Called to a different life
Commentary
The summer of 2000 was a devastating one for the western United States. Wildfires broke out in almost every state. Montana was declared a disaster area. The landscape was changed and will be different now and for generations to come. Grey smoke covered the horizon and ashes covered the earth.
We enter the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, when ashes symbolically cover our lives with the sign of a sooty cross made upon our forehead. Lent, a forty-day preparation for Easter, helps us reflect upon our need for repentance and discipline in our lives. Any one day of the year we live our lives will give us grist to chew on for forty days, as we consider our relationship with God and with other human beings. Any one of us has enough sin in us to go around for everyone, amplifying the need for all of us to take seriously this opportunity to examine ourselves in light of the Law and the Gospel. Whatever we personally discover can be carried sorrowfully, yet expectantly, to the Cross of Christ and offered for burial with him, so that a new self can rise with him and live before him daily in a manner worthy of the Gospel.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Whose son are you? Joel was son of Pethuel. As such he could have been spokesperson of the family heritage or the family vision of itself for the future. Instead, Joel, gifted with words, surrendered his mouthpiece to Yahweh. Joel's name means "Yahweh is God." Joel became the spokesperson for God. He reminded the people of their heritage with Yahweh and of Yahweh's vision for his people. The people of Judah were his audience. The context was a locust plague which was described as God's army (2:11), bringing judgment upon the people for their sins. This plague was also a presage of other armies to come, notably the Assyrian hordes that would wreak their own blackness upon the mountains of both northern and southern kingdoms. Then, would come the invasion of the Babylonian army, like waves of devastation one after another, like locusts -- the cutting, swarming, hopping, destroying locusts (1:4).
At the heart of Joel's message of judgment, however, is the invitation to repent. Turn from sin and turn toward God, who, though capable of judging his people, "is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (2:13). The Lutheran Book of Worship (ELCA) uses these very words in its liturgy during Lent as a musical response of the people to the reading of Scripture. The call to repentance is expressed with such exhortations as "awake ... lament ... be confounded ... call ... gather ... cry" (1:5-14). Whereas some prophets use the expression, "Thus says the Lord," to garner attention, Joel scripts the blowing of the trumpet (2:1, 15). The people are to give heed to what is happening. The first blasting of the trumpet makes the people mindful that the day of judgment is coming. As much as one would like any day of reckoning to be far off, God's day "is near" (2:1). The second blasting of the trumpet draws the people's regard to the discipline of fasting. This can be an outward sign of an inner transformation of heart, as one comes before the heavenly judge with the paltriness of one's earthly efforts.
When Joel speaks of the coming day of the Lord as near, the question can be asked if there is time to repent. In one sense, the answer is no. The judgment is coming. It has been unleashed. That cannot be changed at this level of engagement. In another sense, the answer is yes! There is always time for repentance because this is the purpose for the judgment. The judgment is, in this regard, open-ended. It is not final. With the appropriate response of repentance -- which is the purpose of the judgment in the first place -- there are opened up all sorts of possibilities for God to work out the divine plan of salvation.
The image of rending the heart and not garments (2:13) defines the experience of repentance as necessarily an inner transformation, not necessarily an occasion for outward show. True change of behavior originates in a change of attitude, which comes from the heart. It is like when Jesus said that the good tree produces the good fruit, not the other way around (Matthew 7:17-20).
It is with the prophets' sense of judgment and their uncanny way of reaffirming the goodness of God in the midst of all evil that we enter into the Lenten season once again. We can accept the ashes on our heads as a temporal sign of our sorrow for sin and the acceptance of the judgment that must fall upon us as outcasts from Eden.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
The Corinthian church was a divided church. There were severe differences within the Christian community regarding worship practices (e.g., tongues), personal behavior (e.g., sexuality), public witness (e.g., lawsuits), and leadership (e.g., jealous sectarianism). That's a lot of conflict happening in just one place! Paul attempts to address these problems in his correspondence. It is doubtful that he was very successful in improving the situation in Corinth. He ends his first letter with a plea for the Lord to come (1 Corinthians 16:22)! That's like saying, "Let's get the boss down here on the line to square this mess!" His second letter ends with a straightforward plea/command, "Mend your ways, heed my appeal ..." (2 Corinthians 13:11). If Paul could have written a later letter in the spirit of Philippians, we may be able to see Corinth in a better light; but, no such letter seems to be forth-coming. Perhaps it is the stark contrast between Corinth and Philippi that enables Paul to express his heart so tenderly to his Christian friends to the north.
