RELEASE IN US A PASSION

A Sermon for Ash Wednesday
February 21, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Joel 2:1-18
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all 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! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come. Fire devours in front of them, and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses, and like war-horses they charge. As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Before them peoples are in anguish, all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge, like soldiers they scale the wall. Each keeps to its own course, they do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one another, each keeps to its own track; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host! Numberless are those who obey his command. Truly the day of the Lord is great; terrible indeed—who can endure it?

Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. 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? Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep. Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. (New Revised Standard Version)

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Tonight is one of the most solemn church services of the year: Ash Wednesday—the night we get ashes smeared onto our heads with the sobering words: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Ashes in ancient times were used to show repentance. If you’d see a guy walking around so gray with ash that you couldn’t even recognize him, you would know that he was repenting for something. I picture it being something like the Peanuts character "Pig Pen" wafts dust wherever he walks. Repenters preparing for baptism would continue to dump ashes upon themselves without washing for the full 40 days. Can you imagine how they would have smelled by the end of Lent? It was a ritualized way of showing the foulness of their sin, of their desperate need for God’s redemption.

But repentance is not so outwardly demonstrated these days, except for Ash Wednesday and you’ll be glad to know that we don’t dump a whole bucket of ash on your head like in ancient times. We simply give you an ashen cross in the middle of your forehead.

So why is this necessary? I mean, have we really been that bad that we should have to be marked with such a dirty cross? I believe our Lenten repentance is necessary not simply for our own sins, but for the world’s collective sins.

Mercy Amba Oduyoye, a theologian from Ghana, writes about God being agitated. This agitation—described in many places throughout the bible—is born out of compassion. Most of all, Oduyoye says, God is agitated at suffering and injustice. And yet our world is so full of it. God must deeply agitated with us.

There is an Ash Wednesday prayer that goes like this:

O God,
you have made us for yourself,
and against your longing there is no defense.
Mark us with your love,
and release in us a passion for your justice in our disfigured world;
that we may turn from our guilt and face you, our heart's desire,
Amen. (Janet Morley, All Desires Known , Expanded Edition, Morehouse Publishing, 1994.)

Release in us a passion for your justice, it says! That is what we ask for tonight. For we have lost that passion. Bit by bit, we have gotten "compassion fatigue" and with all the horrors pronounced to us on the nightly news, we've become incapable of feeling sad about the state of the world. We are numb to the suffering. Hearing of senseless and violent deaths hardly even warrants our notice anymore. It become normal.

But it is not normal to God. It will never be normal to God who loves each one of us more deeply than we can fathom. Suffering and death and injustice are deplorable to God! Our Creator is saddened, upset and agitated that we have become so heartless, so resigned about all that is wrong.

And so the ancient church developed this special day, this day of ashes when the trumpet was blown to wake the world from sleep, to invite them to leave their numbness behind, to enter God’s agitation, to lament together and the misguided direction of the planet.

We continue this tradition today—sans the trumpet—because of it’s power to wake us from our slumber. Yes, it is an awakening to sorrow but this sorrow leads us to the profound realization that we are in need—desperately in need of God’s grace and mercy. This repentance day and this 40 day Lenten journey are not easy, comfortable or fun, but they open our hearts in a mysterious and amazing way to the saving love of Jesus. These days are meant to turn us—turn us away from the powers of darkness that have laid claim to us and our world and turn us again toward the light of Christ, the bright and morning star.

During these 40 days, we must return to God through spiritual disciplines such as prayer, fasting and almsgiving. In this Lenten journey, we will allow ourselves travel with Christ, through our agitation and tears, to the cross, the grave, and on to the Easter victory of new life. May this journey release in us a passion for God’s ways! Blessings to you on the journey. Amen.


Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

© Laura E. Gentry 2007