The Collect for Ash Wednesday (The First Day of Lent)
Almighty and Everlasting God, Who hates nothing that You have made, and forgives the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, being truly sorry for our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may, obtain of You, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For The Epistle, Joel 2:12-17
12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the Lord your God.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast,
call a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people,
consecrate the assembly;
bring together the elders,
gather the children,
those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
The Holy Gospel of St Matthew 6:16-21
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Bishop Ian’s Thoughts
Today’s Reading for the Epistle is taken from the Old Testament Book of the Prophet Joel, Chapter 2, Verses 12-17.
In this portion of his Book the Prophet Joel declares God’s call to the nation of Israel to repent and turn from their disobedience:
“12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
The phrase “with all your heart” refers to a complete change of thinking and behaviour, in which the people as individuals, and a nation, renounce their sinful ways and turn from their disobedience to God’s Holy Law, and willingly do, with heart and mind, those things which God requires.
“Fasting, weeping and mourning” are signs of the sincerity of Israel’s repentance.
If the nation of Israel repents and turns from their disobedience then God will restore the blessings of His Covenant promises, given to Abraham.
God’s warnings of Judgement in the Old Testament are always a call to repentance so that the threatened Judgement may be averted.
In some cases a warning of an immanent threat, that is heeded, may not only see that threat averted, but a blessing may follow Israel’s turning back to God.
The Prophet Joel tells Israel what true repentance involves:
“13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.”
The nation of Israel must repent on an intellectual and spiritual basis (your heart) and not only in an outward show of ritual (garments).
The Prophet Joel then describes the Nature of God:
"Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity."
God’s warning of Judgement always allows for an escape.
By repenting of any evil committed, confessing the sin, and seeking God’s forgiveness the Judgement will be averted.
As previously mentioned God may give a blessing as a sign of His Faithfulness:
“14 Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the Lord your God.”
The Prophet Joel now turns to the description of God’s warning of immanent Judgement on the nation.
This urgent warning of Judgement contains elements that allude to the times of the approaching Final Great Judgement, the time of which, no man knows.
The Great Judgement will, however, take place on the day that will mark the end of the ages.
The trumpet sounds an urgent warning that summons all the nation of Israel to assemble and be consecrated in order to repent and pray for God to change His Mind and stay His Hand from immanent Judgement:
“15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast,
call a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people,
consecrate the assembly"
The urgency is made very clear, by the prophet Joel, in declaring that the Elderly, Nursing Mothers, and Newly Weds, must heed the call to assemble, and Priests are to “weep between the Portico and the Altar” to show the depth, sorrow, and sincerity of the people in seeking God’s Forgiveness and so postpone His Judgement:
"bring together the elders,
gather the children,
those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the portico and the altar."
Newlywed husbands were usually excused from military service for a period of one year, as specified in the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy 24:5:
5 “If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.”
Joel concludes this portion of his prophecy by revealing what the prayer and petition of the people must say to God:
“Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
What the assembly of people are directed to ask is that God will forgive them and lift the sentence of impending Judgement so that the people may turn from their disobedience and demonstrate, to God, that they can live as His Holy, Chosen People.
The assembly is also begging God to reverse His edict of Judgement so that the people of Israel will not become a “byword” among the nations.
To be called a “byword” means to be laughed at, mocked, joked about, scorned, and ridiculed.
Being called a “byword” would have pagan priests mocking and laughing at them saying “Where is their God?”
It is very interesting that Joel uses the expression “where is their God?” to describe how the nations will mock Israel, if God abandons and Judges them.
This very same theme of ridicule was expressed by the Jewish religious leaders in their mocking of the Lord Jesus Christ during His Crucifixion, and recorded by St Matthew in his Holy Gospel Chapter 27, Verse 41-43:
41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’
In other words “Where is His God?”
The Lord Jesus answered their mocking with an Anguished Cry as recorded by St Matthew in the 27th Chapter of His Holy Gospel, verses 45-46:
“45 From the sixth until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The Lord Jesus drew His Anguished Cry from The Book of Psalms 22:2
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?”
This Anguished Cry of the Lord Jesus is, I believe, one of the most important, deep, soul revealing aspects, of God’s Holy Gospel, involving both God’s Mercy and the Lord Jesus’ Love revealed to us in all of the Holy Bible.
The Lord Jesus’ Anguished Cry reveals to us the acceptance, by God. of the Lord Jesus’ offering of His Perfect Life as the Perfect Payment for sin, demanded by our Holy God’s Holy Law.
God’s Holy Law demanded that sinners be punished by exclusion from His Kingdom and condemnation and eternal damnation in Hell.
In other words eternal separation from God and spiritual damnation.
