Ash Wednesday Homilies

Homily on Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

The land of Israel had been invaded by a plague of locusts that devoured all their food, and this seemed to be God’s punishment for Israel’s sins. God had withheld his blessing because of Israel’s failure to obey, but he promised he would restore them as long as they would mourn their sins and return to him.

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.
Tear your heart, and not your clothing” (Joel 2:12-13a).

When was the last time your heart was torn? I don’t mean torn between two options, as if your will were divided, and you couldn’t make up your mind. I mean: when was the last time your heart was broken for the concerns of God? When was the last time you really mourned your sins? All too often, perhaps, we may throw up a prayer of confession, begging for pardon, without taking the time to become truly sorry for how we have harmed others, God, and our very selves. We beg for mercy, but because we don’t mourn, we receive no comfort from God.

It’s no small thing to mourn our sins. In fact, it can be rather difficult sometimes. We become accustomed to our own reasons for behaving the way we do, accustomed to justifying ourselves in our own minds, accustomed to our own point of view. And we take no account for how God sees things. To catch the light of God’s perspective on sin, righteousness and judgment, that is the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, and that is real repentance. The Greek word for repentance is metanoia, and signifies primarily a change of mind and heart. It means that we have changed our mind about our actions, changed our mind about what the world really revolves around, and changed our mind about the meaning of life.

But we may ask what takes place first: mourning our sins, or returning to the LORD? I would say that the two cannot really be divided or placed in any particular order. The two seem to go hand in hand. On the one hand, how can we come to God if we are not really sorry for our sins, if we don’t really consider ourselves in need of his mercy and forgiveness? On the other hand, how can we sufficiently mourn our sins through God’s eyes without coming before his presence, so that what is hidden in the dark may be exposed by the light of his grace? I believe that God first invites us back to himself by confronting us with his presence, at which point we realize our folly, and may become truly sorry for our sins. Isaiah was first given a vision of God before he cried, “Woe is me.” The people of Israel needed the prophets to offer them God’s invitation to return while confronting them with their sins. And even the prodigal son remembered the blessings of his father’s house before he decided what words of repentance he would say to his father when he returned.

When I was younger, but too old for a spanking, my parents would punish me for misbehavior by sending me to my room. I hated being alone in my room, because I could always hear what great fun everyone else was having outside of my room. I wanted to be with them. But what my parents would ask me to do was to think about what I had done until I was sorry for misbehaving. Once that was accomplished, I could come back out, apologize and be restored to my family’s fellowship. I was confronted in my parent’s presence by the reality of my sin, sent away for punishment, excluded from the family’s blessing, until I was sorry for what I had done, and then I could return.

It is the same with the LORD. In his presence we are confronted with the reality of our sin, and we realize that this sin excludes us from his blessing. But he asks us to be sorry for our sin, that we may return and be restored to fellowship with him, and receive his blessings again.

Earlier we talked about the Greek word for repentance. Perhaps you have noticed that this is an Old Testament reading, which was originally written in Hebrew. Before we go asking ourselves what repentance means in Hebrew, we ought to ask ourselves who does the repenting in this passage – God does! In verse 13, it says that God relents from sending calamity. In the Old Testament, the same word that is translated ‘repent’ for humans, is commonly translated ‘relent’ when referring to God. Here this verb most likely means “to be sorry, be moved to pity, to have compassion.” The word is also in verse 14 translated as “have pity.”

We may ask what would lead God to relent from sending calamity. In verses 12 and 13, God asks his people to turn back to him with fasting, weeping and mourning. In verse 14, he says that he himself will then turn back and have pity. The word used in verse 13 for the people’s turning back, is the same word used in verse 14 for God’s turning to have pity on them. So we find that the answer is that we must sincerely mourn our sins and turn back to God. At such an action, God himself will repent and not judge us.

The Lord’s brother James gave the same exhortation to a people who had become a little too friendly with the ways of the world, and despised God:

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:7-10).

One more thing: this returning to God cannot be half-hearted. No. “Return to me with all your heart,” says the Lord. We cannot leave some part of our lives behind, or hold back part of our hearts from God. We must give ourselves completely to him. We must offer ourselves, and all our mess, to God, and ask him to transform us.

The season of Lent is here. Lent is typically a season of repentance and self-denial. It is an opportunity to return to God with all our hearts, and to repent of those sins which we may have allowed into our lives either willfully, thoughtlessly, or through neglect. Many people fast during the season of Lent. But it was the teaching of St. John Chrysostom that it is more important to fast from sin than from foods. I want to encourage you during this season of Lent, to keep a record of the sins you may commit habitually or occasionally, be they willful sins or sins of infirmity. If you only want to focus on one, that’s fine too. Let’s take a few moments to mourn our sins in the light of God’s presence. Let’s invite the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts; pray with me: “Search me O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23-24).

