Matthew 6:1-6,
16-21; 2 Peter 1:2-11; Joel 2:12-19
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
I know that everything about Ash
Wednesday, and everything about Lent in general, is offensive to you. The
overly intense focus upon your own sin is offensive to you. Your submission to being
marked with ashes upon your forehead and confessing your sins before a man you
know to be a sinner himself is offensive to you. The absurdity of coming to
this altar to have that same sinful man lay his sinful hands upon your sinful head
and pronounce you forgiven – I know very well how this offends you, for it
offends me as well. Therefore, permit me to put word to your thoughts: “We
confess our sins each and every Sunday in the Divine Service. Why must we do it
again now, and with such somberness and severe words and preaching?” “And,
besides, only God can forgive sins, right? And, Jesus has already forgiven my
sins on the cross, right? Then, why do you make it sound like I’m not forgiven,
like I need to confess again and again and again? Are you saying that I’m not
already forgiven?” “And, these ashes, this ceremony, and all this making us
feel guilty and bad, isn’t this all just Roman Catholic mumbo-jumbo that Luther
got rid of at the Reformation?” Yeah, I know, everything about Ash Wednesday, everything
about Lent in general, is offensive to you. It’s offensive to me as well. But,
that is precisely why you need it. And, that is precisely why I need it. We
need to repent from our pride and from our self-righteousness that are so
easily offended. They need to be
offended. In fact, they need to die.
Therefore, this Ash Wednesday and this Lent, your Lord invites you to die – to
die with Him – to die to your pride and to your self-righteousness, to be
broken and to be humbled, and to repent, that He might raise you up again, and
daily, to new and everlasting life in Him, and in Him alone.
So, are you going to give something up
for Lent? Are you going to make a sacrifice of some kind or another? Are you
going to give up chocolate or wine? Good for you! You could stand to lose a
little weight! Or, are you going to give up swearing and cursing? That would be
good! Maybe, give up Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media? I’ll
bet you find you’re a lot less angry and have more time to get things done.
Those are all great things to give up. They’re likely to make you a happier,
healthier person, no doubt. But, don’t think that God is going to be impressed.
Don’t think that giving up stuff is going to make you holier or somehow more
worthy in the eyes of the LORD. God doesn’t need you give up anything at all.
And, frankly, if there were one thing God would like you to give up, it’s the
one thing that you simply cannot ever give up – sin, you simply cannot give up sin,
no matter how hard you try. So, my advice to you is this: Stop trying to do
stuff. Stop trying to give up stuff. Stop trying to do, and practice getting better at receiving.
“Now you’ve gone off the deep end,
Pastor! Are you suggesting that I should stop trying not to sin?” No, not
exactly. Of course you should, you must, continue to resist the temptation to
sin. But, how do you think you’re going to do that? By your extraordinary will
power? How has that worked for you in the past? Still keeping those resolutions
you made only forty days ago? You can only resist the temptation to sin by
keeping the oil of faith in the lamp of your soul full and replenished. You
cannot buy this oil, you cannot earn it, and you don’t even deserve it, but you
receive it as a gift of God’s grace through His means of grace, His proclaimed
Word and His visible Word in Baptism, Absolution, and Supper. Giving something
up for Lent – the Biblical Word is fasting – may be, as Luther teaches in the
Small Catechism, “good outward bodily preparation,” but it is not a meritorious
work. In fact, the purpose of fasting is that you might become hungry and
thirsty, weak, and dependent so that you might all the better receive the
spiritual food and drink your LORD mercifully pours out for you to strengthen
your faith, to preserve, keep, and sustain you through every trial, tribulation,
and temptation you face.
Today your LORD invites you to return to
Him, with the promise that “He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love.” Your LORD invites you to return to Him “with all
your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” That is to say,
return to Him in repentance. Return to Him in humility. Return to Him dead to
yourself that He might revive you and cause you to live again in Him. “Who
knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him?”