God did not simply relax His Law or merely excuse all sinners. He rather sent His Only Begotten Son into the World, born as the Perfect, Proper Man, to pay the price of human sin with His Perfect Life.
When the Lord Jesus Cried out “My God, My God why have You Forsaken Me,” He revealed to us that God had upheld His Holy Law and carried out the punishment due to all mankind, for the inherited sin of Adam and the actual sin of each individual, and the punishment was laid on the Lord Jesus.
God turned His Back on the Lord Jesus, our representative, and for the first time in the Lord Jesus’ Life the very, very, intimate Spiritual Bond between God and His Only Begotten Son was broken.
St Paul declares this in the Fifth Chapter of his Second Letter to the Corinthian Church, Verse 21:
“21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In that moment the Holiness of God, and the Righteousness of God's Divine Judgement, were emblazoned across the sky.
Our Holy God had Judged all Sinners, Pronounced them Guilty, and carried out the Sentence.
However, on account of God’s Great Love and Mercy, the sentence was carried out upon our Perfect Representative, the Lord Jesus, who owed no debt to God for sin.
How long the Intimate Spiritual Bond, between God and His Beloved Son, was broken we are not told. I may have been a fraction of a second or it may have been the entire three days that the Lord Jesus was in the Tomb.
We are told that after the Lord Jesus died he descended into Hell (the covered place).
During this time, in Hell, scholars believe that the Lord Jesus proclaimed His Victory over sin and death and declared His Judgement on Satan and his followers.
Thankfully our Holy Righteous God is also a Loving and Merciful God, and He raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, and Exalted Him to Glory at His Own right Hand in Heaven.
By Grace the Lord Jesus clothes us in His Holy Righteousness and we are accepted into God’s Eternal Kingdom through God’s acceptance of the Lord Jesus’ Holy Sacrifice.
The Holy Gospel was Perfectly completed.
The Chief Priests and the other religious officials had no idea that their Crucifixion of the Lord Jesus would inaugurate a New Covenant between God and His Faithful People.
This New Relationship, The Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, would be based on Divine Mercy, Grace, and not Law.
The Holy Gospel certainly fulfils Joel’s prophecy for God’s Chosen People to:
“13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.”
May God give us His Grace to do the same.
Let us pray that God might give us, through the Holy Spirit, the desire and courage to give Him praise and thanks in all facets of our life, but above all, to praise and thank Him continually for the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, secured for us at such a high cost, so that no non-Christian person may ever say of us, “Where is their God.” Amen.
Today’s Holy Gospel Reading is taken from the Holy Gospel of St Mathew, Chapter 6 Verses16-21.
In this portion of his Holy Gospel St Matthew records the Lord Jesus’ teaching, from His Sermon on the Mount, regarding the lifestyle that all Christian people should seek to emulate:
“16 When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
What the Lord Jesus is saying is that we must not put on an outward show, to draw attention to the fact that we praying or performing some other activity of Christian Piety.
The Jewish religious leaders, whom the Lord Jesus called “hypocrites” loved to make long, and loud prayers in the town market place, dressed in their finest robes of office.
This was so that they could be seen by the townspeople, and any visitors to the town. The people would be impressed by these shows of pomposity and believe that the “hypocrites” were very important persons and were highly regarded by God.
Nothing could have been further from the truth, for the Lord Jesus declares:
“Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”
The “hypocrites” have received all that they are going to get - the fleeting admiration of the crowd.
The Lord Jesus teaches us that if we are personally suffering, or fasting, to praise God we must do all we can to conceal this distress from others, to avoid putting on a spectacle so as to draw attention to ourselves to gain the sympathy from others, rather than to praise God.
The Lord Jesus then tells us that the way to please God is to pray to Him in secret so that no other person can see that you are praying, or know your private words to God.
God will hear you in secret and know that you are not praying or praising Him to gain the impress men, but are sincerely honouring Him by sharing your thoughts, problems, and requests, with Him, in the sanctity of your heart.
St John concludes the Lord Jesus’ teaching by giving us valuable insight on worldly goods:
“19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Earthly treasure may cost us dearly in worrying about how we may protect it, from all that may damage or destroy it. In this day and age we can spend huge sums on high tech storage, elaborate electronic TV surveillance, and alarm systems, yet we still worry if that is enough to secure our treasure.
In the end our treasure becomes a burden.
We may use earthly treasure for great good, but remember, that the desire for earthly treasure may tempt us to do great spiritual evil.
May God give us, through the Holy Spirit, the desire to give Him praise, and thank Him continually for the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest treasure ever, secured for us, by God Himself, and may we never be distracted by the false treasures of this world, that can tempt us to turn away from God’s Greatest Treasure. Amen.
Bishop Ian