For Ash Wednesday - A Children's Sermon for Everbody

I’d like to have a bit of a meeting with the young people present, but I’d like for the rest of you to listen in.
Have any of you ever chosen to stop doing something?  Why was that?
You know, we’re starting a special season in the church year called, Lent.  Lent is a time that lots of grownups use in order to stop doing things for a while.  They won’t eat, or they won’t eat meat, or they won’t eat chocolate, or they’ll stop watching TV or following Facebook or something like that.
Some people take up a new discipline – like reading some portion of the Bible or praying at a certain time, or exercising.
(Have you ever given up something for Lent, or taken on something new?)  Why do you suppose people do that?
Well, what I’ve heard is that people who take on a new discipline want to make themselves better people.  They think that, maybe, if they can do what they’re doing for the forty days of Lent, then they might be able to keep on doing it after Lent is done.
And the people who give something up?
You know something we’ll all be giving up for Lent? “Alleluia!”  That word, and the phrase, “Praise the Lord,” we put away for the season of Lent.  Not because we don’t like God and want to praise God, but to show God how concerned we are about how things are with the world.
The idea is that, whenever someone who gives up something for Lent experiences a craving for what they once did, feeling the craving will be a reminder for them to think about God.  We don’t live just on what we eat and drink, after all.  We live also on the word of God, on what God has spoken to us through Jesus and through the prophets and apostles.  So, it helps if we can be reminded of God.  Being reminded of God, even if the reminder is hunger or thirst or the desire to do something we’re used to but have decided not to do, reminds us of love; because God is love.
You’ve heard of the Sermon on the Mount?
In the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells the disciples that trumpet blasts and fasting (like the ones on Yom Kippur) and long, loud prayers (like the ones during Gentile penitential seasons) really don’t make very much difference if you’re doing them to show others how pious you are.   You have to do such things for your own benefit... privately.
Sometimes people like to talk about what they’re doing for Lent.  And this can be a problem, because sacrifices and disciplines aren’t supposed to be something other people know about.  In Jewish tradition, which is the tradition in which Jesus grew up, such things are called mitzvot.  The word mitzvah means literally, “commandment,” but there’s a sense in this word which means, “something good you because it affirms your relationship with God.”  Other people might benefit from it, but they’re not necessarily supposed to know about it.  So, if you’re giving up something for Lent, keep quiet about it unless someone asks you.
A sacrifice during Lent is for you and God; it’s a mitzvah.  It makes your relationship with God stronger, fuller, more meaningful.
It’s in this part of the Sermon on the Mount that he dictates a prayer that he says ought to be typical of the prayers they say.  You know the one, “Our Father in heaven...”  The disciples don’t ask Jesus to teach them the Prayer, the way that they do in Luke (“Sir, teach us to pray...”).  No, here he says that this prayer would be a good example of the piety they should express.  Look, you just need a quiet, few words, and these words are enough.
Jesus kept a fast before he began his ministry, for forty days.  Fasts can be helpful for starting things like that. You sacrifice for a time so that you feel ready to go with some big and new project.

