God to enter in--some of us do this by removing (giving up) something for Lent, some of us do this by adding a practice (reading morning prayer or evening prayer, or some other devotional). I doesn't matter how we do it, it matters that we are intentional about doing it.
So...why do this? Why take this time to "change things up?" Well, it all began with the scene in the Garden of Eden. Our reading from Genesis this morning is commonly referred to as the Fall of Humankind. People tend to think that Adam and Eve's behavior surprised and angered God. Well I don;t think God gets surprised...and while God may get angry I don't believe that our God exacts revenge upon us in response to that anger. I think God knew that we--humanity--had the capacity for free will...I believe that God knew we would be drawn toward doing things on our own instead of partnering with God. Was God surprised at how quickly we succumbed to the cravings of THIS world? Perhaps. Was God saddened, was our Creator grieved at our turning away from God and TOWARD power and immediate gratification? Yes, I believe God grieved (and grieves) deeply at our insistence on doing things our way instead of God's way. I think God is horribly grieved when we hurt one another. And I think God is especially grieved when we hurt ourselves.
Why do we rend our hearts and souls open before God during Lent? Not because we need to be forgiven (but of course we always need forgiveness), not because God likes to see us suffer (no God NEVER wants us to suffer), not because it is good to deny ourselves. No we rend our hearts and souls open to God during Lent as a cleansing act to free us, to lighten us, to open ourselves up enough to fully receive the new life presented to us on Easter morn. In the ancient church, Lent was a time for those who desired baptism to study and pray as a way to ready themselves for receiving new life in Christ through baptism. We only get baptized once, but Lent, for us, allows us a time to be ready to be born again at the empty tomb. Lent is a time to free up space within us to receive the glory and the wonder and the awesomeness of resurrection life. The more room we open up the more glory has room to roam within our hearts and souls.
You see, my friends, this is why I actually think Lent is awesome, because a well-done Lent allows for an incredible Easter. A well done Lent guarantees us a depth and breadth of joy on Easter morn beyond anything we've ever experienced.
A well-done Lent opens us to a Love that is stronger and a Peace that is greater than we can ever ask or imagine.
A well-done Lent opens us up to the fullness of God. And the fullness of God? Well that is all that God has every wanted for us, the fullness of Love itself. The fullness of Peace itself.
A well-done Lent leaves us empty of resentments, empty of guilt, empty of shame and empty of despair.
A well-done Lent leaves us empty enough to be filled---absolutely FILLED---with resurrection light, resurrection love and resurrection life.
So as we are invited to the observance of a Holy Lent, remember that Lent is not something to endure, it is something to participate in--fully and completely--not because God is making us, but because we are sick and tired of hiding, of denying, of shunning the darker parts of us. Through the observance of a Holy Lent we take all that weighs us down, those things we've stuffed into the recesses of our hearts and lay it down.
The observance of a Holy Lent requires that we dig deep.
To do this we must Rend our Hearts as described by Jan Richardson in the poem,
Rend Your Heart: An Ash Wednesday Blessing
To receive this blessing,
all you have to do
is let your heart break.
Let it crack open.
Let it fall apart
so that you can see
its secret chambers,
the hidden spaces
where you have hesitated
to go.

Your entire life
is here, inscribed whole
upon your heart’s walls:
every path taken
or left behind,
every face you turned toward
or turned away,
every word spoken in love
or in rage,
every line of your life
you would prefer to leave
in shadow,
every story that shimmers
with treasures known
and those you have yet
to find.

It could take you days
to wander these rooms.
Forty, at least.
And so let this be
a season for wandering
for trusting the breaking
for tracing the tear
that will return you
to the One who waits
who watches
who works within
the rending
to make your heart

whole.

May God bless our rending, our emptying and then our receiving. Amen.