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Ash Wednesday Everyone makes mistakes. But there are mistakes and there are mistakes. For example, if your hairstylist makes a mistake when cutting your hair – it may be upsetting for awhile. But he or she can probably mostly repair the “damage” – and of course, it is not permanent. Eventually as your hair grows back the mistake will be fully and totally corrected. But there are some mistakes that can never be corrected – and this is especially true in the medical field. We have all probably heard of some of the worst ones, such as: · A 17- year-old at Duke University Center in North Carolina gets a long-awaited heart-lung transplant – only to die after he received the organs from a donor with the wrong blood type. · A heart catherization is performed on the wrong person. · The right leg is amputated instead of the left one. I can go on with many other examples, but I am sure that you get the picture. Our experience with doctors and the medical profession are usually very positive – and I know that the vast majority of them do their very best to give the best possible service. But sometimes, despite all of the safeguards that are in place – horrible, irreversible medical mistakes still happen. If something like that should ever happen to you, which of the following three possibilities would you expect to hear from your doctor or medical center? A) No explanation or comment whatsoever?; B) A statement of defense and denial (namely, “It’s not our fault!”); or C) Full disclosure of the error and a complete apology. Given the fact that there are many malpractice attorneys who encourage people to file multi-million dollar lawsuits for medical mistakes they have suffered, option “C” – full disclosure and apology – is perhaps the last thing we would expect. Recently, however, some doctors who have made damaging medical blunders have selected that option. They have gone to the patient or the patient’s family, fully owned up to their mistake and apologized for it. At first glance, this is something that we would not expect them to do. The long-standing advice from insurers and hospital lawyers has been that doctors should never apologize or admit fault – because to do that might spark a lawsuit or give ammunition to plaintiffs in existing ones. But about ten years ago, a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky decided to do things differently. After losing two big lawsuits, the hospital decided that its staff should disclose every medical mistake. Staff members began apologizing to harmed patients and their families, and even discussed with the victims ways to prevent future errors. After putting that policy into effect, the hospital discovered that something very interesting began to happen as a result – namely, that its court-ordered payouts dropped significantly. Many patients who had grounds to sue either chose not to or settled out of court for lesser amounts than they would likely have received if they had gone to trial. Naturally, those results got the attention of the entire medical industry, including the companies that insure it. Further studies stood conventional legal advice on its head, and suddenly, it became a smart move for physicians and hospital personnel to own up to and express remorse for their mistakes. Recent experience shows that apologies can disarm a significant number of potential malpractice suits and some hospitals have experienced a 30 percent drop in payments related to legal claims as a result! A number of injured patients or their families decided not to sue or settle out of court for a lesser amount because the doctor’s personal apology “honored me as a human being” or “treated me like a real person.” But is that what the apologizer really did? Or was his or her expression of regret a calculated thing to make the injured party feel that way and thus be less likely to sue? Or to put it another way, does repentance count if there is a payoff for one’s repentance? If apologizing gets you off the hook for some of the penalty, can the contrition be considered sincere? Are you really remorseful or is the apology just a tactic to ward off unpleasant consequences? These are certainly valid questions to ask in the church, especially on this holy day of repentance called Ash Wednesday – and it is an issue that is discussed in this evening’s first reading from the 58th chapter of Isaiah. Apparently many of the people of Israel did all of the correct outward observances of repentance such as fasting, and sitting in sackcloth and ashes – but not really meaning it. Their motive for fasting and other signs of repentance seems to have been so that God would not punish them as their sins deserved. In response, God expresses his displeasure at the acts of piety which the people practiced – not necessarily at the acts themselves, but because the people were doing them to try to get God to notice how “contrite” they were. God actually quotes the people’s complaint with him: “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” And then God answers: “Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day.” It is obvious that in God’s sight “repentance” is not genuine if thereafter the “repenters” keep on oppressing others, or quarreling and fighting with others. That is why God goes on to say that true “fasting” – the only kind that is acceptable to him – means changing one’s actions – such as by refraining from injustice and acts of oppression, sharing food with the hungry and helping the poor. True repentance means changing how you live your life thereafter. Tonight on this Ash Wednesday we confess to God that we have sinned against him, each other, and our neighbors in many ways – by things we have done and also by what we have failed to do. Many of us have also received the mark of ashes on our foreheads as a sign of our repentance. And in response God freely forgives our sins and offers us the chance for a fresh start in our life with him. If our repentance is genuine and leads to changed behavior, God says, “then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.” Then God will truly bless us forever and ever. Yes, apologies such as doctors owning up to medical mistakes may be helpful to a degree, even if they are perhaps done for ulterior motives. But what God really wants from us as his people is repentance which is genuine in every way – in our words, our rituals, and in our deeds. May true repentance – life-changing repentance – be the result of what of we say and pray this Ash Wednesday and do throughout this Lenten Season. In Jesus’ name. Amen! -------------------- Pastor George Karres 418 W. Main St. Sidney, MT 59270
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