“Finding God in the Ash Heap”

Scripture: Numbers 19:17-20; Isaiah 59:20-21; Titus 2:11-15

Earlier this week, we celebrated Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent. As we discussed last week, Lent is the time when we prepare our lives to receive the Lord’s Great Gift of life at Easter. Some may say that salvation comes when we accept Christ as Lord and Savior, whenever that may happen – that that should be our Christian anniversary, so to speak. But Easter, including Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, is the time when salvation became possible – not through our efforts, though, but by God’s. Without Jesus Christ’s surrender to the evil of earth, without his submission to the world’s humiliation, and hatred, and denial, and false judgment, and suffering, and death, we would still be living in condemnation, without any hope whatsoever of eternal life.

The ashes of Ash Wednesday are a sign of our continued repentance from sinful ways, and our looking to Jesus for the destruction of the hold that sin has on our lives. At our Youth Group meeting last week, Bonnie offered a number of questions on Lent. One of them was “Where do the ashes come from?” The answer is, generally, and specifically for us, from burning the left over palms from last year’s Palm Sunday. So a related question might be “What is the significance of Palm Sunday for believers?” And this answer should be “it is the day we celebrate Christ’s victory over evil, his willingness to be our sacrifice for sin, and the honor that all will, one day, bestow on him.”

The signs of his victory are also the signs of our repentance from sin and our desire to join in his victorious life.

Read Numbers 19:17-20

This is ancient Israel’s approach to cleansing their lives of their failure to follow God’s commandments, and is, as we can see, quite detailed and very specific in its methods. And, of course, this isn’t all of the ritual that they were saddled with! But while Christians don’t subscribe to these concepts directly, there are several points that are important for us today.

First, the ashes come from a burned and joyful offering. Our Palm Sunday palms aren’t exactly “purification offerings”, but they do symbolize our allegiance and celebration of Christ’s entry into our lives. In that aspect, ashes symbolize our continued repentance from sin, and our desire to be one with our Almighty God.

Second, a person who is faithful to Christ and his teachings is to help those who have yet to come to the realization that our Lord Jesus is also our Lord Victor, if we will only follow him. For Israel, this faithful person was to help administer the sign of regret, not to actually encourage them in shedding the condemnation. Today’s Christians are called to carry the gospel message, near and far, to those who have yet to give their lives to Christ and have yet to begin following his ways.

Third, the passage speaks of the person’s washing their clothes and bathing their body to complete the purification process. For the ancients, the removal of dirt from clothing or from the body was a sign of confession, repentance, and spiritual cleansing - dirt represented evil.
(Isaiah 64:6 & Zechariah 3:1-5)
But for Christians, it is believing in the word of God and following in the example of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from the filth (the sin) of worldly ways – and it can never be our physical washing that restores us, it is our spiritual renewal that comes by faith (Matthew 15:10-20 & Mark 6:10-12).

Ash Wednesday is one of those “outward signs of an inward grace” that tell the world that we are committed to an authority that is far higher than anything the world can ever conceive of.

Read Isaiah 59:20-21

The prophet has been challenging the people to consider the impact that sinfulness has on their spiritual lives, and that repentance and rejection of sin is their only hope of experiencing God’s grace again. And he gets very specific when he tells them that Messiah, the one who will redeem Israel, is coming, but that he will only come into the hearts of those who are prepared to receive him, and into the lives of those who repent of their sin. And through the prophet, the Lord reaffirms the covenant that was made with the people hundreds of years before – that the covenant is given for the faithful and repentant hearts, not for all of the nation in general!

And when the faithful are obedient to the Lord’s call for renewal, his Spirit will be upon them, and his word - his covenant, his promise – will never leave them. But the prophet tells us that when we are truly faithful, his word will not only be ours, but it will carry on through our children, and their children, and on and on. Notice that it doesn’t say salvation will be carried on, but that God’s word will not depart. The implication is that the faithful life will share the truth of God with their children, and they with theirs, for all time, and that in the things they learn from their parents, they, too, will discover that salvation can be theirs by faith.

President Ronald Reagan once said “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” The same must be said about the Church – that the Church is also only one generation away from extinction! We can never leave the faith of our children solely up to chance, or up to their personal discovery, or to the instruction of others. We must teach them, show them, encourage them, and fight for their faith, just as we must do for our own, or else the truth of our Lord will very quickly disintegrate and vanish from our lives.

Read Titus 2:11-15

Titus was a young convert to Christianity who has been sent by Paul as a missionary to the people of Crete. Paul would never send a new pastor out with the instruction to just “do whatever you believe is right”! This letter is his coaching, his preparation for this young friend, so that he will be the most faithful pastor that he can possibly be, and this book should very possibly be the instruction manual for all pastors – new, as well as experienced.

The problem today is that our seminaries spend so much time teaching new pastors how to lead Sunday School, and about the styles of worship that they should institute, and how to counsel their parishioners in whatever problems they may be going through, and what the functions of various committees are and how they all interact, and how to institute new mission programs, and how to be tolerate and welcoming of all people – they get so involved in teaching how to be administrators and governors, that there is no time left to teach them how to be a pastor!

Books like 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, and several others should be the reference that all clergy use to become the best possible pastors for their congregations, instead of sending them out to learn what it means and requires through their own personal experience. And in this text, Paul’s advice is not only what pastors need to hear, but it is what they need to teach others – topics like:
- saying “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions
- living self-controlled, upright, and Godly lives
- waiting for the glorious return of Jesus with patience and perseverance
- that Christ gave himself to redeem us from our evil ways
- that the Lord wants to be our God, and that we would be his people

This is the kind of life that Pastor Titus is to lead, and it is also the kind of life that he is to teach to the people. And the bottom line that Paul is sharing with his young friend is that the Christian life must be based in repentance of the world’s way of living, so that we can begin to live in a Christ-like way.

This is what Ash Wednesday and our Lenten disciplines are all about, for in our ashes, we discover that God is right there with us – encouraging us, loving us, making our way perfect in him. So I encourage each and every one of us, including me, to read Titus this week (it’s a short book!), and to let the advice that Paul is passing down become our Lenten goal for the rest of this life.

Will you join me?