Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near—
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful army comes;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
in ages to come.
Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
for the Lord, your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy.
Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.
Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
and do not make your heritage a mockery,
a byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
Isn’t it just like us humans to turn back to God when we are between a rock and a hard place? Certainly, I have said my most fervent prayers when I was in desperate need: in hospital waiting rooms, in the midst of painful discernment, in taxi cabs in both New York
and Chicago. Those drivers are nuts. This reading in Joel has the same ethos to me. Something is about to go down. People are at risk. The darkness is falling, and a powerful army is at the door. At that moment, we turn to God to save us.
Ash Wednesday reminds us that the human condition is one big something-is-about-to-go-down kind of situation. We are alive and then like a blip on the cosmic timeline, we are dust again. In the grand scheme of things, none of us has very long. Some of us have even less. So today we are called to turn back to God with no little bit of urgency. We are called to ask the big questions of why are we here and what should we be doing with the precious time that we have? Today, we are called to make a big turn. We are called to weep and mourn for the time we have wasted in pursuit of so many other things besides the God who is love. As always, God makes a way for us: with ash on our foreheads and repentance on our hearts.
