Living the Way You're Made

Sermon for Ash Wednesday
Feb. 18, 2026

Well, it’s Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, so we face the perennial question: What should I give up or what should I take on? I do want to suggest a couple of ways to answer that question, but I want to come at it from a different direction than you might expect.

We know Lent is a time of “self-examination and repentance; … prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and … reading and meditating on God’s holy Word” (BCP 265). The prayer book tells us that. But why? What is it about us, and about our relationship with God, that our tradition wants us to look at? What’s the Church asking us to remember today?

For many of us, and maybe for Western Christianity in general, the answer tends to come from a negative place: Lent is here to remind us of our sinfulness, our brokenness, the ways we miss the mark. When we approach it that way, Lent becomes a time for corrective action to address our individual failings – a season for holy new-year’s resolutions. Maybe God will like me better if I shed a few pounds.

But hiding under that dim view of our nature is a perspective I think might be closer to God’s heart. Yes, absolutely, we miss the mark; and many of us are acutely aware of it – especially you who’ve come out or tuned in on a Wednesday for the fun of remembering that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Talk about preaching to the choir! But the reason we know we miss the mark is because of something else we know deeper down: that how Genesis describes us is also true, that you and I are made in the image and likeness of God (1:26). We wear the face of the One who created us, and our life is designed to reflect God’s own life.

Our Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters understand this more easily than we do. From that side of the Christian tradition, the goal of human life is theosis – nothing less than becoming one with God. For us Westerners, who enjoy wallowing in our sinfulness, we might be willing to say union with God would be our heavenly goal. But the Orthodox tradition says that’s our work now. And how would we do such a thing? By being disciples of Jesus, conforming our way to his Way, because walking his path is how we learn to live a divine life.

So, what if we approached Lent more like that? Rather than seeing penitence as a way to atone for our sins – which, by the way, we can’t; and Jesus has already done it for us anyway – what if we saw Lent as a time to get back to the garden, to notice who we truly are and the extent to which our lives do, and don’t, reflect our divine nature?

How would we do that? Let me offer three resources – three tools to help you remember that you’re made in the image of God and then notice how you are, and aren’t, living into God’s likeness.

The first tool is our Lenten devotional booklet, which I’m hoping you’ve received in the mail. (If you haven’t, feel free to pick one up in the entryway.) It’s titled Five Minutes With God, Lent Edition; and the idea is just that: to set aside a little time daily to check in. For each day, you’ll find an excerpt from the readings we’ll hear in worship on the coming Sunday – so, for example, from now until this Sunday, the daily devotions sample from the readings for the first Sunday of Lent. Along with each reading is a rich question to help you apply that day’s snippet of Scripture to your own life. These questions give you something to contemplate as you sip that first cup of coffee in the morning, or take a walk, or work out, or get ready for bed. Plus, the daily Scripture helps you get ready to hear what God might be saying to you through the readings on Sunday, too.

The second tool is something you’ll find here on Sunday mornings through Lent – a sermon series titled, “Following Jesus Together.” The Gospel readings this Lent are some of the very best stories about Jesus: standing up to Satan in the wilderness, teaching the experts how to live by the Spirit, healing the Samaritan woman’s broken self-image, giving sight to a man born blind, and raising Lazarus from the dead. Not only do these stories help mark the path Jesus asks us to take, they also show us how to do it – which is, not by ourselves. When we try to travel alone, we’re more likely to get lost or stumble on the rocks along the path. But when we turn to those whom God puts alongside us, the way becomes much more clear … and more life-giving. So, this sermon series will help us find the path Jesus is giving us, see how we might be tempted to stray from it, and lean on others as we follow Jesus’ lead.

Then there’s the third resource for your journey, an opportunity that begins this Lent and will carry on though the months ahead. We’re starting something called Companion Groups – small groups of eight to 10 people gathering once a month to grow spiritually together. Now, you might hear that and think, “Why would I take on one more thing?” But it’s not a heavy lift. The idea is just to share with a few others what you’re noticing along this path you’re walking. Maybe some of the questions in the devotional guide really got you thinking. Maybe you heard something in a sermon that keeps coming back to you. Maybe a friend said something that helped you see yourself or your life in a new way. Or, maybe, you’re just not hearing much at all from God, and you’d like a little support along the way. It’s amazing what can happen over a drink and a snack, a little prayer, a little honesty, and the Holy Spirit to bring it all together.