Hear the word of God to all who truly turn to him through Jesus Christ:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

“This is a true saying, and worthy to be received by all, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

“If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy has promised forgiveness of sins to all who truly turn to him, have mercy upon us, pardon and deliver us from all our sins, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Through Christ our Lord, amen.

I’m going to ask you, when you go home, when you have time, to write down the sins in your life you want to cease from. Keep this list with you, and pray over it daily, asking God to give you continual progress and victory over these sins. These coming 40 days of Lent mirror Jesus’ 40 days in the desert, when he took up fasting as a weapon against the evil one, and trusted in the word of God instead. Hear what confidence we have in Christ:

“Christ had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:17-18).

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

“Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).

When you are tempted, call upon the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

Homily on Matthew 6:1-21

Now we heard from the prophet Joel that God invites his people to return to him with all their heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. We have just mourned our sins, and perhaps we will mourn them again during Lent. But we have not yet fasted, and to return to God with all the heart must of necessity include private prayer. Jesus has something to say to us today concerning the practice of whole-hearted devotion.

As I said before, it was the teaching of the church fathers that Jesus took up fasting as a weapon against the temptation of Satan. And in our passage from the prophet Joel, the Lord commended fasting as a sign of repentance and returning to God. The three traditional Lenten disciplines according to the church, are fasting, prayer and almsgiving. It is universally commended to all the faithful that during this season in particular, we increase our participation in these three practices. And it is no accident, for these are the very three practices of devotion that Jesus comments on in his Sermon on the Mount. We may view these practices as the fruit of our repentance. We will find that Jesus recommends to us a particular manner of devotion, that has itself wholly focused on God, and avoids the notice of others.

Some biblical scholars believe that the Pharisees actually put dirt or ashes on their faces when they fasted, and that that is what Jesus was referring to when he used the words “they disfigure their faces.” Whatever implications this may have for how long we leave our ashes on our head tonight, we can be certain that the intent of the hypocrites was to show other people that they were fasting. They wanted to be seen as pious. But Jesus recommends we wash our face, get all cleaned up, nice and shiny, so that our fasting will not be obvious. The Orthodox call Lent the ‘fast of brightness’ because we are not to look somber, but put on a smile because we are returning to the LORD and embracing his forgiveness by forgiving others. So when you fast this Lent, whatever you choose to abstain from, don’t be sad about it, or go about moaning that you have to fast from this or that, but be joyous and don’t tell anyone that you are fasting or what you are fasting from. I think it can be very easy to justify telling others that we are fasting under the mask of “accountability,” when really we just want other people to know the sorrow that we shouldn’t have in the first place. When you fast in secret, unto God himself alone, he will reward you.

Prayer is the sister of fasting. It is said by the church fathers that fasting without prayer, without forgiveness, and without mutual love, is the fast of demons. For the demons do not eat, but neither do they pray, forgive or love. Listen: it would be better to pray more and not to fast, than to fast and not pray.

While I doubt many of us are tempted to pray on the street corner to look pious, we may still need the exhortation of Jesus: “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to you Father who is unseen.” How much time do we take for private prayer? Do we have any inkling of a sense that we could benefit from more of it, or desperately need more of it for the good of our soul? If so, let us increase the time we spend in our prayer closet.

A close friend of mine reminded me that there is a spiritual interpretation of this verse, in which our closet is our heart, and our body is the door. We are not always able to go to our prayer closet. So, when you pray in public places, try to disguise the fact that you are praying, if at all possible. For this kind of secrecy pleases God. For you only have his interest in mind.

And let us be absolutely sure we are forgiving others because of the forgiveness we have received from God. For Jesus says that if we do not forgive other people their sins, God will not forgive ours! Lent is not only a time for us to return to God for forgiveness, but a time to return the favor of God to those who have wronged us.

Finally, let us increase our giving to the poor – the giving of our time, money, resources, and selves. Let almsgiving include works of mercy, Matthew 25 type stuff. But once again, don’t go around telling everybody what you’re doing, because then you will lose your reward from God. The poor need our help because they are our equals. They are humans just like we are, and they deserve to be treated as such, with dignity. To care for them is to remind them that they still matter to us as members of the human family, and that they do not deserve to be forgotten and left to suffer alone. Remember, Proverbs 19:17 says, “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.”

Jesus said of the hypocrites, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Mark 7:6). And so Jesus has provided for us a guard against such an error. He has instructed us to be devoted to him secretly, to make sure that we do not seek the honor of humans, but only the glory of God.

The prophet Joel exhorted God’s people:

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart,

with fasting and weeping and mourning” (Joel 2:12).

Today we have mourned our sins, and made an attempt to give ourselves back to God. And Jesus has shown us the perfect way of secrecy in our devotion, how we may keep ourselves whole-heartedly focused on God alone, not seeking the notice of anyone else. Having returned to the Lord, let us ask for his help to overcome temptation, and fast from sin. Let us increase our practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, and let us do them in harmony with one another, for if we do, this season of Lent will be a sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.