Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Several years ago, I visited a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.
Some of the people there were in their 40's or older, some barely in their 20’s.
There were black and white people, men and women. Everyone there needed help
staying off drugs. Some attended 5 or 6 meetings each week. I thought it was
excessive. I was wrong. Heroin, cocaine,
crystal meth: under that spell, you
can't will yourself free. You're a slave to the substance. Only by the grace of
God and the help of others can you claim victory over the addiction. Every
person there admitted he or she was an addict and would be an addict the rest
of his or her life. But, being an addict does not mean you have to stay under
the influence of the drug. Going to 5 or 6 meetings, spending time with others
who are also fighting the addiction, praying, and appealing to the Lord can
bring freedom.
I was a total outsider at that meeting. I am not an
addict. When these people, who had bodies broken down from years of drug use,
gave their testimonies, I felt distant. I lacked knowledge, and I was glad that
I didn't know how they felt. But, I am not any cleaner or any more innocent or
virtuous than those regulars at NA meetings.
I may not sin by getting high, but I sin in a 1000
other ways. I am guilty of sins. We all are. Even the faithful parent, the
devout Christian, the good citizen falls short of God's glory. We're all in the
same boat. We may not go to Narcotics Anonymous, but we have our own
group. It is called church. It is where are reminded of how much we need
Jesus. We are also reminded that because
Christ is in us, we have joy. He gives
abundant life. In Jesus Christ, we are
redeemed, born again.
Confession is an ongoing part of our lives as
followers of Jesus. In Romans, Paul sets
the course. We are in Christ, free from
sin’s clutches. He writes in chapter 6,
8 As surely as we died with Christ,
we believe we will also live with him. 9 We know that
death no longer has any power over Christ. He died and was raised to life,
never again to die. 10 When Christ
died, he died for sin once and for all. But now he is alive, and he lives only
for God. 11 In the same
way, you must think of yourselves as dead to the power of sin. But Christ Jesus
has given life to you, and you live for God.
12 Don’t let sin rule your body.
After all, your body is bound to die, so don’t obey its desires 13 or let any
part of it become a slave of evil. Give yourselves to God, as people who have
been raised from death to life. Make every part of your body a slave that
pleases God. 14 Don’t let
sin keep ruling your lives. You are ruled by God’s kindness and not by the Law.
22 Now you have
been set free from sin, and you are God’s slaves. This will make you holy and
will lead you to eternal life. 23 Sin pays off with death. But
God’s gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yet, though we are free from sin, still we make mistakes, let God down, and
do things to hurt ourselves and others.
We sin. We are being made
perfect, but the work of God in us is not finished. God’s work is complete in that Jesus has
accomplished all that is needed for salvation with his death on the cross. Yet, we still stand astride two worlds – the
fallen world where sin roams, Satan rules, and death threatens, and the Kingdom
of God were our hope is resurrection. Too
often we live oriented toward the fallen.
We don’t realize who we are in Christ and who we are becoming in
Christ.
One of the ways to face the reality, the truth about ourselves, is to make
confession a regular practice. Lent, the
40 days leading up to Easter is a special time of acknowledging sin, turning
away from it and turning to God.
Confession is painful but it is also a time of renewal. Who we are and who are becoming in Christ
becomes clearer.
At HillSong, our theme through Lent, then Easter and then into the rest of
the year 2014 is identity. Who am I when
I see myself as one who is “in Christ?”
I am free. I am free to be
completely honest with God – honest about all that is in me, my hopes, my
failures, my uncertainties. I am free to
love and free from embarrassment. I am
free to invite people to turn to Jesus; How they respond is between them and
Him. I am free to worship, to pray, to
laugh, to cry; and to confess. The
Father of beckons us to come to Him.
One of the speakers at the Narcotics Anonymous meeting I attended was
celebrating her 16th year of being clean and sober. She gave the glory and the
credit to Jesus Christ. That's what Jesus does. He frees us from the shackles
of sin and when he does, life changes for us and people who know us.
This freedom and the changes that are part of it are themes in Paul's
letter to Philemon. The last of Paul’s letters in the New Testament, situated
between Titus and Hebrews, Philemon is a story about three men. Paul is an evangelist and church
starter. Onesimus is a runaway slave who
becomes a Christian when he meets Paul in prison. Philemon is the slave's owner and also
someone led to Christ by Paul. In the relationship of these three men,
oppressive social structures of a sinful class system fade to the background. The light of Christ and who we are in Christ
shines.
Paul begins
the letter like this.
From Paul, who is in jail for
serving Christ Jesus, and from Timothy, who is like a brother because of our
faith.
Philemon, you work with us and are very dear to us. This letter is
to you 2 and
to the church that meets in your home. It is also to our dear friend Apphia and
to Archippus, who serves the Lord as we do.