Arguably, the two key words in this text are kataggassw (reconcile) and diakonoz (servant, as in waiting on tables). The plea for reconciliation is his main thrust and part of his plea is based upon the personal example of his servanthood. (The portion of the letter prior to this lectionary text bases his plea for reconciliation on theological ground: the Corinthians are to be newly shaped by Christ in them and they are to recognize Paul's reconciling mediation as modeled after Christ's reconciling work between God and humanity.)
Paul demonstrates great patience and perseverance in his attempts to bring the Corinthian congregation to a state of reconciliation. He could have considered them as a whole as anathema (anaqema, accursed, 1 Corinthians 16:22), for which he opens the door at the end of his first letter. But, he draws up short on that and continues to appeal to them, that they may yet have opportunity to "clean up their act."
The theological motivation for this to happen is what Christ did for us. In verse 21, Paul describes what Martin Luther would call "The Happy Exchange." Christ Jesus, the one who was sinless, takes our sin (rebellion against God manifested through contention with one another) upon himself and imputes to us his righteousness with which we can stand before God forgiven and accepted. This experience and the remembrance of it should provide a kind of template on which we can perceive our human relationships and model them in like manner. Paul uses the image of imitation in his correspondence with Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1) and also with other congregations (Ephesians 5:1 and Philippians 3:17). The imitation is ultimately of God's love as demonstrated through Jesus. Much later, The Imitation of Christ (associated with Thomas a Kempis, 1380-1471, and the Brethren of the Common Life) would be written, describing how the Christian life is an imitation of Christ, helping Christians of many other congregations for centuries thereafter to come to terms with this noble calling of walking in the steps of Jesus.
When juxtaposed to Joel, one might say that the Day of the Lord is the Day of Jesus, thereby defining the coming judgment and the present mercy experienced in the work of Christ upon the cross. The locust plague has become the Lord's pain, whereby humanity's sin is placed on him, so that salvation can be given to us. We would accept the grace of God in vain, were we not to let it shape our lives and pervade every pore of our being and direct us in all our relationships.
Paul adds another weight to his appeal, hoping to tip the balance in favor of more appropriate behavior from the Corinthians. He lifts up his own servanthood. It is important to note that he does not use the word douloz (slave), which has sometimes been translated "servant" (e.g., Romans 1:1 and Galatians 1:10, RSV). When Paul describes his relationship with Christ, he uses that term to describe his abject submission to Jesus' ownership of his heart and soul. In describing his relationship with fellow Christians, specifically the Corinthians, he uses the image of waiting on tables. He is offering all that he has gone through as evidence that his ministry is authentic and he is worthy of being listened to when it comes to the practical matters of getting along and of witnessing faithfully to the gospel. He does not hold anything back. Amazingly, this does not come across as pompous boasting, but as a humble ledger, crediting Paul the walk to back up his talk.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Jesus is on a roll! Unfortunately for his hearers, he is rolling right over them. He is striking right to the misshapened heart of piety that misses the mark of purity. Centuries later, Saint Augustine would correctly observe that sin is basically turning in upon oneself. Here, Jesus applies the practical consequences of this when it comes to alms, prayer, and fasting.
In three tightly-packed paragraphs, Jesus treats three primary examples of the spiritually disciplined life. In keeping with the prophetic tradition, as well as being consistent with other religious traditions at their best, Jesus identifies alms-giving, prayer, and fasting as worthy practices of piety. There is a delightful rhythm to these passages, which any preacher or public speaker should note well.
What is interesting to note about the content of Jesus' words is that he does not describe the what of piety, but the how of it. That is to say, Jesus does not prescribe how much alms one is to give, what exact words one should pray (Matthew's redaction in 6:7-15 needs to be taken into account here), or even what constitutes a fast. Jesus focuses on the heart of the pious one. What is motivating the righteous activity? Is it truly and purely an action offered for God and as an expression of one's devotion? Or is it performed for the public, that others may see just how religious and virtuous one is? For these acts to have spiritual impact, they are to be directed toward God.
With a twist of sarcasm, Jesus says that those who perform their religious activities so that others may see them and laud the doer have already received their reward. What is that reward? Human acclaim! We all know what that is worth. Hollywood speaks of everyone's desire to have fifteen minutes of fame. The world is willing to give that; but, then, it moves on quickly to other, more novel entertainments. Shakespeare described fame well, when he wrote of every person being an actor, "that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more" (Macbeth, Act V, scene v). In light of this, is it any wonder that Hamlet asks the existential question -- "to be or not to be" (Hamlet, Act III, scene i)?
How much more satisfying to have the heavenly Father's eternal acclaim, his everlasting valuation! The pure in heart will seek only the joy of their Maker as they give alms, pray, and fast. This can best be assured "in secret," where there is not the distraction of a public parade.
