Back to God Wholeheartedly - Whose Child Is This?

Scriptures: Joel 2:1-3, 12-17; Psalm 51; Revelation 21:3-5

Grace and peace from our Triune God to each of you, my siblings in Christ. Today, as we enter the Season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that Lent is not a season about gloom and doom, but it is a season when we return back to God more intentionally than ever. It is also a season when we fully embrace our restored relationship with God and with God’s people through the life of Jesus Christ.

"Whose child is this?" This is what adults normally ask whenever they see an unattended child who seems to be lost without proper care for a long period of time. That was how its surrounding nations see the people of Israel according to the book of Joel. Where is their God? Have they been abandoned and left unattended? See their faces flushing from weeping! Hear their cry of suffering with desperation! Where is their God?

Do we seem to be unattended children like the nation of Israel to those who don’t have a relationship with God or those who don’t know much about God? Today, we are marked with an Ash Cross on our forehead and while hearing these words: Remember! You are dust, to dust you shall return. What do the Ash Cross and the words announced say about who we really are and to whom we shall belong?

After hearing these announced words and feeling the cross marked on us, if we feel we have lost everything because we become dust and can't keep eternal promises to the things or people in our lives such as our houses, our cars, our loved ones, our pets, our jobs, or our statues, it is good. Because we can’t keep any of that forever.

If we feel we become dust and are finally set free from all the burdens that we have been carrying, including not being able to love and care as we should or not being able to forgive and let go of our anger or frustration, it is good. Have you ever seen angry dust or depressed dust? I haven’t.

That is the main purpose of being dust on this day. Without a living God, we are like dust laying on any surface motionlessly; scattered like sand in the desert, no one can get a hold of us or shape us without water. Only can God bring life out of dust through the water in our baptism.

How often do we forget that the 40 day Lent Season doesn’t count Sundays that we call ‘little Easter’? So, when we gather either virtually or in person on Sundays during the 40 days in Lent, we don’t want to miss the opportunity to remember who we are and to whom we belong. By dipping our fingers in water and marking a cross on our forehead, we are reminded that through the water of our baptism, God re-shapes us according to God’s image once again--the new image and the new life that Jesus has redeemed and restored through the power of the cross.

The prophet Joel declares to the nation of Israel that God’s salvation will come only when they return to God. They will receive God’s favor and the land will become fertile. And that’s just the beginning. God promises and says, "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, all kinds of people; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, the old shall dream, the young shall see visions.”

How blessed are we to hear this message from the prophet Joel today. As the people of faith, we hear God's promises week after week. We have a God whose love and salvation are bigger than anger and judgment. We have a God who wants to see not just the ashes on our forehead but our confession of our brokenness from the bottom of our hearts with genuine changes. We have a God who calls us PRECIOUS and DELIGHT. We have a God who is faithful and keeps promises.

Lent is a journey. It is a journey back to God, back to the safest and the most secured home. What would we pack for a 40 day journey by knowing that a Big Easter celebration will be planned, prepared, and celebrated on the day of our return?

There is a picture of an Easter Banquet Jesus has painted for you and me to see. In that banquet, we will be surrounded by a multitude of people, those we love and those we call enemies once including those who have wronged us and those who we have wronged. Isn’t that what the passage from Revelation 21:3-5 about?

GOD HAS MOVED INTO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

NO MORE TEARS, PAIN, DEATH.

GOD IS MAKING EVERYTHING NEW.

What shall we pack for this 40 day journey so that we can be part of this magnificent big celebration Jesus has painted for us? We can only reap what we sow! Whatever we pack, please bring Jesus along, his love, his forgiveness, his compassion, and his healing. With God’s help, let us repent for our self-righteous; let us repent for our self-serving; let us repent for our self-pity.

With humble hearts and gratitude, we as the people of God say, "Amen."