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Ash Wednesday
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt, February 14, 2018


Ash Wednesday


Text: Joel 2:1–2, 12–17

Tonight, we have come together for the Ash Wednesday Service which for the church is the beginning of the season of Lent. Lent is 40 days of intentional focus on the reason that Jesus needed to come, in prelude to the celebration of the fact that he did, as we remember his death and resurrection on Easter morning. This season is rich in tradition for the Church of Christ. The idea of the 40 days comes from the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days prior to the beginning of his earthly ministry. During this time the proof that he was the Son of God in the flesh was established to the enemy. Jesus showed that there would be no compromise and half-way measures, he had willingly come at the request of his Father and he would follow through to the end even though the cost was beyond comprehension.

For us, Lent is a time when we make that journey with Christ and we consider our temptations and the fact that we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and therefore must in humility bow before God in repentance. After these 40 days of purposely focusing on the cross and our absolute need for a Savior we should emerge stronger and more resolved to follow Christ than we have been before. Lent is a time for us to evaluate ourselves in light of God’s Word and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. It’s a time to abandon the sins that we have grown accustomed to and it’s a time to receive God’s forgiveness and strength to lead a god-centered life as we prayerfully seek to renew our desire to serve him. Our prayers must reflect a renewed commitment to be the followers of Christ that reveal his glory to those around us.

The ceremony of the Imposition of Ashes has its roots in the Old Testament where covering yourself with sackcloth and ashes was a sign of repentance and mourning because of the seriousness of sin. We read in our passage from Joel 2:1–2 that the prophet warned of the certain day of Lord that was surely coming and the people had every reason to tremble before the power and holiness of the God who would be shrouded in thick darkness and gloom. The warning is that he was coming to judge the sins of those who would not repent and follow him. The Lord God speaks through the prophet Joel in such a way as to leave no doubt that no one will escape the Day of the Lord. Tonight we read verses 1–2 and then 12–17, but verses 3–11 describe what it will be like when it comes. Verse 3 says, “Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.” and ends in verse 11 with, “For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?”

The proper response to that kind of warning was to fall down before God crying out for mercy and showing the sign of contrition by putting on sack cloth and covering the head with ashes.

It was for the hope of mercy that Joel is prophesying in tonight’s Old Testament passage in Joel 2:12–14,

Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 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. 14 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?

Notice that the prophet is encouraging the people to turn from their wickedness in genuine repentance hoping that God will show mercy even though they had turned away from Him and his righteous commands. They were not to assume that God responded to repentance by always removing the consequences of their sin but instead come to him hoping for his mercy. The people of God knew the character and nature of God, which is he wants to show mercy and have a loving relationship with his people but it would only come if there was true repentance of sin.

In Matthew 6:1 Jesus warned against “practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” The Pharisees were making a show of helping the poor, praying openly and letting it be evident that they were fasting so that they would be seen as righteous before men and would have a place of honor in the synagogue. Jesus tells them that they should help the poor because it pleases God when they had his heart for them. Jesus was teaching that they should pray to their Father in Heaven because they were desperate for his love and mercy and because they were so in love with Him. We should fast because we earnestly desire his blessing and forgiveness. The Pharisees did not see themselves as wicked and in need of repentance but looked down on others as inferior. They saw themselves as the model of godliness but Jesus rebukes them for their self-righteousness and hardness of heart. They had forgotten that God is holy and they would always need to bow before him in worship and repentance.

God is rich in mercy, but he is also a consuming fire. Hebrews 10:31 warns us that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Making the assumption that God will ignore our sins because he is just basically a grandfatherly type who understands that we are weak and just wants us to feel loved, is a grave mistake. The people of Nineveh were spared God’s wrath because they heard the warning of God through the prophet Jonah and they humbled themselves in the sight of the Lord and he showed them great mercy. However, they later turned away from God and became even more wicked than before.

God’s patience should never be misinterpreted as weakness. He will not leave unpunished individual, corporate or national sins as Nineveh found out. The Book of Nahum records the prophet telling Nineveh of God’s judgment upon them and this time God totally destroyed them as Nahum had prophesied and left no trace of them. It wasn’t until the 1800s, almost 2,700 years later, that archaeologists would find and excavate portions of the ancient city. Their destruction had been absolute and complete.

From the beginning in Genesis 3, at the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, men and women have understood that it is sin that separates them from a God who is holy and sinless, and so the early church used this season of Lent as a time of preparation through teaching the catechism for those seeking baptism early on Easter morning. Before candidates were allowed to be baptized the church wanted to make sure that they understood that their only hope for salvation was to repent of their sins and to turn and follow Christ. The church was committed to making sure that those who were baptized and began receiving communion understood what it meant to follow Christ and to surrender their lives to him.

In our epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 5:20–6:1 Paul warns those who have become a part of the church to turn from their sins and pay attention to what it was that Jesus had done for them,

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 6 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

Often when speaking of Jesus taking our sin upon himself, we present it as if he was placing our sin in a backpack and placing it upon his shoulders. It that way it appears as if he is carrying the load or the burden of our sin but in fact Paul is teaching that Jesus became sin itself on our behalf. In that condition He became so vile and repugnant to the Father that he turned away from the Son for the first time in all eternity. Jesus found himself completely alone for the first time in all eternity and in that state, he experienced the torment of Hell.

The worse part of Hell is not fire but the complete and total absence of God, something you and I could never imagine. Jesus was fully immersed in the horror of complete hopelessness and despair as he cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” Let that sink in for a moment, what it means that Jesus was completely removed from the presence of God for us. Holy Spirit, let us understand the cost of our sin to our Savior. That is why Paul is calling those who have professed to follow Jesus to not do so in vain by refusing to allow him to deal with the sins that are keeping us from knowing Jesus in power, and instead thinking so little of what he did that it makes a mockery of his sacrifice.

Paul then finishes out our reading from tonight by exhorting the Corinthians to not let anything stand in the way of others knowing the truth and power of the Gospel. He writes in 2 Corinthians 6:3, “We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found in our ministry…”. He then lists a litany of trouble and hardships that he had endured for the sake of the Gospel because he saw them as nothing in comparison to what Jesus had done for us. His gratitude caused him to surrender all that he had and all that he was to Jesus, including his life.

This season was to be an intentional time of preparation even for those who had been baptized and were members in good standing in the church because at the baptismal service on Easter morning they would be asked to renew their baptismal vows and we still make that our practice on Easter morning. This season is meant for us to be intentional in asking God to help us refocus our lives on the journey of the cross and to find our hope and purpose there.

Ash Wednesday begins that refocusing because had it not been for our sin there would have been no need for the cross of Christ. Tonight, we want to be intentional as we come to God acknowledging our need for his forgiveness and our utter dependence on him for life and salvation.

Our Psalm tonight reminds us that we enter the season of Lent in faith in our God who wants to be reconciled to us.

Psalm 103:8–14,

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Tonight, we come in faith receiving the sign of the cross on the forehead or forehand, whichever you prefer. We are acknowledging our desperate need for God’s mercy as we begin the season of reflection for the next 40 days. In receiving this mark, we are asking God to restore us to himself as we allow ourselves to be marked with the sign of the cross symbolizing the suffering and shame of our Savior and Lord. We are also reminded that we are created from the dust and will one day return to dust. We are the ones who are in need of God.

©2018 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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