This is not to discredit totally temporal acknowledgment. As earth-bound creatures, living in community, we need notable, public examples to emulate. This comes by hearing and seeing in the community square. What Jesus is driving at is the motivating factor and the reward sought. He wants his followers to realize that the true reward of pious activity is the deep, inner growth that develops in the relationship between the earthly believing child and the heavenly rewarding Father.
Application
We may have lost the trumpet as the public herald of tidings, but we still have our church bells. Would that they could be like Edgar Allen Poe describes them in "The Bells": "Brazen bells! What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells! ... How they clang, and clash, and roar!" But, alas, they are used only for chiming the hour or playing melodious hymns. The siren perched over City Hall has replaced the church bells in sounding alarm to the community -- and, then, only with secular concern for safety of life and limb, not of soul. It remains for the trumpet voice of the preacher to ring with the truth of God's judgment and mercy for the world's soul in need of repentance.
With all the extensive bad publicity the church has received over sex scandals and money mismanagement, one has to wonder if the church has lost its moral authority to be heard by the world. The church itself needs to repent and return to righteous ground on which to stand. That ground is the Scripture, on the one hand, and not the accumulated wisdom of the ages (secular humanism at its best), which is often passed off as gospel; on the other hand, that ground is also a public life worthy of the gospel. Christians need to understand clearly that our life together is not defined by a sense of good-feeling social fellowship nor good-doing social action. Our life together finds its source and center in God, who wields the weal and woe for all creation. Our life together stands, not on our work or lack thereof, but on the work of Christ for us. This is what we have to communicate clearly to the world; or we will be seen simply as but one element in a very complex social network of the human community hurdling through space on this particular speck of dust called earth, instead of the Body of Christ, the Community of the Covenant, that is to mentor the world to the living God.
This work can be taken up by individual congregations as they take a serious close look at themselves to identify where work needs to be done in order to mature in Christ-likeness. Neighboring congregations are at odds with one another. There is dissension within a congregation over worship practices, theology, or the acceptance of a new pastor. Misconduct suits are filed by parishioners against clergy or other staff. Unbecoming behavior is accepted too easily for the sake of retaining members. Corinth is alive in our own hearts and has come to roost in our pews. Congregations who dare to take an honest look at themselves will come to the conclusion that there are many things for which they need to repent in assembly, as a group. The Christian witness to the community is at stake.
Just as the longest journey begins with the first step, so too the road to recovery for the church will begin with the actions individual Christians take in response to the Gospel. Personal repentance can be likened to that first step. Although repentance itself is a complex movement of the spirit (involving conviction, contrition, confession, and correction), it can manifest itself by the simple acts of alms-giving, prayer, and fasting. Christians need to be encouraged in these ways, so that they do not become lost arts of the religious life. There are already many reports documenting the poor giving habits of people, as we use most, if not all, of our money for "paying the bills" and "playing." Prayer becomes an exercise "at church" and "at mealtime" ("We even do it at McDonald's, Pastor!"), but not the regular breath of the soul throughout every day, because we are so busy or distracted with other matters. Fasting becomes a foreign language in corpulent America, even while fitness fads of workouts and diets flash across the screen unendingly.
We can affirm the dignity of such spiritual disciplines, pointing out specifically the rewards that endure. The practitioner should not engage in these activities for public display or acclaim, but for the deeper, abiding rewards of peace and contentment and a growing relationship with the heavenly Father. Giving alms, praying, and fasting will also direct one into better choices in other various aspects of one's life, providing increased courage and wisdom to live righteously. There will also be increased humility, as one realizes there is so much more one could do for the Lord in these disciplines and in all areas of one's life. From humility comes a more gracious posturing in life, as one lives in relationship with others and the whole created order as a reflection of God's loving and merciful relationship with us all.
Perhaps then we will hear together "the rhyming and the chiming of the bells," replacing "the moaning and the groaning of the bells!"
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
The Book of Joel comes to us from sometime in the years between 500 and 350 B.C. The inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem no longer form a nation with a king or courtly officials, but rather they make up simply a community or congregation led by priests and elders that is a little subprovince of the mighty Persian Empire. It is a time of peace, with no external enemy threatening Judah's existence.
Judah's life has been threatened by a natural catastrophe, however. The province has experienced a sky-blackening plague of locusts that has literally eaten up every shred of wood and vegetation. As if that were not enough, just as the Judeans have planted new crops and those have begun to sprout, then a severe drought has come upon the land, threatening crops and animals and human beings alike, and there is not even enough cereal and water left in the land for the daily sacrifices in the temple (1:13; cf 2:14). Consequently, in 1:13-14, Joel summons the priests to proclaim to all the people a fast of repentance, in the hope that as they all come together in the temple and petition the Lord to forgive their sins, God will have mercy on them and restore their land.
