My friends, as we begin the holy season of Lent, I am sure that within some of you, there is a sigh, an “ugh” feeling, or maybe for others, a sense of, ah, a new start for me to get right with myself.  For those of you who have the “ugh” sensation, that is understandable as the readings for this 1^st Sunday of Lent direct us to our sinfulness.  They also direct us to God’s graciousness, but those who have put together these readings seem more intent on lifting up our “sinfulness” than they do God’s graciousness and mercy.

Take the first reading from Genesis today—did anyone other than me think it strange that we start out with the “earth creature” whom we assume from other translations to be Adam, enjoying the beauties of the garden that God has created and then the jump of a chapter to introduce the woman just in time to bring “sin” into the world?

Granted that, “our sinfulness” is what is trying to be lifted up throughout the readings, but I also suspect that the ages-old tendency, “to blame the woman “ is afoot here as well.  And it is a subtle thing in a patriarchal culture, but it is one to note in any case.

In the reading from Romans, Paul seems to protest too much.  His intent in preaching to the Romans who know little or nothing of Jesus is no doubt to have them get a clear picture of Jesus, but I for one, object to the picture he is portraying here.  Why does the act of making a human choice have to be carried on through all of humanity? This is faulty reasoning if we are to believe in the graciousness and mercy of God.

It is probably this reading where the notion of original sin comes from and the need for God—and not a loving God, at that, to be appeased through the death of Jesus.  This so-called “theology” is so flawed, as it makes God so small-minded, so small-hearted, as Sister Joan Chittister would say of such theology, so vindictive—more like us than God, who in other places—we are told, “is all-loving and all-merciful.”  We can’t believe both narratives—that of a vindictive God and that of an all-loving, all-understanding God—the God of the “Prodigal,” a story of over-the-top love which we will read later on in Lent.

The Good News that we should celebrate this Lent and every year at this time is not that Jesus died for our sins—“mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa”—or as a friend recalls feeling, “I am scum, I am scum, I am really scum,” but the fact that Jesus came and lived for us to show us the best way to live.  Granted, his advocacy for the poor and down-trodden, kept in place by the powers-that-were in his time, and his demand that these same powerful ones do the right thing, caused his death, but certainly, not because our humanity needed reparation.

Why would a God who made humanity imperfect then demand reparation for their flawed natures? No, it makes no sense that a loving God, wanting only the best for these creatures, enough so to be humbled in Jesus, living among us, showing us the way, the best way through life, death and resurrection would then demand the life of Jesus to appease God’s vindication.

Even the terminology that we use in the ritual of distributing ashes, “Remember, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return” has the wrong tone.  I asked Robert the other day when he hears those words, what does he think of—how in fact does it make him feel? His response: “Like dirt!”  So, you may have seen my Church Facebook title for Ash Wednesday where I said, “Remember, you came from the good earth and will return to it one day!”

As our family lost a good man this past week, our daughter-in-law’s father, Patrick O’Flynn, I think of this adage—he came from the good earth and we will return him to it this next week. Over the years that I knew him, Patrick and his good wife, Elizabeth, were always so gracious to those that they welcomed to their home. So friends, when I distribute ashes today, I will remind each of you that you came from the good earth and will return there one day. The true intention in marking us each year with ashes should be to simply help us know our place in relationship to our loving God—that we have been gifted with life from our good earth and all that this entails—no more, no less.

The Gospel from Matthew today is all about Jesus’ preparation for ministry—anyone called to leadership will always be tempted by the power that can come with the role.  Jesus is aware of this and thus tries to make himself strong through fasting and prayer, in order to avoid this very strong temptation and keep focused on his mission.  Fasting from food has its place in our lives if it prepares us to better focus on moving out of ourselves to see the needs of others, to in fact be better people.

I personally tend to shy away from fasting as prescribed by the Church during Lent as I can’t seem to separate it from the notion of “dieting” and this conundrum was validated for me this week in a piece that I was reading in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) on fasting and the different take that many women have on the topic.  Of course this article was written by a woman! Because many women have grown up with the false impression, created by our male-centered culture, that women are only acceptable if they have a certain body type and shape, fasting takes on a whole different notion for women than it does for men, the writer said.  There is a reason friends, why more women than men, in our culture, suffer from anorexia and bulimia.