It’s important to understand, Jesus never says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Don’t do that penitential stuff.”  He says, “Be careful about it.”
That’s not the way our spiritual forebears heard what he said in Matthew at this point – or at least the UCC contingent.  The earliest Congregational churches had no stained glass.  They thought that the pictures in stained glass could distract people from focusing on God.  The Evangelical and Reformed movements that led to those so-named branches of our denomination wanted to practice piety better in America than the wider churches with the same name had been doing in Germany.
I think we may have blown the piety thing, though.  Between the iconoclasm of the Congregationalists and the pietism of the Evangelical and Reformed, we kind of over-compensated for the practices the Catholics never parted with – especially the practice of personal, devotional sacrifice.  We didn’t revisit the practices but instead abandoned them entirely, as if there is something somehow wrong with penance or fasting.
I tell you, there is something sensibly wonderful about having a pang in your tummy which you put there, remind you of God; or of leaving The Good Wife alone until rerun season; or of setting aside chocolate for forty days and not substituting it with something else.
And there is something spiritually splendid about having a bit of ash rubbed onto your forehead and hearing someone say to you, even in a droning sort of ritual way, “Remember mortal, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  Not that we really need to be reminded; God knows, there’s enough death around, we cannot possibly forget.
We have relegated so much of our religion to our heads and our hearts, and that’s good too!  But O the sweet vulnerability of allowing our religion to be imposed upon our bodies..!  Even the most intelligent or the most heart-centered among us have to acknowledge that there is nothing quite so potent as an object lesson.
Kids have hearts and heads, but they’re not as developed as adults’ hearts and heads.  They need ideas to happen literally.  It helps to act things out.
And sometimes, that’s good for adults, too.  Sometimes, it’s good to experience more than just bread and cup once a month and water once in a lifetime.  Sometimes, you need to let your religion make a mess of you... to get the smudge and to feel a gentle pain you’ve imposed upon yourself.
So, to begin forty days, that’s what we’ll do.  We’ll take tonight, and we’ll call it Ash Wednesday, and we’ll get ready for a big day called Easter.  But we won’t say Alleluia (oops! I said it!) after this moment.  And we’ll feel that little twinge every once in a while for forty days, much like Jesus did when he was getting ready to start his ministry.  And the twinge will remind us of God and just how wonderful God is and how good it is to be with God.
Have a good Lent, beginning right now.

On My Way

A sermon by Student Minister Reina Ueno, translated by the preacher. This English version was delivered in worship, February 24, 2013. To hear the audio of this sermon, please click here. 

Do you remember your hardest experience in your life? Or perhaps some life path that was difficult for you? I do not want to dwell on it very much, but I think each of us have had a tough time we can remember.

For the Lenten season, we remember the suffering of Jesus at the same time all of us have to pass through hard places in our life jorney, at some point. Today’s Scripture describes that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and actually seems to suggest that Jesus will be faced physical crisis by going up to Jerusalem.

Because today is Seminary Sunday, I have been asked to talk about my life at Eden Theological Seminary. Before that, I would like to talk about some stories about Japanese Christians who have supported in my studies in the United States.

There are many active elder members who are more than 75 years old in my home church in Japan. They have experienced life in wartime in World War II. Some of them were Christians at that time; some had not become Christian yet. I heard lots of witness from them how they worshiped in the wartime and how the Japanese church or Christian leadership have struggled, that they eventually supported a Japanese military government even though they actually did not want to do it. One lady said, pointing to the back end of sanctuary, “Here, there was military policeman every Sunday when we had a Sunday morning worship. They check up whether we worship not only Christian God but also Japanese Emperor.” They always were suspected of spying for America because they were Christian. 

And I know that lots of people experienced Copernican paradigm shift from the end of war in 1945 to the time of after wartime. They totally lost their identity as Japanese. Even as Christians, they realized and were disappointed that Japanese Emperor was not God but he was a human being, and they as a result were not belonging to God’s kingdom. And some of them found that they truly oppressed other Asian countries. 

Also, many of them have held onto very difficult feelings about Hiroshima and Nagasaki since the end of World War II. When I visited my home church last summer, some of elder members asked me seriously “How do American church think about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, now?” This question might be connected with their faith journey. I could not answer the question. But anyway, then so many Christians have experienced such a hard times and are also unique.

Their journey is part of my journey as a Japanese Christian. I think I have a responsibility to understand historical facts and people’s emotions, to rebuild relevant relationships, especially with Asian countries.

There is another story concerning the sexual minority issue. I know one boy who struggled with his confusion between his body and soul. When the boy noticed that he had biologically female body then he also realized that he is not female but male. He was raised up by Christian mother and non-religious father. He was baptized as a child. When he attended a high school, which was only for girls, as a female student, he came out to his mother and sisters. 