In 1:15 and 2:1-2, however, Joel warns the people that the locust plague and drought are but harbingers of a greater catastrophe in the future. The Day of the Lord is coming, that Day when God summons his celestial army (2:2, 11) to bring his final judgment on his sinful people. "The Day of the Lord is great and very terrible," Joel proclaims; "who can endure it?" (2:11). The fast of repentance to which Joel summons the people in 2:12-13, 15-17 therefore, is even more urgent than that first mentioned in 1:13-14. It has to do with the preservation of Judah's very existence, and Joel urges the congregation to return to their Lord "with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning."
Such fasts were standard practice in the life of biblical Israel and were carried out with ritual solemnity. The priests led the congregation in prayer, and one of those priestly prayers is preserved for us in 2:17 of our text. But the people also prayed for forgiveness, exhibiting their repentance by fasting and weeping, by striking themselves on the breast, by prostrating themselves in the dust, sometimes by tearing their garments, or by sprinkling ashes on their heads.
That biblical usage of the ashes of repentance is where we get the name of this day, Ash Wednesday. In some churches still today, the priest or minister marks the con-gregants' foreheads with ashes, often accompanying the action with the words, "Memento mori," that is, "Remember that you are going to die," or "Dust you are and to dust you shall return," or "Repent and believe in the gospel."
In other words, Ash Wednesday reminds us that we too will stand before the bar of God's final judgment of our lives. As the Apostle Paul writes, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he (or she) has done in the body" (2 Corinthians 5:10). And the question for us is similar to that one that we find in the prophet Joel's words. Can you and I endure that final judgment? Will we be given life, or will our wages for our sin be death? How will my life measure up? How will yours?
Those are terrifying words, aren't they? Because each one of us knows that no matter how fine our lives may appear on the outside, and no matter what our religious reputation may be, we remain impure and imperfect in the sight of our Lord. Most often it is our own welfare, our own self-satisfactions with which we are concerned, isn't it? Very often we have relied on our accumulation of things and material possessions to bolster our self-confidence and comfort and status. Frequently we have been too busy to give even a thought, much less a prayer, to our God. We are the people of God who are supposed to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and minds and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. But those loves have so frequently been absent or lacking. And so in God's final judgment of us, will the verdict be "Guilty," friends? And will the sentence therefore be "Death"?
Surely our text from Joel contains the one reassurance that can save us. "Return to the Lord, your God," proclaims the prophet. Because! "For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents" of the judgment he would bring upon us (2:13). Our one hope of salvation, of life instead of death, and of joy instead of fear and trembling, lies in the mercy of God, who is always more ready to grant us forgiveness than we are even to ask for it. God has "no pleasure in the death of anyone" and so the prophetic plea is, "turn and live" (Ezekiel 18:32).
And what does that mean, according to our text? It means rending our hearts. "Rend your hearts and not your garments," Joel tells his compatriots. Open those secret places deep inside your heart and peer within and assess there your faithfulness to your God. Face all that you have done and left undone. Peer into the shadows of your inner being and ferret out who and what you truly are. See yourself as God, who knows our hearts and secret thoughts, sees us. Be not afraid to confess to yourself and to your Lord what you truly are and what you have actually done. Because you see, good Christians, God is merciful. He is forgiving and slow to anger and abounding in a steady, never-failing love for each one of us, and he is willing to forgive and to grant us his life through Jesus Christ. But he wants us on this Ash Wednesday to examine ourselves and to confess our sinfulness and thus to know the enormity of the gracious love and mercy that he pours out on us. When we know we are sinners, then we know even more that God is glorious in his mercy, and that, you see, brings forth thanksgiving and joy and honor to God's holy name.
The invitation to that self-examination is before us here this day. "Even now," Joel proclaims. "Even now," no matter what we have done, no matter how deep the stain of our sin, no matter how incredible our wandering from the ways of God, even now, in our situation, God is ready to forgive and to grant us his eternal life in his final judgment.
We praise God for many things in our churches. We praise him for the beauty of his earth, for his daily sustenance of our breath of life, for the comfort he lends us in trial, and the strength he gives us in tribulation. We praise him for healing from illness and hope for the future. But now tonight, as we rend our hearts and peer inside and repent on this Ash Wednesday of all the errors of our lives, we also have the opportunity to praise God anew for his love and never-failing forgiveness of us -- of even us, who so much need his mercy. That mercy can be given us this evening. Praise the Lord!
