Create in Me a Clean Heart

February 14, 2018 Ash Wednesday

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. These words from Psalm 51 this evening should sound familiar. It is one of the songs we quite often use for our offering. We’ll have the opportunity to sing it in just a little while.

Lent is a time for us to return to God. A time for us to repent of our sins and to pray that God creates in us a clean heart. Ash Wednesday is our entrance into this sacred season of the church year. It is a chance for us to re-center our lives and hopefully create new habits that we will carry into the season of Easter. However, we are human, and often we fall short. It is a good thing that Lent comes around every year to keep reminding us of the love that comes to us from our grace-filled God.

The gospel text from Matthew is one that has been used quite regularly on Ash Wednesday since the Medieval Ages. It points towards the disciplines that we are called to during these next forty days. First, we are called to Almsgiving. How are we being charitable in our lives and giving to those that are not as fortunate as we are? One way that we have chosen to do so as a community this Lent is to give to the Backpack Blessings program that assists families with meals for the weekend. Our Wednesday offerings will go to support ELCA World Hunger.

Prayer is the next discipline that Jesus calls us to in the Sermon on the Mount. Living a life that is centered in prayer is one that will strengthen our relationship with God. It is here that Jesus teaches us how to pray, what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. There is no right way or wrong way to pray. God’s heart is already open to us, Jesus would like us to open our heart to God.

Jesus fasted in the desert for forty days right after he was baptized. Fasting is the third discipline. We too can fast. Lent has been known to be a time that many choose to give something up. A time to give up chocolate, sugar, pop, beer, or you fill in the blank. What if we were willing to go much deeper than that. Pope Francis made these suggestions this year for fasting:

• Fast from hurting words and say kind words.
• Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
• Fast from anger and be filled with patience.
• Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
• Fast from worries and trust in God.
• Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.
• Fast from pressures and be prayerful.
• Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy.
• Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.
• Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
• Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.

These disciplines that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount are ones that have the possibility to bring us into a much closer relationship with God.

It is through our faith that we encounter Jesus Christ and the saving grace that is bestowed freely. By almsgiving, prayer, and fasting we are given a way to relate to Jesus. It is here that we repent to God and ask that God create in us clean hearts. Hearts that reveal where our treasures lie. A treasure that is filled with love and compassion for God and our sisters and brothers in humanity.

Let us pray. Loving God, we repent this evening. We seek out clean hearts so that we may be your sign of love and compassion in this world. Be with us in these next forty days as we walk towards your cross and the promise of a resurrected life. Amen.