His mother was so confused and blamed to herself because she thought she failed to raise up her daughter as a female. She believed that God created human being only biologically male and female according to a literal reading of the Scripture. It was huge crisis for both her faith journey and her daughter’s life but unfortunately there was no help from church. She and her daughter wanted to talk to a pastor but they could not. They were not totally sure the church could accept their situation. They could not get any information about sexual minority people or any positive perspective about the matters of sexuality both in the life of church and in pastor’s preaching. Since this mother was divorced, she somehow noticed the way of pastoral care that she was provided by her pastor. There was surely gentle prayer, but there was no appropriate instruction about concrete issue of relationship. So they hesitated to talk with a pastor and a relevant pastoral care has never happened at that time.

Their journey is also part of my journey as a family member. The transsexual boy is my youngest sister. She is officially male now. I attended ONA conference yesterday and one of the important things I have heard in the workshop is to name specific people who are marginalized. Because they are not sure whether church welcomes them like my mother and my brother has experienced. How do they know they are welcomed? There is no church proclaiming Open and Affirming Congregation in Japan. Therefore I think I have responsibility to work for LGBTQI people who are still strongly forced to be hidden without any support.

So, let’s return to the Scripture.

Then some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” Jesus said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.”

Why does Jesus call Herod a fox? Why does Jesus use this kind of bad word, even if Herod is actually bad person? Isn’t Jesus supposed to be gentle!

I think Jesus may be articulating how very much Herod differs from himself. Jesus explains his own work specifically in this way: "I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work."

The implication of this explanation might be: This is what happens when God is working among people. And this is what a true king of people has to do. But Herod never does that. Jesus is doing it today and tomorrow, and until he dies. Herod never even gets started in this way.

Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.

“I must be on my way.” This phrase of Jesus catches my eye. “I must be on my way.” – What does it mean?

I actually struggled with feeling some nuance in English for this phrase. Pastor David taught me “way” has two different meanings in English - a road and a practice. But still, I do not think I get the nuance of this word in English.

So I will talk through the perspective of the nuance in Japanese language.

To me, this phrase seems to be like Jesus is emphasizing “his way” differ from Herod. And the way he must go down the road to the city of Jerusalem is required from God. On the other hand, Jesus’ way of doing things truly is applicable in both contexts. His way need not necessarily be the way of a king. Jesus talks about what he was doing in his life and how he was associated with people. He cast out demons, healed the sick, and finally, one day, he would finish this work.

So, “the way” means not only the road but also the practice that Jesus did in his life: casting out demons and performing cures. Moreover, this should be the statement of the obedience to God’s will. Not only for Jesus but also we must be on our way because it is impossible to change God’s will.

We are strongly required to be on our way differently. Likewise the elder Japanese church member experienced, my mother and my brother struggled, and all of us have certain life journey, which is impossible to refuse. In other words, through the prophet Isaiah: My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. (Isaiah 55:8)

My study at Eden is connected with the Japanese church members, families, friends and American church, too. One of my hope in studying at Eden is to discern how to compose these elements with my own context as a single female Japanese pastor. It often causes isolation to me compared with other students or other female pastors in Japan because simply American Christian is majority and Japanese female pastor mostly get married with male senior pastor. But I really appreciate that I am only one Japanese student at Eden and one of a few single female pastor in Japan. It is unique and this is the way I must be on that God required to me.

But, what is the purpose of this way? Why has God given us this way?

I think the answer is in another Scripture for today. Here, God speaks of a promise to Abraham. When Abraham looks back his journey in the past he could not find any hope to have his child anymore. Abraham seems to have a tendency to consider that God is not keeping the promise, because of what has not yet happened in his life. But even though, back then, for Abraham the facts were not yet in God’s favor, and Abraham could not find hope just in that moment, God nevertheless asked him to see the hope in the sky. There were stars like lights of hope.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews 6:13-20, the author explains hope from God,

When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and multiply you.’ And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute. In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The purpose (goal) of our way required by God is hope. God is providing hope even if we are on the hardest way. And this hope is a sure and steadfast anchor of our soul. The hope enters the inner shrine, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered.

We must be on our way today, tomorrow and the next day, following Jesus in word and deed.

We are on our way differently, but we have the same hope holding you as an anchor.

Can you see the hope on your way? Yes, you can see it.