We enter the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, when ashes symbolically cover our lives with the sign of a sooty cross made upon our forehead. Lent, a forty-day preparation for Easter, helps us reflect upon our need for repentance and discipline in our lives. Any one day of the year we live our lives will give us grist to chew on for forty days, as we consider our relationship with God and with other human beings. Any one of us has enough sin in us to go around for everyone, amplifying the need for all of us to take seriously this opportunity to examine ourselves in light of the Law and the Gospel. Whatever we personally discover can be carried sorrowfully, yet expectantly, to the Cross of Christ and offered for burial with him, so that a new self can rise with him and live before him daily in a manner worthy of the Gospel.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Whose son are you? Joel was son of Pethuel. As such he could have been spokesperson of the family heritage or the family vision of itself for the future. Instead, Joel, gifted with words, surrendered his mouthpiece to Yahweh. Joel's name means "Yahweh is God." Joel became the spokesperson for God. He reminded the people of their heritage with Yahweh and of Yahweh's vision for his people. The people of Judah were his audience. The context was a locust plague which was described as God's army (2:11), bringing judgment upon the people for their sins. This plague was also a presage of other armies to come, notably the Assyrian hordes that would wreak their own blackness upon the mountains of both northern and southern kingdoms. Then, would come the invasion of the Babylonian army, like waves of devastation one after another, like locusts -- the cutting, swarming, hopping, destroying locusts (1:4).
At the heart of Joel's message of judgment, however, is the invitation to repent. Turn from sin and turn toward God, who, though capable of judging his people, "is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (2:13). The Lutheran Book of Worship (ELCA) uses these very words in its liturgy during Lent as a musical response of the people to the reading of Scripture. The call to repentance is expressed with such exhortations as "awake ... lament ... be confounded ... call ... gather ... cry" (1:5-14). Whereas some prophets use the expression, "Thus says the Lord," to garner attention, Joel scripts the blowing of the trumpet (2:1, 15). The people are to give heed to what is happening. The first blasting of the trumpet makes the people mindful that the day of judgment is coming. As much as one would like any day of reckoning to be far off, God's day "is near" (2:1). The second blasting of the trumpet draws the people's regard to the discipline of fasting. This can be an outward sign of an inner transformation of heart, as one comes before the heavenly judge with the paltriness of one's earthly efforts.
When Joel speaks of the coming day of the Lord as near, the question can be asked if there is time to repent. In one sense, the answer is no. The judgment is coming. It has been unleashed. That cannot be changed at this level of engagement. In another sense, the answer is yes! There is always time for repentance because this is the purpose for the judgment. The judgment is, in this regard, open-ended. It is not final. With the appropriate response of repentance -- which is the purpose of the judgment in the first place -- there are opened up all sorts of possibilities for God to work out the divine plan of salvation.
The image of rending the heart and not garments (2:13) defines the experience of repentance as necessarily an inner transformation, not necessarily an occasion for outward show. True change of behavior originates in a change of attitude, which comes from the heart. It is like when Jesus said that the good tree produces the good fruit, not the other way around (Matthew 7:17-20).
It is with the prophets' sense of judgment and their uncanny way of reaffirming the goodness of God in the midst of all evil that we enter into the Lenten season once again. We can accept the ashes on our heads as a temporal sign of our sorrow for sin and the acceptance of the judgment that must fall upon us as outcasts from Eden.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
The Corinthian church was a divided church. There were severe differences within the Christian community regarding worship practices (e.g., tongues), personal behavior (e.g., sexuality), public witness (e.g., lawsuits), and leadership (e.g., jealous sectarianism). That's a lot of conflict happening in just one place! Paul attempts to address these problems in his correspondence. It is doubtful that he was very successful in improving the situation in Corinth. He ends his first letter with a plea for the Lord to come (1 Corinthians 16:22)! That's like saying, "Let's get the boss down here on the line to square this mess!" His second letter ends with a straightforward plea/command, "Mend your ways, heed my appeal ..." (2 Corinthians 13:11). If Paul could have written a later letter in the spirit of Philippians, we may be able to see Corinth in a better light; but, no such letter seems to be forth-coming. Perhaps it is the stark contrast between Corinth and Philippi that enables Paul to express his heart so tenderly to his Christian friends to the north.
