Joel 2:12-19 – Ash Wednesday 2014
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church, McHenry, IL
March 5, 2014
In the name of Jesus. Amen. “‘Yet, even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart,with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to Me. Turn back to Me. Come back to Me. Don’t come back to Me with some of you. Come back to Me with all of you.
Fast. Give up on what you have been seeking in the past. Curb your appetite. Cut back on what you consume. Beat your body into submission.
Weep for what you have done. Really weep. Real tears not the fake tears that you think fool other people. You don’t fool me. I know your sins haven’t bothered you. It doesn’t even bother you that it doesn’t bother you.
If you were caught, that would bother you. Then you’d mourn and cry for mercy. Rend your heart and not just your garments.
You’ve been caught. I’ve busted you. I see everything. I know what you have done. You’re finished. Your sin brings shame.
Your sins brings sufferings – thorns and thistles and sweat and tears. It brings condemnation from God. It brings punishment and death – temporal and eternal. Dust you are, dust you will return.
But the shame of your sins, the condemnation of them, the death of them, is not yours to bear anymore. The consequences of your sins is not for you to have hung around your neck and mocked on Facebook. The guilt of your sins isn’t for the devil to heckle you with any more.
“No, your shame is mine now,” says the Lord. “I wear it on my Body. I carry it in My flesh. My nakedness is exposed to the whole world on the Cross. Satan taunts me. The hatred of the world is heaped upon me. I am pummeled for your transgression. I am beaten for your iniquities.”
I am mocked. I am despised. I am hated. I am betrayed. I am abandoned by God. I am crucified for your sins. I receive God’s punishment. Your guilt is taken by Me.
I am your Lent. I am your fast. I am your alms. I am your devotions. I am your ashes. I am your dust. I am your sackcloth.
I am the consequences of your sins. I am your guilt. I am your shame. I am your death. My death is your death. My burial is your burial. My resurrection is your resurrection.
I have taken all that is you to redeem all that is you so that you would have all that I am for you.
Give up your sweets, meat, your chocolate, give more, pray more, read more of the Scriptures. More than that, repent of your sins.
And when your old Adam pops up and says how much you are doing for Me this Lent, drown your Old Adam in all his shame.
Don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Your Father, My Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
He will reward you with more of Me. More of My Forgiveness, life, and salvation. More of Me, less of you. That’s Lent.
That’s why there is a Lenten Fast: to curb you, you, you and to fix your eyes on what I do for you in My holy life and bitter sufferings and death.
You wear ashes today remembering Adam’s sin. Your sin. Dust you are. Dust you will return.
Then, rejoice! I have Adam’s sin now. You can’t have it back. I have Adam’s punishment. I have taken Adam’s death. His and yours.
I will wash your ashes off. I have already washed them off in the Baptismal font. You have been sprayed in the water flowing from my pierced side. You are clean. You are forgiven.
And death? Death is mine. You will see on Good Friday. I will make death my… servant. It will be a nap for you.
Then, Easter, when your Fasting is over, you will hear Me say to you that “My God is your God. My Father is your Father. My life is your life. My heaven is your heaven.”
“Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents from doing evil.”
Return to Me. Weep. Fast. Mourn. Be forgiven. Be absolved. Be washed and leave here joyfully this night filled with My Body and Blood. Leave here happy. For I am your shame. I am your Fast. I am your Lent. You are forgiven. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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