Ash Wednesday

Read Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fastin, with weeping and with mourning…Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation.—Joel 2:12 & 15-16

The prophet Joel spoke jolting words of God to Israel, “return to me with all your heart, with weeping, and with mourning.” Most of us don’t like to think God demands anything harsh of us. Most of us don’t like to think that God might engage in judgment. None of us want to believe that we’ve somehow separated ourselves from God in a way that requires a return with fasting, weeping and mourning. It makes God sound harsh and makes us sound worse than we are.
But…then I think about the life I’ve been living. I think about the waste of resources I create. I think about the abuse I perpetrate against friends (usually without even realizing it) because of my own self-centeredness. I think about how I’ve failed to be present to my family because I was too wrapped up in my job or in my own wants. And suddenly, God’s call to return, God’s judgment doesn’t seem nearly as unjustified and negative. In fact, when I take a minute to reflect on the ways I haven’t quite lived up to the expectations of God and my community, I start to realize that God’s judgment and call for penance doesn’t have to be understood as harsh. It can be understood as merciful, even necessary to bring me back to a life of faithful living.Lent is not a time to feel guilty about misdeeds. Lent is time set aside to intentionally remember how we live and to seek a return to God and faithfulness. Such a return is not easy, nor is it something we can do alone. We require the assistance of God’s grace and our community. Joel’s call to return to God is immediately followed by a call to do so with others: “Call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation.” Over the next several weeks, allow yourself to be called closer to God. Do so by opening yourself to others at The Gathering. Join this community in seeking a return to faithful living. Seek the intentionality of Tuesday morning prayer, the Experiencing Prayer sessions, weekly worship and your own private prayer life with this Lenten Devotional. And through this gathering, this solemn assembly, this sanctified congregation, I pray you grow in and towards God.

Pray: Merciful God, we are still trying to be the people you would have us to be. Sanctify our community and our individual lives this Lent. Open us to hear your Words, calling us back, and allow us to grow closer to you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Nate Berneking is the Pastor of Spiritual Formation. He enjoys thinking, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with friends and family.