Brown's Daily Word 2-25-09

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this Ash Wednesday. It is going to be brilliant and beautiful with daytime highs in the forties. We will have a service of death and resurrection for Barbara Allen this noon. Barbara Allen went to be with Jesus this past Monday morning. Barbara was born and brought up in South Carolina. She and her husband, with their two sons moved to Broome County nearly forty year ago. Barb and her husband served the Lord by singing in the choir. Her husband died some 30 years ago. One of her sons was killed a few years ago by his father-in-law. Barbara raised her grandson all by herself. She was a wonderful and sweet servant of Jesus. Having not seen Him, she served Him faithfully and walked by faith obediently and joyfully. She called me fondly, "preacher" and "brother Brown." She was one of the saints of Jesus. A saint is one who makes it easier for others believe in Jesus. We praise the Lord for the life and the witness of Barbara.
Ash Wednesday is the name given to the first day of the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday, originally called dies cinerum (day of ashes) is mentioned in the earliest copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary, and probably dates back at least to the Eighth Century. One of the earliest descriptions of Ash Wednesday is found in the writings of the Anglo-Saxon Abbot Aelfric (955-1020). In his Lives of the Saints, he wrote, "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 that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast." Aelfric then proceeded to tell the tale of a man who refused to go to church for the ashes and was accidentally killed several days later in a boar hunt! This quotation tells us that throughout the Middle Ages ashes were sprinkled on the head, rather than anointed on the forehead as in our day.
As Aelfric suggested, the pouring of ashes on one's body (and dressing in sackcloth, a very rough material) as an outer manifestation of inner repentance or mourning is an ancient practice. We especially recally that Job covered himself in ashes. (Job 42:6). Other examples of the practice are found in 2 Samuel 13:19, Esther 4:1,3, Isaiah 61:3, Jeremiah 6:26, Ezekiel 27:30, and Daniel 9:3. In the New Testament, Jesus alluded to sackcloth and ashes in Matthew 11:21: "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."
Typically, on Ash Wednesday Christians are invited to the altar to receive the imposition of ashes, in the shape of the cross, prior to receiving the Communion. The Pastor applies ashes on the forehead, speaking the words, "For dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). These are the words that God spoke to Adam and Eve after they eaten of the forbidden fruit and fallen into sin. They spoke to the couple of the bitterest fruit of their sin, namely death. The ashes on Ash Wednesday remind each penitent believer of his or her sinfulness and mortality, and, thus, the need to repent and get right with God before it is too late. The cross reminds us of the good news that through Jesus Christ crucified there is forgiveness for all sins, all guilt, and all punishment.
Many Christians choose to leave the ashes on their forehead for the remainder of the day, not to be showy and boastful (see Matthew 6:16-18), but as a witness that all people are sinners in need of repentance AND that through Jesus all sins are forgiven through faith.
Ash Wednesday, like the season of Lent, is never mentioned in Scripture and is not commanded by God. Christians are free to either observe or not observe it. It also should be obvious that the imposition of ashes, like similar external practices, are meaningless, even hypocritical, unless there is a corresponding inner repentance and change of behavior. This is made clear in Isaiah 58:5-7 when God says,
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes ? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? 6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDpp_YdXnqs
Psalm 51 (Amplified Bible)
1HAVE MERCY upon me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to the multitude of Your tender mercy and loving-kindness blot out my transgressions.
2Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin!
3For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me.
4Against You, You only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and faultless in Your judgment.(A)
5Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful].(B)
6Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart.
7Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean [ceremonially]; wash me, and I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow.
8Make me to hear joy and gladness and be satisfied; let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
9Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.
11Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13Then will I teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted and return to You.
14Deliver me from bloodguiltiness and death, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness (Your rightness and Your justice).
15O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
16For You delight not in sacrifice, or else would I give it; You find no pleasure in burnt offering.(C)
17My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.
18Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
19Then will You delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, justice, and right, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then bullocks will be offered upon Your altar.