Ashes for Glory

Last updated on: February 10, 2016 at 7:25 am by Anne Kennedy

Ashes for Glory 2016-02-10T07:25:32-04:00 Anne Kennedy

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I posted Sunday evening on Facebook that Matt had preached “the best sermon ever“, which I am apt to say every now and then. He keeps topping himself. And I keep being a sinner. So it’s a perfect felicity.

So what is the substance of a good sermon, and why does that matter on Ash Wednesday?

The first element is the person sitting back in her pew, burdened with stuff–not just an overflowing church basket filled with bits of stale chocolate, slips of paper, one shoe, and some hair ties, but also despair, pride, sin, unease, anxiety, I don’t know, all the stuff that swirls around in a person in the course of a single moment.

The second element is that the person in her pew has stopped fidgeting and is prepared to listen.

The third element is the preacher, standing there, gripping the pulpit, an entire week of work at his back, the pages of an actual text lying in front of him–not just an outline, not his gathered disparate thoughts and feelings about the bible–a text he wrote himself that is shaped and formed by the biblical text, a text that unfolds and reveals The Text.

The fourth element is the preacher, opening his mouth to say the words on the page in front of him. You might have read the sermon, you might have heard it at an earlier service, but it’s when you are sitting there, everything of consequence falling away, and he speaks, that the sermon becomes A Sermon.

The last element, of course, is what he says. Does he flinch? Does he play it safe? Is he lazy? Or does he stand up and proclaim the sinner to be a sinner beyond help? Does he illumine the incredible gracious work of Christ to save the sinner? Does he lay forth the singular, miraculous hope of Christ? Does he destroy all pride for the proud, and light a glimmer of hope for the despairing? Does he draw out the gospel, word by word, from the tangle of lines on the page? If he does those things, he has preached the best sermon ever.

And today is all about the sermon, the text, the story of valley of dust and dry bones, the dead men walking around thinking they are alive, they are invincible, the clanging on the pew of death as everybody tries to find a seat. But then, breathed into the dust, the ash, the recreative Word, the proclamation of the love, mercy, and work of Christ. Are you dead? Listen up and live. Are you tired? Cling on to the strength of Christ. Are you sad? There is joy to be had in your savior. Are you carrying on sinning and don’t know how to stop? Fall before the Lord and repent of your sin. The cross will be your shame and your glory. The ash will mark your mourning and your hope. Then you pick yourself up, and walk the weary road to Good Friday, when the death is put away forever.

A Blessed Ash Wednesday to you all!

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