Good morning,
Today is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday, originally called "dies cinerum" – the day of ashes – is a time when Christians recall the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as we enter into the season of the celebration of the Cross, the season of Lent.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the twentieth century pastor and theologian once wrote, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without obedience, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, and grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price for which the merchant will sell all his goods in order to purchase it. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. … Such grace is costly because it calls us to leave all else behind to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.
In his work “Lives of the Saints”, the 8th century abbot Aelfric writes, “We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth.
Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent … let us repent of our sins during the Lenten Season.” These words have been stricken from the Christian vocabulary largely for the sake of unwilling ears and hearts who will not hear the whole council of God. Indeed we live in an age when the very notion of sin and repentance are seen as archaic ideas not having much or any bearing on our lives.
Repentance is as much a part of the Christian experience as air is part of the experience of breathing. We can never know the fullness of God until we lay our hearts bare before him in repentance. In Joel 2:12,13 it says, “Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.’ Now return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil.” (NASB)
Repentance has much more to do with becoming vessels of forgiveness. We are to lay down our own failures at the foot of the Cross and pick up and embrace the forgiveness that God has bestowed upon us and given to us to share with others. Repentance is the costly ticket which allows us into the dance. It is the door into a cycle of receiving and sharing forgiveness.
God is not looking for torn garments. He is looking for torn hearts which are open to receiving His love and forgiveness and which will be available as vessels to share that love and forgiveness with others. He is interested in honest hearts that are open to receiving and sharing grace.
The Lord doesn't focus on the outward person, as man does. He looks into our very souls. Let our lives be so characterized by the love of Christ that when those around us ask the question, “Where is their God?”, the answer will be plain and obvious in the lives of those who live in full and genuine repentance. Those who have lives full of the costly grace of genuine repentance will be a doorway, by which others are led to not only receive, but also share in the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZW44LCiXoA
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