Deacon Justin Shaffer preaches the 2022 Ash Wednesday homily at Sojourn Church New Albany.
Deacon Justin Shaffer preaches the 2022 Ash Wednesday homily at Sojourn Church New Albany.
Good morning! Peace be with you! I’m Justin, I’m one of the deacons here at Sojourn, and it’s an honor and privilege to open God’s word and together reflect on our great need for a savior this Ash Wednesday. Pastor Jonah and his family are out of town for spring break and so when the pastors and staff realized they needed someone to talk about death and darkness for 10 minutes… I’m confused as to why they would turn to the melancholy musician, but nonetheless, here your servant stands ;-)
You know a couple years ago we had to make the difficult decision to do this service virtually because of a global pandemic that’s taken the lives of six MILLION people worldwide, and continues to wreak havoc on our physical, mental, and emotional health. By this point last year we had resumed in-person gatherings, all spread out and still very much in the throes of a strange and terrible virus. This year, we look on as one sovereign nation invades another, seemingly because one vile and diluted bully wants to alter the map, holding the rest of the world hostage with veiled threats of nuclear war. Pastor Stephen lamented yesterday around the office having to show our volunteers how to calmly lead our children to the bomb shelter. Whether it’s a highly contagious virus, the tiniest of all organisms, so small that 500 million of them can fit onto the head of a pin... or a 27 million pound nuclear submarine with enough munitions to level a medium sized country in an instant, the threat of the curse is very real, and it’s just around the corner.
We’re in the midst of a sermon series called Desecrated, walking through three cataclysmic events (The Fall, The Flood, and The Tower) that altered the course of human history – we want to broaden our understanding of sin which leads to death and deepen our joy in the gospel that leads to eternal life in Christ Jesus. Two weeks ago, pastor Travis taught out of Genesis 3… that the chaos the serpent sewed set a trap, which ultimately ensnared our parents Adam and Eve. And the most lethal of all viruses, sin, hijacks its host, releasing its distorted genetic material, multiplying until every cell mutates, mangled - dysfunctional – and diseased. Our sin leads to relational break-down and the curse which culminates in the very words the pastors will utter as they impose ashes on your foreheads in a few moments
“for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
-Genesis 3:19b NIV
If you’ll remember the first death of any kind mentioned in the Bible comes a few verses later:
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
-Genesis 3:21
Do you see the tender mercy and compassion here? God supplanted their pathetic effort to hide in their shame and guilt, flesh taking the place of fig leaves. But before the curse could run its course, we come upon one of the saddest stories in the history of mankind. The first human death:
Genesis chapter 4:
4 Adam[a] made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.[b] She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth[c] a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
-Genesis 4:1-12 NIV
…and so the 1st HUMAN death - murder in the 1st degree – Cain kills his little brother Abel in a fit of jealousy. The author of Hebrews makes it clear that the Lord found Abel’s offerings acceptable because they were offered by faith – he believed that the Lord could resurrect “the firstborn” (Gen 4:4). Do you see it?! But Cain, stewed in his jealousy, spun out, and plotted to kill his brother. At its most basic level, Cain concluded: “I have a problem, and the problem is you! And his sin ruled over him. And as sin entered the world through one man’s fall, so violence and murder entered the world through his firstborn son. And as all of humanity inherited an inclination toward sin… a tendency to take matters into our own hands, to find satisfaction and safety in all manner of created things rather than the creator - we inherited this bent toward violence and murder from the first natural born son. And so the story goes. War after war. School shootings and hate crimes. Homicide rates rising. Lest we deceive ourselves into believing this is a problem limited to tyrannical dictators, to deranged psychopaths, to drug dealers, hear how our Lord up’s the ante on the 6th commandment:
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sisterwill be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
-Matthew 5:21-23 NIV
At its most basic level, anger concludes: “I have a problem, and the problem is you,” and we take that problem into our own hands, and we stew, and our rage festers, and our vision is obscured.
But neither the murderous rage of our brother Cain nor our own vengeful thoughts were problems that that blindsided our Lord, for even in his righteous anger he always sees clearly. And two millennia ago, another firstborn son, the firstborn over all creation would walk 40 days in the wilderness facing our old enemy the serpent and his three forked bombardment square in the eye, and this firstborn would not. fall. for the trap. And sin WOULD NOT rule over the Prince of Peace! About three years later, he would willfully submit to the Father’s plot to reverse the curse of death once and for all, and “he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7b NIV) And he suffered. And he died.
Won’t you journey with us this 40 days of lent to see how the story unfolds?
In a few moments you may come forward where the pastors will impose ashes on your forehead in the shape of a cross… do you see the imagery Christian?! Let’s pause to pray and reflect…