Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Ash Wednesday B
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN

It’s an interesting time in the world to be beginning our Lenten fast again. Or perhaps it is an appropriate time to start our forty day journey together. Things seem pretty bad don’t they? The economy is in shambles, Wall Street keeps tanking. I know some folks who have lost their jobs. Other peoples’ retirement savings, their hard-earned money seems to have disappeared into thin air. You know that I am a bit worried about our own finances here at the church.

We’re six years into the war in Iraq, with a slight glimmer of hope that we’ll leave sooner rather than later- only with another plan to send more troops into Afghanistan.

And this isn’t to mention the heartache in the rest of the world- continual conflict in the Holy Land, disease and famine, poverty and death.

And who do you suppose is responsible?Some might say that this is God’s punishment for our sin. And perhaps it’s simply the consequences of our actions over time- with or without theological implications.

It may not be unlike whatever turmoil it was that the prophet Joel and his people were facing. Joel “describes the land as falling under the shadow of an invasion of a "locust" army in chapter one, which devastated Judah's crops, leaving land, animals, and populace groaning in travail. But others suggest locust is better understood as a metaphor for a hostile human army.” [Rolf Jacobson]

Whichever it is- ecological or military devastation, it is not good.
And Joel sees God at work in this disaster. He clearly understands the events as God’s punishment- in fact, as a sign of the day of the Lord- the day of the Lord, originally understood as a day to look forward to, a day that would be anticipated with joy and gladness, now becomes a day to fear, a day of foreboding. If this is how we are punished by God, how much more will that great Day of Judgment be.

Joel proclaims: 1 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— 2 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.

If we think things are bad now- how much worse can they get?
How do we make sense of this? What are we to do? How do we respond to this?
First of all, I don’t think we can make sense of things. Life is really hard. In an agrarian society or in a free market trade economy such as ours- we have good days and we have bad days. And sometimes we have really bad days.

How do we escape the worst aspects of our humanity? It is greed and selfishness; it is the quest for power and disregard for other human life that has brought us to where we are. We are in bondage to sin and we cannot free ourselves.

It is a very appropriate time to be entering into our Lenten fast, to plead for God’s presence to come among us, to turn our hearts and our minds upon the one thing that we know can save us, as much as we might fear that we could be destroyed.

And this is the appropriate response. Joel doesn’t call for the people to get to work by re-tilling the fields and trying again. He doesn’t tell Judah to raise up an army to fight the adversary.

No, he calls the people to turn toward the one thing that he knows can save them. 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 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.

What is Joel’s answer? What is our answer in a time of uncertainty- in a world that knows only sin and brokenness.
Worship.
Gather together and turn toward God. Turn, repent, count on the only one who knows us and knows how to save us.

12 Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 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. 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?

Who knows?
We have come this day to acknowledge our dire need for God in our lives. We have come to be reminded that we are mere human begins. We are mere dust of the earth- only brought to life by the power and grace of God who molded us and breathed into us the breath of life. We are nothing without God.
And so my call to you during these forty days is to call you to worship. To call you to turn your hearts and your minds toward God, toward Jesus Christ his son, who walks with us these forty days, who walks with us as we all journey to the cross. The cross that crucifies the Son of God, the cross that crucifies us so that we would have eternal life. So that we would be freed from the worry, from the anxiety, from the terribleness of the world, so that we would know that the world does not have the final answer. Whether we say that the state of the world is the consequence of our actions or the judgment of God due to our broken and sinful humanity- there is only one answer.
Turn your heart, turn your mind. Focus upon the one- who should judge us because we are guilty- but instead pours out his life giving blood for you and for me.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful. Slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love.
Join in the fast, join in the worship, gather around the one who offers salvation. It is he alone who will save us from these terrible days, from our very selves.

Thanks be to God for his grace and mercy, for his faithfulness and steadfast love. AMEN