Arguably, the two key words in this text are kataggassw (reconcile) and diakonoz (servant, as in waiting on tables). The plea for reconciliation is his main thrust and part of his plea is based upon the personal example of his servanthood. (The portion of the letter prior to this lectionary text bases his plea for reconciliation on theological ground: the Corinthians are to be newly shaped by Christ in them and they are to recognize Paul's reconciling mediation as modeled after Christ's reconciling work between God and humanity.)
Paul demonstrates great patience and perseverance in his attempts to bring the Corinthian congregation to a state of reconciliation. He could have considered them as a whole as anathema (anaqema, accursed, 1 Corinthians 16:22), for which he opens the door at the end of his first letter. But, he draws up short on that and continues to appeal to them, that they may yet have opportunity to "clean up their act."
The theological motivation for this to happen is what Christ did for us. In verse 21, Paul describes what Martin Luther would call "The Happy Exchange." Christ Jesus, the one who was sinless, takes our sin (rebellion against God manifested through contention with one another) upon himself and imputes to us his righteousness with which we can stand before God forgiven and accepted. This experience and the remembrance of it should provide a kind of template on which we can perceive our human relationships and model them in like manner. Paul uses the image of imitation in his correspondence with Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1) and also with other congregations (Ephesians 5:1 and Philippians 3:17). The imitation is ultimately of God's love as demonstrated through Jesus. Much later, The Imitation of Christ (associated with Thomas a Kempis, 1380-1471, and the Brethren of the Common Life) would be written, describing how the Christian life is an imitation of Christ, helping Christians of many other congregations for centuries thereafter to come to terms with this noble calling of walking in the steps of Jesus.
When juxtaposed to Joel, one might say that the Day of the Lord is the Day of Jesus, thereby defining the coming judgment and the present mercy experienced in the work of Christ upon the cross. The locust plague has become the Lord's pain, whereby humanity's sin is placed on him, so that salvation can be given to us. We would accept the grace of God in vain, were we not to let it shape our lives and pervade every pore of our being and direct us in all our relationships.
Paul adds another weight to his appeal, hoping to tip the balance in favor of more appropriate behavior from the Corinthians. He lifts up his own servanthood. It is important to note that he does not use the word douloz (slave), which has sometimes been translated "servant" (e.g., Romans 1:1 and Galatians 1:10, RSV). When Paul describes his relationship with Christ, he uses that term to describe his abject submission to Jesus' ownership of his heart and soul. In describing his relationship with fellow Christians, specifically the Corinthians, he uses the image of waiting on tables. He is offering all that he has gone through as evidence that his ministry is authentic and he is worthy of being listened to when it comes to the practical matters of getting along and of witnessing faithfully to the gospel. He does not hold anything back. Amazingly, this does not come across as pompous boasting, but as a humble ledger, crediting Paul the walk to back up his talk.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Jesus is on a roll! Unfortunately for his hearers, he is rolling right over them. He is striking right to the misshapened heart of piety that misses the mark of purity. Centuries later, Saint Augustine would correctly observe that sin is basically turning in upon oneself. Here, Jesus applies the practical consequences of this when it comes to alms, prayer, and fasting.
In three tightly-packed paragraphs, Jesus treats three primary examples of the spiritually disciplined life. In keeping with the prophetic tradition, as well as being consistent with other religious traditions at their best, Jesus identifies alms-giving, prayer, and fasting as worthy practices of piety. There is a delightful rhythm to these passages, which any preacher or public speaker should note well.
What is interesting to note about the content of Jesus' words is that he does not describe the what of piety, but the how of it. That is to say, Jesus does not prescribe how much alms one is to give, what exact words one should pray (Matthew's redaction in 6:7-15 needs to be taken into account here), or even what constitutes a fast. Jesus focuses on the heart of the pious one. What is motivating the righteous activity? Is it truly and purely an action offered for God and as an expression of one's devotion? Or is it performed for the public, that others may see just how religious and virtuous one is? For these acts to have spiritual impact, they are to be directed toward God.
With a twist of sarcasm, Jesus says that those who perform their religious activities so that others may see them and laud the doer have already received their reward. What is that reward? Human acclaim! We all know what that is worth. Hollywood speaks of everyone's desire to have fifteen minutes of fame. The world is willing to give that; but, then, it moves on quickly to other, more novel entertainments. Shakespeare described fame well, when he wrote of every person being an actor, "that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more" (Macbeth, Act V, scene v). In light of this, is it any wonder that Hamlet asks the existential question -- "to be or not to be" (Hamlet, Act III, scene i)?
How much more satisfying to have the heavenly Father's eternal acclaim, his everlasting valuation! The pure in heart will seek only the joy of their Maker as they give alms, pray, and fast. This can best be assured "in secret," where there is not the distraction of a public parade.
