Ash Wednesday "I'm Sorry"

  

"I'm Sorry!"
Readings: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.
Incarnation Lutheran Church, Bridgehampton, NY, February 22, 2023

I was at the shopping Mall. It was busy. I saw something I liked. A shiny red guitar in the shop window.  I was momentarily distracted and bumped into another person.

"Oh, I'm sorry", I said.

I wasn't really sorry.
 I was embarrassed.
I felt like I wanted to explain.

"It was just they have a sale on in the music shop and looks like there’s a real shiny guitar in there…  I didn't mean to crash into you!" But hold on a minute. That would mean I'd also have some explaining to do to my wife. "You need more guitars?" she might say. Again, I'd have to say, "I'm sorry".

But, hey, it was nothing.
Nobody got hurt.
All I did was bump into somebody.
I'm sorry if I'm making a big thing out of this, it's not really important.
I'm sorry.
I'm only human.

I'm sorry.
I mess up.
I get mixed up.

Sometimes I can't help doing the wrong thing when I'm trying to do the right.  Sometimes I do the right thing for the wrong reason.  So, it's probably not right at all.

Other times I do the wrong thing, but for the right reason which doesn't make it right, it carries on being wrong. So either way it looks like I'm in the wrong, so, O.K... I'm sorry.

"I'm sorry."
It's not enough, is it?
The words come so easily.

The prophet Joel says;
 
"Return to me with all your heart." (Joel 2:12).

You mean really be sorry?

Be sorry with tears and fasting, with heart rending compassion and mourning, with community and personal guilt.

Be sorry for the way you have despoiled the good earth. The land is scarred with blood and tears, with graves of the young and ghosts of ten thousand conflicts. The air, the earth, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the sky all bear the marks of your greed.

Be sorry for the way you treat each other. I gave you equality.  You turned it into privilege. Some became enemies. Some became slaves.  Some were forgotten.  Some were pushed aside.  I am the stranger in your midst whom you did not welcome into your homes, I am the hungry one whom you never fed, the thirsty one whom you never offered a drink.

Be sorry for the way you have so much in a world where many have so little.
Be sorry for the blessings you have received and kept to yourself.
Be sorry for those who lie in chains whilst you walk free.
Be sorry for those whose tears are drowned out by your hollow laughter.
Be sorry for those who seek for love, whilst you seek for entertainment.

Be sorry, for it is hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven... like a camel trying get through the eye of a needle.  Be sorry, because the gate to hell is wide but the Kingdom can only be entered through a narrow door.  

Joel 2:16-17
"Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders... Let the Lord's ministers, weep between the porch and the altar,
and let them say, "Spare Thy people, O LORD"

"Turn to me with your whole heart".
Saying sorry - isn't enough.

"No", says Paul to the Corinthian Church,
"You're right. Sorry isn't enough. You need to be reconciled."

Reconciled to yourself - Reconciled to your world - Reconciled to your God.

Be Reconciled. But what does that mean?

The Greek word for reconciliation kathlla,so {kat al-las'-so} was originally used to describe what happened when you exchanged coins of equivalent value.  Then it came to mean putting things right that were at variance with each other.  It also came to mean being back in favor with someone.
 
Maybe the simplest way to describe reconciliation is ;- "Let's be friends".

Ever since the lies that shattered the silence of Eden, God has continued saying, "Let's be friends".  Saying sorry (and meaning it) is a great way to renew a friendship.  "When you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you". (Matthew 6:6).  That's how it is when you want to say, "I'm sorry" to a friend.  You go somewhere private and put things right.

Let the currency of guilt be exchanged for the richness of forgiveness.  Settle the account. Put right the difference.  Be back in favor with God.  Accept your righteousness in Christ.  Accept your sorry self as one whom Jesus died for so that you can be a friend of God.

Say sorry, but let there be no bargaining. You have nothing to give but your brokenness.
Say sorry, but let there be no protestations of innocence.
Say sorry, but let there be no presumption of deserved forgiveness.
Say sorry, and pray that God doesn't treat us as we deserve.
Say sorry, and thank God that God’s grace is greater than our sin.

In Christ is our salvation.
In Christ is our hope.
In Christ we are friends.

The One who never needed to say sorry took our sorrows upon Himself.

As we begin the season of Lent and head towards Easter we have the opportunity to reflect that the cost of friendship involves a cross.  Our journey begins with the repentance and ashes of Ash Wednesday.

We will encounter along the way times of rejoicing and times of sadness, times of betrayal and times of commitment.  At the end of our Easter road stands an empty tomb and a joyous celebration.

The day of saying "I'm sorry" will pass
and the time to say
"Christ is Risen. He is risen indeed"
will have come.

But today is the day for sorrow.
From dust we have come.
To dust we shall return.

The Reverend  Adrian J Pratt B.D.