When Pastor Derek Rust of Lakeville, Minnesota, preached a sermon series on the Ten Commandments, he decided to provide his congregation with a pro-active way to live out the lessons. For the eighth commandment—“Thou shalt not steal”—Rust placed large bins throughout the church and encouraged parishioners to drop off any items that they had stolen over the years. Rust was inspired by the example of British pastor J. John, who placed such bins in his own church. The response has been surprising. The week after Rust’s sermon on the eighth commandment, numerous people dropped by the church to slip their stolen goodies into the bin. Rust has found clothing, toys, tools, gum, hotel towels. As Rust says, “That’s what sermons should be about, applying truth to our lives.” (1)
That’s nice, but you and I might be a little surprised that church members would be guilty of so much theft.
It’s like that time-honored story about the Catholic priest who was working in the inner city. He was walking down an alley one evening on his way home when a young man came down the alley behind him and poked a knife against his back.
“Give me your money,” the young man with the knife said.
The priest opened his jacket and reached into an inner pocket to remove his wallet, exposing his clerical collar. “Oh, I’m sorry, Father,” said the young man, “I didn’t see your collar. I don’t want YOUR money.”
Trembling from the scare, the priest removed a cigar from his shirt pocket and offered it to the young man. “Here,” he said. “Have a cigar.”
“Oh, no, I can’t do that,” the young man replied, “I gave cigars up for Lent.”
The priest might have been surprised at the young man’s logic, or his misplaced values, giving up cigars but continuing to rob people, but at least he may have been encouraged by the fact that the young man was acknowledging the season of Lent.
One more amusing story. It is a piece of Jewish humor.
A priest and a rabbi are discussing the pros and cons of their various religions, and inevitably the discussion turns to repentance.
The rabbi explains Yom Kippur, the solemn Day of Atonement, a day of fasting and penitence, while the priest tells him all about Lent, and its 40 days of self‑denial and absolution from sins.
After the discussion ends, the rabbi goes home to tell his wife about the conversation, and they discuss the merits of Lent versus Yom Kippur. She turns her head and laughs. The rabbi says, “What’s so funny, dear?”
Her response, “40 days of Lent‑-one day of Yom Kippur . . . so, even when it comes to sin, [Gentiles] pay retail.” (2)
Well, I guess we do if that’s the way you think of Lent. We pay retail while our Jewish friends pay wholesale. But, of course, that is not the real meaning of this holy season.
LENT IS A TIME OF REFLECTION ON THE MEANING OF OUR LIVES IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST’S SACRIFICE ON THE CROSS.
He died for us. What have we done for him? Such reflection necessarily calls us to give up any practices that may be a deterrent to us in being the kind of people God has called us to be. Ash Wednesday gives us a unique opportunity for bringing our lives into alignment with God’s purpose for us.
But before we get into that, I thought you might enjoy learning some interesting facts about Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday occurs forty‑six days before Easter. That might strike you as odd, because we often speak of the “40 days of Lent.” Here’s the reason for the discrepancy: Sundays in this period are not counted among the days of Lent. I don’t know why that is true, but that’s the tradition.
Ash Wednesday falls on different dates from year to year, according to the date of Easter; it can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.
Traditionally on this date a priest or minister marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes, in the shape of a cross, which the worshiper traditionally retains until washing it off later in the evening. Ashes are symbolic of repentance. The symbolism echoes the Near Eastern tradition of throwing ash over one’s head signifying repentance or as a sign of grief or sorrow (as related numerous times in the Bible). The priest or minister offers the worshiper an instruction while applying the ashes.
Among the traditional instructions is this one: “Remember, man, that you are dust
And unto dust you shall return.” This wording comes from Genesis 3:19.
In churches that adhere closely to tradition, the ashes that are used in the service are derived from burning the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations. (3)
Here’s an important fact: Did you know that Christians have been celebrating this sacred rite for nearly one thousand years? The name for this day was given by Pope Urban in 1099. That is significant to me--one thousand years of Christians bowing in contrition and having an ashen cross painted on their forehead. And now it is our turn. And so we turn to the little book of Joel and read these words, “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 . . .”
SOME OF US MAY FEEL GREAT REMORSE FOR OUR SINS.
“Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning . . .” We don’t know the burdens that many people carry around in their hearts.
The Boston Globe once reported the tragic account of the drowning of an eight- year-old boy in a small pond. The boy was with three friends and together they were looking for golf balls. The friends reported that when Chris had slipped into the pond they thought he was playing a trick on them. But that story was not true. Two years later the boy who pushed Chris into the pond finally confessed his transgression. However, by then it was too late for healing. Each of the boys suffered long term emotional and psychological damage from the secret they had been carrying. (4)
Many people carry around a heavy burden of guilt. Maybe it was the way you treated someone in your family. Maybe it has something to do with your work. There is great therapeutic value as you receive the ashes upon your forehead of taking whatever burden of guilt you have been carrying and handing it over to God. “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow . . .” (Isaiah 1:18)
It is interesting to me that the closer one feels to Christ, the more acutely aware one may be of his or her sinfulness. Bad people usually don’t feel much remorse.
Attorney Sunny Schwarz is a facilitator for a restorative justice program in San Francisco. Restorative justice involves setting up meetings between criminals and crime victims, so that the criminals can learn first-hand how their crimes negatively impact people’s lives. Often, the meetings between victims and criminals result in healing for both parties.
Schwarz claims that a majority of criminals have “zero empathy” for their victims. They rationalize their crimes by claiming that they are the victims of an unjust society. But Schwarz has seen many a violent offender shaken to his very core when he hears from his victim’s mouth the extent of his victim’s suffering. For many of them, this is the first time they have even thought about the effects of their choices. Their sense of empathy and remorse motivates many of these hardened criminals to change their behavior. (5)
If you have come into this service with a feeling of remorse, that is a good thing. It says something about you and you character. It says something good about you and your search for God.
REMORSE IS THE FIRST STEP IN AUTHENTIC REPENTANCE.
Now it’s time to take the next step. It is time to confess to God your sinfulness and to covenant with God that you are making a new beginning. Like the little sign says, “If you’re headed in the wrong direction, God allows U‑turns.”
It’s like an old Army officer who for more than thirty-five years had been a heavy drinker. This was not helped by the fact that he had the temperament of a top sergeant long after he had become a Colonel.
One day this Colonel was invited to speak to a group of doctors. He described to these physicians a personality change that he had experienced. Now, he declared, he was as temperate as he had once been intemperate, as considerate as he had once been severe, as concerned for others as he had once been selfish.
In the audience was a psychiatrist of the school which says that personalities are set very early in life. He protested that at his age you can’t have a personality change.
“Well,” replied this member of Alcoholics Anonymous, “at least I am under new management.” (6)
Maybe that’s what you need on this Ash Wednesday. Maybe it’s not so much what you need to give up as much as it is what you need to receive--a new Manager for your life. There is no better time than now. As you receive the ashes on your forehead may your heart be filled with the life-changing power of Christ’s Holy Spirit.
1. “Sermon produces results,” from the Charisma News Service, cited in Good News, Sept./Oct. 2004, p. 8. 2. http://www.geocities.com/carrigan/easter.html.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday.
4. Gordon MacDonald, Rebuilding Our Broken Worlds (Nashville: Oliver Nelson, 1990), pp. 76-77.
5. “After violence, the possibility of healing” by Jan Goodwin, O, The Oprah Magazine, April 2004, p. 233.
6. “The Man Who Came By Night,” Dr. William K. Quick, http://www.faithandvalues.com /