Ash Wednesday

We had quite a morning here today.

We tried out Ashes to Go for the very first time and 12 folks stopped by, both members and folks not known to the church drove up and received ashes.

And the time I spent with those people who asked for ashes was a holy time, as we stood together and prayed and then repeated those words, “Remember that you are from dust, and to dust you shall return.”

To stand with people in even such a temporary way was filling.

It filled my soul to be with people sharing a moment to pray, to be with God and each other.

And then there was Maxie.

Maxie was a very good boy, or girl I wasn’t able to tell.

Maxie was very excited to be on a walk and he jumped when he saw me but I wasn’t able to impose ashes upon Maxie because Maxie was a rather happy, smiling, Golden Retriever.

So 12 people and one Maxie; a very good morning!

My prayer is it was as much a salve for the people I interacted with, prayed with, as it was for me.

And so, here we are.

We are here under evening skies to celebrate Ash Wednesday.

This is the first day of the season of Lent.

It is the start of a season of repentance, a season to correct our ways; to leave behind all that is bad and maybe even take on some of those things that are good.

We are called to repent.

We are called to understand that in the temporal nature of our existence on this plain, we are to live as God calls us to live and love as God calls us to love.

And this is a season for us to confront the fact that none of us particularly excel at doing those things.

We do not live without sin.

We do not always love those who are difficult to love as much as we should and we certainly do not love each other perfectly.

And because we are sinners and because we do not love others as God loves us, we must repent.

We must adjust.

We must become better.

For in every season, and in not with all things but some, we can sometimes make the choices that are easy; we look at a broken world and turn away, we see a broken place and turn inward; we reorient ourselves away from sin and brokenness but do not turn to face it and we do not always work to better ourselves and our world.

It is sometimes easier to turn away than face down that which ails the world; to hang a picture on top of the cracked plaster, a runner atop the scratched table.

And for that we can repent.

And should repent.

And God is urging us to repent.

To reorient ourselves once again, to turn towards our own sinfulness, face it down, and change our ways.

This is the season to refocus, recalibrate, and repent.

Yet repenting is not saying I am sorry.

It is saying I am saying I am sorry and changing my ways.

It is changing my ways so that I will no longer hurt others.

Changing my ways so that I no longer anger my loved ones.

Changing my ways so that I no longer hurt myself.

Changing my ways and reorienting myself to working for what is good rather than setting aside that which is bad.

Reorienting myself towards the alleviation of hunger rather than turning away from the hungry.

Reorienting myself to face God so that I might know that we are loved, we are cherished, we are worthwhile.

This sense of the need to repent is discussed by the prophet Joel this evening.

Joel is warning Judah that there is a plague of locusts on its way; days of famine are to commence.

“Blow a horn in Zion”, sound the alarm, prepare as you can.

Do not cover yourself from the locusts, do not hide from the hive that is about to set upon the land, turn to God, turn back to God with all your hearts and by fasting and weeping and lamenting.

This is not a comfortable reading; this is not an easy time.

But in our brokenness, in our very sinfulness, in our mourning, our bodies laden with the pressures of the world around us, the obligations we carry within ourselves, we must turn and face the Lord.

Turn back to God and remove the excess that clouds our ability to see clearly a God who loves us.

Rend our hearts and not our garments, tear our hearts open to allow the healing touch that God provides.

Turn back to God!

The horn has blown, it has proclaimed aloud the danger we face and now another one blows, a calling to fast.

And this second horn calls the old, the young, the bridegroom from his chamber and the bride from her canopy.

This second horn blast calls on the people of Judah to fast and lament and prepare and to turn to God so that when the locusts come, when they are in the midst of bedlam and famine, they remember that God is with them in all of their misery and all of their pain.

When the locusts come, “Let not the people say, ‘Where is their God?’”

Repent and face God with clear eyes and a clear heart so that when our own storms come, our own infestations that would otherwise cloud our judgement like locust swarms blotting out the sun, we are able to know that we are loved fully.

Completely.

Without exception by a God who cares for us and chooses us to be a part of this world’s and each other’s story.

Repent so that we might prepare for the arrival of God once again on this earth and here amongst us.

Repent and then reorient.

Towards God, away from sin.

Towards God, away from those distractions that occupy our hearts.

Towards God. Full stop.

After Lent, after our season of repentance and reorientation, after Easter and our celebration of the Resurrection, we will still face hurt.

There will still be heartbreak and disappointment.

Our faith does not mean we get to escape all those things, good and bad, that make our human selves that which they are, imperfect, irrational, fragile.

And still, when we focus on God we are able to face such things with a clarity not given when we just trudge through a life unexamined.

No, ours is hope, for we are loved.

Ours is preparation for we wait for our living Lord.

I was talking about Maxie the happy dog a bit earlier.

Maxie didn’t need ashes, though she probably wouldn’t have minded rolling around in them until she looked like a black lab.

No, Maxie was a good dog.

And there is something about dogs.

You know, some people buy those security cameras for their home interiors.

After they install those cameras they see what’s really going on in the house when they are away.

If they own a dog, maybe a dog like Maxie, they can see whether or not they are being good dogs or bad dogs.

And sometimes they post the videos to the internet.

And you see the dog say goodbye to its owner, tail wagging, the whole nine.

The dog then watches the owner drive away through the window.

And once the dog knows the owner is gone, it goes straight to where it does not belong.

Maybe it heads for the owner’s nice soft bed and you see it fall fast asleep on its back, all four paws pointing to the sky.

Now, I’m pretty sure Maxie would never do this, he is a good dog after all, I am talking about other dogs.

But then something happens.

Without warning, without prompting, the dog stirs.

It awakens.

It gets off the bed and heads down the hall.

It moves closer to the front door until, wouldn’t you know it, the door opens and the owner arrives home as if the dog has been waiting there for the entire time.

And the dog knows when to leave the bed in time for the owner’s arrival because the owner has a scent.

That scent will fade throughout the day while the owner is away and the dog can measure that scent so that when it has dissipated to a certain point, the dog will know it’s time to head towards the door to greet its owner.

Friends, we repent, we fast for the sake of clarity.

We look for clarity so that we might see the world as it is and work to bring love and justice to all peoples.

And we seek clarity so that we might notice those subtle hints that it is time to move off of the bed and head down the hallway, maybe even inch towards the door for we know our Lord is to come.

And we know that we need to prepare.

Repent, so that we all might know the glory of the Lord.

Amen.