Consumed into Ashes, Born into Eternity :: Joel 2:12-19
Today is Ash Wednesday. For years, I have been hearing the same question leading up to tonight’s service: Pastor, are we going to have ashes? Granted, I’ve been your pastor for only four years now, but even when we lived in Peoria, which has a huge Roman Catholic and Lutheran population, you’d see people everywhere bearing the sign of repentance: an ashen cross on their forehead. They too asked the same question: Pastor, are we going to have ashes?
Have you ever wondered why we do this? I finally did during my fourth year of seminary.
Pastor, I asked that year, are we going to have ashes?
To my surprise, he said, no.
Really? Why? I inquired.
Read the Gospel for today, he said. So I did. ... [Jesus said:] And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces in order that their fasting may be seen by others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, in order that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you (vv 16-18).
Brothers and sisters in Christ, ever since then, I have wanted to tell you the same thing.
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Don’t get me wrong here. There is definitely a time and place for wearing ashes. We know this because we see ashes all over the Bible. Sackcloth and ashes are two very common Old Testament customs for expressing repentance.
In pleading with the Lord to delay pouring out his righteous anger upon Sodom, Abraham considered himself nothing but dust and ashes (Gen 18:27). He mourned all the sin he saw and pleaded in faith for the Lord to have mercy. ... Upon Jonah’s preaching, an entire city of 100,000 people plus their cows put on ashes and sackcloth. The people of Nineveh recognized that their sin was reprehensible and they saw their need for a savior ... so God saved them. ... Nearly a century later, Jeremiah pleaded with the people of Jerusalem to do the same (Jer 6:26). Sadly, they didn’t. So God sent the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and the temple and to haul them into exile. ... Ultimately, that did at least allow the Prophet Daniel to discover the Word of the Lord and his call to repentance. He quickly turned to the Lord God, pleading with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes (Dan 9:3).
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This brings us to tonight. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have come to the beginning of Lent. These forty days have traditionally been a time of repentance and for recalling our Lord’s suffering and death. As Joel says, we should all be so bold as to return to the Lord with all our heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, rending our hearts, knowing he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in covenantal love (vv 12-13).
Does that mean we simply smudge our foreheads with ashes, a practice started by priests during the Crusades, and call it a day? Does it mean we stop eating meat on Friday? Does it mean we mouth words of confession, paying lip service to sin?
When our Lord asks us to rend our hearts and not our garments (v 13), he underscores the need for real internal repentance rather than external symbols ... you know, marks on the forehead and empty words and empty promises.
To rend your hearts means to mourn the sin in your life. We are all guilty of it. We are all sinners who sin. As Saint Paul says in Romans 7, we don’t do what God wants, we do the very thing we hate: We sin. These sins are killing us. And as Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of John, we will surely die in our sin if we do not repent (8:24).
But wearing these external signs is so much easier, isn’t it? Who here wants to feel sorrow? Who here wants to be cut to the heart? Who wants to listen to someone tell you to stop doing what you think is right and to start doing what God tells you is right?
It’s so much easier to publicly vow more upright behavior while ignoring the sin in your life. The world all around us thinks it’s easier to say my life is more important ... that my life is mine and no one can tell me there is a better way. But nothing could actually be further from the truth.
Our churches teach that there is forgiveness of sins for those who have fallen (AC IX 1).
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Repentance isn’t something we do to appease God. We don’t receive forgiveness because we repent ... we repent because we receive forgiveness. Repentance is something God does in us. When you repent, you are seeing the fruit of God’s will for you.
Repentance won’t turn his anger to joy simply because you say you’re sorry for your sin. Repentance, you should always remember, has two parts: First, contrition, and second, faith (AC IX 3). Contrition is a state of actual sorrow that you are a sinner and living in sin. With contrition comes fear and trembling because we realize we can’t free ourselves. This is why Joel’s preaching is so perfect for a day like today.
The second part of repentance is faith, which is born of the Gospel or Absolution.
So repent every one of you in the name of Jesus. And believe the Gospel given to us through Joel. Behold, he says, 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.
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That reproach was taken by our Lord Jesus. In faith, we believe that for his sake that our sins are forgiven. Where there is forgiveness there is peace with God. With peace, we can stand confidently in the presence of God. He gives us life and salvation.
Our Lord Jesus has removed the curse of sin on us, taking it into his own body. Our Lord Jesus lived, and died, and rested, and rose, and ascended ... all for you. This is the Gospel. He has laid up treasures for you in paradise (Mat 6:19). And now he speaks to us in the Scriptures and the Sacraments declaring that you are forgiven and free. He has anointed our head and washed us clean so that our Father, who sees in secret, will reward you (Mt 6:18). This is all Gospel.
Through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit in baptism that proclaims his death and resurrection ... you know, Gospel ... we are given God’s solemn vow to lead us by the Holy Spirit into the gates of paradise. That promise is seen and touched and tasted in the celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar, where again his death and resurrection ... the Gospel ... is proclaimed.
The external mercy of God is therefore applied to us from the moment of our baptism and extends into eternity. It is an infinite gift because it cleanses us from the external consequences of all our rebellious thoughts and acts of insurrection against the creator. It promises joy and peace that will never cease or grow tarnished.
Now on account of all this ... you can go forth in peace. As Peter writes ... For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pt 1:5-8)
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Ash Wednesday is therefore very appropriate to the Lenten season. Do we need ashes? Not really. Our sin has been consumed and turned into ash by the wrath of God upon the cross of Christ. And we have been consumed by the promise of the Gospel that we might forever go forth recreated by the grace of God, living anew in the forgiveness of sins.