The text from Joel Chapter Two rolls around every year on Ash Wednesday. And when I think of Joel, I think of someone that Heath Ledger's Joker would lean down and ask, "Why so serious?" Because Joel says, “Bad things are on the horizon.” Like any number of prophets before him and after him, Joel says, “Trouble is coming, so change your ways; clean up your act.”
At least that’s where he starts. And by starts I mean spends the bulk of his discourse. But there is an awesome little nugget buried in his discourse about bad times.
I would bet--and I’m not really a gambling person--but I would bet that most of us have been on either the giving or receiving end of a statement like: “If this happens again, you’re going to be...” (grounded, written up, standing in front of the Captain, etc.)
Granted, there is a time and a place for “Come to Jesus talks,” and enforcing negative consequences certainly creates compliance.
But I’m thinking, and wonder if you don’t agree, that God is interested in more than just compliance. Because compliant people aren’t joy-filled people. They are compliant; they are afraid of being in trouble and so they toe the line. What God is after, ultimately is our hearts, our complete and total devotion.
There happen to be a few sets of words that have changed my life; one set is this: “This will be so much easier if you just admit that you love me.” They came from my best friend.
Lately as I ponder what it is to undertake the season of Lent and the disciplines that we are invited to be molded by--and ultimately what I understand the life of a Christian to be about--I hear the words spoken by my best friend, “This will be so much easier if you just admit that you love me.”
When I first encountered the season of Lent it was as a zealous convert to Eastern Orthodoxy who wanted nothing more than to prove my holiness by observing each day of the fast with perfect diligence, if for no other reason than I didn’t want to have to mention my failures during confession.
But I have the words spoken through the prophet Joel rolling around in my head and in my heart. “Even now,” says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart.”
Christ in the sermon on the mount says that if you are fasting to show others your holiness, then you certainly have that reward. And if you give alms so that folks will pat you on the back, or so that your name ends up on a brass plaque donors' tree, then that is all the reward you’ll get. And if you want to comply with the legal portions of the law to avoid being in trouble, then you’ll get that, too!
(Yes, I’m paraphrasing...but it’s preacher’s privilege.)
“Return to me with all your heart,” God says. “Rend your hearts and not your clothing.” Do what you do out of love for God and you will know how deep the love of God is and you won't want any other thing than God's love.
But don’t worry about the outward signs if the inward status is cold and compliant. Joel, Jesus, the season of Lent, they all remind us that these things we do as demonstrations of repentance, they just signify our desire to get our life (our real life, our whole and total life) back on track with God. Repentance, the act of turning away from selfishness and sin toward God in Christ, is a whole body action requiring outward signs, visible demonstrations; but we are called to remember that the outward signs are a reflection the inward reality.
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