With All Your Heart
Sermon
Deformed, Disfigured, And Despised
First Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter Cycle C
The poignant words of the prophet Joel should have deep relevance and meaning for this Ash Wednesday, for it is a clarion call to remembrance and reflection. The prophet calls the people to repentance and urges a sincere return to God. The various passages of the prophet's entire oracle to Judah, whose language is reminiscent of Isaiah, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Malachi, and Jeremiah in their reference to the "Day of the Lord," "the enemy from the North," and "judgment on foreign nations," contains a heightened sense of urgency for the people of God. Joel's lament is that the day of the Lord is coming. Such events in ancient times had portended "seismic disturbances" of disastrous proportions. The prophet's warning contains elements of pessimism and hope, despair and joy. The people have been fairly warned, but will they return to God with all their hearts?
The opening passages of chapter two bewail the "day of darkness and gloom and the day of clouds and blackness that are approaching." The symbolism is both literal and figurative. Dark clouds hover on the landscape of Judah, for the land itself has experienced a kind of degradation and desolation, and the people's hearts are black with the darkness of their apostasy, iniquity, and spiritual defection. The land itself is permeated with clouds of gloom and the soulscape of their hearts is besmirched by sin. "Blow the Trumpet in Zion, and sound the alarm ... return to me with all your heart."
The prophet exhorts a return to God "with all your heart." The heart was believed to possess the same power and influence over the souls and wills of people as the brain is believed today. The heart was the seat of sentiment and intellect, will and determination. If the people return to God with all their hearts, then their return will at once be final and complete. They had simulated return in previous generations according to the Covenants but not with all their hearts.
God wants the return of his people in mind, body, soul, and spirit. Lent is a season for return, a time for remembering and reflecting, a time for positive transformation and renewal. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Lenten season and God wants us to do more than rent our garments and give up other habits and addictions. More importantly, God wants us to return to him with all our hearts.
For transformation to become full and deep, we must first return to God with a heart of acknowledgement and remembrance. How often we forget what God has done and what God has promised to those who love him? Our memories are short. Our patience is thin. We immerse ourselves in the daily round of life, preoccupy ourselves with living and dying, amuse ourselves with the gadgets and trinkets of our modern culture, bemuse our things with the irrelevancies and trivialities of life, and leave God out, except in emergencies.
The great tragedy of our times is living as though God did not exist, as though God were not responsible for our largesse and success. The tragedy of our times is the way in which we crowd God out of our daily affairs, the way that we leave God out in our remembrance, and the way that life and living intercept us from God. Who will return with a heart of acknowledgment, remembrance, and gratitude?
Even more tragic is how the terrors of life take us away from an acknowledgement of the one who gives us life and eternal life. Sorrow and tribulation, trial and difficulty often cast their spells over us, mesmerize and possess, stifle and anesthetize us to the things that God has done for us. Our memories can be easily filled with the things that God has not done, and our hearts become cynical and resentful, and we turn away from God. Is it not God who gives us life? Is it not God who has given us his Son so that we might have life and have it abundantly? Why then must we turn from the hand that keeps us, saves us, comforts and renews us? A return to God with all our hearts means returning to God with a heart of acknowledgment and remembrance of God's many blessings and the ways he has brought and kept us along this way. If the people of God can remember what God has done in the past, they can anticipate what God will do in the future.
Second, we must return to God with a heart of confession. Sin hardens our hearts and seduces us into a routinization which alienates us from God. Sin has its own initiation rites, its own mantra, its own methods of physical seduction and spiritual reduction which prevent us from having a heart that is willing to confess.
Confessing our sin unloads the burden of sin, unyokes the reigns of sin, unleashes the energy of sin, uncages the guilt of sin, unbinds the sorrow of sin, unearths the causes of sin, and unnerves the power of sin. Sin creates its own patterns of domestication and subordination that solidifies its dominion and reinforces its hegemony in our lives. Confessing our sin is subverting sin's power and authority, sin's legal right to take up residency in our hearts and souls, the rulership and governance of sin in our lives. Confessing our sin is a declaration of war against sin's providence and devastations. Confessing our sin seeks the eviction of sin from permanent habitation in our hearts, minds, and souls.
1 John 1:8-9, reminds us, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." God wants a heart that confesses sin because God likes an honest heart, a contrite heart, a heart that is willing to reveal its imperfections and afflictions.
Third, we must return to God with a heart of repentance. Repenting means acknowledging, confessing, and turning away from sin. Repentance is the act of contrition carried out to cancel sin's transgression. To say we have sinned is one thing. To turn away from sinful ways is quite another thing. God wants a repenting heart. A heart that is open to being used by God to set new directions for the future. The conviction of sin causes an action that renounces and turns away from sin. Repenting of sin is turning toward God for resolution and deliverance from the conditions of sin.
The heart that acknowledges God, confesses its sin, and returns to God in word and action is truly a heart that God is seeking. Actually to turn away in thought and deed is to return to God for life, power, and strength. But it is difficult to repent without faith, without a desire to love and please God. It is difficult to repent if the conscience has not been convicted of wrongdoing. It is difficult to repent when sin habituates the mind and eviscerates the heart's desire to get right with God. God wants a heart of repentance that leads to redemption.
God wants to turn us around from the ways of sin. God wants to turn us around from evil, hatred, malice, and malevolence. God wants us to turn to him in body, mind, spirit, and soul. Repentance is an expression of the soul's and heart's desire to turn things around for God, through God, and by God.
Fourth, God wants a heart of redemption; a heart of love and forgiveness, compassion and understanding; a heart that is willing to redeem others and be redeemed.
A heart of love and compassion is what it is all about. Sin and a lack of love harden the heart. God loves us and we are a called to love others. God so loved the world that he sent his son to us out of love, and we as followers of Christ should spread the Good News of love in a world filled with resentment and hatred.
God wants to redeem his people. God wants his people to have a heart and spirit of redemption for others. The people of Joel's time were hurting from their past. Some of them had lost all hope of ever achieving the spiritual greatness of their forbears. But God always sees new possibilities amid the disabilities of our human condition. God is always making a way out of no way, seeking ways of restoring his people to spiritual wholeness, health, and vitality. No situation is so hopeless that God cannot redemptively work his will toward renewal and restoration.
That is why he sent us his son, who died for us and to redeem us. All at times appears to be hopeless, but God is still holding for that day of truth when the people of God will return to him with all their hearts. This is the season of return, restoration, and renewal. A season of hope and joy, comfort and celebration, for a comforter has come to lay down his life for those who are seeking life. It is not enough to rent our clothes, to give up old habits and bad ways; we must return to him with all our hearts so that we his people may renew our souls. Return to me, oh people, with all your heart! Return to me!
The opening passages of chapter two bewail the "day of darkness and gloom and the day of clouds and blackness that are approaching." The symbolism is both literal and figurative. Dark clouds hover on the landscape of Judah, for the land itself has experienced a kind of degradation and desolation, and the people's hearts are black with the darkness of their apostasy, iniquity, and spiritual defection. The land itself is permeated with clouds of gloom and the soulscape of their hearts is besmirched by sin. "Blow the Trumpet in Zion, and sound the alarm ... return to me with all your heart."
The prophet exhorts a return to God "with all your heart." The heart was believed to possess the same power and influence over the souls and wills of people as the brain is believed today. The heart was the seat of sentiment and intellect, will and determination. If the people return to God with all their hearts, then their return will at once be final and complete. They had simulated return in previous generations according to the Covenants but not with all their hearts.
God wants the return of his people in mind, body, soul, and spirit. Lent is a season for return, a time for remembering and reflecting, a time for positive transformation and renewal. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Lenten season and God wants us to do more than rent our garments and give up other habits and addictions. More importantly, God wants us to return to him with all our hearts.
For transformation to become full and deep, we must first return to God with a heart of acknowledgement and remembrance. How often we forget what God has done and what God has promised to those who love him? Our memories are short. Our patience is thin. We immerse ourselves in the daily round of life, preoccupy ourselves with living and dying, amuse ourselves with the gadgets and trinkets of our modern culture, bemuse our things with the irrelevancies and trivialities of life, and leave God out, except in emergencies.
The great tragedy of our times is living as though God did not exist, as though God were not responsible for our largesse and success. The tragedy of our times is the way in which we crowd God out of our daily affairs, the way that we leave God out in our remembrance, and the way that life and living intercept us from God. Who will return with a heart of acknowledgment, remembrance, and gratitude?
Even more tragic is how the terrors of life take us away from an acknowledgement of the one who gives us life and eternal life. Sorrow and tribulation, trial and difficulty often cast their spells over us, mesmerize and possess, stifle and anesthetize us to the things that God has done for us. Our memories can be easily filled with the things that God has not done, and our hearts become cynical and resentful, and we turn away from God. Is it not God who gives us life? Is it not God who has given us his Son so that we might have life and have it abundantly? Why then must we turn from the hand that keeps us, saves us, comforts and renews us? A return to God with all our hearts means returning to God with a heart of acknowledgment and remembrance of God's many blessings and the ways he has brought and kept us along this way. If the people of God can remember what God has done in the past, they can anticipate what God will do in the future.
Second, we must return to God with a heart of confession. Sin hardens our hearts and seduces us into a routinization which alienates us from God. Sin has its own initiation rites, its own mantra, its own methods of physical seduction and spiritual reduction which prevent us from having a heart that is willing to confess.
Confessing our sin unloads the burden of sin, unyokes the reigns of sin, unleashes the energy of sin, uncages the guilt of sin, unbinds the sorrow of sin, unearths the causes of sin, and unnerves the power of sin. Sin creates its own patterns of domestication and subordination that solidifies its dominion and reinforces its hegemony in our lives. Confessing our sin is subverting sin's power and authority, sin's legal right to take up residency in our hearts and souls, the rulership and governance of sin in our lives. Confessing our sin is a declaration of war against sin's providence and devastations. Confessing our sin seeks the eviction of sin from permanent habitation in our hearts, minds, and souls.
1 John 1:8-9, reminds us, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." God wants a heart that confesses sin because God likes an honest heart, a contrite heart, a heart that is willing to reveal its imperfections and afflictions.
Third, we must return to God with a heart of repentance. Repenting means acknowledging, confessing, and turning away from sin. Repentance is the act of contrition carried out to cancel sin's transgression. To say we have sinned is one thing. To turn away from sinful ways is quite another thing. God wants a repenting heart. A heart that is open to being used by God to set new directions for the future. The conviction of sin causes an action that renounces and turns away from sin. Repenting of sin is turning toward God for resolution and deliverance from the conditions of sin.
The heart that acknowledges God, confesses its sin, and returns to God in word and action is truly a heart that God is seeking. Actually to turn away in thought and deed is to return to God for life, power, and strength. But it is difficult to repent without faith, without a desire to love and please God. It is difficult to repent if the conscience has not been convicted of wrongdoing. It is difficult to repent when sin habituates the mind and eviscerates the heart's desire to get right with God. God wants a heart of repentance that leads to redemption.
God wants to turn us around from the ways of sin. God wants to turn us around from evil, hatred, malice, and malevolence. God wants us to turn to him in body, mind, spirit, and soul. Repentance is an expression of the soul's and heart's desire to turn things around for God, through God, and by God.
Fourth, God wants a heart of redemption; a heart of love and forgiveness, compassion and understanding; a heart that is willing to redeem others and be redeemed.
A heart of love and compassion is what it is all about. Sin and a lack of love harden the heart. God loves us and we are a called to love others. God so loved the world that he sent his son to us out of love, and we as followers of Christ should spread the Good News of love in a world filled with resentment and hatred.
God wants to redeem his people. God wants his people to have a heart and spirit of redemption for others. The people of Joel's time were hurting from their past. Some of them had lost all hope of ever achieving the spiritual greatness of their forbears. But God always sees new possibilities amid the disabilities of our human condition. God is always making a way out of no way, seeking ways of restoring his people to spiritual wholeness, health, and vitality. No situation is so hopeless that God cannot redemptively work his will toward renewal and restoration.
That is why he sent us his son, who died for us and to redeem us. All at times appears to be hopeless, but God is still holding for that day of truth when the people of God will return to him with all their hearts. This is the season of return, restoration, and renewal. A season of hope and joy, comfort and celebration, for a comforter has come to lay down his life for those who are seeking life. It is not enough to rent our clothes, to give up old habits and bad ways; we must return to him with all our hearts so that we his people may renew our souls. Return to me, oh people, with all your heart! Return to me!
