Ash Wednesday - A

Usually we emphasize the spirit around the season of Pentecost. However, this same spirit is present for all believers even during times of trials, testing, and journey though life’s difficulties. All three of this week’s lessons serve to remind us that the outcome of the Lenten journey is intended to point toward new life. While Christians are reminded all year that we might see and experience the shadow of the cross, the spirit of life is also ever present.

From The Washington Post, November 25, 2001: "Scientists in Massachusetts said today they had succeeded in creating the first cloned human embryos, a controversial advance intended to speed the development of new medical therapies but which could also hasten the arrival of the world's first cloned baby."

As I look out on my congregation on any given Sunday, I recognize that a significant percentage of the folks gathered here are involved in matters of life and death.

For some, it comes with their profession. Doctors, fire fighters, police officers, members of the military -- these are folks in our flocks who deal with matters of life and death every week. They don't have to look very far from any given Sunday to find a high-stakes experience in their work.

Death is difficult for anyone to understand and accept, and particularly difficult for children who usually have little concept of time. In this story Anita is angry with God, because her beloved Grandma has died.

Contents
What's Up This Week
"Bones" by John Smylie
"Waiting" by Argile Smith
"Do You Suppose Job Flew Coach?" by Keith Hewitt


What's Up This Week

For the last few years our family has visited The Dalles, Oregon, for Memorial Day to be with my wife's relatives and to decorate graves in the cemetery. One thing I notice as we visit that cemetery: When you're in the western, older side of the cemetery, visitors are chattier, even happy, carrying on humorous conversations as they stand next to gravestones of people who died a hundred years ago. But, as you enter the newer portion of the cemetery where people have recently been buried, you feel the emotion around.

In the Orthodox Church, Easter worship includes the singing of a hymn that goes:

Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.1

He was chained, held bound in a life of torment and blasphemy. In the end, however, God would set him free. John Newton, a name probably not familiar to many people, was born in July 1725 to a pious English woman and her seafaring husband. From his earliest days, young Newton was attracted to his father's side of the family and to the life at sea. Thus, when he was only eleven years old he became an apprentice aboard his father's vessel, a cargo ship, which ferried products throughout the major ports of the Mediterranean region.

We have all lived through the death of a loved one. We have all ached when someone we dearly love has passed away. We have all wondered about what comes next, and fretted about our own death. In our gospel story for today we find Jesus dealing with those experiences. And together with Lazarus, Jesus (along with our other Bible lessons) shows us what comes next after sin and death. He does not just show it; he gives it. What he gives is freedom given through love. That is what comes next when the new life is given, when death and sin are conquered.

Several years ago a psychologist conducted a survey in which he asked 3,000 people the question, "What are you living for?" He was not at all ready for the results. He discovered that ninety percent of his respondents were - as he put it - "simply putting up with the present while they waited for the future." We are all familiar with the feeling. We spend today thinking about what will happen tomorrow: young couples wait for their wedding day; children wait for Christmas; at 64 we wait for retirement; at 34 we wait for success.

Some of us can remember the days before interstate highways and massive traffic slowdowns when a leisurely drive to a relative's house was as much about scenery as it was about getting places. Who cared if the highway weaved around curves and some hills were steeper than others? It was fun to see fields with cattle and sheep, and sometimes even a white hillside where turkeys and chickens roamed freely behind a fence.

Litany: A Conversation With The Psalmist
L: The abyss, the unknown, the feared:
C: Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice;
let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.
L: Shouting, running, searing pain:
C: If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss,
O Lord, who could stand?
L: Sinking down, deeper, losing oneself,
C: for there is forgiveness with you;
therefore you shall be feared.
L: Will it come? Will it be over? When? When?
C: I wait for the Lord;

Good morning. If I want to get a particular radio program, I have to use a radio. Setting a CB radio or computer won't help me get my radio program. It doesn't help to use the television. If I want the radio show, I have to set the dial at the right place on the radio. I can put the radio dial anywhere I want, but to get the show I want, I have to put it at just the right place.

... after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was ... When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days ... Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days." (vv. 6, 17, 39)

• First Thoughts
• Teaching On Your Own
• Teaching As A Team
• Closing Prayer
• Follow-Up Lesson