So, if you’re looking for a Lenten discipline that means more than giving up chocolate, again, consider this season’s trio – the devotional guide, the sermon series, and a Companion Group. Or just do whatever you can among those options or from the practice you follow already. After all, Lent isn’t about proving anything – it’s not about testing your mettle or racking up points on God’s scoreboard. Lent is about realizing that you’ve been fashioned by the One who fashions all goodness, all beauty, all love. That’s who we are, at our core. And I think it would make God smile if we tried to live that way.

Your Life Brings God's Kingdom to Life

State-of-the-Parish Address
Matthew 4:12-23; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 (readings transferred one week because of weather)
Feb. 1, 2026

I need to let you know, so you don’t get distracted later:  This address will be a little longer than a usual sermon.  There’s a lot going on in the church and the world, so I’m giving myself six extra minutes. 

Jesus said, “Follow me” (Matt 4:19). So, let’s keep that in mind as we consider the state of our parish at the start of 2026.  Of course, what I’m supposed to say is, “The state of our parish is strong.”  In these addresses, the president, or the governor, or the rector always says that.  But I want to say something different because it’s more honest.  The state of our parish is … fine … at least for now.

You’ll see a lot of very good news in the annual report.  Outreach giving and service is downright inspiring: $103,000 given from the operating budget, another $105,000 in parishioners’ own gifts to our outreach partners, and 3,800 hours of service from you.  That’s crazy good.  Also in that category, we’re seeing more younger faces on Sundays and more little people running down the aisle to receive Communion.  The baristas have reached 10,000 hours of serving all sorts and conditions of community members over at HJ’s.  In terms of temporal affairs, we’ll be replacing our aging flat roofs and HVAC units this year with gifts outside the budget.  The effort is led by parishioner Frank Thompson, who has already led replacement of the parking lot and renovation of the undercroft – bless all those who are making this work possible.  And our number of pledging units is up, as is the number and proportion of increased pledges.  There’s a lot of good news.

And there are challenges.  Although the number of pledges is up, the amount pledged is $91,000 less than last year because a major giver died.  Also, we had a higher level of unfulfilled pledges in 2025 than usual – $110,000 pledged but not actually given.  Because of those unfulfilled pledges, we missed our revenue projection for 2025, which hasn’t happened in many years.

Now, this needn’t make you worry about staffing or outreach or utility bills in 2026.  We’re poised to do great ministry together this year.  As you’ll see in the budget presentation downstairs, we’ll be … fine.  But if we keep doing everything just the way we’ve been doing it, it won’t be long before “fine” means what its famous acronym stands for: frustrated, insecure, neurotic, and emotional.

I’d like to avoid that.  So, the leaders of your commissions related to resources – finance, stewardship, facilities, and endowment – are coming together this year to plan for a time when our current senior members and their generous pledges are no longer with us.  Watch for more about that as 2026 unfolds.

So, that’s the news from the land of temporal affairs.  How about the land of spiritual affairs?  That’s why the church is here, after all.  Our “core business” is to … hmmm … how would we frame that?  What are we here to produce?

Well, you could see our product as worship – preaching, music, prayer, and sacraments to connect us with God.  You could see our product as education – teaching people about God and God’s vision for the world.  You could see our product as outreach – being the hands and feet of Jesus to bless a hurting world.  You could see our product as fellowship – bringing the body of Christ together in love.  You could see our product as prophetic witness – speaking for God to the world around us.  We promise to do all those things in the Baptismal Covenant, our job description as Christians.

But I think our product is something different.  Our product is you.  What the Church is here to produce is disciples – people who follow Jesus Christ as their Lord.  The Church forms and equips disciples through all our ministries, all the ways the Baptismal Covenant frames the work of love.

So, forming followers of Jesus will be our focus this year, with a theme of Companions on the Way.  Why would we make that our theme?  Because a life of meaning and value and purpose – the life for which we yearn – that’s not a path we take alone.  It’s a path we take in community, growing in relationship with people who become our companions – a word that means, at its root, people who break bread together.  With our companions on the way, we find nothing less than the staff of life, the true Bread that came down from heaven – divine Love itself.

