Sermon for Ash Wednesday, 2021

TURN ye even to me, saith the Lord, with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.  And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.

Life is a constant turning, a continual conversion, a perpetual repentance. But within the year there are days especially given to Penitence and Repentance. It is fitting to have a day devoted to turning and a season given to it. It is human nature to ignore the most sublime things and to treat lightly the most weighty responsibilities. We like to put off what is needful and to give a fraction of our attention so that we end up walking for months and years in the same wrong direction. So on Ash Wednesday and during Lent, we rally ourselves to do what needs to be done. To change what needs to be changed. To turn.

This is what the Prophet Joel was saying to Israel. “Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people. All the people.” Why? Why couldn’t the people stay at home? Why couldn’t they repent without the drama? It is because repentance is a turning, and turning takes effort. To do what needs to be done, God’s people have to rally themselves to stand up, turn around, and walk toward righteousness. This is what we are doing this evening. We come together to turn toward God. For some, this is a slight change of direction, a refocusing even. For others, a 180 is needed. But we turn toward God together and we walk toward God together.

Of course, the great mystery of our salvation is that it is by God’s grace that we turn at all. In fact, in the Liturgy we ask Him particularly that He would do the turning. We say, ”TURN thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned.” This is a great comfort. Lent is a time for great feats of penitence. A great turning. But it is also a time of Grace where God comes very near to His people to turn them. This is the Dance of Salvation. It is called Participation. God shines His face upon us and we bloom like a flower. He lays His hand on us and we rise and walk. He feeds us and in that strength we walk in the works that He has for us. This evening, allow God to turn you and take real steps in that new direction. This is the journey of Lent: a walking in the direction that God points us. “TURN thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned.”