Ash Wednesday 2017

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: 2 Corinthians 5:21
Theme: Mortality and Resurrection




Dear Sojourners to the Cross,

This bowl contains a small pile of ash. This is what your physical life will come to. There is no escaping it. There are no exceptions. I’m not talking about a decision you may or may not make one day to be cremated. Can you picture this for yourself? On this Ash Wednesday, as we begin the Lenten season, we are scripturally-bound to consider what this symbolizes for our existence. “For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.”1 Our conception has been corrupted by sin, and the consequence of sin will run its course, but sin will not win the day. Christ will bring us to a different conclusion. Lent is all about facing the reality of sin head-on so that our transitory lives may find permanence. You cannot excuse yourself from this confrontation. To do so is to divorce yourself from Christ. Facing sin head-on is the activity of repentance. Repentance is the only type of change that leads to permanence.

We live in a society that relishes change, but craves stability. We are always wanting something new, something different, something fresh, something on the cutting edge. Yet at the same time we must have the security of permanence and things that do not change. Only in Christ can both be attained. God the Father spoke and matter came into existence. Adam sinned and that existence became temporary. Christ became incarnate and temporal things were invested with everlasting status. Repentance involves repudiation of the transient self, and trust in the permanent Christ.

No amount of coercing, exhorting, demanding, commanding, condemning, or accusing can force a person into true repentance. The hardened heart cannot be softened with a thousand blows of an iron sledge. This work is the work of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word alone. When one truly knows what sin is, he knows also if he is truly sorry for his sin, despite what the evidence might show. Contrition, sorrow for sin, can be contrived even to the point of self-deception. Its authenticity is, of course, then not recognized by God. And then despite all outward actions, the heart remains unchanged. But a changed heart must have a new master. That new Master is the Suffering Servant. He first takes rule of our hearts from the cross.

In the forgiveness of our sins, we understand the reality of sin for what it is. A healthy doctor does not fully understand what cancer is by studying it. One understands the potency of cancer by having it and being cured of it. Faith is the medium by which reality is viewed as God says it exists. Reality is this: “God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.”2 Reality is this: “All of [us] who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death.”3 In Lent, repentance is revealed as the reality of Christian life. Christ is not the physician who cures sin with the tools available to Him. Jesus endured the cancer. The sin was piled on Him. One day He will cure us all from the cancer of sin. He is the resurrected and living Lord.

Repentance never ends in despair, but always presses on to hope. Contrition crucifies, forgiveness vivifies. Sorrow over our utter failure is dispelled by our receiving of utterly serendipitous grace. We delight in being something that, in and of ourselves we are not: blameless objects of Christ’s devotion. This is no longer pretence. It is the way of the cross. On the cross Jesus said, “It is finished.”4 The Holy Spirit is the initiator of repentance, but as in all things, the Lord Jesus Christ is the finisher. In Christ, the baptized are buried, the dead are raised, the faithful are glorified. In Christ, ashes are immortalized. In immortality we will experience a constant newness, it involves participation in the very glory of God. Amen.

+ In nomine Jesu +

Ash Wednesday
1 March, 2017
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 Genesis 3:19
2 2 Corinthians 5:19
3 Romans 6:3
4 John 20:30