Where is the Love…

March 1, 2017

Stetson Memorial UMC

Ash Wednesday

Sermon Series:

“God Shaped Hole…”

“Where Is the Love”

Inspired by Marcia McPhee’s

Looking For Love…

Joel 2:12-17

Matthew 6:1-6; 16-21

 

“Where is the Love”

 

Prayer of illumination….

 

How fitting it is that we begin our Lenten journey in ashes…the thought brings us back to the reality it’s not about us…Titus tells us that it is not by what we do that we are saved but by God’s grace we are redeemed. As we enter this time of Lent, we remember that it is a time of self-reflection, a time when our hearts turn towards the journey to the cross, a time when we ponder on the gift that God so freely gives to you and to me…the gift of redemption and forgiveness wrapped in a cross on top of a hill from so long ago. As I reflect on my life and walk with God I am reminded by the reading from Joel that it is not the outside that God is concerned with, it is not my outward appearance but the appearance of my heart…how is it really with my soul. God is waiting for the day when all of His creation turns back to Him as He had planned for it to be from the very beginning.

 

It is hard at times toknow exactly what to do and what not to do during the Lenten season. Do I fast? Do I decide to give up something or do I not…? Should I tell all my friends or do I not tell them? Even though how hard it may be…I think that Matthew has something to tell us about this whole fasting thing. It is found in Matthew 6 verses 1-6 and 16 through 21 that I read tonight. During Lent we are not sure if we should add something to our “daily walk” with God…it is always a daily walk but during this season we seem to concentrate more on it… There is a danger of adding too much and we want to show how religious we are to those who are around us…all this addition and subtraction can make our heads explode…but then you have to add in the multiplying that we may feel we need to do…take on more projects, do more than our share of different new and improved things that will make us super Lenten warriors , and the like, only to wind up frustrated and overtired and not even sure what this whole Lent thing is about…It becomes all about us and what we do and less about what God did, has done and continues to do…

 

This journey of Lent is a journey of repentance…we are turning around so that we might bin in a right relationship with God. We are turning back to a love that we once had…returning to our first love. As we turn back to our first love…that God shaped hole is filled once again.

 

But at times it is hard. We get so lost that we just keep grabbing onto what feels like a good fit only to realize that we are trying to fit a square shape into a God shaped…heart shaped hole. What is it that we are really looking for? Are we looking for love in all the wrong places and failing miserably?

 

As we share this Lenten journey with one another, I would like to invite all of you on a journey to the heart of the matter…finding that perfectly, God shaped thing we are missing. I would like to invite you to a time of looking at what will fill that hole so that we can help others find their way to the place of turning around so that they too will be on the road to God’s own heart.

 

The Lenten journey is our journey of reflection and hope…it’s the road…our means of access…we travel to the destination at the end of our 40 day journey. The place where God showed His greatest compassion and mercy…the place where He gave His Son to die in our stead so that we may have life renewed and redeemed…the foot of the Cross of Calvary. It is good that we begin in ashes for it is by ashes we were made and to ashes we will return. Wednesday’s ashes…God transformed into the beauty of the cross for me and for you.

Amen.