Repent.
That is the theme of Ash Wednesday. Repent. Have a change of heart and mind, stop living in the ways of sin and instead return to the Lord.
To that end, I would like us to consider for our sermon this evening our Old Testament reading for this evening, Joel 2:12-19, which I would like to re-read at this time:
“‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, ‘Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”’ Then the LORD became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The LORD answered and said to his people, ‘Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.’” (Joel 2:12-19 ESV)
The book of Joel is a unique book in the history of God’s people. Alone of the books of the minor prophets, it cannot be dated. It is a prophetic book occasioned by a natural disaster–an infestation of locusts. These locusts had destroyed everything in sight. The net result was that the people of God were without the means to properly carry out the worship of the Lord in His temple. As the book of Leviticus describes in great detail, there were certain requirements daily for the grain and drink offerings at the temple. Without being able to make these sacrifices, the proper worship of the Lord could not continue. Without making these sacrifices, the priests and Levites would have no way of sustaining their physical lives, as they were required by the Lord to rely on the gifts of God’s people given in His house for their well-being.
Most importantly, if the proper worship of the Lord did not continue, the people of God had no way of knowing if the Lord was for or against them. God had set up the Temple as being the means by which His people could come to Him safely and know that their prayers were heard. God had given the Temple as the means by which His people could know their sins were forgiven. God had given the Temple as the means by which His people would know that He was their God and they were His people– and now this infestation of locusts was threatening to ruin everything.
If you or I were faced with a situation like this, we might try to import the goods we needed to continue, but this was not an option then. Such a disaster could mean that God Himself was displeased with His people, as He had not prevented it from occurring. Or it could simply be a test–would God’s people remain faithful to Him in the face of struggle, trouble, and trial?
While grasshoppers occasionally swarm in our region, rare indeed is an utter devastation of all plant life and vegetation of the type described in the book of Joel. But there are other trials and tribulations which can and do come up in our lives. Perhaps a major illness is afflicting you or someone you love. Perhaps there are events ongoing in your workplace or home which have you at the end of your endurance, trying to hold things together peaceably. Perhaps you have troubles seeing how God can allow such disastrous things to happen as we hear in the news every day. Last Saturday, Kelly and I had the TV on in the background as we were getting supper ready and story after story on the evening news was so powerfully negative that we both looked at each other and sighed. Perhaps the thought of our churches’ ongoing Sunday School shrinkage has you concerned for the well-being of our congregations. Or perhaps there is some habitual sin in your life that you struggle with, that you try to master, that no matter what you do, it seems, it just keeps flaring up again and again, refusing to submit.
Whatever it may be that causes you to struggle, to have trouble or tribulation in your life, there is no question that what you are experiencing puts you in good company, right along with the people of Judah in the days of Joel the prophet. In such circumstances, there really is nothing that we can do, so much of the time. Helpless. Hurting. Broken. Those are the feelings that go with these situations. But one feeling which we need not have is that of feeling hopeless. For, as the prophet reminds us, there is always hope.
“Yet, even now,” says the Lord. Even now. Even in the worst of things, even when it seems like the world is falling to pieces all around you, even when it seems like you don’t have an ounce of strength left to do anything–even now–the Lord speaks. And He calls us to return to Him, to return to Him with fasting, with weeping, with mourning. He calls us to tear our hearts and not our clothes.
This gives hope. For we can only return to the Lord if we are His to begin with. We can return because we belong to Him through Baptism, where He first called us from our sin and shame to be His holy people. This gives hope, because the Lord wants us to return to Him. The Lord wants us to repent, to have that change of heart and mind. He wants us to be made new, to return to our baptismal purity. He wants to relieve us of our fears and struggles and trials and troubles.
As the prophet then relays, in response to the Lord’s call to return, “Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” God is the great and awesome Creator of the Universe. He is the Mighty One who holds the power over life and death, who alone is final judge and arbiter of the eternal destiny of each soul–and He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He doesn’t like disasters befalling His people, He doesn’t get any pleasure from the death of the wicked. No, our God, although mighty and great and powerful in every way, chooses not to use a show of force to turn His people, but instead uses weakness–the weakness of man, the weakness of Jesus dying on the cross. God uses this weakness in order to show forth His great strength, the strength of eternal life, of sins forgiven, of the relationship between God and man restored to how it was supposed to be in the first place. He does this out of His chesed, His covenant-love, His undying commitment and loyalty to do good for those people He has called to be His own.
It is in the times of trial that God prepares us to receive His blessings. How many blessings we receive daily from the hand of the Lord unthinkingly and unwittingly, not to mention unthankfully! But when you have gone through the hard trials and the difficult roads, then you see God’s gifts with new eyes.
And so it is that our Christian year follows this rhythm of repentance and receiving from God’s hand. Indeed, the pattern of our Divine Service follows this rhythm, where we enter God’s house, confess our sins, and then are absolved in order to hear and receive God’s precious gifts through the readings, the sermon, and the Lord’s Supper.
Having said that, today is one of those days which, in our Christian freedom, we have set aside in order to fast and repent; to “call a solemn assembly, gather the people, consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, even nursing infants.” We do this not to earn God’s favour but to remind ourselves that God’s favour is no small trifle, that God’s favour is ours through Jesus. Because we have sinned, because we are sinners, we need this reminder, in order that we do not take God’s gifts for granted.
Repent. That is the call of this day. Not in order to make a big show of your repentance. In that sense, I’m glad our Ash Wednesday service is in the evening. We can receive the ashes and then go home, not making a big show about our repentance to the world. Jesus warns us, in our Gospel for this evening, against doing the right things in the wrong way. It is good to pray to the Lord. It is good to fast. It is good to give to the poor and the needy. But all these things need be done with a heart which is in the right attitude toward God, or they are all meaningless, empty efforts. As our Psalm for this evening reminds us, what God really desires from us is a contrite heart.
That’s the purpose behind Lent, as a season, too. Not that we shouldn’t be repentant and repenting the rest of the year, but that we set aside this time of the year for extra adherence to God’s Word, for additional occasions to repent of our sin–and, in response, to receive the grace of God from our Saviour. We spend this season lamenting our sin, so as to make the joy of the resurrection at Easter that much bolder and brighter. We weep now, so that we may rejoice later.
And so this day we use the ash, as a reminder that this world will be destroyed by fire. We recall that we are dust, and that we will return to dust. Yet we also recall to mind that the Lord does not forget His people. He will not leave us in shame. He is sending grain, new wine, and oil, and we will be satisfied.
For today, though, we remember our sin, we remember the Cross, and we await the Lord’s absolution, as we make confession of our sins before Him. Have mercy on us, O God, and treat us not according to our sins but according to your abundant mercy and your unfailing covenant-love and faithfulness to us! Amen.
Last updated February 2008 by the webmaster.