The men in charge say that you can’t unite the two, that is, using a time of fasting to lose a few extra pounds, the writer continued.  And that is why I have stopped trying.  If I happen to be dieting during Lent, (when am I not trying to lose those extra pounds?!), I call it “dieting” and forget about fasting, for what that is worth.

So, my dear friends; I see Lent as a gift our Church gives us to grow closer to Jesus and we will—if we keep our eyes on him.  If fasting from food helps you to do that, I am not discouraging it, but if it simply leaves you with an “ugh” feeling, then you may want to “fast” in a different way:  you can fast perhaps from nagging a loved one, or from using your sharp tongue to denigrate another, or from selfishness with your time, or from judgmentalism, or snobbishness, or the need to have things done your way, and the list can go on.  This discussion always makes me think of someone in my extended family that did a perfect job of fasting and abstaining from food during Lent but might have been better served, herself and her immediate world, if she had instead, fasted from her negative ways.

I think if we don’t come out on the other side of Lent knowing that we are mightily loved by our God, then, I would think we had missed something important.  When you really look at Jesus’ earthly life, you have to conclude that he was a really astounding fellow—to follow in his ways—actions and words—we certainly could do worse!  So, let us pray for each other during these days that each of us can more fully follow our brother Jesus’ ways in gratitude to our God who has given us this awesome opportunity to become more of whom we are called to be! Amen? Amen!

Friends, I would like to begin with a story—one perhaps that some of you may have heard before, but one that within the given readings today, bears a repeat as it says well, I believe, that in our striving “to be holy” as the Scriptures ask of us;  we must remember to care for ourselves too.  Now “caring for ourselves” and this is probably directed more at the women, is not something that the Church fathers have necessarily directed over the years. And if truth be told, most women, in this day and age, are hardwired to give and give and give. The men though are not let off the hook in this—it is their job to see that the women they love are cared for too.

Thus, the story:   A daughter comes to visit her mother on her death bed and during the course of the visit, discovers a beautiful red dress hanging in her mom’s closet along with a line of drab dresses that she lived her life out in.  Asking her mother about the red dress, that she had never seen her mother wear; her mom called her to her bedside, to, in her words, “set a few things straight before her life was over.”

She told her daughter that she had always believed that a woman was supposed to give to everyone else first and to herself, last. She lived this out in her own life and taught her children to do the same.  For her personally, she always got everything her kids needed or wanted first, and if there was anything left, which there never was, she would get something for herself. She always ate the burnt toast and took the smallest piece of pie.

Having taught her sons and daughters to do the same, she was now upset to see the way her sons treated their wives and felt she had done them a disservice.  Even her husband, she had taught well—with her now dying, he didn’t know what he was going to do without her—he didn’t even know where the frying pan was!

The red dress had been a whim of hers—about a year ago when she found some extra money that she had intended to pay off extra on the washer and decided to treat herself instead. When she brought it home, her husband berated her with, “Where do you think you will ever wear that?” In fact, the only time she had ever worn it was when she tried it on in the store.  So, she made her daughter promise to do her the honor of not following in her footsteps. Her daughter promised and with that her mom died.  Servanthood, my friends, is all about considering the other, including ourselves.

Now granted, this is a delicate dance—how much do I give to myself and how much to others? I have two things to say about that: First, is that most women that I know are doing quite a good job of giving to others in their lives and need to consider themselves a bit more in the equation.  I heard a discussion on Minnesota Public Radio just the other day about what most of us know as the “sandwich generation,” a phenomenon with people living longer, that has repeated itself over time. I can remember when I was a young woman hearing about it, and living it too! The phenomenon, as you know has to do with women caring for their own families on one end of the continuum and their own parents on the other and they are “sandwiched” in between. And second, as we think about how much to give to ourselves and how much to others, our well-formed consciences will and do kick in if we would ever become too selfish.