We find and journey with our companions in different ways, even in one person’s life.  It happens vertically, so to speak, in the one-on-one time we spend with God.  And it happens horizontally, too, in the relationships God empowers us to build – relationships across the dinner table with the people closest to us and relationships with friends we travel alongside.  All those paths move us toward heaven, now and later.

As I said, everything we do at church builds those vertical and horizontal companion relationships – worship, outreach, prayer, learning, welcoming others, having a party.  But to help us focus on going deeper with our companions, human and divine, we’re offering a couple of special resources this year.

One is a series of devotional guides.  The one for the Epiphany season is the start, but we’ll provide one for each season across this year.  And, beginning with Lent, the guides will be specific for each day, briefer, and easier to navigate – think of it as “five minutes with God.”  As you drink your first cup of coffee, or check in with your kids or grandkids, or decompress with your beloved at the end of the day, you can use this resource to reflect on something from the coming Sunday’s readings and see where a rich question will take you.

The other resource is something we’re calling Companion Groups.  Starting in Lent and continuing through the year, these small groups, eight to 10 people each, will gather once a month to connect with God and each other.  What will that look like?  A group might share something to eat and drink, check in about what’s bubbling in their lives, reflect on what they’ve been hearing in the season’s devotional guide, and come away amazed at how the Holy Spirit connects those dots.  If you’d like to be part of a group, you can sign up in the entryway or at the meeting downstairs, or you can sign up online.

What’s the point of the devotional guides and the small groups?  As you journey with your companions, human and divine, two miraculous things happen.  First, you grow deeper in love with God and the people around you, experiencing heaven not just later someday but in your life, right now.  And second, you begin to see how your extraordinary, ordinary life helps bring about God’s reign and rule of love.  How?  By being the person God’s made you to be – through the work you do, the choices you make, the actions you take, the good for which you stand.

Now, most often, no one will notice.  At the Free Store two weeks ago, I watched a parishioner talking with a woman who’d come late and couldn’t get the warm gloves she needed.  So, this parishioner went and got her own gloves out of her coat and gave them to the woman, who never knew where they came from.  That’s the kingdom of God, in the flesh.  But sometimes, you’ll find yourself acting as God’s agent more publicly – in what you say to someone at work, in the insight you post, in the rally your attend, in the causes you support.  As the poet said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”¹  The kingdom of God is not a church, or a nonprofit, or a political party, or a nation.  The kingdom of God is one person after another following Jesus instead of following the other voices that claim our allegiance – voices of power or wealth or privilege or affinity.

I believe that’s our primary work as the Church.  It may seem like our mission is to provide worship, or put on classes, or feed the poor, or offer fellowship, or raise money.  Instead, each of those things supports our true purpose, which is to help you grow as a follower of Jesus, live out his love across your life, and share it with others.  That’s the Church’s superpower in a world that wants us to think we’re irrelevant.  Your changed life brings God’s kingdom to life.

So, in terms of temporal and spiritual affairs, I believe we have good, healthy work ahead of us this year.  That’s also true about a third aspect of the state of our parish – our intersection with the political and social moment in which we’re living.  And here, the same truth holds:  Your changed life brings God’s kingdom to life.

We’re in a time when we’re being asked, or maybe told, to overturn some of our nation’s fundamental presumptions – how we treat one another and how we treat the rest of the world.  For many decades, certainly across my life, Americans have followed norms that restrained our personal and collective temptations.  We’re in a time now when those norms are slipping.  Not so long ago, I would have assured someone that the losing side in an American election wouldn’t consider overturning the result, and that leaders wouldn’t consider deploying the armed forces against protesting citizens, and that leaders wouldn’t consider ending bedrock alliances when allies don’t follow our demands.  These presumptions are different now than they were a few years ago.  You may like those changes, or you may abhor them, but changes are happening.

I know some of you are frustrated with me for not speaking and writing about all this more directly.  Recently, a parishioner wrote to me about what he described as the administration’s “growing brutality and lack of empathy for citizens.”  He said, “I think it’s time we, as a church, become much stronger in [our] messaging. If some parishioners have a problem with that, so be it – they can leave and find another place of worship. It’s time to get off the fence.”

You deserve to know how I see the Church’s role in these times when slipping norms are emboldening our leaders to change the way they treat those who oppose them.  So, here goes.

