Ash Wednesday - A

The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame. (v. 7)

“You should be ashamed of yourself!”

“Shame on you!”

These all too familiar words strike deep in the heart and can scar the soul. We carry the wound of shame as a body memory, like a soldier who bears a wound that never completely heals.

Isaiah 50:5-9a
The 2022 poll of the American Psychological Association revealed the highest levels of stress and weariness in the American population ever recorded. Commenting on this lesson and its reference to the need for the servant to sustain the weary (v.4), John Calvin observed that Christians “cannot escape this condition” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.VIII/2, pp.55-56), and then added:

In most churches I have served this is the week of Palm Sunday. The congregation sings “All Glory Laud and Honor,” as either the youth or other members of the church process around the sanctuary waving their palms. The processional text is usually read and sermon topic is based on this text (Matthew 21:1-11). Such ministry is not mutually exclusive to this passion set of texts today. It depends on which theme one chooses to emphasize this Sunday.

Object: A wipe-off marker board, markers, and eraser. The board can be of any size you can find.

Around the end of the nineteenth century, a book appeared on the life on Jesus. Nothing surprising about that, you may think, but this was the first time that anyone had written a life of Jesus outside the gospels. It was like a starter's flag, for after that, numerous books were published on the life of Jesus.

All the books were different, and it became apparent that they all reflected the author's own perception of Jesus. It also became apparent that each author's perception of Jesus very much mirrored himself and

What really happened to the centurion who presided over our Lord's crucifixion? According to both Matthew and Mark, the centurion confessed that truly Jesus was God's Son. Luke says that the centurion simply asserted Jesus' innocence. But what went on in the centurion's mind as he watched this innocent young Galilean rabbi suffer a horrific death, forgiving his torturers and mockers, and promising Paradise to a fellow victim?

Did the centurion return to his duties as if nothing had happened to him? Or was this experience a life-changing one?

Johnny is four years old and he stopped taking naps before his second birthday. From his 6:15 am wake up (all by himself, no alarm clocks) until his 8 pm bed time, Johnny is in perpetual motion. He is running or talking or both all day long, and he expects the same from everyone around him. You can't be around Johnny very long without feeling exasperated and exhausted, yearning for just a few minutes of peace and quiet. You may know Johnny, or someone just like him.

Come in! Come in! Do come in! Far be it from me that I should deny a visitor the hospitality of my little home. After all, it isn't really my home. I'm just a tenant. It belongs to the Lord, as does everything else you see around here, although I admit it isn't much. If I have an extra mat for a bed, or loaf of bread, or skin of wine, and you have need of it, consider it a gift from God to you.

"Truly, this man was God's Son!" (Matthew 27:54 NRSV).

"Truly, this man was a son of God!" (Ibid., alternate reading).

"This man really was God's Son!" (Ibid, CEV) said the soldier, at the foot of the cross, as Jesus died.

So where in heaven was God while his Son hung there between heaven and hell; between life and death? Between the hosannas and the hallelujahs -- the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, the not so triumphal exit come Friday -- and Jesus' triumphant return to life on Easter -- where was God?

ABC produced a television program titled Strange World. The story line of a rather dull episode was that a young scientist set out to transfer the memory of the mind from one person to another. The experiment was extended to transfer the experience of death in the mind of one person to another. In order to carry out his experiment the scientist decided to kill in order to transfer the brain fluids from the dead person to the live person. What triggered the experiment in the first place was a fascination with death.