This is not to discredit totally temporal acknowledgment. As earth-bound creatures, living in community, we need notable, public examples to emulate. This comes by hearing and seeing in the community square. What Jesus is driving at is the motivating factor and the reward sought. He wants his followers to realize that the true reward of pious activity is the deep, inner growth that develops in the relationship between the earthly believing child and the heavenly rewarding Father.
Application
We may have lost the trumpet as the public herald of tidings, but we still have our church bells. Would that they could be like Edgar Allen Poe describes them in "The Bells": "Brazen bells! What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells! ... How they clang, and clash, and roar!" But, alas, they are used only for chiming the hour or playing melodious hymns. The siren perched over City Hall has replaced the church bells in sounding alarm to the community -- and, then, only with secular concern for safety of life and limb, not of soul. It remains for the trumpet voice of the preacher to ring with the truth of God's judgment and mercy for the world's soul in need of repentance.
With all the extensive bad publicity the church has received over sex scandals and money mismanagement, one has to wonder if the church has lost its moral authority to be heard by the world. The church itself needs to repent and return to righteous ground on which to stand. That ground is the Scripture, on the one hand, and not the accumulated wisdom of the ages (secular humanism at its best), which is often passed off as gospel; on the other hand, that ground is also a public life worthy of the gospel. Christians need to understand clearly that our life together is not defined by a sense of good-feeling social fellowship nor good-doing social action. Our life together finds its source and center in God, who wields the weal and woe for all creation. Our life together stands, not on our work or lack thereof, but on the work of Christ for us. This is what we have to communicate clearly to the world; or we will be seen simply as but one element in a very complex social network of the human community hurdling through space on this particular speck of dust called earth, instead of the Body of Christ, the Community of the Covenant, that is to mentor the world to the living God.
This work can be taken up by individual congregations as they take a serious close look at themselves to identify where work needs to be done in order to mature in Christ-likeness. Neighboring congregations are at odds with one another. There is dissension within a congregation over worship practices, theology, or the acceptance of a new pastor. Misconduct suits are filed by parishioners against clergy or other staff. Unbecoming behavior is accepted too easily for the sake of retaining members. Corinth is alive in our own hearts and has come to roost in our pews. Congregations who dare to take an honest look at themselves will come to the conclusion that there are many things for which they need to repent in assembly, as a group. The Christian witness to the community is at stake.
Just as the longest journey begins with the first step, so too the road to recovery for the church will begin with the actions individual Christians take in response to the Gospel. Personal repentance can be likened to that first step. Although repentance itself is a complex movement of the spirit (involving conviction, contrition, confession, and correction), it can manifest itself by the simple acts of alms-giving, prayer, and fasting. Christians need to be encouraged in these ways, so that they do not become lost arts of the religious life. There are already many reports documenting the poor giving habits of people, as we use most, if not all, of our money for "paying the bills" and "playing." Prayer becomes an exercise "at church" and "at mealtime" ("We even do it at McDonald's, Pastor!"), but not the regular breath of the soul throughout every day, because we are so busy or distracted with other matters. Fasting becomes a foreign language in corpulent America, even while fitness fads of workouts and diets flash across the screen unendingly.
We can affirm the dignity of such spiritual disciplines, pointing out specifically the rewards that endure. The practitioner should not engage in these activities for public display or acclaim, but for the deeper, abiding rewards of peace and contentment and a growing relationship with the heavenly Father. Giving alms, praying, and fasting will also direct one into better choices in other various aspects of one's life, providing increased courage and wisdom to live righteously. There will also be increased humility, as one realizes there is so much more one could do for the Lord in these disciplines and in all areas of one's life. From humility comes a more gracious posturing in life, as one lives in relationship with others and the whole created order as a reflection of God's loving and merciful relationship with us all.
Perhaps then we will hear together "the rhyming and the chiming of the bells," replacing "the moaning and the groaning of the bells!"
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
The Book of Joel comes to us from sometime in the years between 500 and 350 B.C. The inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem no longer form a nation with a king or courtly officials, but rather they make up simply a community or congregation led by priests and elders that is a little subprovince of the mighty Persian Empire. It is a time of peace, with no external enemy threatening Judah's existence.
Judah's life has been threatened by a natural catastrophe, however. The province has experienced a sky-blackening plague of locusts that has literally eaten up every shred of wood and vegetation. As if that were not enough, just as the Judeans have planted new crops and those have begun to sprout, then a severe drought has come upon the land, threatening crops and animals and human beings alike, and there is not even enough cereal and water left in the land for the daily sacrifices in the temple (1:13; cf 2:14). Consequently, in 1:13-14, Joel summons the priests to proclaim to all the people a fast of repentance, in the hope that as they all come together in the temple and petition the Lord to forgive their sins, God will have mercy on them and restore their land.
