“Lent: Our Annual Spiritual Check-up”
A
Meditation Preached by the
Rev.
Jean Niven Lenk
Ash
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
First
Congregational Church of Stoughton, United Church of Christ
Text:
Psalm 51:1-10a
Tomorrow I go for my annual physical. I know pretty much how it will go. I’ll sit in the waiting room for about 15
minutes, and then my name will be called.
First stop is the dreaded scale.
Then it will be on to the examining room, where the nurse will take my
vital signs. Then I’ll wait for another
ten minutes before my physician comes in.
Then for about a quarter of an hour,
the doctor will check me over, poking, prodding, asking questions, and pointing
me in the direction of good health. “Pulse
looks good; blood pressure looks good -- that Lisinopril is working. Are you taking your Vitamin D and calcium? Belly feeling better? Hmm, how’s that diet going? Are you exercising regularly?” And then about 40 minutes after I first
arrived, she’ll send me on my way, saying “See you next year!”
At least that’s what I hope. But sometimes at these annual check-ups I’ve
been unpleasantly surprised. Sometimes
she has said, “You’ve got to get that repaired,” or “You’ve got to get that
taken out.” And suddenly doctors become
both the last people I want to see and the ones I need the most.
Today, we enter the Season of Lent,
which is another kind of check-up; it’s when we spend some time with God and
see how our health is, spiritually speaking. Ah, if only our 40 days of Lent were as easy
as 40 minutes in the doctor’s office.
“I see you made it to church more
than half the Sundays; bonus points for Ash Wednesday; but hey, where were you
on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday? I
see you were a little behind on your pledge – try to get caught up, and while
you’re at it, how about boosting it a little.
Served on a committee? Check. Washed dishes at the fair supper? Check.
Said your prayers? Check. Good job!
Now, keep singing in the choir, try to read your bible a little more
this year, and remember next year it’s your turn to be on Trustees.”
We might laugh, thinking that
checklist hits a little too close to home.
But you know, I don’t think those are the things God is looking at to
assess our spiritual health. Instead God
might be asking us: How will you work on growing closer to me this season? How are you reaching out to my people in
need? How are treating your friends and
family, and even more importantly, strangers and enemies? What are you doing to repair this beautiful
creation I have put in your hands? How
are you doing at becoming more patient and kind-hearted and slower to anger?
These are the kind of questions God
asks us – not because God wants to learn – God already knows – but because God
want us to take a good look at ourselves.
We need to face our failings, our shortcomings, our sins of commission
and omission, so that we can repent, turn back to God, and become whole and
healthy in here.
In Psalm 51, his heartfelt prayer
for cleansing and pardon, King David is not coming before God for a check
up. He is not asking, “Am I doing OK
doc?” No, instead he says, “I know my
sins and they are ever before me. Against
you, God, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.”
David recognizes the sorry state of
his spiritual health. He is an adulterer
and a murderer. There are no surprise
diagnoses; David knows his heart needs major work. And he prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and put a new and right spirit within me.”
Listen to the verbs he uses throughout his psalm – “wash me, cleanse me,
purge me, deliver me, restore me, teach me.” This is a man in anguish, and he knows that
something radical must be done with his heart – something only the Great Physician
can do.
And while going to God with his
confession might have been the last thing he wanted to do, David knew that God
was what he needed most. Yes, David had
much to confess to the God who already knew all about his transgressions. But David also knew that only by turning back
to God, could he begin the transformation toward healing and wholeness. Through God, his heart would be cleansed.
And how about us? Would God give us a surprise diagnosis about
our spiritual health, or do we have a pretty good idea of where we need to
improve? Lent is a time to go on a
spiritual fitness program by looking at ourselves with honesty, confronting our
ego and ambition and fear, just as Jesus confronted the Devil in the
wilderness. It’s a time to acknowledge
both our capacities and limitations -- our capacity to get angry or carry resentment, or take offense or refuse
to forgive -- and what limits our capacity to love unconditionally, to forgive graciously,
to give generously, to serve humbly…
And then to let them go by repenting – literally, turning around – and
turning back to God. Such introspection
is appropriate at all times within us, but Lent is that particular time in the
church year when we need to pay special attention, because the Lenten journey
that takes us to Easter’s renewal and resurrection will not escape the shadow
of the cross, and it is in its shadow that we are to acknowledge who and what
we are.
And while going to God with our
confession might be the last thing we want to do, God is what we need most for health
and wholeness, for God is the one who can create in us a clean heart and put a
new and right spirit with us.
Let us pray – Merciful God, You called
us forth from the dust of the earth; You claimed us for Christ in the waters of
baptism. Look upon us as we enter the
forty days, and bless our journey through the desert of Lent to the font of
rebirth. May our fasting be hunger for
justice; our service, a making of peace; our prayers, the music of humble and
grateful hearts. All that we do and pray
is in the name of Jesus, whom we follow to the cross. Amen.
