Sermon for Ash Wednesday

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“I Almost Got Away with It”

Text: Joel 2:12-19; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Some time ago I was flipping through TV channels, looking for something to watch one night . . . I know, how old fashioned of me, right? Anyway, I came across a show called I Almost Got Away with It. I watched a little, about this person who committed some crime and thought they were home free - that they got away with it. Until they didn’t. Until something - some tip or some little piece of evidence put the police onto them.

Ash Wednesday is our yearly reminder, you didn’t get away with it - whatever “it” is. Whatever sin you did, whatever sin you continue to do, God sees and knows. Whether you are, as the prophet Joel said, an elder, a child, even a nursing infant; a bride or bridegroom, a priest, or any other member of the congregation - this day, this solemn assembly, is for you. Whether you have an ugly black cross on your forehead or not, you didn’t get away with it. Not with God.

With men, maybe so. You can pull the wool over the eyes of our neighbors. That’s what Jesus’ words we heard from Matthew tonight were saying. You can look good by being a real philanthropist - giving lots of money to the church, or charity, or investing yourself in worthy causes. You can look good by going to church every week or more than once a week, by praying lots. You can look good even by looking bad! By fasting and looking gloomy. So that people think: there goes a good person, there is a righteous person, there is a person who really cares.

Ash Wednesday is our reminder: you can’t pull the wool over God’s eyes. Your Father in heaven sees what is secret. Both the good that nobody else sees, and the bad which nobody else sees. Not just what you show other people, but what you don’t. And while you know your own sins better than anyone else, and how sinful you are, God knows them even more than you. You are more sinful than even you know. You didn’t get away with it. Even the tiniest, itty-bittiest “it.”

And so today is a day of repentance. Ash Wednesday is for repenting what Thanksgiving is for giving thanks. Not that those are the only days we do those things; we should do them every day. But we don’t always, and these special days help to focus us a bit more intently. To recognize all the reasons we have to give thanks, or to recognize all the reasons we have to repent. All the reasons we have to come clean and seek the cleansing that we need - not in what we do, but in what our Lord does for us. To bend the knees not of our bodies but of our hearts and say: Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

And He does. Which is why Ash Wednesday is a serious and solemn day, but not a gloomy and somber day. Because we do not repent as those who have no hope; who throw themselves on the mercy of the court and don’t know what the court is going to do. We know. We repent because of the hope that is in us. We repent because we know what our God did for us - He went to the cross to die for those sins. All of them. The ones we know and the ones we don’t. Because He knows them all. Which is why it is good that we don’t get away with anything - the one who knows every sin died for every sin. None too little, none too great, none left off Jesus on the cross. Every single one there on Him. Or as St. Paul put it: He who knew no sin became your sin, so that in Him you might become righteous - not with righteousness that you do, not with your self-improvement - but with the righteousness of God. 

And so St. Paul exhorts us: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Because God is already reconciled to you! The sin that separated you from God has already been atoned for by Jesus. He has already taken it away and holds out to you the forgiveness you need; the forgiveness we receive by faith in Him and His cross. It is not mercy that is a maybe, but mercy which is a sure thing. The gift of God for you.

So maybe think of repentance this way . . . Literally, the word repentance means to change your mind. So to repent is to change your mind about your sin. To let go of it. That you don’t want it anymore. For the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Word of God, has revealed to you a better thing to hold onto than your sin: your Christ, your Jesus. And He has given you the faith to believe Him, to believe in Him, and the ability to cling to Him. None of that came from you; could come from you. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in you. Changing your mind, changing your heart. 

So that ugly black cross some of you have on your foreheads isn’t really what Ash Wednesday is about. That’s just a part. But after that is the Absolution, the pronouncement that all your ugly, filthy, death-causing sins are forgiven. Done. And that is followed by the Gospel of all that Jesus has done for you to accomplish that for you. And that is followed by Jesus giving you His Body and Blood to feed and strengthen you in this new life of faith and the Spirit. And you know that the only reason that you can let go of your sins and cling to Christ is because first Christ grabbed hold of your sins and clung to the cross for you. The only reason you can cling to Him is because He first clung to you. And still is.

Which makes Ash Wednesday a joyful day, too. The joy of Christ and His gifts, the joy of His promises fulfilled for you. And though it come but once a year, like Thanksgiving, we pray that like Thanksgiving, the focus of this day become a life-long and daily reality for us. That everyday we repent. That everyday we let go of our sins and cling to Jesus. That everyday we find our joy in Christ alone. No one may see you doing that. But your Father does. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Reward you in your life now, and with life forever.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.