Ash Wednesday A

"The wisdom in a teacup abounds, 

all you have to do is hold each cup with mindfulness."

I read this saying in a British novel once,

and it comes back to me occasionally.

It reminds me of those Zen master stories

where someone comes seeking wisdom from a Zen master

and starts rattling on about everything they have tried or learned 

and what troubles they are seeing in the world,

all while the master pours tea.

As they ramble on, the master continues pouring tea, 

overflowing the cup and letting it go on the ground.

Obviously the point is sometimes we are too full 

to be able to be filled with wisdom.

I thought of this again when I was reading through the lessons for today.

In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians he writes, (2 Cor. 6:10 NRSV)

"We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 

as unknown, and yet are well known; 

as dying, and see-- we are alive; 

as punished, and yet not killed; 

as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; 

as poor, yet making many rich; 

as having nothing, and yet possessing everything." 

The last part of the sentence (and boy is it a long sentence to be sure), 

"as having nothing and yet possessing everything,"

really hit me.

Like that story about the cup of tea. 

Only when we are empty can God fill us.

Only when we have nothing, can God give us everything.

This passage truly describes what we really are getting at with Ash Wednesday, 

it is the core and the heart of things.

We have nothing and yet we possess everything.

We are dust and yet, we are God's beloved children.

We can do nothing on our own, but with God, we can do all things.

We don't have money or fantastic power or anything, 

but we have a faith and hope in Jesus which will last us for eternity.

Nothing and yet everything.

I think about that in some of the contexts around the world.

Here in the United States, we tend to look down on people in third world countries,

looking at their poverty and lack of basic amenities or 

just the fact that they can't start their cars by remote like some of us can,

and we see people who are worse off than us.

Yet, when it comes to the national indexes of health and happiness in the world,

the United States barely makes it in the top twenty.

Which given that there are almost two hundred countries in the world, isn't that bad.

However, there are countries, like Costa Rica, 

which people look down on as being part of the Central American poverty,

which is higher on the list than the USA.

They have nothing and yet, they are far happier, 

they have nothing and yet they possess more than us.

At the point in time when Paul wrote this portion of letter to the church in Corinth

there was some in-fighting going on among different groups of the church.

Divisions had been created by different apostles coming into the church

different teachings had been shared,

and it seems like maybe some of the people in the church had started to overflow their cups of tea.

Paul writes in order to try to reconcile the community both with each other and with God.

He knows that the kingdom of heaven is near

now is the time for the Corinthians to empty themselves so that God can fill them. 

Unfortunately, they simply cannot see that themselves. 

As we hear Paul's words coming to us through the centuries,

we are reminded again, 

that we need to empty ourselves so that God can fill us.

We set aside the fast day of Ash Wednesday

to remember that we are dust.

We are nothing.

We are mortal.

We will become part of the earth.

Time will continue on long after we are gone.

Yet, the beauty of Ash Wednesday 

is that in remembering our mortality,

we also remember our immortality.

In Christ, we have eternal life.

We remember that we are dust

ash, nothing,

and yet, there is salvation waiting for us.

As much as the process can be painful, the journey is going somewhere

Paul knew that. 

He had been through so much.

He recounts all the things he has been through, 

yet Jesus Christ went through more than all that. 

Paul knows everything is in a state of new creation, 

and thus what was thought of as dying, is made new.

What is thought of as poor, makes many rich. 

What Jesus has done for us has changed everything we have and everything we are. 

No longer are we dying poor, unknown sorrowful impostors, 

now we are alive and rejoicing, 

we have nothing, but we have absolutely everything we need

in Jesus Christ. 

Perhaps the wisdom isn't so much in a cup of tea

as it is in an empty cup.

We are dust and we are children.

We have nothing, and we have everything.

Amen.