One of the things about being human is that we are known to
break down every now and again and have a good cry
Some of us are even known to cry at the drop of a hat --- as
the expression goes
But not everyone
Big Boys Don’t Cry is the unwritten rule that seems to be
drilled into us by society.
Do you remember Dan Rather --- that hard hitting news
anchorman for CBS?
He was known for his aloofness and the fact that nothing
could rattle him.
But shortly after 9/11 he appeared on the Letterman show and
people were shocked when talking about the attack he began to cry.
Big Boys Don’t Cry
But they do . . .
I cry over everything --- it is embarrassing.
And I try hard to cover it up.
Commercials – I cry
Plays --- I cry
Anything sentimental --- I can’t
help it
At the Wedding on Sunday, the brides brothers were betting
how long it would take before the dad began crying --- watching him struggling
to hold back his tears --- well, it brought tears to my eyes.
The truth is a lot of us cry
Kids cry when their feelings are hurt
When their
mom leaves them with a babysitter
Or when a
teacher scolds them for being disruptive in class
We cry during arguments
At the loss
of a loved one
When watching
a movie
When
listening to a song
When a
thought runs through our minds
When we win
the lottery
When our
children do us proud
When our
child gets married --- or when they don’t
We cry tears of revenge
Tears of
empathy
Tears of
pleasure
Tears of pain
and anguish
The bible is full of stories filled with tears
Abraham weeps
when Sarah dies
Joseph bawls
when he meets Benjamin
David cries
at the death of his son Absalom
Jesus, in
that famously short verse weeps over the death of Lazarus
Some, I will cynically add, seem to have the ability to cry
on cue when it benefits them.
I imagine, we
can all think of people that this is true about
But why all this crying ---- and what does it have to do
with Ash Wednesday?
Today marks the beginning of lent --- the season of the
church year that invites us to journey through the darkness of Jesus
persecution and death to his resurrection.
The prophet Joel invites us to cry
To cry tears
of repentance
Divine judgment is on its way and God --- speaking through
Joel says to us: “return to me with all your heart, with
fasting, with weeping, and with mourning”
This coming day of the Lord is terrifying to the people of
Joel’s day --- but God is offering them an opportunity to return to a
relationship with God --- return through tears of repentance
But --- Joel says --- these tears must be authentic
God isn’t interested in our crocodile tears --- or in
weeping designed to manipulate others.
God is interested in weeping that accompanies authentic
change of heart
Weeping that
leads to repentance
To repent is to literally turn your life around and walk in
a new direction
It means to turn away from sin ---
whatever is keeping us from God --- and turn toward God’s way and love
“Return to the Lord, you God,” begs the prophet, “for he is
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”
It is here that our crying gets complex
Crying is not only a sign of sorrow over our sins --- but it can also be an expression of joy over
God’s goodness.
Joel reminds us that we are invited to turn toward a gracious
and forgiving God --- not toward a vengeful and punishing God.
God is:
Gracious
Full of
goodwill
Merciful
Showing the
love of a mother for her child
Slow to anger
Waiting
patiently for repentance
Full of
steadfast love
Just think of the parable of the Prodigal son
The prodigal goes off to a distant
country
Squanders his fortune in dissolute
living
And THEN he repents
By that I mean when he hits rock
bottom he decides to turn himself around and return to his father.
Lloyd Ogilvie, chaplain of US senate from 1995 – 2003,
reminds us that although this story is commonly known as “the parable of the
Prodigal Son” it really ought to be called the “parable of the prodigal
God”
Think about it ----
The father represents God in the
story and the father is really the prodigal
Prodigal of course means: one who
spends or gives lavishly and foolishly
God is the one who is extravagant
--- lavish --- unrestrained --- maybe even foolish in his love
The Good News, of course, is that God’s forgiveness knows NO
boundaries
His joy knows no restraint
God runs to meet us
God puts God’s arms around us ---
kisses us and welcomes us home
What Joel wants us to remember is that our crying ----
whether happy or sad --- should result in changed behavior.
Joel says: “rend your hearts and not your
clothing”
Change your
insides and not just your outsides
Make sure your
fasting and weeping and mourning are part of a new walk --- not just a new talk
What Joel is really speaking out against is hypocrisy
People who say they are repenting
--- turning around --- but fail to do it
Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that repentance is not
complete until confession and pardon lead to “penance”
Penance being a set of actions that
allow community to be restored
“Just for a lark,” she suggests,
“image going to your pastor and confessing your rampant materialism, your
devotion to things instead of people, and your isolation from the poor whom
Jesus loved.”
Picture yourself confessing, with tears, all those things
that you have done to rip the fabric of your community
She goes on:
“Then imagine being forgiven and
given your penance: To select five of your favorite things --- including
perhaps your Bose radio and your new Coach book bag --- and to match them up
with five people who you know would turn cartwheels to have them. Then on Saturday, put your lawn mower in your
trunk, drive down to that transitional neighborhood where all the old people
live and offer to mow lawns for free until dark.”
I hope you are noticing that none of this is what you might
call “standard punishment”
None of it is designed to inflict
pain on you
Instead it is penance
--- which is for the purpose of showing that your life is now turned around and
that you are devoted to repairing relationships and restoring community.
If you find yourself crying over your lost radio --- just
remember ---- when you weep in the process of true repentance, you’re crying
the tears of new life.
THIS IS NO JOKE
Tears have long been thought to bring life to the dead.
Long before scandal plagued politicians (and religious
leaders) learned to turn on the tears in a desperate attempt to save their
careers --- people were making strong associations between crying and the
restoration of life.
When, in the Egyptian tale, Isis finds her brother Osiris
dead --- it is her tears that bring the dead god Osiris back to life.
The Mesopotamians have similar stories
And the Bible reminds us again and again the link between
tears and new life.
Psalm 126 says:
May those who sow
in tears
reap
with shouts of joy.bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy
Those who go out
weeping,
And of course Jesus tells us the same thing:
Luke 6:21 (NRSV)
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
At the Last Supper Jesus reminds all of us:
John 16:20 (NRSV)
Very truly, I tell you, you will
weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain
will turn into joy.
TEARS AND NEW LIFE
They are
linked in the promises of our faith
This Lent --- believe that if you return to our gracious God
with all your heart --- with fasting, weeping and mourning, then we can
discover a fullness of life that we have never known before.
If we turn our lives around --- work hard for the
restoration of our relationships and our community we will know a joy that we
never thought was possible.
Our tears will lead us to resurrection life!
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