Excuses Versus Repentance
Commentary
Ash Wednesday is a day for remembering our sins, asking for forgiveness, and resolving to change. In his essay “On Forgiveness,” C.S. Lewis made an important distinction between asking forgiveness for sins and excusing our sins. Instead of confessing fault, people make excuses for what they’ve done – not only to God, but to each other. How many times have you heard (or made) what seemed to be an apology, but which ended up as an excuse for which no blame was taken?
This might work on other people, but I suspect God is discerning enough to know the difference, but I wonder how useful it is in our dealings with each other to mask our excuses – and our unwillingness to say we were wrong – with words that sound as if we’re sorry?
Joel lays it out for us. Confess your sins. Call upon the Lord. Be saved. Jesus warns us against becoming false-faced hypocrites when it comes to confession. And the apostle Paul tells us about the rewards that go with seeking honest reconciliation with God – now! – during this most acceptable time.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, Isaiah 58:1-12
I love the refrain from Bob Dylan’s song, “Not Dark Yet.” Describing the situation, we find ourselves in, he says several times, “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.” The prophet Joel is saying something of the like. The day of the Lord is described as “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Blow the trumpet, sound the alarm! The day of the Lord is near, doom is coming, it’s getting dark out there – but not yet.
And in response to believers who might say, “Bring it on!” Joel reminds us that you can’t assume it’s going to be a good outcome for us.
It’s not clear exactly when Joel spoke his prophecies, nor what political situation he may have addressed, but this is all happening in the midst of an ecological disaster: the destruction of crops – and hope – by a plague of locusts. Any pretense that all is well, and that their larger problems can be ignored, has been swept away. And so, the prophet calls them to refocus their attention to rededication to their faith – and though the outward signs of repentance are important -- fasting, weeping, mourning, and, as in our observance, ashes upon the forehead, it is inward change that is essential: rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Which is also what we see in Isaiah 58:1-12, the alternate reading from the Hebrew Scriptures. This prophet also warns against relying simply on the outward signs of repentance --, “to lie down in sackcloth and ashes…” because the fast God chooses is “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house…” Do these things and “…light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly, your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.”
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
The apostle Paul seems to have maintained a long correspondence with the Corinthian house churches, one result of the eighteen months he spent ministering with them while maintaining a tent-making and repair business with fellow church leaders Priscilla and Aquila.
It is possible that the document we call 2 Corinthians is actually pieces of several letters strung together. In this section, Paul pleads with the Corinthians to “…be reconciled to God.” He then quotes from the prophet Isaiah (49:8) that “now is the acceptable time.” Don’t put this off. He does not suggest that by confessing, repenting, and reconciling we will avoid the many difficulties life is prey to. However, in enduring these troubles as reconciled people of God we shall give the lie to those who see us in a negative light because “…by purity, knowledge, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful, speech, and the power of God” we shall be benefit all around us, “…having nothing, possessing everything.”
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The theaters in the ancient world could seat thousands, even tens of thousands. Actors, who might be standing far from the audience, worelarge masks called hupcrites, that exaggerated their features so that all could tell the emotions the actors were singing as they played their parts.
Jesus is using that word in a negative way when he talks about the hypocrites, who are not actors wearing a mask to tell a story, but people acting as if they were truly suffering in their apparent repentance. There’s no need to make a public show of your piety. Don’t blow a trumpet so everyone will look in your direction. I think of the line from Joni Mitchel’s song, “Both Sides Now.” “But now it’s just another show. You leave them laughing when you go.” Don’t put on a show when it comes to public worship. Don’t pretend to impress others. Quietly repent, do it in private, because God knows the difference.
Those hypocritical public rituals are very different from the quiet application and wearing of Ashes as a result of the rituals of Ash Wednesday. The observance takes place midweek, when people have to come inconveniently early or late around their working hours. It’s inconvenient. It gets us out of our routines. Wearing the ashes is a public display, yes, but it’s not overblown. Instead it is a quiet reminder to all who notice it that we all have something to confess and repent during this season of Lent.
This might work on other people, but I suspect God is discerning enough to know the difference, but I wonder how useful it is in our dealings with each other to mask our excuses – and our unwillingness to say we were wrong – with words that sound as if we’re sorry?
Joel lays it out for us. Confess your sins. Call upon the Lord. Be saved. Jesus warns us against becoming false-faced hypocrites when it comes to confession. And the apostle Paul tells us about the rewards that go with seeking honest reconciliation with God – now! – during this most acceptable time.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, Isaiah 58:1-12
I love the refrain from Bob Dylan’s song, “Not Dark Yet.” Describing the situation, we find ourselves in, he says several times, “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.” The prophet Joel is saying something of the like. The day of the Lord is described as “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Blow the trumpet, sound the alarm! The day of the Lord is near, doom is coming, it’s getting dark out there – but not yet.
And in response to believers who might say, “Bring it on!” Joel reminds us that you can’t assume it’s going to be a good outcome for us.
It’s not clear exactly when Joel spoke his prophecies, nor what political situation he may have addressed, but this is all happening in the midst of an ecological disaster: the destruction of crops – and hope – by a plague of locusts. Any pretense that all is well, and that their larger problems can be ignored, has been swept away. And so, the prophet calls them to refocus their attention to rededication to their faith – and though the outward signs of repentance are important -- fasting, weeping, mourning, and, as in our observance, ashes upon the forehead, it is inward change that is essential: rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Which is also what we see in Isaiah 58:1-12, the alternate reading from the Hebrew Scriptures. This prophet also warns against relying simply on the outward signs of repentance --, “to lie down in sackcloth and ashes…” because the fast God chooses is “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house…” Do these things and “…light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly, your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.”
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
The apostle Paul seems to have maintained a long correspondence with the Corinthian house churches, one result of the eighteen months he spent ministering with them while maintaining a tent-making and repair business with fellow church leaders Priscilla and Aquila.
It is possible that the document we call 2 Corinthians is actually pieces of several letters strung together. In this section, Paul pleads with the Corinthians to “…be reconciled to God.” He then quotes from the prophet Isaiah (49:8) that “now is the acceptable time.” Don’t put this off. He does not suggest that by confessing, repenting, and reconciling we will avoid the many difficulties life is prey to. However, in enduring these troubles as reconciled people of God we shall give the lie to those who see us in a negative light because “…by purity, knowledge, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful, speech, and the power of God” we shall be benefit all around us, “…having nothing, possessing everything.”
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The theaters in the ancient world could seat thousands, even tens of thousands. Actors, who might be standing far from the audience, worelarge masks called hupcrites, that exaggerated their features so that all could tell the emotions the actors were singing as they played their parts.
Jesus is using that word in a negative way when he talks about the hypocrites, who are not actors wearing a mask to tell a story, but people acting as if they were truly suffering in their apparent repentance. There’s no need to make a public show of your piety. Don’t blow a trumpet so everyone will look in your direction. I think of the line from Joni Mitchel’s song, “Both Sides Now.” “But now it’s just another show. You leave them laughing when you go.” Don’t put on a show when it comes to public worship. Don’t pretend to impress others. Quietly repent, do it in private, because God knows the difference.
Those hypocritical public rituals are very different from the quiet application and wearing of Ashes as a result of the rituals of Ash Wednesday. The observance takes place midweek, when people have to come inconveniently early or late around their working hours. It’s inconvenient. It gets us out of our routines. Wearing the ashes is a public display, yes, but it’s not overblown. Instead it is a quiet reminder to all who notice it that we all have something to confess and repent during this season of Lent.
