UCC Church of Charlotte

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Sermon for Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009
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Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:50:22 AM
From:
Phil Hobson   
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To:
Phil Hobson 


Cleaning House
Matthew 6:1-21

Grace and Peace to you this evening.  Grace and Peace.
    
The Gospel is full of houses.  
    
Houses built on sand that will fall versus houses built on rock that will stand.  Houses with holes cut in the roofs so friends can cut to the front of the line and lower a paralyzed man down to be healed by Jesus.  Houses where disciples are welcomed, and houses where the dust of the ground is shaken off the disciples’ feet as a witness to the lack of hospitality.  

A house of prayer for all nations to come and worship, turned into a way of legitimizing imperial power, lording it over one another, and supporting Caesar, not God.  A house that is the scene of a miracle, where Jesus lifts a girl up and she lives.  
    
A house where the door is locked for the night, but a friend comes knocking in need, and the door is opened.
    
There is a house with an upper room, but we have a few weeks before we get there.
    
Tonight we read of a house with a room set apart for prayer.  And we also hear of the dangers of worldly treasures, treasures that invoke status and wealth, that invite envy or theft, versus those things that are eternal.
    
Now as I stand before you this evening and speak about house cleaning, you may well wonder how dare I, when clearly I am no master of it.  But I want to speak of that which I know very well - clutter.
    
When you get the mail at your house, what do you do with it?  
    
I have noticed I need at least four stacks.  There are the pieces that get recycled, which is most of it.  There are the pieces that get shredded.  There are the pieces that require a checkbook or a file or a calendar to deal with, the bills and tax info and invitations and insurance stuff and the like.  And then there are the ones to read, from family or friends or the latest issue of a subscription.  What used to be just getting the mail is now multi-variable sorting process.
    
But what about the other stuff that comes into our lives?  The information we get from friends and neighbors, from the rumor mill and the grapevine, from the news and the internet.  Do we sort all that information coming at us, or do we just stack it up until it collapses over the sides of our mental desks?
    
Sure, lots of it we need to simply put in the circular file, but there are other pieces we need to deal with.  News of a loss that we need to grieve.  Word of a need that we can help meet.  Stories that lift our spirits and open our hearts that we ought to both treasure and share.
    
A recent e-mail devotional from the UCC spoke of the accept and reject files.  When something comes our way, we are usually pretty quick to either accept or reject it.  But there is a third file, one of prayer and faithful discernment.  It is the “awaiting further light” file.  That when stuff comes our way, rather than jump to accept or reject it, we may need to put it in the “awaiting more light” file, for further pondering, further reflection, further discussion.
    
If that’s just from gathering the mail, what about the rest of the house?
    
How’s our living room?  Are we comfortable in our own skins?  Do we believe we are worth the space we take up?  When we sit by ourselves, do we like the company we keep?
    
Maybe we have one of those living rooms that has the furniture covered in plastic.  The kind where no one is supposed to go in, for fear that some living might go on in the living room.
    
Or maybe we have one of those living rooms with too many people staying on the sofa.  Maybe we never learned that we need our own time and space, and we can’t get filled up with everyone else’s stuff if we are going to live our callings as best we might.
    
How’s our dining room?  Are we nourishing ourselves with good company, good ideas, good conversations?  Or is the dining room table within us too crowded with unfinished business and old, worm out stuff that we might get around to cleaning out “some day?” 
    
How’s our kitchen.  Do we prepare ourselves good nourishment?  Do we feed our souls with healthy stuff - devotionals and prayer, humor that gives us a good belly laugh, things that enlighten our minds, rekindle our spirits and motivate us for compassion.
    
Or do we leave stuff in the sink for too long, and leave old stuff in the back of the fridge until it messes up all the healthy stuff too?
    
What about the guest room?  Are we able to invite other’s into our lives without giving them the whole house?  Or have we filled up the guest room with the overflow of all our other stuff, so that no one can come visit us?  
    
How’s our interior bedroom?  Do we take the time to get the rest we need?  Or do we need to work on our internal bedroom, and learn to take the time for sabbath?  
    
Are we healthy and joyful in our other bedroomly activities, or are we living out of old hurts or immature patterns there as well?
    
Basements and attics are for long-term storage.  They are for the things we have collected over the years that are way too valuable to throw away, but probably won’t be dealt with until later generations start sorting it all out.  This is where we carry all the unforgivable stuff.  This is the part of us full of boxes of all that stuff we don’t ever want to deal with, we don’t ever want to talk about.
    
And of course, there are the bathrooms.  Pastor Todd, former minister up at Peace Lutheran, used to say that any healthy spirituality required a healthy eliminatory system.  Some things just need to be flushed away.
    
Ash Wednesday is the gateway to Lent.  It is the time when we accept ashes on our face as a sign and symbol of accepting our mortality.  It is when we realize that we are human, with all the faults and frailties that accompany such a condition.  But it is also a time to remember that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Just a little lower than angels.  And God saw our creation and said, “It is very good.”
    
So this Lent, I invite us to do a little internal housecleaning.  So that in about forty days or so, we might be ready to host a guest.  Let us open up the windows, get some fresh air in, and set our houses in order, and make a way for the Risen Christ.  Because Easter is coming, ready or not.
    
Thanks be to God.
Amen.