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    • Sunday service - Holy Communion December 28, 2025 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT Website: www.gracechurchsheldon.comTime:  09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)        Every week on Sun.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83929911344?pwd=alZQTWZMN0ZkWFFPS1hmNjNkZkU2UT09Meeting ID: 839 2991 1344Password: Call for detailsOne tap mobile+13126266799,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (Chicago)+19294362866,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (New York)Dial by your location        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)        +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Meeting ID:…
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Ash Wednesday February 10, 2016

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Beth Crane

Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 103:8-14
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6.16-21

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice; to undo the thongs of the yoke; to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” These words which God spoke through the  prophet Isaiah remind us that we are called to help God to free every person from any kind of slavery which binds them.

The people of God in Isaiah’s time were performing the outward rituals of worship, but they were not living the spirit of their faith. Because of this, they were not in harmony with God. They wondered why God was not answering their prayers, but their prayers were not in harmony with God’s vision. God’s vision is that we free our brothers and sisters from oppression and that we take care of each other.

In our gospel, Jesus is giving us a powerful illustration of how to come into God’s presence. The Pharisee is full of narcissistic self-congratulation. He, too, follows every aspect of the Law, but he is so full of himself that there is no room for God. Whereas the tax collector, someone who is hated by all because he collects money for the Roman oppressors, realizes that he is a sinner and that he needs God’s help. His heart and his life are wide open to God;s healing, forgiveness, and grace.

One of the tasks of Lent is to go into God’s presence, take a look at ourselves, and come to a realistic assessment of where we are and who we are. Yes, we are all sinners. We do the things we do not want to do, and we fail to do the things that we want to do and are called by God to do.  We are frail, fallible humans, yet we also know that God’s love and grace are at work in our lives.

Another of our tasks in Lent is to ask God’s help in finding out where we need to grow spiritually, and then ask that God give us the grace to do that growing.

Where do we need to be freed? What aspects of our lives imprison us or bind us? In what ways are we called by God to free others, those who are near and those who are far away?  Recently, we felt called to help to free refugees halfway around the world who are being driven from their homes by unspeakable acts of military aggression.

Now, we are being called to help God to free someone who is very near to us; someone we love; someone who is one of us. Everyone here at Grace has responded to this call from God.

One of us has had to do some very difficult work to see that she is indeed oppressed and in captivity. She has done much of that work and will continue to do that work. The work of seeing that we are imprisoned is the most difficult work we will ever have to do. The resolution to ask God’s help and the help of others in order to get free takes a great deal of courage and grace.

This Lent, we are all responding to God’s call to “break every yoke” and “to let the oppressed go free.”  This is a very special Lent for us because we are actually living this reading from Isaiah. Frail and fallible as we are, broken and imperfect sinners that we are, we are still answering this call because of what our Lord has done for us.

May God bless each of us and all of us. May God’s protection and grace be with us and with all who are helping in this ministry. May we grow closer and closer to God and to each other this Lent, and may God bless us with the fresh green shoots of new growth.  Amen.

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Ash Wednesday February 13, 2013

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Beth Crane

Isaiah 58: 1-12
Psalm 103
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

In our first reading today, the people of God have returned from exile in Babylon and they are doing the work of rebuilding the temple. Scholars tell us that the people were getting into controversies about the details of how to worship. They were frustrated because God did not seem to be answering their prayers.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God is calling the people and us to show our faith in the way that we treat other people.  Isaiah writes, “Is this not the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” Isaiah reminds us that God calls us to share our food with the hungry, to shelter the homeless.

When we do these things, Isaiah says, “Your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly.”  If our prayer and worship lead us to be compassionate toward our brothers and sisters, God’s light shines upon us and we are made whole. This is in harmony with our Lord’s summary of the law.  “Love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

As someone once said, the Christian life is cross-shaped. The vertical part reaches up to God. The horizontal part reaches out to others,

Paul is calling the Corinthians and us to be reconciled to God. “Now is the acceptable time,” Paul writes. This is the season during which we ask God’s help to remove anything that gets in the way between us and God. This is the season in which we focus on allowing God to help us to align our lives with God’s will for us.

In our gospel, we have another angle on this matter of prayer and spiritual discipline. Whatever we do as our Lenten discipline or as our general spiritual discipline, we are called to do it in order to grow closer to God, not in order to impress people, or for any other reason.

I know that we all take our faith seriously and we will all be giving up some thing or things and/or taking on some spiritual disciplines that we will do in order to be closer to God and more in harmony with God’s will. And yet, I think we also know that, even as we fast and pray, we are not going to go around looking glum or advertising that we are fasting and praying.

Yes, on this day, our foreheads are marked with the sign of the cross in ashes. This symbol goes back thousands of years. Centuries ago, people would wear sackcloth and ashes as a sign of penitence. We wear these cross-shaped smudges of ashes as a sign of our mortality, our weakness, our frailty and fallibility. These ashes remind us that we indeed are dust and we will return to dust.

This is a time and a season when we look inside ourselves and we acknowledge our sinfulness and our profound need for God. We remember being on the mountain just a few days ago, seeing our Lord transfigured, and we know he has called us to grow more and more into his likeness, and we also know that, if we are going to make that journey with him, we are going to need his grace, his guidance, his help in so many ways.

And yet, as we set out on this journey to the cross, we are going to put oil on our heads and we are going to wash our faces precisely because we have seen him on the mountain, we know the direction in which we are going, and we know he is walking right beside us. We are walking with him. He is walking with us. And that makes the journey much easier. Even as we fully acknowledge our sinfulness and ask for God’s help, the light begins to dawn and we feel God’s healing already and ever with us.

Lent comes from the root word for spring. May we have a Lent full of growth and light. May we  faithfully walk the way of the cross with you, O Lord. May we grow more and more into your likeness. In your holy Name we pray.

Amen.

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