I was my time in the rotation to preach at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Cloquet this morning
A bit of graffiti under the Highway 33 Bridge sparked my meditation for Lent this year. Above and beneath the graphics the artist wrote: "Make a name; life is short!"
Someone young, I suspect, produced this piece of art. I doubt any of us older folk, sitting here this morning, go around town with a can of black spray paint doing art under bridges.
You can see this street art. You will find it on the way to the bar at the old Northeastern Hotel for a glass of beer or wine. By the way it's said the bar at the Northeastern has the longest bar in Northeastern Minnesota made 
of one solid piece of wood. Of course, I cannot verify that since I have not visited all of the bars in Northeastern Minnesota. Yet! Also I believe the establishment a bit more positive cache than it once possessed.
"Make a name; life is short."
Lent speaks to this advice given in black spray paint.
A phrase from the Old Testament book of Genesis echoes over the beginning of Lent:
Sometimes the King James version seems to give these admonitions more heft:
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return."
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return."
Genesis 3:19
As the church imposes ashes on us at the beginning of Lent, we hear these words proclaimed to us: "You are dust and dust you shall return".
The natural question in every human heart: How do we rise above this dust?
"Make a name; life is short."
Rather than this message, Lent and Jesus would suggest something else.
"Make a friend life is short."
"For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return."
We hear this phrase of Genesis just after Adam and Eve have messed up. However, in the spirit of Jesus, I suggest this phrase is more than a condemnation of misdeeds or a warning against sin. We must always read Scripture in the spirit of Jesus: Heal the sick, feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, visit the imprisoned, give drink to the thirsty and shelter the homeless.
"Make a name; life is short."
Rather Jesus would say: do good while you can, life is short. Our genes, I suspect, drive us look after ourselves and those who would cover our backs. However, the spirit of Jesus calls us look after others. Science tells us evolution programs a bit of altruism into to us to assure our survival. But the generosity to which Jesus calls us requires, as Genesis suggests, the "sweat of your face".
Just as we hear of Jesus in the Gospel lesson this morning, we must withdraw from the noise of our days and the anxiety of our lives and sit for a time in quiet and reflection. Goodness takes work, needs strength, demands courage, requires character. The call of Jesus does not automatically grace us with courage and character.
We can throw seed on ground and some will grow. But to feed our families and our poor neighbors we must till the soil to prepare it. We must pull the weeks, fend off insects, outfox the rabbits, water when dry, and carefully preserved the harvest for winter. Growth may be automatic; harvest requires sweat.
"Make a name; life is short."
Life is short! Fate limits our time for doing good, for comforting the weary, for feeding the hungry, for sheltering the homeless, for healing the sick, for reconciling the estranged, for visiting the isolated, for making peace.
"Make a name; life is short."
Perhaps someone young painted this phrase but what might this young person's parents have painted? Make a killing; life is short. Make money; life is short. Make a fortune; life is short. Guard your own; life is short. Or as bumper stickers once proclaimed: "He who dies with the most toys wins."
We do reach a point where we have enough. But amazingly we find it difficult to give away some of the rest. So from time to time we must review our character and strength so we can practice goodness. In this season of Lent, review your strength for doing good.
The gospel teaches Jesus went to the desert to wrestle with the temptation of greed and selfish. Yes, even Jesus battled acquisitiveness and the lust for power.
Build the pile; life is short.
The news, our radios, our television, our newspapers and magazines, have given us many examples of greed and the problems it causes. Our leaders seek to regulate our lust to accumulate with laws and regulations. Laws may lessen greed but law cannot assure generosity. Character and principle enable generosity. We must cultivate our character and nourish our principles. Do that this Lent!
Paul, a learned lawyer, knew laws can only make men and women honest; it cannot make them generous, kind, compassionate, in short good! Regulations can only control greed; they cannot force generosity.
St. Paul teaches us of this difference. He presents the image in his letters of a child who has not yet developed his character or strengthened the principles which will keep him from evil, from greed. During the time of his youth, a child is protected by parents, by guardians, by teachers. He is controlled by the law. When mature strength of character and the power principle develop, he is no longer under the law. He walks Jesus. This walking with Jesus, Paul calls Faith.
This Lent, renew and deepen your faith.
1 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.
2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time by his father.
3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,
5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."
7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time by his father.
3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,
5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."
7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Galatians 4:1-7
We are heirs of God when we do the goodness of God. We are children of God when we display the compassion of God. We are daughters of God when we delight in feeding the hungry, healing the sick and comforting the afflicted. We are sons of God when we promote peace, give water to the thirsty, open doors to the blessings of our society for those we once shut out.
"Make a name; life is short."
"Do good; life is short."
Expressed more plainly, we rise above the dust not by building piles money or mounds of things, not by building piles but by bringing smiles to others.
"Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." The words call us not just to avoid evil but to turn toward good.
"Make a name; life short!"
Lent suggests requests and enables us to rewrite the graffiti under the bridge on our hearts: "do good; life is short!"
