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.