So, the Scriptures today, beginning in the Old Testament book of Leviticus, instruct us, “to be holy as God is holy” and we might just ask, “What does it mean, “to be holy?” Moses, presumably the writer of Leviticus, says that we have to live—AWARE—we have to take responsibility in our lives “to tell our brothers and sisters of their offenses.” In other words, we can’t enable bad behavior in others.

Now, at first glance; we might balk at that—tell someone else to stop their bad behavior! Really?!  But think about it; we do it already in our personal lives—as parents, we instruct our children in the ways that they should go—we don’t allow their bad behavior. And we do have opportunities in our larger field of scope—if we take them.  Those of you who attend Mass here, have said to the hierarchical Catholic church in effect, “I want more than you are offering—I don’t agree with your exclusion of women in ministerial roles, your exclusion of the LGBTQ community through lack of meaningful programming, your exclusion of the varied races and cultures through lack of programming that sees all as equal, respect for life—not only at birth, but along the entire life spectrum.  And finally, we have opportunity to comment throughout our adult lives on the behavior and vision of those who wish to be our leaders in the State House and in Washington through the gift and privilege to vote. The Old Testament prophet Micah said all of this well: “This is what Yahweh asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God.”

At this point, friends, I feel a bit of clarification is in order.  Over our nearly 12 years as a parish, we have always stood on the premise that the weekly Scriptures will be tied to events happening in our world.  As your pastor; I feel it is my duty to make those connections, not for purposes of telling you what to do, or how to act, but simply to challenge us, as Jesus did the people in his time, to be our best selves.

In the regular Catholic church, meaning simply—not us, pastors are often stymied in making these connections because it is, “not the practice to upset people lest they cut their contributions to the parish. But I say, “The Scriptures are only worth looking at if we can make them meaningful and relevant in our everyday lives—otherwise we are simply wasting our time.”

There is always the danger though that some may see my comments as, “political,” but my intent is always to lift up, “morality,” or lack of it, shining the light of the weekly Scriptures upon those actions.  Over our 12 years as a parish, people have come to check us out as they look for a parish to be part of and some have decided not to stay because they don’t want to deal with those connections at Sunday mass.  I can remember one person who came in our first years as a parish who told me that they didn’t want to hear about all the negativity on a regular basis. I did try after that to interject as much hope as possible into our services. (Smile)  A concluding comment though to making the connections between our world and the Scriptures would be to say that our mission and vision statements, plus the memory of Jesus of Nazareth don’t allow me to proceed in any other way.  And if we are following Jesus’ lead, that is hopeful! Right?

So then, back to what it means “to be holy.”  The psalmist says today, “Our God is tender and compassionate.”  It would seem that if we are “to be holy,” as “God is holy,” tenderness and compassion must be part of how we behave in our world and with its people.  Joan Chittister, Benedictine Sister, takes a broader view of holiness and I would say, this is probably God’s view too!  “Everything that is, is holy, to the one who has the soul of a mystic.”  “Having the soul of a mystic,” it would seem to me, is about us seeing our world as basically good—seeing and hearing with our hearts.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians today calls us to this greater, “seeing and hearing”—seeing  and hearing in new ways as he asks us to, “remember that the Spirit of God dwells” within us, as “temples of God.”  With this knowledge, we have to strive for wisdom higher and deeper than this world has to offer, Paul continues.

And that leads us directly into the words of our brother, Jesus, in Matthew’s Gospel today.  He too calls us to more than this world asks when he says, “We can’t just love those who love us.”  That’s easy!  Again, we must always go deeper—loving the one that may seemingly feel, unloved. Maybe, that is us—as in the story of the red dress.

So, what have we learned today?  We are temples!  Think about that! What do you think of when you hear the word, “temple”—grand, splendid, beautiful?  Perhaps.  Filled with the Spirit of God—we are wonderfully made, friends.  And with all these positive attributes; we have to consider that we are loved by the God responsible, ultimately, for our creation.  And with all good gifts; there is always the expectation that we will give back.  And that is why; this parish is and always has been, and always will be, about making the Scriptures given us each week truly a part of our lives and calling us to more than simply our own needs and desires.  Amen? Amen!