In 1:15 and 2:1-2, however, Joel warns the people that the locust plague and drought are but harbingers of a greater catastrophe in the future. The Day of the Lord is coming, that Day when God summons his celestial army (2:2, 11) to bring his final judgment on his sinful people. "The Day of the Lord is great and very terrible," Joel proclaims; "who can endure it?" (2:11). The fast of repentance to which Joel summons the people in 2:12-13, 15-17 therefore, is even more urgent than that first mentioned in 1:13-14. It has to do with the preservation of Judah's very existence, and Joel urges the congregation to return to their Lord "with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning."
Such fasts were standard practice in the life of biblical Israel and were carried out with ritual solemnity. The priests led the congregation in prayer, and one of those priestly prayers is preserved for us in 2:17 of our text. But the people also prayed for forgiveness, exhibiting their repentance by fasting and weeping, by striking themselves on the breast, by prostrating themselves in the dust, sometimes by tearing their garments, or by sprinkling ashes on their heads.
That biblical usage of the ashes of repentance is where we get the name of this day, Ash Wednesday. In some churches still today, the priest or minister marks the con-gregants' foreheads with ashes, often accompanying the action with the words, "Memento mori," that is, "Remember that you are going to die," or "Dust you are and to dust you shall return," or "Repent and believe in the gospel."
In other words, Ash Wednesday reminds us that we too will stand before the bar of God's final judgment of our lives. As the Apostle Paul writes, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he (or she) has done in the body" (2 Corinthians 5:10). And the question for us is similar to that one that we find in the prophet Joel's words. Can you and I endure that final judgment? Will we be given life, or will our wages for our sin be death? How will my life measure up? How will yours?
Those are terrifying words, aren't they? Because each one of us knows that no matter how fine our lives may appear on the outside, and no matter what our religious reputation may be, we remain impure and imperfect in the sight of our Lord. Most often it is our own welfare, our own self-satisfactions with which we are concerned, isn't it? Very often we have relied on our accumulation of things and material possessions to bolster our self-confidence and comfort and status. Frequently we have been too busy to give even a thought, much less a prayer, to our God. We are the people of God who are supposed to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and minds and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. But those loves have so frequently been absent or lacking. And so in God's final judgment of us, will the verdict be "Guilty," friends? And will the sentence therefore be "Death"?
Surely our text from Joel contains the one reassurance that can save us. "Return to the Lord, your God," proclaims the prophet. Because! "For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents" of the judgment he would bring upon us (2:13). Our one hope of salvation, of life instead of death, and of joy instead of fear and trembling, lies in the mercy of God, who is always more ready to grant us forgiveness than we are even to ask for it. God has "no pleasure in the death of anyone" and so the prophetic plea is, "turn and live" (Ezekiel 18:32).
And what does that mean, according to our text? It means rending our hearts. "Rend your hearts and not your garments," Joel tells his compatriots. Open those secret places deep inside your heart and peer within and assess there your faithfulness to your God. Face all that you have done and left undone. Peer into the shadows of your inner being and ferret out who and what you truly are. See yourself as God, who knows our hearts and secret thoughts, sees us. Be not afraid to confess to yourself and to your Lord what you truly are and what you have actually done. Because you see, good Christians, God is merciful. He is forgiving and slow to anger and abounding in a steady, never-failing love for each one of us, and he is willing to forgive and to grant us his life through Jesus Christ. But he wants us on this Ash Wednesday to examine ourselves and to confess our sinfulness and thus to know the enormity of the gracious love and mercy that he pours out on us. When we know we are sinners, then we know even more that God is glorious in his mercy, and that, you see, brings forth thanksgiving and joy and honor to God's holy name.
The invitation to that self-examination is before us here this day. "Even now," Joel proclaims. "Even now," no matter what we have done, no matter how deep the stain of our sin, no matter how incredible our wandering from the ways of God, even now, in our situation, God is ready to forgive and to grant us his eternal life in his final judgment.
We praise God for many things in our churches. We praise him for the beauty of his earth, for his daily sustenance of our breath of life, for the comfort he lends us in trial, and the strength he gives us in tribulation. We praise him for healing from illness and hope for the future. But now tonight, as we rend our hearts and peer inside and repent on this Ash Wednesday of all the errors of our lives, we also have the opportunity to praise God anew for his love and never-failing forgiveness of us -- of even us, who so much need his mercy. That mercy can be given us this evening. Praise the Lord!
