+ Ash Wednesday – February 14th, 2024 +
Joel 2:12-19; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10; Matthew 6:1-21
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When you looked at the calendar today or in recent weeks, you probably did a double take. Wait…did I see that right? It’s February 14th. Valentine’s Day. But it’s also Ash Wednesday.
Now, at first these two days might seem like complete, polar opposites, an odd couple. A day of romance meets a season of repentance? What could a day of flowers, candy hearts, and love possibly have in common with ashes, Lent, and the passion of Christ?
In a word…forgiveness. Where there is love – not the Hallmark brand of love – but true, real, sacrificial love; where there is steadfast love, there is forgiveness. Where there is Ash Wednesday, there’s forgiveness. Like all of God’s gifts, these gifts – love and forgiveness – come to us through the cross of Christ. How do you know God loves you? Let me count the ways…three nails, a wooden cross, a crown of thorns, a pierced side, an empty tomb, a resurrected Jesus. How do you know God forgives you? Look to the cross and listen to his promise: Paul repeats it for us. Call it a Corinthian valentine card: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Forgiveness is the gift we pray for in the 5th petition of the Lord’s Prayer. That’s our catechism focus for today. We’ll spend the rest of the midweek Lenten services looking at the other petitions, or parts, of the Lord’s Prayer in the usual order in which we pray them. But today, on Ash Wednesday, we begin with the 5th petition…with forgiveness. It’s the perfect place to begin set out on our Lenten journey – a journey to Holy Week, a journey of repentance, and a journey of forgiveness.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
In Matthew’s gospel we hear these words in Jesus’ sermon on the mount. There he teaches us to pray. Jesus gives us the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer – like all prayers, really – begins outside of us. In the Lord’s words. He speaks and we listen. He gives us the words. And we pray.
Without Jesus’ words our prayers are just a bad cover version of the Pharisees who pray to be seen and heard and noticed and patted on the back. Or else, they sound like pagan prayers. A big, steaming pile of empty phrases.
This is why Jesus must teach us, as he taught his disciples, to pray. This is why he must give us the words to pray. This is why we pray the 5th petition. Dear Father in heaven, forgive us our trespasses.
Forgive us when we grow weak and weary. Forgive us when we stumble daily. Forgive us when fail and fall. Forgive us when we are selfish, self-centered, sinners. Forgive us when we give into temptation. Forgive us for all the times we have failed to forgive others. Forgive us for our lack of trust, for our trust in ourselves, for our desires and devices.
The truth is, “if God does not forgive us without stopping, we are lost.”
And yet, we are not lost, because God forgives you without stopping.
The green trimmings fade; the Valentine roses withers. Cards get tossed away. But God’s steadfast love for you in Christ never ceases. God’s forgiveness to you in Jesus never ends. His mercies, and his forgiveness, are new every morning.
In that way, the season of Lent is a little bit like Baptism. God did something for you on the day of your baptism – he washed you; cleansed you; forgave you; adopted you; clothed you in Christ. But God still works in your baptism. He daily drowns your sin and daily raises you up. You die and rise in him. That’s what Lent does…it leads to Easter. Repentance leads to forgiveness. Death to life.
Now don’t try and sneak in there and take credit for any of this. Repentance, just like forgiveness, is God’s work. God’s gift. God’s doing. God repents you. Turns you from your sin, to his forgiveness. That’s what the prophet Joel called Israel to do, and us too. To live in the Lord’s repentance and steadfast love.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Joel 2:13
How does God relent over disaster? How does he show us his steadfast love? He releases us from bondage. He sets us free from prison. He cancels our debt. He pays our ransom. He takes on our sin. He forgives. That is the kind of God you have in Jesus. A merciful. Gracious. Slow to anger. Abounding in steadfast love. Forgiving God. You may think you are a great sinner, and we all are, but Christ’s forgiveness is always greater. Always deeper and wider and higher.
That is who God is. He forgives. He is the forgiver.
And in Jesus, that’s who you are too. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
It’s that second part of the petition that we often find troubling isn’t it? Forgiving others. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.”
That’s why we pray this petition. That’s why forgiveness – like all the other parts of the Lord’s Prayer – is God’s work. God’s gift. God’s doing in your life. Christ’s gift of forgiveness flows downstream. From his hands, feet, and side…into your baptism, into the cup and the bread…into your life…and then, to others around you.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
So when we pray the 5th petition we’re praying for our forgiveness. But we’re also praying, Father, help me forgive others. Help me forgive that grudge I’ve been holding on to. Help me forgive that hurt, that pain, that insult, that which seems unforgiveable in my eyes.
And you know what our Lord says about all of that?
Father, forgive them.
Though your sins were as scarlet, you shall be white as snow.
Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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