“Search My Heart, O God” – Ash Wednesday 2023

SCRIPTURE LESSON Joel 2:1–2, 12–16 (New Revised Standard Version)

Our First Scripture Reading comes from the Book of Joel 2:1-2, 12-16.

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near—
² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountain a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come….

¹² Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; ¹³ rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.
¹⁴ Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God?

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly; ¹⁶ gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.

 

 

SCRIPTURE LESSON 2 Corinthians 5:20–6:10 (NRSV)

Our Second Scripture Reading comes from Paul’s letter to the people of Corinth:   2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10

²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

6 As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. ² For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! ³ We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, ⁴ but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, ⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ⁶ by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, ⁷ truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; ⁸ in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹ as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰ as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

 

 

SCRIPTURE LESSON Ephesians 4:21-23, 30-32 (NRSV)

Our Third Scripture Reading comes from Paul’s letter to the people of Ephesus: Ephesians 4:21-23, 30-32

²¹ For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. ²² You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³ and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. ³¹ Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³² and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

 

 

SERMON: A Search From Within

Introduction:

Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. In between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday, we find ourselves gathered in the upper room around the table with Jesus and his disciples as he begins to offer himself as a holy and living sacrifice on Maundy Thursday: he took the bread, gave thanks, and gave it to the disciples; and after the supper he took the cup of the blood of the new covenant and gave it to his disciples and all of us. Then we walk with him and pray with him in the Garden of Gethsemane in the place known as the Mount of Olives. This is the place where we either fall asleep next to the disciples or we stay awake to hear these words, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

Following Maundy Thursday is Good Friday. Good Friday, although is not so good when we read about the beatings, the torture, the relentless cruelty and the pain Jesus endured as he travelled to Golgotha in agony, defeat, and suffering, crying out in pain with each step, and then later dies on the cross, it does provide us with a glimpse of hope—a glimpse of restorative and redemptive hope. Embedded in this restorative and redemptive hope is a message that death does not have the last word and that the resurrection is what we all long to receive in this life. We all seek to one day walk out of the tomb—a place of darkness, doubt, worry, stress, frustration, and disappointment—and to stand face to face with Jesus as he looks in our eyes and says, “Child, you have been fearfully and wonderfully made. Go and be the light of this world.” The tomb does not have the last word because even in darkness, there is still light, there is still hope.

On Ash Wednesday, we remember the power and love of Jesus Christ as we remember the hope that he gave to a widow, to a father, and to Mary and Martha during a moment of desperation, during a moment of loss and grief. According to Luke 7:11-17, as Jesus approached the town of Nain, he met a funeral procession leaving the city. In the coffin was a young man, the only son of a widow. When Jesus saw the procession, “he was moved with compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not cry’” (Luke 7:13). Jesus came forward and touched the coffin and said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” (Luke 7:14). Obeying these divine orders, the young man rose and began to speak (Luke 7:15). On another occasion, Jesus was approached by a synagogue leader, by the name of Jairus, whose twelve-year old daughter was to the point of death or had already died. Jesus followed Jairus and told him, “Do not be afraid. Only believe, and she will be saved” (Luke 8:50). While everyone was weeping and grieving, Jesus said, “Do not cry, for she is not dead but sleeping….Child, get up!” (Luke 8:52, 54). The child got up.

Lastly, after receiving news from Mary and Martha regarding the severe sickness of Lazarus, Jesus—after waiting and weeping—appears before the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus calls out, “’Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ’Unbind him, and let him go’” (John 11:43-44). In death is our resurrection. In our resurrection is our new beginning. In our new beginning is the promise that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). And in this promise is the comfort that God will search our heart and makes us new.

