An Ash Wednesday Meditation

It’s Not Supposed to be Fun

An Ash Wednesday Meditation

Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor

Feb. 10, 2016

Scripture: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-17

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

I was powerfully struck by something I once heard one of my UCC clergy colleagues say. This isn’t to pick on him. He’s a great guy and a good pastor, but this one thing he said kind of struck me wrong. Along with another colleague he and I were discussing the season of Lent that would soon be upon us. My colleague asked: How can we make Lent more fun? I didn’t call him on it, but the thought that flashed through my mind was: Fun? Lent’s not supposed to be fun! But I get where he’s coming from. People, including church people, like fun. It’s easy for us clergy types to think that we’ll be more successful if we make church nothing but fun and games, to make it entertainment, so that more people will want to come. But here’s the thing. Religion isn’t entertainment. It’s a whole lot more serious than that. That’s not to say we can never have fun at church. I believe, and I hope, that we do. But God’s not an entertainer, and life has a whole lot more in it than just fun. Since religion is about God, and since religion is about human life—all of human life—lived in relationship with God, it too has to be about more than entertainment and fun.

Ash Wednesday is a particularly appropriate day on which to be reminded of that truth. The lectionary readings for the day that we heard drive the point home. The prophet Joel cries out: The day of the Lord is coming, and it is a day of darkness and gloom. He shouts to the people to return to God “with fasting and weeping and mourning.” He calls on the priests and ministers to weep and offer prayers of lamentation to God. Fun stuff, eh? Not so much. The Psalmist of Psalm 51, ancient Israel’s great prayer of confession, admits that he has sinned before God and done what is evil in God’s sight. He calls on God for mercy and forgiveness. He says that the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. More fun, what? Not so much.

These texts are pointing to a powerful but uncomfortable truth about God. God is gracious and merciful, yes; but God is also the judge and punisher of sin. If God is ultimate reality, if God is All and the Ground of All, then God is Judge as well as Creator. We believe in grace, yes; but grace does not preclude judgment. Grace is necessary precisely because we humans do that which God judges. Judgment precedes grace and is its necessary precondition. If we did not sin, there would be no need for God’s grace. If God did not judge sin, there would be no need for God’s grace. We often forget that truth. We don’t like to think about sin, especially our own sin. We want only positive self-esteem and ego reinforcement. We want to feel good about ourselves, so we kind of forget about all that sin stuff at times. We forget that human sin hurts and angers God and that that’s why God’s grace is necessary for us.

Well, Ash Wednesday is a day in particular when we don’t get to forget all that sin stuff. It is a day for admitting our sin, that is, it is a day for admitting our need for God’s grace. Indeed, all of Lent is a season for admitting our need for God’s grace. It is the season of preparation not so much for Easter as for Holy Week, and especially for Good Friday, the day that Jesus was crucified in order to show us God’s grace. Jesus Christ, and in particular Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, is a great gift that God gives to us; and God gives it to us because God knows we need it. We need it because of sin. However we understand it, we all confess that Jesus died on the cross as part of God’s plan for dealing with human sin. Or perhaps better, that God uses Jesus’ death on the cross, which is an undeniable fact, as part of God’s plan for dealing with human sin. God indeed does precisely that, and here on Ash Wednesday it is appropriate and necessary for us, necessary to our spiritual lives within the Christian tradition, to acknowledge that uncomfortable truth.

And no, it’s not fun. It’s not supposed to be fun. It’s serious. It’s supposed to be serious. But it a crucial part of the Christian spiritual life. Ash Wednesday, when we powerfully acknowledge our need for God’s grace because of our sin and our mortality, deepens and strengthens our faith, deepens and strengthens our spirituality, deepens and strengthens our walk with God. It does that because it brings us face to face with an uncomfortable but undeniable truth: We need God. We need God’s grace. Ash Wednesday forces us to admit that truth. Our need comes before God’s grace and is the condition of it. It’s not fun. It’s not supposed to be fun. But it is part of God’s plan of salvation. Thanks be to God. Amen.