We began the first day of March celebrating Ash Wednesday, joining with millions of Christians round the world in a service of penance, hope, repentance and going out to better serve our Saviour and love Him more.
The text for the sermon was taken from Joel 2: 12 “Yet even now says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning.” Let us reflect on this simple and life giving words. How many times have we promised the Lord Jesus Christ, to repent of our sins, to do His will, to love and to serve Him?
How many times have we failed to do the Lord’s bidding in our lives? How many times have we become like Martha Luke 10: 40-42. How long are we going to continue doing that which is alien to the spirit of God, and then delude ourselves that we are serving Him? Let us be like Mary and choose the good portion.
Matthew 6: 19-20, instructs us not to store treasures on earth, but in heaven where it will not rust or be destroyed. The question you have to ask yourself this Lenten season is where is my treasure being stored, who am I serving? Are you ready to give all to God, and return to Him?
Where is your heart? Whom have you given your heart to, the follies of this passing age, self indulgence, worry or fear? If our heart is with God our life will be so much easier and burden free, because we know who has it. Matthew 6: 21 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Let your hearts be centred on God and your treasure should be the love you have for Him.
That which is most important to us is what we think of most. If God is the most important person in your life you will think of Him all the time. How often do you think about God, pray, read the bible in a day? St Augustine said ‘Jesus Christ is not valued at all until He is valued above all’. The question you have to answer for yourself is how much do I Value Him, a lot, a bit or not at all? The point is we can all do better and lent allows us to do a spiritual and physical MOT on ourselves and as a parish.
As the prophet Joel said, let us return to the Lord, for a broken and contrite heart He will not despise. In life we have so many decisions to make, we are all very busy people. We have turned a very peaceful God ordained life, into a stress-filled, Christ empty life. Until we stop, take stock of our lives, we might just wake up one day and suddenly realise we have wasted our lives on nothing and emptiness.
Until our heart is centred on God, until we value Him above self, we are
not able to live up to our mission statement John 8:12. How can we proclaim
Christ, if we don’t value him above everything? My prayer for you during
this Lenten season is that you have a closer walk with the Lord Jesus and
find out where your heart truly is.
In Dominie
Canon Ade.
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