This evening, we come together to prepare ourselves for the Easter Season; and we do so, by receiving a mark, a seal, of protection and love which reminds us that the time has come to confess our sins before God and those around us. This evening, is the time when we realize what Natalie Sleeth promised in her hymn, “Hymn of Promise,” resides in our heart: “In our end is our beginning, in our time infinity. In our doubt there is believing. In our life eternity. In our death, a resurrection. At the last a victory. Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see” (Hymn of Promise, 1986). This evening, we prepare ourselves for the victory that is to come walking out of the tomb; and we do so by allowing God to search our heart and by reminding us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

 

Body:

 Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means “spring”—a season of preparation for many things in our life. During Springtime, flowers are planted and then begin to bloom, soil is overturned in the fields, birds begin to make homes in the surrounding trees, people are seen outdoors, and the sun greets us earlier in the morning. During Springtime, God’s creation is preparing for the beauty that waits to bloom before our very eyes. The beginning of Lent, with its curiosity and perplexes, is our time to prepare our heart for the crucifixion and rising of Jesus Christ from the tomb. Essentially, Lent begs us to allow God to search our heart and to motivate us to become the disciple that He needs us to be: receptive, faithful, and honest to the love of Jesus Christ.

We began this evening by hearing the words of Joel, a prophet of the Old Testament. He proclaimed to the people, “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near…” (Joel 2:1-2). Joel is encouraging his people to blow the trumpet, to make a joyful noise, to sound the alarm that something new is about to happen. The day of the Lord is coming: a day when earth will rejoice, the people will join together in praise and acclamation, and a day that will bring new beginnings. Joel wants the people of Zion to experience the good news that is coming: he is blowing the trumpet to alert everyone to prepare their heart for what is to come.

But then, his words of encouragement and adoration change. Joel says, probably in voice that is filled with excitement yet fear and trembling, “[A] day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness [is near]! Like blackness spread upon the mountain a great and powerful army comes” (Joel 2:2). Joel knows that defeat and pain must arrive before the battle is won. Joel knows that darkness will cover the earth. Joel knows that suffering must be endured before the trumpets can truly be heard from the mountain. Joel knows that the tomb will be sealed and hearts will become unsearchable—covered in a shroud of darkness and mysticism.

Unfortunately, Joel knows what we know today. He knows the day of the Lord is coming, but he also knows that devastation, mourning, and weeping must lead the way. John wrote in the eighth chapter of the Book of Revelation, “The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining and likewise the night” (Revelation 8:12). Amos, writing almost 700 years before John, asks the question, “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you want the day of the LORD? It is darkness, not light…” (Amos 5:18). Compiling his writings around the time of Amos, the Prophet Isaiah wrote, “For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light” (Isaiah 10:13). Isaiah’s words are later echoed in Mark 13:24-25, “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” Joel knows that “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Joel 2:2) will conquer our heart before the light can fully shine. This darkness, the tomb that we find ourselves in, is what propels us to open our heart to God because God knows who we are and He knows that no amount of darkness will be able to conquer the light of His Son in our life. We just have to allow God to search our heart.

Joel continues, “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing” (Joel 2:12-13). Joel is giving us a heads up, a warning, about what is to come: he is sounding the alarm. Joel wants us to return to the Lord, to rend our hearts not our clothing, before things get worse. He seeks refuge for us in the gracious, merciful, and steadfast love of our Lord. Before we can seek the Lord’s love, we must shed the old and put on the new. We must ask the Lord for forgiveness and be reconciled before him. We must do what we can today to rid our heart of any wickedness for tomorrow. We must return to the Lord, O God. But how?

Paul, when writing to the people of Corinth during the formation of Christian communities in the greater Greco-Roman Empire, is aware that people need to return to the Lord. The people in Corinth need to “be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). When we choose reconciliation after enduring “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger,” we accept the grace of God not in vain but in means of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:4-5). When we choose reconciliation, we come to love our neighbor and enemy as we love ourselves. When we choose reconciliation, we receive “knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, love, truthful speech, and the power of God” (2 Corinthians 6:6-7). Just like the woman who touched the cloak of Jesus in Mark 5, we can also receive the power of God in our act of reconciliation.

When we choose to be reconciled by God, when we ask God to forgive us of our sins, we gain a deeper meaning of the words that Jesus cried out from the cross in the Gospel of Luke, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).[i] From reconciliation, by preparing and giving our heart Christ, by returning to our Lord, we not only allow our heart to be searched and made new but we allow God to lead us in the “way everlasting” (Psalm 139:24), in the way of salvation.

Just as Jesus wanted us to be made new in his salvation and protected by his love after being reconciled and redeemed, so does the Apostle Paul. Paul’s heart is wide open for you. This is evident in his proclamation to the citizens of Ephesus. Paul writes, “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness…. [You] were marked with a seal for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:22-24, 30).

