Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Hi all,

Here is Deacon Leslie's sermon for Ash Wednesday. The readings for Ash Wednesday may be found here: http://members.sundaysandseasons.com/planner_rcl_view.php?event_date_id=954.

Peace be with you,

Pr. J

In 2007 the third in the three part movie series, “Pirates of the Caribbean” was released.In it we meet the character Davy Jones, and we meet temptation.

“Do you fear death? Do you fear the dark abyss?”

It was a dark and stormy night at sea. Not a dry inch was to be found on deck or sailor. The seas pitched, the ocean roared, chill salt water ran down men’s faces and cascaded from their chins.

Below deck men’s bodies shook, not from cold, but dread fear. The storm was frightful to behold, true enough, but that was not what made these men quake. It was the terror which stood before them, holding their lives in his hands.

Davy Jones, approaching one of the ships survivors, asks: “Do you fear death? Do you fear the dark abyss?”

The man questioned nods and whimpers, his eyes glued to the floor planks.

“All your deeds laid bare. All your sins punished?”

More nods are made.

“I can offer you an escape.”

Another prisoner, holding a crucifix in his shaking hands calls out, “Don’t listen to him!”

Davy Jones approaches this new prisoner saying, “Do you not fear death?”

“I’ll take my chances, sir!” he responds.

Davy Jones turns to his crew and commands, “to the depths!”

At which point the man of faith has his throat cut and his body thrown overboard.

Yet another of the five prisoners cries out, “Cruel blackguard!”

“Life is cruel,” Davy Jones responds. “Why should the afterlife be any different? I offer you a choice, join my crew and postpone the judgment. One hundred years before the mast. Will ye serve?”

“I will serve,” tumbles from the first man’s terrified lips.

“There!” Jones proclaims with a satisfied smirk.

And another man is recruited to the Flying Dutchman by Davy Jones.Davy Jones is a person of folklore and is the villain in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” It seems he fell in love with a woman who caused him a great deal of pain; so much pain, in fact, in the words of the character Tia Dalma, “Him carve out him heart, lock it away in a chest and hide the chest from the world.” His own heart became his treasure, a heart he would give to no one, a heart that could no longer feel.

Be careful to what or to whom you give your heart. In a world constantly telling us to buy our happiness, to take everything we can, and give nothing back, the true treasure of life becomes obscured, our hearts become wooden. We are too easily seduced into thinking the filling of our desire to acquire is the answer to the pains of life. More food, more stuff, more money, more friends, more knowledge, more power. It is, of course, not so easy but our hearts are easily deceived. We then find that we are left with an emptiness, always with something missing. Life’s true treasure cannot be acquired or achieved or earned. It can only be gratefully accepted.

What is your treasure?

Where is your heart? Has it known terrible pain? Has it been bruised by the wrongs and injustices of this life? Has it been shared with others? Is it still? It is no easy thing to live this life without laying our hearts aside in a locked chest to keep them safe, to keep us safe. I might go so far as to say it is well nigh impossible. I have pulled mine out to face the storms of life for just so long before racing to lock it safely away again for a time. This is human reality. We cannot perfect our love. We will not submit our hearts to the constant onslaught of life’s pain. And so we are not able to keep our hearts constantly open to God’s love either. The heart of a mere mortal is not equal to the task. So God in his infinite mercy offers up his own for our treasure.

What of the heart of God?

Where is God’s heart? God’s heart is invested in each and every one of us- each bit of his creation. God has given us his heart that we might use it in love.God has given us his son – that our failure to love might be forgiven.

We need not fear death, but we will. It is in the nature of being creature. As we watch and feel ourselves and our loved ones age and sicken, and die, we will know fear. But know that it is in the nature of the Creator to love, and to give and to forgive. We are held within the heart of God; there, in the end, nothing can harm us. Let us use this holy season then, and set aside sacred hours to rest in God’s grace, to serve in God’s love, to glory in the everlasting peace of God.

Amen.