The first in the Lenten Midweek series:  Coming Home From Exile:   the Exoduses of the Scriptures.  (Theme and theme text by Rev. Carl C. Fickenscher II, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN).

           

            Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a 40 day period we call Lent.  It is on Ash Wednesday that the church ceremoniously takes the palm leaves of last Palm Sunday and burns these triumphant signs to ashes.  The ashes are a sign of repentance.  The ashes are a sign of humility in our sinfulness.  The ashes are what remain if we transgress the flaming swords that guarded the entrance to the Garden of Eden.

 

            The flaming sword is the first sign on Immanuel’s bell tower.  That flaming sword proclaims: 

            A. God’s punishment for sin. 

            B.  God’s love for the sinner. 

It proclaims:

            A:  Banishment from the Garden of Eden, “…the wages of sin is death.” 

            B:  Protection from an eternal life in sin, “…but the gift of God is eternal life.”

 

            We cannot go back to Eden.  The flaming swords will burn us to ashes.  But, in repentance, we receive the forgiveness won at the cross.  As Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, God replaced their simple and fragile clothing of leaves with the permanent and protective clothing of animal skins.  As Adam and Eve left the Tree of Life that would have sustained them in sinfulness for all eternity, God replaced that tree with another, that of the cross that would sustain them in free forgiveness of sins for all eternity.  As sinners come in confession of sins and trust in God’s love in forgiveness, he replaces your sinfulness, clothing you with Jesus’ holiness and righteousness to live with him in heaven.

 

            When Adam and Eve decided to act selfishly and impatiently, wanting to know good and evil in place of just the good that God had given them, God acted with love, compassion, and patience, restoring them by giving them faith in his promise of a Savior.

 

            Ashes:  when something is burned to ashes there is no bringing that something back.  Ashes: God’s miracle is taking the ashes of our sinful lives and restoring them back into his image again at the resurrection to life eternal with him.  Ashes:  are used to cleanse, as a scouring powder.  As we look at our sinful lives, repentance leads us to receiving the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood and righteousness that are now our glorious dress.

 

            The exodus from the Garden of Eden, from what we knew as Paradise, leads each one on the long journey in this wilderness of life.  But that exodus results in arriving at life’s end back into Paradise, God’s eternal heaven prepared for all believers in Jesus.

 

            Ashes:  before God in his holiness and glory we are nothing but ashes as Abraham confessed, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,” [Genesis 18:27].  Note that as we are nothing but ashes, we are invited and welcomed to speak to the Lord as he calls us to do so in prayer, song and worship.

 

            Ashes:  before God in his holiness, glory and almighty power, we are nothing but ashes as Job cries out, “He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes, [Job 30:19]. 

           

            But God in his mercies restores those faithful to him as he speaks to us through Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor,” [Isaiah 61:1].

 

            In the Exodus from Eden, the first Paradise, although it reduced us to ashes, results in the final Exodus from this world of ashes to the glories Christ brings to us from the stable, from the cross, from the empty tomb, from his ascension until that day when he comes again to replace ashes with eternal glories with him in heaven.

 

            Amen.