Episode 273: Yes, I'm Sorry To Say This, but it Really Is That Bad | Brian Morgan | Ash Wednesday

Introduction

Let's pray. Father, thank you for tonight. We pray you would bring scripture alive for us. We pray you shoot it like a fiery arrow into our souls, open our hearts and minds to hear you, to know you. We are grateful for your grace offered in Jesus. In his name, amen.

So it's 1999, Beth and I were living in Southern California, and I was in seminary, and she was teaching. I was on a mountain bike ride with good friends of mine, Andre and Kristen. They were faster than me, so I was behind them and they were leading the way. We were going down the hill at the end of the ride, and if you know Southern California, it never rains, it's always dry, it's always dusty. They were going fast. I was right behind them trying to go fast, and my wheel slipped out from underneath me, and I crashed. Not a big deal. I've crashed hundreds of times. Any mountain bikers in here? Raise your hand. Okay. Yeah. If you've ridden your mountain bike, you've crashed many times. Not a big deal. I've crashed tons of times. Got home, cleaned it out, no big deal. Sort of.

Couple days later, I looked down and I thought, man, that knee is awfully big. And it was really, really red. I mean, to the touch. Did I mention it was oozing blood and a little bit of pus and all that kind of stuff? Well, in case I didn't mention it, it was oozing blood and pus and all that kind of stuff. And I was in seminary, so I had to walk to class all the time. And so it also was like this. I really couldn't bend it. So a couple more days went by, and I thought, you know, I should probably go to the ER or the doctor and just let him clean it out, kinda figure out what's wrong. So I drove to the doctor, about a twenty-minute drive, I couldn't bend my knee on a California interstate, very sketchy on the way to the doctor. Got there, walked in, told the nurse what was going on, and she's like, yeah, great, no problem at all.

Doctor came in, and by that time, the bandage was pretty bloody again. And she kinda looked at me and she said, oh, something's going on with your knee, and I said, yeah, and she said, well, let me have a look at it. So she reached down to pull the bandage off, and of course, was like, And as she pulled the bandage off, I kinda leaned in and I said, I don't think it's really that bad. Right? And she looked at me right in the face and she said, yes, I'm sorry. It's really that bad.

The Reality of Our Condition

Now listen, I'm no dummy. I mean, I knew that it was probably not in great shape. Well, let me be honest. I knew it was probably infected because it was red hot and oozing. Well, let me be real honest. I knew it was really bad. But you know what? I can figure it out. Can't you? Don't you have the ability in your life to figure out everything that goes wrong in your life? When you have a difficulty, you say, I'm gonna be able to figure that out. No problem at all. It's all gonna work out by itself.

That was my theory. My knee is gonna get better all by itself even though I can't bend it and it's oozing and it's throbbing. At night, I was like, if a sheet touches my knee in the middle of the night, I'm gonna reach over and smack somebody. That's how painful it was. And she said, listen, this is really bad.

Well, you're probably wondering, I'm at Ash Wednesday tonight. What's Ash Wednesday all about? Why do we do Ash Wednesday? Have you heard this comment? Ash Wednesday is not even in the Bible. Like, why would we do that? Ash Wednesday is this historical event, this historical service. It's a springboard to this journey of Lent. It's a springboard to say, I wanna take this opportunity to look at some infections in my life that I've been trying to ignore. Or maybe you don't even know you have them because you're ignoring them so much.

Ash Wednesday is a chance to say, there's a human condition that I see in other people and maybe that infection is in me as well. Now, you know the world, the world says, ah, you're fine. Don't worry about it. You don't need to slow down. You don't need to look inside yourself. If you do look inside yourself, you're gonna find a lot of great things. Not true. But the world says, you can figure it out. Don't worry about it. And the church for almost fifteen hundred years has said, no, we need to have a time set aside where we slow down and we look and we say, what's really going on inside of me and inside of you?

You look at you and I'll look at me. And that's what we're doing tonight. That's what Ash Wednesday is about. Taking a pause on the busyness of life and saying, God, what are you doing? God, why am I acting this way? Why am I so angry at this person? Why can't I forget what they said? Why am I lusting after this person and these things in my life? Ash Wednesday is the opportunity to step into the doctor's office of Jesus and to say, what's really going on in me?

So the question goes back to, well, it's not in the bible, but in the bible, it lays out lots of different opportunities where they have the same process, an opportunity to stop, and an opportunity to think, and an opportunity to pray, and an opportunity to say, God, what are you doing? So if you got a Bible, open it up to Joel chapter two. It's the scripture we just heard. Joel chapter two, if you got a Bible app, you can look in there as well.

Joel is one of the prophets. If you know anything about the prophets, they are this spokesperson for God. They're speaking these words to God's people. And Ash Wednesday is kind of like what the prophet is doing back in the day. Joel in particular is speaking a word of warning and a word of judgment to the people. Joel was written probably after May. So sometime in May and he's speaking to God's people and he's saying, listen, this thing is coming. Be ready. Just like Ash Wednesday. Easter is coming. Be ready, church. Don't just let Easter come and we say that was a great Sunday and that event happened a long time ago. Who cares? And so Joel is saying, hey, people of God, listen up.

So go to Joel chapter two. And he starts in chapter two with this exclamation, this calling, he says, blow a trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming near.

What was the day of the Lord? Joel referred to that multiple times, the prophets referred to it many times as well. It was a day they were looking forward to the God would come back and there would be great judgment on the earth and on God's people. And with that judgment, though, also came the warning. And so the beginning of chapter two is this warning, listen up, blow the trumpet, gather you people. Look at chapter one verse 14, similar.

Consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. — Joel 1:14

God's people at that time, just like many of the other prophets, they were doing their own thing. They were turning their back on God. They weren't caring for the poor and the widow and the hurting. So God is saying, come back to me. I'm gonna come to you. When I come, I'm gonna come with my holiness. Be ready.

Chapter two verse 3 describes a little bit of this great event when he comes. Look at the words.

Fire devours before them and behind them a flame burns. The land is like Eden before them, but behind him there's a desolate wilderness and nothing escapes them. — Joel 2:3

It's like a fire when God comes in his holiness. And so the prophet says, be ready, listen up. And then look at verse 12. Here's the callback from God.

Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all of your hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious, slow to anger and merciful, abound in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster. — Joel 2:12-13

So the prophet is saying, God's day is coming. Are you ready? Return back to the Lord. Think about Jesus. He said, I came for the sick, not the healthy. He said, if you need life, come to me declaring that you don't have life outside of me. If you're thirsty, come to me, drink of me. This call back to the Lord, and that's what we do tonight.

That's what Ash Wednesday kicks off.

Why the Ashes?

Now, why the ashes? If you notice when you come in tonight, you're not gonna leave with a sticker that says, I am awesome. Right? Wouldn't that be weird, Ash Wednesday say? Why the dirt in the ashes? It points back to Genesis and Job where they say, humanity, to dust you've come, you're not that special. You're not that great. To dust you've come and to dust you shall return.

The ashes are a symbol that we're not as high and as mighty as we think we are. In fact, we're pretty infected with a really bad disease. That's what the ashes are pointing to. It starts in Genesis three when it says, the condemnation, the judgment on humanity, to dust you shall return. So tonight, when the ashes come our way and we kneel, it's an invitation for you and for me to say, God, come and inspect the infections of my life.

Listen to the liturgy. Turn to page one in your booklet. Did you hear what was read and prayed as we started?

Dear people of God, the first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion. And it became the custom of the church to prepare for them a season of penitence and fasting. Historians say around March, between March, the church began to say, we need to set aside a time to walk to the cross.

Historians say around August is when they introduced the ashes. So the church has been doing it a long time.

Look at the next paragraph on page one. The liturgy says,

I invite you. Church, we are invited tonight. Therefore, in the name of the church and Jesus Christ, to the observance of a holy Lent. The invitation is the next forty days from tonight to walk in observance by self-examination with the Lord, doctor Jesus, by repentance, by prayer and fasting and almsgiving and by reading and meditating on God's holy word.

So what does that look like? Well, for millions of Christians today, they are saying, what am I gonna do differently the next forty days as I walk to the cross? Does it mean less candy? It may mean that for you. I would say it means eating more of God's word. Does it mean no coffee in the morning? Perhaps, but maybe it means more prayer and scripture in the morning.

Peter Cesaro calls it this. He says, it's embracing God's gift of limits in your life. The season of Lent is the gift of saying, God, I don't have all the answers. God, I am in big trouble in this area of my life. God, I don't know why I'm acting this way, and I can't figure this out on my own. And Lent is the invitation with the Lord to figure out what's going on in here.

Richard Foster says it this way. He said, one summer, I went out every evening around 10PM. He said to the little basketball court that we had set up in the driveway alone, he said, I would just shoot baskets all the time inviting God to do a spiritual inventory of my day. He said many things would surface to my memory. Sin that was there, of course, the angry word I'd said, the missed opportunity to serve somebody, a failed action that I had done. So he would go out every night and say, Lord, nobody else is around. And just you and me, what's going on in me? And for him, was shooting baskets. He said that one summer I did it and he said, I've never done it again since.

What would your Lent look like starting tonight?

What's interesting is, when the doctor came back to look at my knee, and she had her scrubber and some stuff to pick out what was in there, because there was a lot of dirt in there. She reached forward to my knee and I grabbed onto the chair and I thought, if she touches, I think I'm gonna punch her in the face. That's the first thing I thought. And then I thought this, I thought, if I had only asked for cleaning help ahead of time, I wouldn't be here. If I had only asked somebody outside of myself to clean me up, I wouldn't be in the mess I'm in.

Conclusion

Let's pray. Father, we ask you tonight by your grace. Help us to walk this journey with you to the cross and the resurrection. Where we're afraid to look at our wounded, infected soul. Give us your help. Where we need others to do that, help them to speak into our life. Remind us at the end of the journey is not a pat on the back. It's your son strung up on the bloody cross. It's the empty tomb. It's forgiveness.

Christ's name. Amen.