Ash Wednesday Sermon, February 13, 2013

Friedrich Nietzsche was a famous German philosopher at the end of the nineteenth century. Nietzsche lived his life on a search for meaning and purpose. But, in the midst of the scientific revolution, and with the increasing self-reliance of humanity, Nietzsche noticed that many people stopped desiring God. As this revolution progressed, he made the famous statement, “God is dead.” If God was no longer a factor in people's lives, Nietzsche saw the inevitable future. He saw meaninglessness. And he embraced it. Without God, life has no meaning; there's no driving purpose. Each is left to do as they choose. Without God, we are left on our own.

In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9, Jesus is teaching, preaching, healing, and performing miracles. As he looks out into the crowds, Matthew writes, “he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus saw their need, and it drove him to compassion.

As Psalm 103 says, “he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.”

Think about that. The Lord knows our low position. We are harassed and helpless people in need of a shepherd. The purpose of our actions this Ash Wednesday is not to remind him of that need. We are not humbling ourselves in an effort to sway his opinion of us. As we come forward to have the ashes brushed against our foreheads, two questions challenge us.

Who are we?

And, what do we need?

Let's ask this first question. Who are we? Let's go all the way back to the beginning of everything, What does Genesis 1 tell us? God created us, male and female, in his own image. In chapter two, we see that God breathed life from himself into the first man, creating him from the dust of the ground. God gave man the task of caring for the created order. And woman as a helper in doing so. But, the unfortunate truth is that the story doesn't end there.

Man and woman disobey God. Sin and death enter into the world and God kicks them out of paradise. Their connection with God is severed. They once walked with him in the cool of the day, but now they wander the wilderness apart from God. As they have children, and their children have children, each generation is more and more separated from God.

But God does not give up on his creation. He is our creator. Our psalm reminds us: His steadfast love for us is “as high as the heavens are above the earth.” He chose the man Abram to be the father of faith for all people of the world. He called him Abraham, and his wife Sarah. He gave them a son even in their old age. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph were the family line of Abraham, leading to their settling in Egypt, where God gave them favor. Many years later, God called Moses to guide his people out of slavery. The people were led by the power and majesty of God which went before them through the wilderness. God gave them the land of Canaan out of the hands of wicked men who did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. God did all of this out of his love for his creation.

But the chosen people, the light to the nations fell into darkness. They turned to other gods. They didn't seek after the One True God. He scattered them because they disobeyed. When they finally realized their mistake, and desired God again, he brought them back to himself. God spoke through the prophets to point his people in the right direction. After the time of the prophets, The people didn't hear God for four hundred years.

This is the story of the Old Testament. Humanity keeps failing, but God keeps faithful to his steadfast love. We are, indeed, sheep in need of a shepherd. The first humans rejected God by seeking to be like him. They were tempted and ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Yet God stayed faithful. The Israelites rejected God after he freed them from Egypt and worship a golden calf. Yet God stayed faithful. They rejected God as king, and demanded for a human king to rule over them. Yet God stayed faithful. Then, they rejected God outright and worshiped the gods of the surrounding nations. Yet God stayed faithful.

There's one thing we know for sure from history: We have the unusual tendency to reject what's good for us. We have the tendency trade long term satisfaction for short term, temporary pleasures. We follow philosophers who preach meaninglessness. We celebrate our “hedonism,” centered around pleasure-seeking without care for consequence. We even have to fight our kids to eat their vegetables before they get dessert.

We store up for ourselves treasures here on earth at the cost of our treasure in heaven.

Now we can answer the question. “Who are we?” We're a broken people. We're sheep without a shepherd. We're unable to care for ourselves and we don't even consider turning to our creator to find our purpose and meaning. Now if this is who we are, the second question is an easier one to answer.

“What do we need?”

Consider our position as sheep without a shepherd. What do these sheep need? They need a shepherd. So then, what does a shepherd do? David writes about the Lord as his shepherd in psalm 23. He says, “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness, for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Without a shepherd, sheep can't to find good food or clean water. They wander off cliffs and into dangerous woods. They can't protect themselves from wolves or robbers. Sheep are helpless.

They're helpless because they don't know what's best for them. They need a shepherd to show them what to do and where to go and what to eat. Without a shepherd, they will die.

Turning back to ourselves, what do we need? How has sin affected us?Because of sin, we suffer it's consequence, which is death. What we need is to overcome sin so that we can overcome death. But we can't do that on our own. We need a shepherd to guide us down the paths of righteousness. We need a shepherd to feed us with the food and drink of spiritual nourishment. We need a shepherd to protect us from sin and evil. And we need a shepherd to bring us into life.

But, we're still in sin, our need is more than just a one time miracle act from heaven. We need payment for the sins we have already committed, and inward renewal so that we can live faithfully for God moving forward.

We need to admit we have this need. We need to admit we can't save ourselves. This is what the message of Christianity rests on: the fact that we cannot do on our own what it takes to overcome the powers of sin and death.

So, now we have the answers to our two questions. These two questions which come at the season of Lent. Who are we and what do we need?

We are sinful and broken creatures in need of a savior. But knowing these answers only burdens us without the fulfillment of the Good News of our faith-- This good news which God orchestrated through his people from the days of Adam, to be brought about in the work of Jesus Christ.

Jesus looked with compassion on the crowds.

The psalm today tells us “as a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.” Four hundred years after the last prophet, the most unexpected thing happened in a small town called Bethlehem. God, the creator of all things, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, ruler of the universe, lay in swaddling cloths as a babe born to the virgin Mary.

Remember, the Christian message rests on the fact that we can't save ourselves. We must suffer death because of sin. But because God “knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust,” He became one of us. He lived among us. He was tempted, rejected, whipped, ridiculed, and crucified. He underwent the torturous death of the Cross. He made the payment we could not make for our sins. He resurrected from the dead and guaranteed that our debt was paid. A way was finally made for us to be saved.

Jesus charged his followers to share this Good News. He ascended into heaven, and at the right hand of the Father, he asked, and the Holy Spirit was sent down. The Spirit is God's very presence within us as Christians. He remains with us. He forms us into a holy people, and a light to the world.

We cannot save ourselves. So God not only pays our debt, but he receives us into his own family. Because of the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, by accepting his sacrifice, and receiving the Holy Spirit, we are adopted as sons and daughters of the Most High God.

Jesus looked on the crowds with compassion because he saw that they were like sheep without a shepherd. Here, I stand and look at this crowd in front of me. And I am filled with hope. Hope for new life and redemption. Hope for receiving what I don't deserve. Hope for gaining what I can't attain. And all of this, purely out of the love of God.

Our shepherd has come. It is because of the compassion of Jesus that we're here today. We are not together because we deserve to be. And not because we've earned it. But because of love. Because of compassion. And it's love that dwells within us, and compassion that shines out through us, which fills us to hope. Hope that no matter who we are or what we've done, we are welcome into the loving grace of God. We enter into his arms as orphans, and remain in his embrace as his own truly loved sons and daughters.