Pauls’ words inspired
by the Spirit and containing truth for all Christians, have specific
ramifications for Philemon’s life. He owns Onesimus. This man is his property. He can punish Onesimus for running away. He
would be expected to, at the least, issue a severe flogging. He might even be justified in killing
Onesimus. Paul has something else in mind.
Paul never offers social commentary on the institution of slavery, much
though we wish he had. Instead, he
speaks to his brother in Christ, Philemon.
“Philemon, you're a Christian now,” He says. “So too is Onesimus. The world
may treat sin with anger and punishment. But, Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus
forgives all who humbly seek forgiveness. You Philemon must treat your slave's
transgression with love and forgiveness.” Because of the freedom we have in
Christ, the relationship changes. The
world will not recognize such a change as something good. Philemon gains nothing if he loves Onesimus
as a brother. His peers won’t be
impressed. His social status will not
improve and might actually decline a bit.
But, we are in Christ. Impressing people is no longer
important. We love people; people who
have wronged us, stolen from us, hurt us.
We are free from guilt and free from grudges. We are free because of Jesus’
forgiveness. We are free to give
forgiveness.
At the end of the letter, Paul speaks of hope. He hopes that Philemon will
exceed the minimum requirements in his Christ-love for the former slave,
Onesimus (v.21). He hopes he can come and visit Philemon (v.22).
Paul writes,
Epaphras is also here
in jail for being a follower of Christ Jesus. He sends his greetings, 24 and
so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, who work together with me.
25 I
pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you!
All this is written by Paul, from
prison. Because of Christ he is free
not to wallow is in squalor. He is free
from self-pity. Forgiven he is free from his own sin; born again with the
promise of resurrection, he is free from fear of death. He doesn't know if he'll get out of prison.
He doesn't know if he will ever see Philemon again. All he knows is that God is
in control. What the prison officials and Roman authorities say is
inconsequential to Paul. He will hope in Christ and live in Christ. He wants
Philemon to do the same.
Can Philemon do that? He is being
challenged to change the way he sees the world. Love Onesimus, a slave? Can he do that? He can if sees that he himself is one who has
been freed from slavery to sin.
You and I can change the way we see the world if we first understand the
lesson from those who battle addiction.
We are all enslaved and our only hope is Jesus. Once we have that hope, once we live in the
freedom he gives, we become new people.
Yes, Philemon can love the one who was his slave and is now his brother
because he is in Christ. Yes, the addict
can have joy, freedom, meaningful life, life that contributes to the greater
good of God’s world. That happens for
the addict who is in Christ. Yes, you
and I are in Christ when we receive forgiveness, die to self, and recognize
that He is Lord – Savior and Lord. We
absolutely need Him. He comes to all who
recognize their need for him.
Confession is a spiritual discipline that enables us to see who we are in
Christ. Already this evening, you have
written down sins in your life. No one
knows what you wrote. Those cards have
been burned up. We will now take the
ashes and form the cross on our foreheads.
We are reminded that our sins have gone up flames, flames of love, the
love of God. Jesus has taken our sins
and the punishment for them on himself.
We take Him into us.
After tonight, I encourage you to explore ways that confession can be your
Lenten discipline. Maybe it involves
specific reconciliation. You go to
someone to attempt forgiveness and the restoration of the relationship. Maybe you will read Psalms of confession
throughout Lent. Maybe fasting will be a
way of drawing to the surface buried guilt that needs to be given to God. Maybe you’ll continue keeping a God notebook
where you read scripture, learn about God, write the insights, and to it add
what you learn about yourself as you seek God and walk with the Spirit.
This season, these 40 days leading to Easter, is a call. God invites us to give our hearts to
Him. May this be a season of confession
and discovery. We don’t just list the
mistakes we’ve made. We receive the
grace of God.
As I think about confession and the occasion of Ash Wednesday, I close with
the comments of Professor Debra Dean Murphy of West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Ashes are the residue of death. They
are the ruins, the remains of something no longer alive, no longer with us.
Ashes are all that’s left when a house burns down or when a body is
cremated. And so it is fitting that we wear this sooty tattoo as
we identify with Jesus and his journey toward death. A journey into,
not around, suffering.
We don’t receive this sign of
the cross as a symbol of our own righteousness. We receive the ashes because
we’ve been asked to confront death—and the death-dealing ways of the world.
The black sooty cross that we wear
on Ash Wednesday is ultimately a sign of love, for it is love alone that
conquers death. Among the rubble and ruin of Wednesday’s ashes is a black,
organic substance that marks us as God’s own beloved.[i]
We stand as people forgiven, free to live joyfully in Christ.
Pastor Heather will now lead us in the service of receiving ashes.
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