St. Paul's On-the-Hill Episcopal Church

The Rev. Stephen C. Holton, Rector

Ash Wednesday, 2008

SAVING THE BABY WITH THE BATHWATER

Do you remember when you were a kid – or perhaps if you have kids – when got into a terrible mess playing outside, and just before you came back in the house and presented yourself to your parents you brushed yourself off, maybe wiped the blood from a scrape, figuring that was enough and they'd never notice.

And you came inside, and boy did they notice! Oh my goodness, go straight to the bathroom to get cleaned up. Come to think of it, go straight to the washing machine and undress right into that and then go to the bathroom. This may take some time to get all that crud off!

And then once you're all cleaned you get dressed and can have dinner with the family.

That's basically what Lent is all about. We come to church full of our sins and brokenness, of all that we've done or all the things done unto us, whether we are the victim or the victimizer. And we think we can just clean ourselves up a little bit, and that will be enough, and God will never notice, and we can get through life.

Not at all. Oh my goodness, look at you, says God. But God does not punish us, as we fear he will. God cleans us up like a good parent. God is always more parental than magisterial. And if it hurts a little to get us cleaned up, its because of the depth of the grit on our bodies and souls, not out of any need for punishment by God.

Lent is basically a six week long bath, so we can really get at the deep-down grit and have a deep cleaning. And after the bath – there is the altar for the family dinner. We get cleaned up – we get forgiven, we confess and reveal our sins and our dirt so we can be forgiven – so we can join the family at the altar, for the family dinner. And having joined the family for dinner, we can talk about what we are going to do together in the world.

And then we join the family work in the world, helping others – victims and victimizers – who have gotten into trouble the way we did.

We get ourselves cleaned up by looking at our sins; by not avoiding them by eating too much or drinking too much the way we normally do. Here, look at this sin, this hurt, we say to God, and God cleans it up. And it takes some time. But he does it like any gentle parent.

Then its time for dinner. That is why we have confession before peace – when we greet each other at the peace, all fresh from our baths – and then Eucharist after that, all ready to eat with God at the family table. Then we are sent out, together this time, not in shame but in freshly cleaned up promise, ready to help others find their way home, to get cleaned up, healed and fed, and sent out in strength.