Ash
Wednesday is usually the one and only time of year we read from the book of the
prophet Joel. It’s certainly the only time it shows up in the
Lectionary. So I think it’s important
that we understand some of the background of it, so we see how it can apply to
our lives today.
Our best guess is that Joel lived in about the fourth or fifth
century B. C., although some would say he lived earlier. We don’t know anything
about Joel—where he lived, what he did, any of that. The only thing we know about him is that his
father’s name was Pethuel, which we know because the first verse of the book
says, “The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
This was a fairly quiet time in the history
of the Jewish people. They were not free—they were a small part of the
huge Persian Empire. But they were not really enslaved, either. Things are going kind of the way they go in
our lives a lot of the time—not real great, but not real terrible,
either. Life’s not what you wish it was, but it’s not that bad. Could be worse.
And if we think about what we read today, we
can see why it’s used on Ash Wednesday. Because what Joel says is, you
know how you’re thinking things could be worse?
Well, they’re going to be worse. They’re going to be a lot
worse. Joel says the day of the Lord is
coming.
Now, maybe you’re thinking, what’s so bad
about that? After all, we’re Christians.
We talk about Jesus coming again all the time. We think of it as a
good thing. The apostle John, at the end
of the book of Revelation, prays, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Why does
Joel say the day of the Lord is going to make us worse?
Well, remember, we’re talking Old Testament
here. This all happened before Jesus came. Joel, and the people he was talking to, were
still operating under the system of Jewish law. The way to heaven, in Old
Testament times, was to follow the law.
And Jewish law was not being followed very well. So the day of the Lord was not necessarily
going to be a good thing for them.
And also, the idea of who God was, was
different then. Not that God has changed, but the attributes of God that
were emphasized are different. We tend to emphasize God’s love, and God’s
forgiveness and mercy, and those certainly are attributes of God. But in
Old Testament times, they emphasized that God’s power and God’s righteous and
holiness, and those are attributes of God, too. And they are still very
important attributes of God. We need to
recognize them and deal with them, even if they make us uncomfortable
sometimes.
And the thing is, when we emphasize God’s
righteousness and God’s holiness, then we realize just how far short you and I
fall from God’s standards. And when we think about how far short we fall
from who God wants us to be, and then we think about how powerful God is, and
how much God can punish us for our failures if God chooses to do that, well,
then the day of the Lord is not going to be a very good thing for people who
are not following Jewish law.
That’s why Joel calls for the people to turn
back to God. The churchy word we use for that is “repentance”. Now repentance includes asking for
forgiveness, but it’s more than that. For one thing, it includes doing
things to show how sorry you are.
Remember, we read “declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly”.
“Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and
the altar.” Those things were about
demonstrating, in a real, physical, public way, how sorry you were. Now,
of course, it needed to be done sincerely.
Repentance is not just about saying “I’m sorry”, it’s about making a
sincere effort to change our lives and turn them over to God. The thing is, though, that repentance, as it
was done in Old Testament times, was not a private matter. It was to be
done in a very public way.
And while you did this, you pleaded with
God. When you repented, you asked for forgiveness, but you did not just
say, “God forgive me.” You begged for mercy. You said, please, God spare us. Have mercy on us. There was no thought that God’s forgiveness
was automatic. You had no assurance or even necessarily any expectation
that God would forgive you. You begged,
you pleaded, and you hoped that God would forgive you. As Joel says, if
you do all this stuff, “Who knows? [God]
may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing.” God may not do that,
too, but maybe God will. Who knows? All we can do is ask and see what happens.
So, does any of this apply now? After
all, we don’t feel obligated to follow Jewish law. Our salvation comes
from our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. So does all this talk about
repentance and begging for mercy apply to us today?
Well, for one thing, God is still
holy. And God is still righteous.
And God is still powerful. Again, we may not emphasize those
qualities of God today, but they’re still true, and we still need to recognize
them and deal with them. And it’s also still true that you and I fall far
short from God’s standards.
But we say, well, hey, I’m not
perfect. God knows I’m not perfect.
God cannot expect me to be perfect. God loves me despite the fact
that I’m not perfect. Like we just said,
I’m saved by faith in Jesus Christ, not by being perfect. So why do I
have to worry about all this stuff?
Well, God does know that we’re not
perfect. I suspect God knows that a lot better than we know it. And
God does love us despite the fact that we’re not perfect.
But we call ourselves Christians. We
call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ. We say that we do have faith in
Jesus Christ. If we mean that, then
we’re holding ourselves up to a standard. If we say we follow Jesus
Christ, then we’re saying we’re going to do what Jesus told us to do. That includes things like loving our
enemies. That includes things like praying for people who persecute
us. That includes things like forgiving
people over and over and over again.
That includes turning the other cheek when someone strikes us. It
includes a whole lot of stuff that does not come naturally to us, stuff that
you and I really do not want to do.
When we think of all that, we realize that
when we say, “I’m not perfect”, we’ve never made a truer statement in our
lives. I mean, let’s face it, you and I are not even in the same zip code
as perfect. From where you and I are,
perfect would be a very long distance call, and we may not even be able to get
a signal.
When we think about that, it makes us
realize just how much Joel’s call for us to turn back to God, for us to
“repent”, for us to ask for God’s forgiveness and mercy, still applies.
You and I need to repent and ask for forgiveness at least as much as the people
in Joel’s time did.
Now, does that mean that you and I need to
make a big public show of our repentance? No, I don’t think so. In fact, that’s what Jesus warns us against
in our reading from Matthew 6--making a big show of how holy we are.
But we do need to be sincere about it.
And I think we do need to take some time with it. I don’t think a
perfunctory “God forgive me” is what God is looking for. We may not need
to make a public show, but I think we do need to do something to show, to
ourselves as much as to God, that we really are serious about this. We
need to show that we’re not just saying the words, that we truly are sorry for
what we’ve done. We need to fully
acknowledge our sins and truly turn back to God.
And I also think we need to understand that
God does not owe it to us to show us mercy. Now, don’t get me wrong. I do believe that every time we go to God and
sincerely and seriously ask God for forgiveness, God will give it to us.
But we need to understand that God’s forgiveness is a gift that God gives to
us. God is not required to forgive us.
That’s why
verse fourteen of our reading from Joel is so important. Joel does not
promise that God will forgive them and bless the people of Israel if they
repent. Joel does not promise that God will do anything. All he says is “Who knows?” Maybe God will forgive us and bless us.
Maybe God won’t. Who knows?
The reason
we’re supposed to repent, the reason we’re supposed to ask God for forgiveness,
the reason we’re supposed to give our lives to God, is because God deserves
that. We would have nothing without God.
None of us would even be here without God. God deserves our praise, our thanks, and our
love. God deserves everything about us.
God knows whether we’re serious about
this. God knows whether we’re truly sorry for what we’ve done. God
knows whether we’re going to do something change, or whether we’re just saying
the words. We need to ask God for forgiveness humbly, recognizing who we
are and how far short we fall. We need
to recognize God’s holiness and righteousness and power, while at the same time
asking God to apply God’s love and mercy and forgiveness to us.
In Joel’s time, when the people of Israel
repented, God forgave them and blessed them. If we sincerely and humbly
and seriously repent and ask God for forgiveness, who knows? Maybe God will forgive us and bless us.
And in fact, I think God will, but not because God owes it to us. But because we do worship an all-loving,
all-caring, all-merciful, all-compassionate God.
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