Ash Wednesday

 Psalm 51

In his book Tales of the Hasidim, the late Jewish philosopher Martin Buber recalls the writings of Rabbi Simcha Bunin, a Polish Hasidic leader of the nineteenth century. Bunim wrote,

Everyone must have two pockets, with a note in each pocket, so that [you] can reach into one or the other, depending on the need. When feeling lowly and depressed, discouraged or disconsolate, one should reach into the right pocket, and there, find the words:

Bish'vili nivra ha'olam (bish-vil-lee nee-vRAH ha-oh-l’arm)

“The world was created for me” (BT Sanhedrin 37B).

 

But when feeling high and mighty one should reach into the left pocket and find the words:

“V'anokhi afar v'efer” (vah-no-khee a-far a-fair)

“I am but dust and ashes”(Gen. 18:27). [i]

"Today is the day when Christians around the world dig into the left pocket to see what realizations, and shadowed blessings, may be found there."[ii]

Today is the day when we follow the prophet Joel's instruction:

Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing." (2:13)

At the very least, today is a day to begin to reorient ourselves toward God and to begin to draw near to God, as we enter into Lent.

Lent is a season of self-examination and repentance, and, before we say, "We follow Jesus. For what do we need to repent?" let's dig a little deeper into that pocket and examine what we find, as we reflect on the words of Psalm 51.

Most scholars agree that the psalms were not written by David and the superscriptions - the words that tell us about the psalm’s purpose or who its author was - were added much later by editors. Those editors chose to associate particular psalms with events in David's life, and while sometimes connections between sacred texts and narratives can be vague or tenuous, Psalm 51 certainly provides the response we would hope the king would have had after Nathan confronted him about his adultery with Bathsheba and his complicity in Uriah's murder.

One of the patterns we see in the psalms is that say what we already know to be true about God, and then they tell God what’s wrong and then they ask God to respond.

Here, the psalmist begins his plea to God by acknowledging God's steadfast love and abundant mercy.

And then he confesses his sin, and importantly, he doesn't confess one particular action, but he confesses his condition of being a sinner, saying, “I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me." (51:5) That language makes us uncomfortable because it implicates even the youngest children among us. And it exposes us when we like to think we can get away with “ignoring or hiding the unpolished parts of our lives.”[iii]

But, as Lutherans we believe that we are "wholly saint and wholly sinner" at the same time, from the day we are born.

Confession was never intended to be torturous or punishing. Instead, in confession, we acknowledge our sin before the God who has known us since we were knitted together in our mothers’ wombs, (Psalms 139:13-14) because we have confidence in God's immeasurable grace and forgiveness.

The psalmist recognizes this too, addressing God and saying, "You desire truth in the inward being..." (v. 6) God doesn't want us to play games; God wants our honest reflection and repentance.

The psalm continues, asking God for God to act in accordance with who we know God to be.

Just as at the font we mark ourselves with the sign of the cross and remember that in our baptism we were adopted into the family of God, today we are marked with crosses of ash, to remember that God washes our dusty selves and sanctifies us. (51:7b)

Our plea "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me." (51:10) recognizes God's power in our lives to forgive us and create new life for us. Creating us anew, God uses the old stuff, and we see how what we've experienced and who we have been remain a part of who we are today, redeemed by God's love and mercy.

Redemption and reconciliation are possible only because of God’s love for us.

This Lenten season, as a congregation we are seeking to live well in Christ and to practice forgiveness with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, exploring what it means to have the steadfast assurance that God’s mercies are new every morning,(Lamentations 3:23) and that forgiveness is ours to give away.

Just as we come today to confess our sin, receive forgiveness and remember God’s grace because we love God, we want to pursue forgiveness of ourselves and others, not because we are motivated by obligation or fear, but by love.[iv]

And as we recognize the ways that Christ’s love transforms us, I wonder if we can name the old things that are being made new and see how parts of our stories find new purpose when we see them as part of our story with Christ.

Let us pray…

God of life and death, of forgiveness and blessing,
Have mercy on us, according to your steadfast love
according to your abundant mercy, blot out our transgressions.
Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity and cleanse us from our sin.
Help us return to you to repent and to release.
Crack open our tired, aching, chained up hearts to Your mystery and healing hope.
We know we are dust, and to dust we shall return,
and in the midst of all of that, we return to You.
Come, O God, make haste to save us.
Amen.[v]

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[i] “Two Pockets," Book Two: The Later Masters [New York: Schocken Books, 1947], pp. 249-250).

[ii] Sundays and Seasons Resources for Ash Wednesday.

[iii] Eric Mathis. Commentary on Psalm 51:1-17. Workingpreacher.org.

[iv] “The ‘Why’ of Love and Forgiveness’, Practicing Forgiveness with All Your Heart, Soul, Strength and Mind.

[v] adapted from Psalm 51, RevGalBlogPals Wednesday praye