The Inward Journey…The Starting Place

- Rev. Bob Thomas
Senior Pastor

the Old Testament Lesson:
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

the Gospel Lesson:
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

             There’s a cartoon showing a father, mother and their young son exiting church after a service.  The father looks quite irritated and he is saying to his son, “I want you to stop referring to the church as the Re-pentagon!”  But the boy was right, of course; repentance is a crucial part of the church’s message.  Sometimes we think that repentance has to do the depth of our remorse.  But the Bible gives us a different measure of repentance.  Rather than question sinners about the depth of their emotions when claiming to repent, God is more interested in their intentions and the resulting change in behavior.  Repentance was perhaps best defined by a small girl: “It’s to be sorry enough to quit.”  So how do we show that we’re really sorry for doing something wrong?  The first step is to admit what we have done.  In biblical times,  when someone realized that they were doing something wrong, they often would tear their clothing, go for a period of time without eating, and might put ashes on their fac3es or even go and sit in the ash heap for a day.  These were ways the people had of telling God that they were sorry.  Our lesson from Joel gives us God’s response to that kind of repentance; “Don’t tear your clothes.  Instead, change your heart.”  God doesn’t just want us to say we’re sorry.  God wants us to show it by changing the way we do things.

          The theme for Lent this year at Epworth is “The Inward Journey”…and Ash Wednesday is the “Starting Point.”  Tonight when the ashes are imposed, we confront in a very real way, the disturbing fact that we shall all die. So death is the starting point.  Isn’t that an interesting place to start?  But it is the same death that God faced, by sending Jesus among us.  The liturgy says: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  These words sound familiar don’t they…like the words we say during the committal service at the burial of the dead. “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust…”  Ash Wednesday brings us face to face to the reality of our mortality.  But the real issue is not so much biological death, which every single one of us will experience.  The issue is the death we bring upon ourselves when we forget that we re created in the very IMAGE of God!  Every time we sin we move away from God.   

          The starting point for our Inward Journey is REPENTANCE for our sinfulness and our sins.  I don’t know about you, but my sins are an embarrassment to me.  Listening to others confess is even worse than doing so ourselves.  It’s tempting to try to make a bargai8n with God, to give up some small pleasure to remember Jesus’ tie in the wilderness symbolically.  But such a simple solution just won’t do.  We are called to the observance of a holy Lent to give up OURSELVES; that’ what “self-denial” means.  Whether we want to or not, we must recognize the sin lurking within us,  and confess it before God.  The prophet Joel announces: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!  Let the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near—a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.”  Writing sometime around 400 BCE, the prophet Joel performs the typical prophetic function: he calls God’s people to repentance for their sins.  The images are those of a terrible cosmic response to human infidelity for falling short of God’s clear ethical demands.  Yet Joel also holds out the hope that by engaging in traditional rites of self-humbling, God’s people will turn God away from punishment and toward mercy.  The process is not easy for us.  And yet the prophet offers hope in his very description of the nature of God’s self… “God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” 

          Ash Wednesday forces us to look at our lives realistically.  The “real us” is very different from the way we imagine our selves to be.  Death casts its shadow over us many times each day; we refuse to yield to God’s will and strive to do things our own way.  We spend more time figuring out how to manage and take care of our stuff than we do in trying to figure out how to most effectively honor God by helping our hurting brothers and sisters.

Ash Wednesday calls us back to reality with the clear message that the first thing we need to do is repent.  By repenting we show that we have some idea of what is truly important in life: to pray simply and sincerely, give your gifts privately, fast and put our reliance on heaven, not earthly treasures.  The prophet implores us: “Return to the Lord, your God for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” 

          But repentance is neither feeling bad nor performing pious rituals; it is intention and follow-through…BOTH.  The traditional words of invitation to the Lord’s Supper call to the table those who ‘do truly and earnestly repent of [their] sins…and intend to lead a new life…”  At that point, the intention is enough to make us welcome at the communion meal.  That is probably because intention is a productive state of mind that causes results.  Intention, in fact, is the energy of repentance.  The very “wanting” energizes our “turning around…which is the literal meaning of repentance. 

           So what happens after we leave the communion table or arise from the imposition of ashes, or speak an apology to someone we’ve hurt determines the truth of our intentions.  The steps we take to “lead a new life” determine whether for us communion, conversion, or remorse is Holy or Hollow.  Follow-through is the enactment of intention’s energy.  God looks for our intentions and the follow-through that those pure intentions yield.  We are dust…and death is certain.  The ashes tonight are administered in the shape of a cross.  Because of our mortal nature, death is certain.  But by faith in the power of the cross, eternal life is our hope.   

          Diamonds are one of the most beautiful and cherished gemstones in all the world.  But did you know that diamonds are nothing more than carbon dust, ashes…compressed by extreme pressure.   

          I learned that lesson by watching the original Superman series in black and white.  I remember the scene in which Superman takes a lump of coal in his hand and squeezes it really hard.  He grimaces and smoke comes out of his clenched fist.  But when he opens his hand the lump of coal has become a glittering diamond. 

           In God’s hand, the ashes of a human life are more than refuse, to be disposes of….By the amazing power we call grace, we can be transformed from our natural state of sin into something strong and beautiful. 

            How do we know that this is true?  Because of another journey from dust to diamonds, a journey taken over 2,000 years ago by a man named Jesus.  He went to a cross and died.  They laid him in a borrowed tomb.  Three days later, he stood upon his feet and lived again.   

             So my friends let us offer ourselves into the hands of Almighty God to mold and shape us into the brilliance he has in store for us.  Let this be our starting point, penitent and humble hearts turned to God.

(To the invitation to the Lenten Discipline.)

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INVITATION TO THE OBSERVANCE OF LENTEN DISCIPLINE.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Christians have always observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection.  It became the custom of the church to prepare for Easter by a season of penitence, fasting and prayer.  This season of forth days provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for baptism into the body of Christ.  It is also the time when persons who had committed serious sins and had been separated from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the church.  The whole congregation is thus reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our baptismal faith.

          I invite you, in the name of the LORD, to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving;  and by reading and meditating on the Word of God.  To make a right beginning, and as a mark of or mortality, let us now pray to our creator and Redeemer, singing…  

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Choral Meditation

Just As I am, without one plea,

     but that thy blood was shed for me,

     and that thou bidst me

          come to thee,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come! 

Just as I am, thou wilt receive,

     wilt welcome, pardon,

    cleanse, relieve;

because thy promise, I believe,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

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Thanksgiving Over the Ashes

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray:

               Almighty God you have created us out of the dust of the earth; grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, so we may remember that only by your gracious gift are we given everlasting life…Through Jesus Christ our Savior.

    Amen.

[Please come forward by the center aisle.  You may kneel or stand along the rail.  After you have received the ashes, return to your seat by the outside aisle for meditation and prayer.]

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Imposition of Ashes

          Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.

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Special Music

          "Hear My Cry"

               - the Chancel Choir