The disciplines of Lent are the shaping of your whole life to live in the grace and love of God for you and share it with the world.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Ash Wednesday
Texts: Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

When was the last time you fasted and disfigured yourself so everyone would know what you were doing?

Or when did you last make your offering in a public way, announcing to all what you were giving? Do you have a problem with praying out loud on street corners so people know you are faithful?

These are the things Jesus critiques today, and it makes us wonder if they even apply to us. Isaiah’s criticism is easier to grasp: his people are fasting and putting on ashes as a sign of repentance, but they aren’t changing their lives. And they’re disappointed God isn’t impressed with their rituals.

But fasting, giving, and praying are disciplines that believers have found deep grace and help in practicing, and in which they’ve experienced the Holy Spirit’s power to transform them. And, every Ash Wednesday, the liturgy invites us to the “disciplines of Lent,” “self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love.”

These disciplines may not always be things we hold in our hearts on a daily basis, whether in or out of Lent. But they can be a tremendous gift on our path of faith that the Holy Spirit can use to shape us as Christ, the calling we each received in our baptism. That’s Ash Wednesday’s invitation to you.

The discipline of fasting may be the most important one we could learn today.

Isaiah says fasting is far more than intentionally going without food for a time. The fast God seeks, Isaiah says, is nothing less than loosing the bonds of injustice, undoing and breaking the yokes that bind people in oppression, and freeing those people.

All these systemic problems in our culture and world that we’ve been awakened to see over the last number of years and most especially since the trauma this past year in Mount Olive’s city and neighborhood, all these, Isaiah says, must be broken apart and ended. That’s true fasting. And it’s a huge job. How can anything you or I do on Ash Wednesday, or ever, loose the bonds of injustice and break yokes of oppression?

Fortunately, in the next verse Isaiah makes it simpler. The fast God wants is for you to offer your bread to someone who’s hungry. Invite someone who has no house into your home. Provide clothing for someone who’s naked. Concrete, personal acts will show God where your heart is. And as each of us do such concrete, personal acts, the greater systems start to fall apart, too.

Most of us don’t have the spiritual habit of fasting to compare to Isaiah’s turn.

But even if many of us may not fast, a lot of us have gotten into the habit of giving up something for Lent. Use that as your entry into Isaiah, and exercise the discipline of self-examination and repentance here.

What if you quit thinking about giving up something for Lent and began to consider what you could give up for life that could draw you closer to your path as Christ?

No one is helped if I don’t eat chocolate for six weeks. But if I learn to let go of things that draw me from God, behaviors, privilege, assumptions, or even material things like food and possessions, many others could be blessed.

Because Isaiah says that true fasting, in addition to engaging personally with hunger and homelessness and poverty, is ultimately not hiding “from your own kin.” Fasting is seeing all people as your family – siblings, cousins, beloved – and your life as affecting all. When you let go of something you cling to, for the sake of someone else, you will be God’s blessing in ways you can’t imagine.

This might suggest a different way to practice the discipline of giving, too.

Mount Olive is a deeply giving congregation. Just in this past year we saw so many generously give food and time and energy over the months we had a food distribution in the parking lot, to help those who lost access to stores in the unrest. A number of times, word was sent out that we had a neighbor in need, and within a couple days supplies, furniture, household goods, all that was asked was given abundantly by you. This is good and a blessing, as is all that is given by Mount Olive’s people financially for God’s ministry here and around the world. This answers what Isaiah proclaims God is seeking.

But what if we imagined giving as also part of fasting? For example, what if fasting meant for you that you were willing to spend more money and more time to get what you need because it supported local businesses which paid local workers a just minimum wage, or because it avoided businesses that harmed their workers or the environment? If you “fasted” from convenience and cheap prices for the sake of the other? That both gives food and clothing and homes to those without and also starts breaking down the yokes of oppressive business practices and unjust economic realities.

What fasts might you be called to undertake, for the sake of God’s children, your siblings, in need?

The discipline of letting go, either for a time or permanently, can shape your life in profound ways. Your behaviors and attitudes, even prejudices and assumptions that seem written in, can be let go and changed. And such a discipline can be a blessing far beyond the confines of the Lenten season. It can continue past Easter, to the rest of your life. That’s the point of Lent, isn’t it? To learn patterns and disciplines of living our baptism that we can carry with us through the joy of Easter and into the life of God that flows in us always.

The mystery of these disciplines is they bring joy.

As daunting as the social problems are in our world, as much as we think we fail to faithfully deal with the systems of injustice and oppression, hunger and homelessness, being disciplined into becoming God’s blessing isn’t a burden. Isaiah says it’s a path filled with God’s light where you also become God’s light to others. Living these, you’re like a garden planted by a spring, and God’s Spirit pours into your life what you need to thrive and be filled, while blessing others through you.

