Ash Wednesday, 2024
The prophet Joel kicks off our Lenten journey with a bang. Trumpets blaring, alarms sounding: God is on the move! God is determined to show up here and now, get ready! Because this is not a holy social call, not a bit of divinity to brighten our days. This is the One who comes in holiness that shakes mountains and melts even the most fearless hearts. This is the One who comes as both saviour and judge, and there is much to judge.
In this passage, God’s people have chosen just about any other way than God’s. They have not loved their Lord with everything they’ve got, they have not loved their neighbours—those who bear God’s own image. They have not sought justice, or loved kindness, or walked humbly. They have trampled the poor, and they have forgotten their commission as a people meant to be God’s light for all nations. They have not done what they are made to do. And the day of reckoning is upon them.
We don’t tend to like the idea of God’s judgment. We much prefer to talk about God’s love, and so we should. And yet, Scripture refuses to separate God’s love from God’s judgment. God will get the world God wants, and that will require a radical change, not only for the obviously wicked, but for all of us. And if we believe that, why do we imagine that our behaviours that are contrary to the love and justice and righteousness that God wants will go unchallenged?
It would be utterly bleak, hopeless, except that Joel is convinced that God is merciful and gracious. And what God ultimately wants is not us grovelling in fear, but to receive him with open hearts: hearts torn open for the hope, peace, joy, and love of God for this world.
May this be a season when we are willing to rend our hearts, that Your grace and mercy would pour into us, and through us to the world. Through Christ, our judge and our hope, Amen.
Aaron Miller