CONVERSION TRAIL

This post is the text of a sermon I gave to the students of Saint Benedict's Prep on Ash Wednesday. You should know that well over half of the students had hiked on the Appalachian trail in Sussex County.

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I wonder if you heard the opening words of our first reading from the prophet Joel: “Return to me with all your heart.” That’s a pretty good summary of what this Ash Wednesday service is about. We sometimes use the expression “Be converted back to the Lord.” The word conversion is from the Latin word that means to turn around.

I’d like to tell you a personal story about conversion. It started one afternoon when I was hiking by myself in Stokes State Forest along the dirt road that runs along the bottom of the high mountain ridge that many of you are familiar with because along its crest the AT runs north and south.

I came to the trail that branches off to the left and it led me straight up the side of the mountain. When I finally got to the top I found those familiar white blazes that mark the Appalachian Trail. I planned to follow them back to Culver’s Gap, where I had left my car.

But first I sat down in a little clearing to rest, eat my lunch and read my paperback book. Well, after a while I dozed off. When I woke up, still a little sleepy, I shouldered my knapsack and began following those familiar blazes along the AT.

But before long, things started to get strange. The lake that I expected to see on my left wasn’t there, but there was one on my right instead. I ignored the mysterious surprise and kept on hiking. A little later the valley that should have been on my right appeared on my left. But again I just kept hiking on anyway, knowing that soon I'd be starting the long trek up what we Gray Bees call Jason’s Mountain.  I walked and I walked, and still no mountain. After a while I began feeling uneasy. Something wasn’t right.

Just then, a group of Boy Scouts came hiking toward me with their scout leader. Since they were hiking toward me I asked the leader, “You guys must be coming from Culver’s Gap, right?”

With a puzzled expression he answered, “No, that’s where we’re heading.” 

When the man read the horrified expression on my face he and I both realized at the same time what had happened: I had been walking in the wrong direction the whole time! He asked me, very kindly and matter of factly, “Did you get turned around?” 

Of course that was exactly what had happened. I had still been half asleep when I

stepped onto the trail after lunch, and it was an overcast day, so I couldn’t use the sun to tell which direction I was heading. So I had started out following the blazes, but I was going in the wrong direction. And so for the past hour I had been walking south, away from Culver’s Gap! 

The Scout leader was very kind. Instead of making me feel like an idiot, he nodded knowingly and admitted that that had happened to him once or twice. So I thanked him, and turned around to start retracing my steps, this time in the right direction. 

That’s a story of my conversion. I had to turn around and begin walking in the right direction.  

All of us are on the same journey to the Kingdom of God’s Love. When we’re traveling in the right direction there’s something that feels right: when we’re being kind or generous, or honest or humble or helpful. The landscape looks right -- like it does to a hiker who knows that lake he sees on his left is exactly where it’s supposed to be. 

But unfortunately we sometimes get turned around on our journey to the Kingdom and start doing sch things as putting our individual wants ahead of what the community needs, or being unkind or judging others unfairly. 

Luckily for us, the Lord in his mercy sends us help to let us recognize we’re heading the wrong way. Like that group of scouts who just happened to be coming down the trail toward me. Maybe it’s a few words from a friend, or a line in a song, or a verse of scripture. 

The season of Lent and our Ash Wednesday celebration this afternoon are opportunities for the Lord to ask us, “Hey, did you get turned around?” and for us to answer, “Maybe I need to do an about face and head in the opposite direction!”

So, the ashes you will wear on our forehead today will tell people “I know that I’ve gotten turned around at times, and haven’t lived up to what God had in mind when he created me. But now I’m back heading in the right direction.”

Today we get together and celebrate as a community: because we need God and we need others, fellow sinners, to help us to turn around and convert, to help us to keep heading in the right direction toward the God of love. Remember that Jesus is always walking with us on our journey.  He stays with us and forgives us no matter how many times we start to get turned around. 

Let us ask the Lord to bless us and help us to walk these 40 days of Lent with Jesus as his faithful followers. Wearing ashes as a sign that we’re committed to keep walking the right direction.