Ash Wednesday

Isaiah 58: 1-9a

Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

TREASURE IN THE DUST

            Ash Wednesday is the day in the calendar of the church year that we take the first step in our Lenten journey, a forty-day wandering in the wilderness of our own sin, as the Israelites of old did as they wandered through the Wilderness of Sin, until, waiting under the foot of the cross of Good Friday, we arrive at the empty tomb of Easter.  It is a time of confession and contrition, of repentance and self-denial that lasts for an entire season of the church year.  Today we will together confess our sins, but we will hear no words of absolution (forgiveness).  It is not a night of instant gratification.  It’s only the beginning of the journey.  And the first step in beginning a long journey is like the first note in a symphony played on the tympani. 

            On Ash Wednesday we are brought low, humbled to the basest of our human existence.  “Remember, O mortal, that you are nothing but dust, created out of the dust and to dust and ashes you shall return.”  But, later on in our service, while words similar to those are spoken, a cross of ashes will be thumbed upon your forehead.  In the very ashes of despair, in the dust of death, a precious treasure is given.  You were given that treasure of faith in Jesus Christ in your baptism when you were sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. That is why the ancient practice of the Church was to use the season of Lent as a time of preparation for the baptism of converts.

            Very few of us begin this Lenten journey without any knowledge of the gift of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Rather, we deliberately turn our hearts to confession, knowing that we indeed have been already given this treasure.  But all too often, we leave it on the roof of our car…  Here’s what I mean by that.

            I was reading an article written by a David Bartlett who told a story he had heard on PBS about the amazing recovery of a missing Stradivarius violin.  Now Stradivarius is the name for perfection when it comes to violins.  This particular violin had been owned by UCLA and placed in the care of a faculty member who was also the second violinist in the university string quartet.  He, it was, who had reported the priceless instrument as missing.  The authorities suspected him; that he had stolen the violin himself.  He claimed, however, that he thought he had put the violin on the top of his car when he was loading groceries bought on the way home from a concert.  Then he got in the car and drove off, completely forgetting about the treasured Stradivarius he had left on the roof of his car.

            Has that ever happened to you? I’ve heard stories, not only about groceries, but also wallets, purses, cell phones, and even a car seat (without the child in it!).

            This unfortunate event happened decades ago.  The recent PBS report came out because the hapless violinist’s story was confirmed when the instrument surfaced at a music shop for tuning.  The present owner said he had bought the violin from someone else, rather unaware of the treasure he had discovered lying on the edge of an entrance ramp onto a southern California freeway.

            Bartlett comments: “You’d think if you owned a Stradivarius you’d guard it day and night, never let it out of your sight, and certainly never leave it on the roof of your car (in a Vons or Smiths or Albertsons parking lot.) But of course, we all do get busy, and life intrudes even on the stewardship of our priceless treasures.  We’ve got to eat and we’ve got to shop and it’s just easier to put the Stradivarius out of the way just long enough to get the Wheaties into the truck or the kids to the basketball game, and then – oops!  So it wasn’t greed or treachery; it wasn’t ignorance or doubt, it was just carelessness that lost the treasure.” 

This article was written some 15 years ago but it expresses a feeling even more relevant today. Choose any present social issue and people will proclaim that the Church is pushing a liberal agenda; while others feel that moral values have been redefined in a conservative political platform. All of that is missing the point; looking elsewhere; being distracted. That’s just careless. 

So we place our treasure on the roof of our car to do verbal battle with whatever is the opposing view.  I believe it was Father Jack Molyn, the local RC priest in Valatie, NY where I served for 31 years who noticed a “Stradivarius on the roof of a car” when he commented at an ecumenical clergy meeting, “The Church isn’t called to be liberal or conservative.  We’re only called to proclaim the Gospel, to spread the good news of Jesus, and everything else will eventually fit into place.”  I remember thinking to myself, “How right he is! Let’s not be careless about the precious treasure with which we have been blessed.”

            But in a community like that, where there are so many small-membership congregations, there is an opposite concern as well. If it was careless to leave the violin on the roof of the car, so also would it be paralyzingly useless to keep it behind glass in a museum.  We’ve made our churches into museums to store and protect our treasured faith, never wanting anything to change, never taking it with us to be applied and used in our Monday to Saturday lives. To me, useless is even worse that careless.  The way to treasure a Stradivarius is to play it. 

            That is what my wife, Christa, and I have found so impressive about Good Samaritan, the way so many people play their violin in the orchestra of this church. It begins in worship, how dedicated pastors compose meaningful encounters with Jesus, how singers and musicians (sometimes even playing violins!) offer their talents, how greeters, ushers, readers, communion assistants, willingly serve; and how people faithfully gather to pray, praise and give thanksgiving. That is the beginning. Then it finds its harmony in service to the community: supporting youth in their growth and education in the academy, feeding the needy, building homes for the displaced, funding wells for clear water and sponsoring disadvantaged children in distant places of the world (to only mention a few).

But putting the treasure of faith into practice involves some degree of risk.  If it’s with me constantly, carrying it with me wherever I go, playing a beautiful sound when music is needed, I just may forget and I leave it on the car roof.  That’s certainly not useless. But it is careless, and it is also very human.  I can only hope and pray that when I lose it, someone else will find it and use it, and I will have enough music left inside to keep the music sounding, even without my violin.

            So tonight we confess our humanity.  As we do, we begin to realize that our worship and confession is about far more than that which we treasure.  We are reminded what it is that God treasures, rather who it is that God treasures.

            We are the treasured possessions of God.  God breathed the spirit of life into molded dust, creating humanity out of the ground of the earth, Adam out of Adamah, that we all might be Children of God.  In Jesus, God poured out divinity into human flesh that mortality might be conquered; and though ashes may return to ashes and dust may return to dust, the Spirit may return to its original source.

            You see, we were created to be Stradivarius violins, each one of us, each built to the perfect resonance and tone to be able to accomplish God’s intention for us when we are put to use in the orchestra of life.

            They say that in the tonal quality of a Stradivarius one can hear the voice of God.  God is not going to allow us to be hid away or to keep our talents hidden.  No, God is going to put us to use.  And when that happens it won’t be carelessly.  We won’t be forgotten on the top of the car because God doesn’t fiddle around. (sorry, I deliberately saved that until the end.)

           

            So let Lent begin.  It’s really about the concertmaster tuning us up for the concert of our lives. And you’re sounding great! Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep you hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Rev. James H. Slater

Good Samaritan Lutheran Church – Las Vegas, NV

February 26, 2020