First: I don’t see “the Church” as me.  I lead this parish, and you hear my voice more than others; but I am not the parish.  You are.

Second: If you are the Church, then it matters how you see the world.  Now, I can’t prove this, but my gut tells me St. Andrew’s is a microcosm of our politics.  I’d bet my next paycheck that we’re 50/50 progressive and conservative.  Now, I don’t know whether that tracks precisely with supporting the president and not supporting the president, but I’ll bet it’s close.  So, if we’re 50/50 on nearly any given issue, even priest-math tells me I’ll annoy half of you with any perceived political stance I take.

And that raises the question:  So what?  True leaders speak the truth, right? – regardless of whom they annoy.  That’s the perspective of the parishioner who wrote to me recently.

Let me be transparent about this.  There’s a very practical reason not to alienate half of you:  If those of you who disagree with me write me off and stop listening, I’ve lost whatever opportunity I had to change your heart.  But here’s an even better reason not to alienate half of you:  We need each other.  That’s always been true, but oh my goodness is it true now.

Some of my best friends and closest partners here are people whose votes cancel mine in every election.  And over the past 20 years, I’ve learned more from them than I can begin to say.  Maybe they’ve grown a little knowing me, too.  Well, the same truth holds at the congregational level.  I’m not sure there’s any institution but the Church, and especially this church, that has the capacity to hold us together as the powers around us are tearing us apart.  We need each other to be here, Sunday after Sunday, to remind us that we need each other always, as companions on the way.

Now, does that mean it doesn’t matter what we believe or how we behave?  Far from it.  Instead, it means that what binds us together here, across our differences, is not our allegiance to, or our rejection of, a political figure and his movement.  What binds us together is our allegiance to Jesus Christ as our sovereign.

So, then, what does Jesus have to say to our parish and to our nation?

Let’s take it from the top.  A scribe asks Jesus what’s the most important commandment, and Jesus says:  Love God with everything you’ve got, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:37-39).  Full stop.

I think what that means is that everything we do must align with giving our allegiance to God alone and giving others the same care we’d give ourselves.  So, for those who want to claim that this is a Christian nation – not that we are Christian nationalists, for that is not who we are – but if we want to claim that our nation is guided by the God revealed in Jesus Christ, then we must follow God’s priorities – especially when God’s priorities challenge our own.  A Christian nation follows rules, norms, and boundaries beyond “I can do what I want.”  A Christian nation recognizes that God’s agenda defines the true national interest.  A Christian nation prioritizes raising up those who struggle the most.  A Christian nation has the strength to say, “We honor and serve even those who differ from us because they’re made in God’s image and likeness.”

So, in this challenging moment, what’s the Church for?  The Church is here to form you to follow Jesus in loving God and loving neighbor through every aspect of your life – family, work, finances, volunteerism, advocacy, voting.  If you look at the changes happening in our nation, and you can honestly say they represent what Jesus wants to see, then work and vote for them.  If you look at the changes happening in our nation, and you say Jesus opposes them, then work and vote against them.

But, for God’s sake, literally – if you disagree with me, or if you disagree with the person sitting next to you in the pew – whatever else you do, don’t leave.  That’s precisely what the forces of division want.  Instead, tell me that you disagree, and then let’s share the sacrament of a cup of coffee as companions on the way.

Our broken world says, “Join only with people who look and live and think and love like you.”  The good news of Jesus Christ says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (Matt 4:19) – these people and those people, people you like and people you don’t, people you agree with and people you can’t understand.  “Follow me,” Jesus says, “as your Companion on the way, and learn to live as I live.  Follow me,” Jesus says, “alongside these companions I give you, and with them build my kingdom of love.

“Follow me,” Jesus says.  For it’s in his love, and his love alone, that we are bound together.

1.      From “Poem for South African Women” by June Jordan, presented at the United Nations, Aug. 9, 1978. Available at: https://www.junejordan.net/poem-for-south-african-women.html. Accessed Jan. 30, 2026. See article by Howell, Patrick A. “We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For.” Huffpost, April 18, 2017. Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/we-are-the-ones-we-have-been-waiting-for_b_58e785b9e4b0acd784ca5738. Accessed Jan. 30, 2025.