Ash Wednesday Sermon

Ash Wednesday

February 22, 2012

“Forgiveness: Create Me a Clean Heart”

Joel 2.1-2, 12-17

Well, finally, Ash Wednesday and Lent are here. All of the pre-holiday preparation is over and done with. The Ash Wednesday presents are bought and wrapped; the house is decorated top to bottom. Maybe you even splurged on those black lights to hang on the tree, both inside and out. (Without flashers, of course; that would be too showy.) The Lenten music has been playing in the stores for weeks now and the pre-Lenten sales have been phenomenal. Your Lenten cards are in the mail with one of those tacky letters about what you are giving up as a family this year. After today’s service, you’ll go home to spend time singing Lenten hymns around the tree and have a nice Lenten holiday meal. Lutefisk would be penitentially appropriate, I should think. [Thanks and apologies to David Lose.]

No? It isn’t like that? My guess is that Lenten preparation arrives more like the alarm clock waking me up in the morning. Often, I am jarred out of a sound sleep in the midst of some bizarre dream, awaking to shaking and sweating. In fact, that’s what the prophet Joel does in our first reading today: he sounds an alarm to get our attention, shaking us from spiritual slumber. There is a danger coming upon the land that has been ignored by the people, and it’s a danger of their own making. In case we hit the spiritual snooze button, Joel sounds another alarm, this time calling all hands on deck. Nobody is excluded from the wake-up call, not infants and children, not brides and grooms in the midst of their nuptials.

What is so all-fired important that we need two alarms, as well as a time of preparation? Well, there’s something not quite right in our relationship with God and with each other. We aren’t what God fully intends us to be, with God or with others, and we need to admit it. Yes, Jesus came to die for us, to repair our relationships and to put us on the right track again. But we know all too well that we are not there yet; we relearn that every minute of every day are fallible creatures who fall short of what God intends for us. As I told the children in the Children’s Time the other day, we need a spiritual time-out. This is not to punish, but rather to give us time to reflect on our situation.

The marking of our foreheads with ashes is a sober reminder that life can change quickly. We only have to turn on the news or read our email from friends. Four young women lose their lives on a slippery road returning to school. A friend is diagnosed with terminal cancer. There are many more. All too often, I walk with families who have lost someone suddenly or experience illness. Unfortunately, they haven’t been able to say the things that need to be said and when tragedy strikes, it is either impossible or much harder to do so. Ash Wednesday and Lent remind us that relationships are important and that we need to pay close attention to them. To change the metaphor slightly, we need a reboot of our spiritual hardware and software. When the prophet Joel tells us to rend our hearts and not our clothes, he is telling us to come clean.

Today we begin a time of reflection on the spiritual practice of forgiveness. Have you ever thought of forgiveness in that way? The alarm that Joel sounds says it’s never too late to return to the Lord our God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. This call from God is to everybody, for everybody, and the goal is always restoration, the re-establishment of relationships. During our midweek services this Lent, we will be exploring different aspects of forgiveness. We’ll hear about the incredible, scandalous grace of God; how we can forgive others, ourselves, and even God; whether it is possible forgive and forget. On Maundy Thursday, we’ll reflect on how Holy Communion is for the forgiveness of sins. On Good Friday, we’ll meditate on Jesus as the agent of forgiveness and on Easter Sunday the new and resurrected life that forgiveness brings. This may not be the kind of holiday we want, one that makes a Hallmark moment, but it’s the one we need. I pray that you will be blessed on this journey and look forward to exploring God’s grace with you in the weeks to come. Amen.