Ash Wednesday

"Be reconciled to God"

Joel 2:2-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-17; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-16,16-21

Palm Sunday is the day that we celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. People waving their branches and shouting “hosanna”. A week after that the very same people from whose lips hosanah’s were sung, come shouts of “crucify him”. It brings out the double standards of the people that day, and the mindset of going with the crowd, rather than standing out.

We in the church make crosses of palms and carry them in processions and clamoring to take so many palm crosses with us home. What of it from Palm Sunday to Ash Wednesday. Lives are no different to those of the crowd. Shouting “hosanna” with our lips, but living lives which will crucify Jesus many times on that victorious cross.

In such a background God calls his people to return to him. Joel 2:12. To return is to go back to where you belong. It calls for a change from the wrong direction that you are journeying to the right direction. So you are walking in a relationship with God. You move away from God and go in a different direction. Shout hosanna and then start shouting crucify him.

So God calls to return. When you return you are going back to the source from which you broke away. You re-establish your relationship with him. When you return the fellowship is restored.

And so the season of Lent becomes meaningful to those who follow Christ, because it is a time you get to journey with Christ in the wilderness, face challenges which will make you strong in the faith and relationship with him.

However to many Christians Lent is just a ritual. Wearing white or ash colour. Giving up eating meat and other luxury food.  And today these have become meaningless rituals, rather than meaningful symbols. Why? Because what God is expecting from those who follow him, is nothing but a change of heart.

Joel 2:12 says “return to me with all your heart”. God further goes to say how you do it. V13. “Rend your heart” and “not your garment”

To rend the garment was an outward sign of the inward change the Israelites made. But they had got so used to tearing their garments, inwardly they were the same. So God says, don’t tear your garments, tear your hearts. Break your heart. Rip your heart apart. Take it to pieces.

Now what happens when the heart is ripped apart? There is bleeding, there is pain, it is wounded. Finally death. There is no life. Today Christians are good at doing this to other people’s hearts. God is calling his people to do this to their own hearts.

God is so concerned about the heart. If your heart is right with God, if your heart is right with your brothers and sisters in Christ then you have life. Prov 4:23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life”.

Once you have torn your heart, you ask God to create a new heart. Just as from the dust God creates life and breathes into it his spirit, so God creates a new heart. One that is acceptable to him. One in which he is the ruler. And so King David when he sinned he comes before God and says “create in me a pure heart O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” Ps 51:10. Because God always looks at the heart. He is a God who is searching the heart (Jer 17:10), he searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thought (I Chron 28:9).

This process of tearing and then making anew is the process of reconciliation. In our NT reading for today Paul is reminding the Corinthians that every believer is reconciled to God and thereby given the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciled with God and reconciled with man. = the cross +. Vertical and horizontal.

If you look around we will see that that there are many crosses, different sizes, not clean, not beautiful. To remind us every time we come into this church during this period of Lent, that the cross is not an ornament. It is a victorious, symbol, which is being made a shameful one when our hearts are not right with God. The cross is one which you look upto see our shame, but beyond that receive God’s forgiveness and grace.

And so we use this period of Lent to rid ourselves of all that can take us away from God. We are so used to making other’s weep, but now it is time you look into your lives and see the sin inside and weep over it. Just as you mourn over a dead body, you have to mourn over the sinful live which you lead. A sinful life is equal to a dead life. Lent is also a time of fasting. Fasting is an act of worship in mourning, and despairing while entreating God.

People of God the call is to have a meaningful Lent. A lent where you will change, where you will be fed. A lent where you learn to shine and live. And a lent where you strive to let go and know what to hold onto.

Just as a forest is burned and from those ashes come out new life, may the ashes with which you are signed the sig of the cross, remind you that you are dust and from that dust you are formed, that you are to rend your hearts, that God may create a new heart and renew his spirit in you.

Let us remember that we are dust. Dust is nothing. If it is blown away then you cannot bring it back. But God is willing to take that dust re-create you, re-create his image in you. For that he is calling all to return to him.