And, Isaiah says, when we do these, we’ll even raise up ruined cities, repair breaches in our society, restore streets to live in. You and I are invited to renew our discipline today, that God’s Spirit might open that path of life for all God’s world.

And the great joy is, you get to be a part of God’s grace in bringing life and hope to this world, too.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

“Give me a share of the Spirit,” you pray with Elisha, so that you might be God’s light to all who live in darkness.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Transfiguration of Our Lord, year B
Texts: 2 Kings 2:1-12; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-10

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Jesus. Moses. Elijah. That’s a powerful gathering.

Moses, Israel’s greatest leader and great law-giver, who woke them from slavery in Egypt and, with God’s Spirit, led them to freedom. Elijah, Israel’s greatest prophet, faithful in the midst of widespread rejection of the true God, who did marvels through God’s Spirit, and for whom a seat is always left in waiting at Passover meals around the world even today.

And Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, God-with-us, in our human flesh, who reveals his divine glory, his clothes dazzlingly white, the Triune God’s light shining from him.

Peter – still reeling from the shame of Jesus’ rebuke a week earlier, and the brothers James and John, witness this. Little wonder they’re terrified. But the offer to build dwellings makes sense. If Jesus is God’s Anointed, God’s Christ, then with the affirmation of great Elijah and great Moses, all would be convinced. Why not reveal this to everyone?

We know that didn’t happen. Within moments, Jesus was alone again, the four headed down the mountain, and Jesus commanded their silence about all this. From here, Jesus headed to Jerusalem and the cross.

But there’s something else you need to notice.

As impressive as these three are, they all handed off their ministry to others.

Moses didn’t lead forever, Joshua took over, and many more after him. Elijah didn’t remain God’s great prophet forever, as we heard today. Elisha took over, and then many more prophets after that.

Jesus didn’t stay on earth forever. He called Peter, James, John, Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary, Andrew, and millions more up to today, to carry on his ministry.

God’s servants always eventually pass critical ministry on to others, and that means to you, and me, and whoever else hears God’s call today.

But it’s intimidating, isn’t it, to follow such giants?

You can see why Elisha asked for a double share of God’s Spirit that filled Elijah.

Elisha wasn’t greedy. He likely saw all the wonders Elijah did, the trials and sufferings he faced, his faithfulness, and thought, “I can’t do that without a lot of help from God’s Spirit.”

Joshua was also blessed by God’s Spirit after taking over from Moses. And you know about those who first followed Jesus: the Holy Spirit flowed into them and gave them the power and courage and wisdom and gifts to do what God needed them to do.

It is the Spirit of God that empowers the servants of God, not their impressive gifts or resumes. That’s what you need to ask for. Because now God needs you to carry on the ministry of God’s Good News.

Paul declares this, and Elijah, Moses, and Jesus would heartily agree.

Paul says today that people are blinded by the “god of this world” and can’t see the light of the Gospel of Christ, the image of God. The challenges, sufferings, fears, and temptations of this world keep people from seeing the Good News that God has come to the world in Christ to bring life and healing.

But, Paul says, you and I witness to God’s coming by God’s light shining from us. God shines in our hearts to give light to those who can’t see it, by our love, our kindness, our work, our prayers.

Just after these verses, Paul reminds us that God’s Spirit in our hearts is a treasure held in clay jars. We’re fragile, weak, flawed. We make mistakes. We never imagine ourselves to be like Moses or Elijah, let alone Jesus.

But we carry God’s treasure in us, and so, Paul says, “we do not lose heart.”

And that’s really important to remember.

Because it isn’t only Jesus who leaves this mountain to face the cross, suffering and death. All his followers faced great difficulties as they faithfully took up God’s ministry. So did Elisha, and Joshua, and all who are called.

The path of Christ leads the servants of Christ through self-giving love and vulnerable caring for others, through risk and sacrifice. Knowing we are clay jars filled with the treasure of God’s Spirit not only helps you as you know your own weaknesses and flaws. It’s also comfort in the struggles that faithfully serving as Christ will bring you to know God’s Spirit is always within you.

So, you’re going to need Elisha’s prayer for God’s Spirit.

Paul says God doesn’t expect you to be Moses or Elijah or Jesus. God just needs you to be you. God will fill you, and me, and all who wish it, with the Holy Spirit.

And God’s Spirit transforms you to shine with God’s light into a world that is beset by so many things that would crush it. Shining God’s love and grace, God’s justice and hope for all God’s children, with your words and actions and presence.

So, go ahead and ask for God’s Spirit to fill you. You’ll find God’s already within you, God’s light is already shining out of you. People have already seen God’s love through you, flawed as you might be.

And so through you, and me, and so many more, God’s light will continue to shine, and even spread.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen