Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 and Psalm 51:1-17
Ash Wednesday
Blow the shofar. While our translation, the NRSV renders the Hebrew word written here as “trumpet”, with which we are all familiar, what is actually being named here is the shofar (shofar) – a ram’s horn.
To this day, the shofar is blown by practicing Jews, primarily during Rosh Hashanah, primarily in worship. Jewish law states that it should be blown 30 times each day, but in practice it is often blown 100 to 101 times each of the 10 days of penitence culminating in Yom Kippur.
There are patterns of sound to be made and methods followed which are too detailed to go into here, but the Bible contains many explicit references to the shofar, not just the Rosh Hashanah commandment.
When the people receive the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai, they hear a very loud blast of the shofar. They’re commanded to blow the shofar not only on Rosh Hashanah, but also at the beginning of the Jubilee year
The sound of the shofar is both earthly and Divine. It comes from an animal but makes the same sound that was heard on the top of Mount Sinai when God addressed the people.
Music can be celebratory, but the sound of the shofar is more than just a sound of jubilation. It is the sound of the presence of God, and the sound we use to cry out to God when we need God’s intervention.
On Ash Wednesday Christians don’t sound the ram’s horn – unless for illustration purposes, especially when talking about this passage! The shofar is not part of our tradition. But there is something else we do.
Following ancient custom for those who were mourning, or penitent, or suffering under a load of some kind, the Christian practice of receiving ashes on the day that begins our Lenten penitential season dates back to somewhere around the 6th century, under Pope Gregory the Great.
The ashes that smear the shape of a cross on the forehead of the observant come from the burning of last year’s Palms. As the sounding of the shofar did for the Jews in ancient times, and as ashes do for many Christians for the past 2000 years, times of penitence require some practice marking their beginning and end. The end of Lent comes on Maundy Thursday which is marked by Holy Communion, remembering how Jesus instituted the meal the night before he died. Other practices at that time include the washing of feet, stripping the altar, and in some places some sort of reenactment of the Upper Room.
Joel relays a message from the Lord that the Day of the Lord is coming and is now here; the implication is that all the runs counter to God and to God’s commandments will be destroyed.
While the people of Israel would have loved this message to pertain to their enemies as it has in the past, in this passage, the people of Judah themselves are the recipients of the warning. The shofar will be blown not in enemy territory by the great and mighty army that will carry the Lord’s favor into battle, but from the holy place that is God’s holy mountain.
Unlike other prophetic books in the Old Testament where it is clear by the prophecies of those God sends that social injustice, idolatry, political affairs, and more, are the reasons for God’s judgment and punishment, Joel doesn’t record a great deal about what is happening before this Day of the Lord prophecy.
But Judah’s repeated experiences of God’s displeasure are typically associated with Judah’s own action, and it is repentance that Joel calls for. It is repentance that the Lord demands. While we may not be privy, therefore, to the exact nature of Judah’s rebellion and sin, whether the offense lies more in the category of things “done” or things “undone”, this uncertainty calls for us to examine and contemplate our own tendency to turn away from God and therefore our own need for repentance.
“Yet even now,” begins verse 12 – even now, there is hope that comes from the Lord. For the Lord does not desire the destruction of God’s people. God does not desire distress or pain or death for God’s beloved. Rather, God desires eternal blessing and relationship with God’s creation, including God’s people – event he sinful, recalcitrant ones. Therefore, God ensures that neither sin for divine wrath will have the final word.
In the text from Joel, it is made clear that for these people what is necessary to experience a very different future from the wrack and ruin they are clearly destined for, is to repent. Turning away from their sin and returning to the Lord God with true contrition signified by fasting, weeping, mourning, and hearts by the knowledge of what they have done and not done, will mark a turning point in their relationship with God.
Because the thing is, as we read in verse 13, God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
While our Old Testament text continues on, it is on these opening verses that I want to focus today. Joel wrote to a people steeped in insecurity, and their anxieties and brokenness created a situation in which God must intervene.
Because God’s nature is not vengeful, and God desires life for all people, it is the light of Jesus Christ that is gives lights the life and path for us today. Joel writes in a time centuries before the advent of Christ. But we are much blessed to be living after.
The love of God is such that God’s devotion is clear. God’s passion for God’s people is clear even in this passage written from Judah so long ago. Yet we know that even while God’s desire was life, while God offered restoration through repentance, we human beings have never been good at upholding the promises we made, the oaths we take, and we are usually not very good at self-regulating our behavior, especially our sinful inclinations.
This is the truth we face as we begin our Lenten journey today. The liturgical season of Lent for Christians is a period of 40 days in remembrance and recognition that Jesus himself spent 40 days in the desert wilderness in a time of preparation by fasting and prayer.
For centuries, practices of Christians, including Lutherans, have included the imposition of ashes at the beginning of Lent, followed by a season of focusing on particular acts of charity and almsgiving; fasting, prayer and devotion, retreat and study; focus on repentance – turning away from our similarly selfish and self-centered inclinations, and returning to the Lord, turning back to live for Christ alone.
That’s actually a pretty big ask, isn’t it? Can we really turn away from our sinful paths, the brokenness in our embrace of the world, our greed and self-centeredness, and all else that in fact draws us away from God? We, who spend hours in front of the TV or shopping (even if it is largely online), engaged in unhealthy behaviors, working too many hours at the expense of our relationships, or running our kids from place to place in their heavy load of activities and so forth, but can hardly find the time to regularly engage in serious study of God’s word, in regular prayer and devotion, and sometimes, even time to worship – how much do we struggle with Joel’s prophecy and the instruction to turn? To turn away from all that distracts us? To return to the Lord our God?
This Ash Wednesday looks vastly different for many of us than any we have experienced before, although truth be told, Ash Wednesday is one of those days, and receiving ashes is one of those activities, that has been on the decline for some time. It’s hard for some to schedule participation in. It’s hard to make room to worship on that day. It is often a day that slips by, unnoticed by many.
Regardless of what your past practices are, however, this year, despite our inability to gather together in the church, we are able to gather together online; to remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return; to remember the gospel Good News that God, in all his wisdom, love, and mercy, sent Jesus to be for us the final covenant of God’s love and our redemption.
The words that Peter spoke on the top of the mountain at the Transfiguration pertain to us today, as well. “It is good for us to be here.” It is good for us to begin this Lent remembering, turning, embracing God’s love and demand for justice, peace, devotion to the one God who has ensured our salvation through the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is good for us to hear that repentance, mercy, and redemption are ours when we believe, and that in believing, when we follow God’s greatest and most consistent commend to love God and to love our neighbor. May it be so. Amen.
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