Who knows? You see, it doesn’t matter. You’re not returning to Him in order to
get something out of Him, are you? No! But, return to Him because He is your
God, your Creator, your life and your being. If you’ve come for any other
reason, then repeat the first part again about fasting, weeping, and mourning
until it sinks in. Yet, indeed, your LORD does leave a blessing behind, a grain
offering in the holy body of Jesus, and a wine offering in His precious blood
that you may eat and drink and live.
Moreover, you do not return to the LORD
merely as His subject, but your return to the LORD as His Son. “His divine power
has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by
which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the
world because of sinful desire.” Did you catch that? Partakers – your God wants
you to be a partaker of His divine nature. To be a partaker is to be a
recipient of His gifts. And, this is not a one-time thing, but an ongoing,
every-day-of-your-life kind of thing.
However, being a partaker of the LORD
and of His divine nature – well, that means something. That means that you are
not your own, but you are the LORD’s. That means that you are part of both the
spiritual and fleshly body the LORD has taken on in His Son Jesus Christ. That
means that you are, as St. Paul teaches, members of His Body, and that you are,
as Jesus’ teaches, branches of His True Vine. That means that you will bear
fruit – His fruit. Thus, St. Peter exhorts you today to “make every effort to
supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge
with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with
godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with
love.” What are these but the fruits of the Spirit expressed in different ways?
What they share in common is that they are qualities that come from humility,
selflessness, sacrifice, and reception of the LORD’s gifts. There is no doing here, just as there is no giving anything up, but, instead, there
is being. Thus, what is described is
what your life will be like and look like when you are a partaker of the
LORD’s divine nature. The children's apples will not fall far from their Father's tree.
But, St. Peter continues saying, “If
these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being
ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Again, I
ask you, how does this happen? How do you increase your fruitfulness? Well, how
does a branch from an apple tree or a grape vine produce more and better fruit?
It’s not by the efforts of the branch, is it? No. But, it is by drawing life
and sustenance from the tree and the vine. Thus, St. Peter exhorts you to “make
your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will ever
fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into
the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” What St. Peter is
saying is that your calling and election are already accomplished in Jesus
Christ. However, your certainty and comfort in this comes only from remaining
in the LORD’s gifts and in bearing His fruit. Thus, if you remove yourself from
the LORD’s gifts in Word and Sacrament and cease bearing the fruits of His
Spirit and faith, you will stumble and fall. Whether you will be raised up
again to faith and fruitfulness God alone knows. Therefore, take care and be
diligent in receiving the LORD’s gifts and bear His fruit.
But, again, my advice to you is to stop
trying to do stuff, even to give up stuff. Stop trying to do altogether, but this Lent, practice
that you may get better at receiving
and being. Indeed, a huge part of Ash
Wednesday and of Lent is recognizing and confessing your inability to stop
sinning and to save yourself, or even to work together with God towards your
salvation, but rather to throw yourself completely upon the mercy of God poured
out for you in His Son Jesus Christ. This is why Ash Wednesday and Lent are so
exceedingly offensive to your fallen flesh and reason. You want to justify
yourself, always. But, the truth is that your justification always and only comes from outside of you. That is why your Lord exhorts you
not to lay up treasures for yourself on earth, but in heaven, with the promise
that “where your treasure is, there you heart will be also.” Those heavenly
treasures are here for you today, right now: “Behold, I am sending to you
grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied.” No, these things are not
impressive to the world and to your fleshly reason and desires. They are not
earthly, but heavenly, treasures. But, they are real, effective, and lasting
treasures nonetheless. These treasures of Word and Water, Bread, and Wine
bestow the forgiveness of sins, preserve you as partakers of the divine nature
of the LORD, and make you fruitful, comforting you and strengthening you that
you might make your calling and election sure in practicing them. “Return to
the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love.” He has relented over your disaster, and He
desires to bless you and to make of you a rich blessing to others. Stop doing, and practice receiving His gifts and being
His gift.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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