You were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Let that sink in….you have been marked with the seal of God. The sign of the cross that is placed on either you forehead or hand is a seal for the day of redemption. It is a seal that invites you to cast away the things of old and to put on the things of new. It is a seal that encourages you to leave the old, the sins and wrongdoings at the foot of the cross and in the tomb, to walk away from the darkness, and to ask Jesus to forgive you so that you will be made new when he rises from the tomb on Easter morning. It is a seal in which protects you from bitterness, wrath, anger, and slander (Ephesians 4:31). It is a seal that reminds us to be “kind to one another, tenderhearted [towards one another], [to forgive] one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). It is a seal, just like in the case of Cain who was marked by God, of eternal protection and forgiveness. It is a seal of love, of newness of life, of restoration, and of salvation, and of redemption.

This seal is the trumpet blown by the people during Joel’s time alerting and alarming us that the time has come to cry out to God, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). Search me, O God. Search me and make me whole. Search me and guide me to promises of new beginnings. Search me, O God, and prepare my heart to receive the light and love of your Son, Jesus Christ. From this seal we are, as King David notes in his 139^th Psalm, “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). There is no room for darkness in our life when Christ is in our heart guiding us toward green pastures and still waters (Psalm 23). There is no room in our heart for darkness when we have been made in the image of God. Instead, there is only room for light, love, and new beginnings. Search me, O God.

 

Conclusion:

This Ash Wednesday, I challenge you to do more than what the tradition says to do: to fast or to give something up for 40 days. Instead, I challenge you to shed away the old and to put on the newness of Christ’s love, to seek forgiveness as you forgive others, to leave your pains and sorrows—to surrender all—at the foot of the cross, and to leave the dark tomb full of your worries, stresses, and frustrations, so that Jesus’s salvation has room to live in your heart. Embrace reconciliation and redemption; and experience the restorative hope find in the light of Christ. I challenge you to remind yourself every day during the Lenten Season that the seal you receive today, the ashes, is a mark that prepares you for a new beginning.

Ash Wednesday is more than simply saying I am going to give this up or that up. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of promising the Lord that you will take the time to prepare the way, you will take the time over the next 40 days to prepare your heart for the resurrection of Jesus, and that you will take the time to help lead others to Jesus: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. And most importantly, allow these 40 days to be an opportunity to allow God to search your heart, to allow Jesus to see your needs, and to allow the Holy Spirit to motivate you to be a better disciple today than what you were yesterday.

Maybe instead of giving something up, you might add something new to your schedule to help you become the disciple that Christ needs you to be. Maybe you will pray more, maybe you will read scripture more, maybe you will listen to Christ more, maybe you will have a copy of the Upper Room Devotional in your back pocket wherever you go, or maybe, just maybe, you can do something that reminds you every day that you have been fearfully and wonderfully made and sealed by God.

In closing, I encourage you don’t give anything up this Lenten Season; instead, do something new that makes you a better disciple during these 40 days. The seal for the day of redemption begins today, all you have to do is blow the trumpet and sound the alarm that you are ready to seek forgiveness and be saved. The time has come to allow God to search your heart and to made new in the light of Jesus Christ. Remember, Ash Wednesday is more than just another day: it is a day that begins our journey from death to resurrection, to surrender all to all to Jesus. In death is our resurrection. In our resurrection is our new beginning. In our new beginning is the promise that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). And in this promise is the comfort that God will search our heart and makes us new. “For the day of the LORD is coming, it is near.” Amen.

 

 

[i] At a time of near death, when each breath was a struggle and caused excruciating pain, Jesus, looking out into the crowd—maybe catching the eyes of some looking at him from a distance, prayed to his Father to forgive them. Jesus forgave the soldiers, the High Priests who sentenced him to death, the people who screamed out, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him,” Pilate who presented him to the people as “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” and Jesus even forgave you and forgave me. At a time of near death, Jesus prayed that we would be set free from our transgressions and sins in hope that we would forgive those who trespass against us. At a time of death, Jesus wanted us to be marked with a seal of love and protection. He wanted us to experience forgiveness.