Valentine's and Ash Wednesday: A sermon for Ash Wednesday 2018

Sermon:
Text: 1 Corinthians 13

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who loves us.

Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday, what a mashup! I spent part of Saturday afternoon working on my niece Samantha’s valentine’s card box she had to make for day care, I held back and didn’t put any ashen crosses on it as decoration. I’ve also heard lots of joking talk on Facebook and twitter about whether we should put ashen hearts on foreheads this year instead of crosses. Don’t worry, I’m keeping that the same.

It many ways it feels like these two holidays don’t connect with each other. They seem to be about different things. Valentine’s is all about romance and hearts, while Ash Wednesday is all about repentance and forgiveness. On Valentine’s Day you go out to dinner with your loved one, you probably put on your best clothes and may even fancy up with some cologne or perfume, you have fancy food, and a bottle of good wine. On Ash Wednesday you come to church for a somber and quiet worship, you have the bread and wine of communion, and have an ashen cross marked on your forehead.

But, there is a tie in, a togetherness for the two holidays. Love. Love is at the heart of both events. They just think about love in different ways, or maybe just different focuses around love.

I switched out our Second Reading tonight for a reason. 1 Corinthians is often referred to as the wedding text, it’s the most common one I see when it comes to weddings. People love it because it talks all about love, and when people are in wedding mindset, it talks to them about love between two people in the midst of a service where they declare their love for each other and make promises to one another. In that focus, it is indeed a text of love, and not just romantic love we often associate with marriage. This text accents that the love of marriage is more than romantic/sexual love, it’s also commitment love. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.

In weddings when this text is used I usually use it to bring up that love is not about the just the good times, but a commitment to the other, even in hard times. It’s a love that has you focus upon the other person’s needs first and foremost. That’s what Valentine’s day should be all about, it’s a day to give thanks and lift up the one you love in such a way. To spend a moment eating in the presence of the one you love, toasting and celebrating the love between two people.

But, what if we look at this text outside of marriage. It holds a different kind of relationship then. Whose love are we talking about?

If we instead frame the love of this text as the love God has for us, and the love we have for God, and through that the love we have for all God’s beloved, we see it holds many of the same messages and meanings. In marriage it’s about putting the needs of the other first, well, that holds over to what God wants of us as well. God’s love for us certainly results in Jesus giving of his whole life for us. In Marriage love is about a deep commitment and connection of trust between two people, here that commitment and trust is found in a God willing to walk the depths of life with us, even to the point of going to the cross.

I joked about making ash hearts on foreheads, but there is no need to. The symbol of the cross is so much a symbol of love at the same level, if not more, than the heart. The cross is a symbol of the ultimate putting of the other first. Christ goes to death, for us.

Ash Wednesday is our Valentines date with God every year. Our foreheads are the Valentine boxes God decorated in Baptism, and every year God again places a valentine’s card in the form of an ashen cross that shows forth the love God has for us. Every year we have a meal with Christ just as we share meals with our loved ones on Valentines, here we share bread and wine, another sign of Christ’s sacrifice for our sake.

That’s love. Pure, unaltered, perfect love. It’s the love we should strive for with our valentines every year. And, so this Valentine’s day, if you have a beloved, may you find the love of Christ echoed in your love for each other, and if you don’t have a Valentine’s date, may you know that the love of Christ flows into every heart, and fills every moment.

Happy Valentine’s Day, and Happy Ash Wednesday, may God bless you and keep you, and name you beloved, and mark you once again with the cross so full of love.