And they call these children "retarded."

In an isolated nursing home room, a woman gets the bandages removed from her nearly useless ninety year-old eyes. For the first time in decades, she looks down and can see that her skirt isn't the blue one she thought it was but is instead a dark shade of pink. She smiles the biggest smile she can muster and gives thanks to God for allowing her to recognize color again.

And they call her "blind."

A woman enters the house where her spiritual teacher has been invited to dine with the high and mighty leaders of the church. Surveying the situation - she begins to weep, possibly for the troubling events of her past, possibly for the overwhelming hypocrisy of the Pharisees' invitation. Her tears spill over the high dam of her pride and they form streams onto her teacher's feet. She uses it as an opportunity to show her willingness to serve, her eagerness to please her master and her guide. She bathes the well-worn journey off his dusty feet and uses her hair to towel them dry. She continues this loving act by kissing and caressing his feet and anointing them with fragrant perfume. Her touch bears the love of one who cares for a dying spouse.

And they call her "sinful" and a "whore."

"They" might do these things. But not Jesus; Jesus links arms with these children that the world laughs at. Jesus shows rainbows to an old woman that society values as useless. Jesus is touched by a sinful woman that the church rejects and then calls her a woman of great faith.

Jesus takes the world we know and turns it on its head. That's what the season of Lent is all about. We focus on one man's execution so that our crimes will be forgiven. We deny the "truth" of whom the world loves or hates for a spiritual truth that embraces the poor and turns the rich empty away. We die to this life so that we can live as new creations in God's eternal goodness. We possess nothing so that in God we may have everything.

It's what I would call the "great reversal." Jesus takes the everyday stuff of our lives and makes it unbelievably priceless. Tonight we will be celebrating the life, death, and resurrection of this Jesus with a little bread and a little grape juice. Ordinarily, a bite of bread and a swig of grape juice or even wine would mean absolutely nothing. Jesus is what makes this event a meal. Jesus is who, at this very table, restores the honesty of our faith. In this Jesus, we can trust that, average human beings that we are, we have the unbelievable privilege of being heard by the very power and presence of God Almighty.

Tonight, you will also have the opportunity, if you so desire, to come forward and receive the imposition of ashes, which means that a cross will be drawn on your forehead with the ashes made from the palms of last year's Palm Sunday celebration. In the understanding of the "great reversal," we know that we are made from dust and ashes, and to that state we will one day return. It is solely through the grace and good sense of humor of our God that we are even capable of taking breaths and having life. What an amazing miracle of faith!

Over the next weeks as you prepare to bear witness to the greatest reversal of all, the conquering of death by life in the resurrection, look around to see all the little reversals -- mentally challenged children who show capable adults that compassion is more important than competition, the blind people who really see, the deaf people who really hear, the dead who come alive in a moment of clarity. These are all scandalous human events that are touched by the gracious hand of Christ. So choose to die to what you know so you can live in this upside down world and be amazed by the infinite love of God. Amen.