Good News in the Ashes

So I gave a little meditation at the downtown campus for Ash Wednesday. I wrote the whole thing out in order to try and stay consistent with the way folks do things around here, so as a result, I can upload it for anyone to read! Here it is if you're interested

Phillippians 3:7-11
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

“Good News in the Ashes”
Not too long ago, my wife and I moved here from San Diego, California. The weather here has definitely been a new experience, but, overall, I would say weʼve been enjoying all of the seasons, and if we donʼt freeze to death, weʼll call it good. I never thought Iʼd call 30 degrees warm, but after-18 below or whatever ridiculous temperature it was a while back, I was able to do just that. Iʼve changed.
Anyway, you might know that San Diego has a reputation for having a really great climate, but thereʼs a catch. While they donʼt get a lot of rain out there, they also donʼt get a lot of rain out there, and that lack of rain leaves you with extremely dry foliage. Consequently, every couple of years, the people in the area have to deal with pretty severe wildfires. One day, people will be enjoying a beautiful late summer afternoon, and the next day entire neighborhoods have been consumed by a blazing inferno, which only leaves behind lonely chimneys surrounded by ash and debris. People witness the lives they have built literally go up in smoke. The achievements, the memories, all gone. A lot of people in San Diego have worked really hard to build lives for themselves, only to have so much of what they have built their lives around go up in flames. Itʼs a terrible tragedy, but when it happens, they rebuild. And while people who experience destruction in their lives can and should rebuild, we see something in the remnant of those flames that tells us something important about the lives that we live.
Tonight, itʼs Ash Wednesday, and weʼre going to receive the ashes on our foreheads. In the ashes, we are reminded of our fleeting mortality. We are reminded that we are dust, and we will return to dust. We didnʼt bring anything with us when we arrived on this crazy little rock, and we wont take anything with us when we leave. Itʼs an inescapable fact of the human condition. The ashes are a sign of repentance and a reminder or our short timeline.
Paul tells us in the scripture that everything that he had going for himself, everything that he had striven for he now considers garbage compared with knowing Jesus. It might as well all be burned up. On the other hand, itʼs so easy for us to go through life pursuing the things we think will last. We dream of great success, we dream of influence and power, we search for things that we believe will give us a sense of significance and ultimately, I think, cause us to be remembered, granting us some sort of immortality. We also have a tendency to try and do the things we believe will please God, and we hope that somehow, the work weʼve done will be approved, and we will then enjoy eternity with our God. But thatʼs not how it works. It all fades away. It all decomposes ultimately into a grey, shapeless carbon, and it is forgotten. The good news is that we donʼt have to cling to all the things that we have sought, which will eventually slip right through our fingers. Instead, we can cling to Jesus. In the ashes we find we are released from the striving, and we are reminded that we can loosen our frantic grasp on the things that we could never hold onto anyway. Where there was once anxiety and fear, there is now peace and assurance. So why shouldnʼt we call our achievements and deeds garbage? Is it really so important that we receive credit for the life we lived? Do we really want credit? I donʼt. Not if it means I have to take credit for everything. I donʼt really want to take the bad stuff with me. So what if I just let it all go? The bad and the good. Then I have open arms to cling to Jesus. Iʼm not saying we shouldnʼt work, and work hard. I would say we should work for Jesus, and not so much for ourselves, because the goals we would seek for ourselves, in the grand scheme of things, arenʼt going to do us any good. Do wonderful and amazing things, great and small, and rejoice in God as you do them, but donʼt worry about trying to do those things to please or impress God, or to earn his Love. Thatʼs way too much pressure. He loves you. So let all those other things go, and hold on to him.
Paul calls all that he had worked for rubbish, and he also expresses his desire to become like Jesus in his death, and in the previous chapter of Philippians, he challenges us saying: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Jesus had it all, and he gave it all up because of his love for us. We are invited to become like him, in a way, in that we can give up what we have and receive his love for us, but we canʼt hang onto what we have anyway. We have the opportunity, in repentance, to receive forgiveness for the things we did wrong, and to receive freedom from the things we think we did right.
So weʼre invited to let go of that which we canʼt hold onto. But we also see in this passage Paulʼs desire to “share in the fellowship of sufferings.” It might seem a little counterintuitive to desire suffering, but if youʼve been even halfway around the block, you probably know that suffering is another inevitable consequence of the human condition. You will suffer. I will suffer. But we also have a choice. Will we suffer the senseless pain that must be endured as part of the trappings of humanity, or will we also suffer for Jesusʼ sake. When you identify with Jesus, when you stand with Jesus, it will catch up to you at some point, and it will cause you pain, but Jesus will be with you, and he understands your pain. And just as our triumphs and feeble attempts at righteousness will pass away, so also our pain will pass away, but in the meantime, Jesus is with us in the midst of our pain, and through suffering, we have the chance to draw closer to our God who suffered for us. But thereʼs still more. Not only do we get to walk with one who understands what we are going through and is there for us in countless ways, but as we walk with Jesus, we experience the power of His resurrection. I donʼt believe that the power of the resurrection is reserved only for when we have passed on and are all raised together at the big finish. I believe we can experience that power now. The power of the resurrection is about making that which was dead--alive. Jesus brings life, and we get to witness his bringing new life to us and to those around us. And when we leave this life behind, our life with Jesus continues on. Just as we were sustained by him in life, so we will besustained by him in death.
So we are reminded of two eventualities. First, that we canʼt hang on to what we have accomplished in this life, and second, that we will suffer in this life. But Jesus offers us something to lift us far beyond both of these situations. When we find that we have nothing that we can hold onto, we know that we can cling to Jesus, and when we suffer, he is there with us, sustaining us, until, well, until always. He will always be there sustaining us.
As you might spend a little extra time in quiet during this season of lent, Iʼd like to suggest that you make a little extra room in your heart for Jesus. Let him replace all of the things youʼve felt like you had to do to “make it”, let him stand with you when you suffer, and let him fill you with the life giving power of his resurrection.