Ash Wednesday is a...
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Object:
Ash Wednesday is a time for repentance, for turning around. The lesson and the commemoration urge us to do this fast, to turn around our lives right now. But when it comes to changing bad things about ourselves, we are prone to procrastination. Famed modern theologian Karl Barth believes that such procrastination is a function of our imprisonment by anxiety, our sense of hopelessness about the future (Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/2, pp. 471-472). But "now is no time for taking rest," John Calvin claims (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XIV/1, p. 44). God will not let us do that to ourselves, he adds: "We are at first torpid when God invites us, except he applies his many goads..." (Ibid., p. 62).
Hence the prophet now represents God as propitious and merciful, that he might kindly allure the people to repentance (Ibid., p. 55).
With his love, God gently goads or allures us to turning this around. With that warning we can spend our time affirming with Calvin that: "This should lead us to remark that we ought not to place our safety in anything else than in the presence of God; for if he be absent, we shall either shudder with fear, or become stupid or run headlong like drunkards" (Ibid., Vol. VIII/1, pp. 323-324).
Hence the prophet now represents God as propitious and merciful, that he might kindly allure the people to repentance (Ibid., p. 55).
With his love, God gently goads or allures us to turning this around. With that warning we can spend our time affirming with Calvin that: "This should lead us to remark that we ought not to place our safety in anything else than in the presence of God; for if he be absent, we shall either shudder with fear, or become stupid or run headlong like drunkards" (Ibid., Vol. VIII/1, pp. 323-324).
