God's Arms Are Wide Open Ash Wednesday 2006

(First, read the passages for this homily: Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; 1 John 4:7-12)

The season of Lent reminds us of our need to repent – which means, to return to God. The liturgy we use for Ash Wednesday is saturated with that theme.

For some, repentance is a scary word! For some, repentance evokes judgmentalism and fear. But when we know that God is a God of grace, then repentance is a welcome invitation! Lent reminds us to return to God, and God is love. God’s arms of love are wide open.

I wrote the actual words of this homily over the past couple of days. But I received the knowledge of how the homily was going to go a couple of weeks ago, during one of my early morning periods of prayer. I was praying on the passage from First John that’s printed on the front of your bulletin:

"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us."

When we begin with that, there is nothing frightening or off-putting about Lent! Lent is a time for returning to God, whose arms are wide open. Repentance is a positive response. It is something that you and I are drawn to do by God who loved us first – and who loves us first!

And so, for instance, when we wake in the morning and turn towards God in prayer: we are only responding to God’s prompting, because God has been loving us first, while we were sleeping. Again, when we withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn in prayer to God: that’s a response to God’s prompting, because God has been loving us first. God’s arms are wide open.

Can you trust that God loves you? One writer describes “the process by which God’s love and acceptance ‘seeps into’ us”: “The divine gift is telling [us], deep in [our] spiritual identity, that [we] are accepted by God just as [we] are, unconditionally, prior to any decisions to reform [our] lives, pay [our] bills, or seek reconciliation with an enemy.”

God acts first. What joy there is in our response to God’s initiative of love, in our repentance, trusting in God’s love for us. This return to God is liberating. We are able to respond, by leaving anxiety behind, and engaging in practices of the faith. Three of those practices are mentioned in tonight’s verses from Matthew: prayer and fasting and generosity. (There are, of course, many more!)
Our faith practices are not intended to persuade God to do something good for us! Did you notice that that’s what’s happening in the passage we heard tonight from Isaiah? The people complain to God,

"Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?"

Do you remember how God replies to that in the next verses from Isaiah? God declares that their religious ritual of fasting is hollow – because they have not returned to God in their everyday actions. God responds:

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
and oppress all your workers. …
Is not this the fast that I choose:
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;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Can you and I risk praying to a God who is that radical in identifying with the poor? How God loves the poor! Can we risk such radical generosity?

We can risk engaging in faith practices when we trust in God’s love! Indeed, through the practices of faith God deepens our trust that God’s arms are wide open. And so, let’s use the practices named in the passage from Matthew, as examples.

Prayer is the practice of listening for God. As you become able to hear more acutely how much God loves you, you become aware more deeply that God is loving you first! What a wonderful thing it will be if that awareness and trust is the result of your Lenten practice this year!

When you fast from whatever takes up your time and attention and prevents you from loving God and loving others, what freedom results! You are released from unnecessary earthly cares and concerns, and freed for devotion and service! What a wonderful thing it will be if, at the end of this Lenten season of practice, you can point to a specific devotional habit, and a specific way of servanthood that you have added to your daily life.

The gospel writer also mentions the spiritual practice of generosity. Many of you know that the practice of generosity leads to more generosity! Generosity is a response to God’s love, and that’s a good thing, but it also feels so good! What joy there is in this practice, as repentance, as return to God!

We do carry the mark of ashes on our foreheads this evening. They are reminders that each one of us will die. We cannot save ourselves. But we are baptized into Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection. In that is life and salvation.

And God has done that! God has loved us first, and is loving us now. All God wants is for us to return. God’s arms are wide open!

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia