Good morning!

We’re going to try a little experiment here, and hope that it goes well. Each morning (or evening, depending on how the day shapes up) I’m going to take a read of the daily lectionary texts (follow along here: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/devotion/daily/) and then share a few thoughts with you about them. Hopefully we’ll have all forty days of Lent together without missing any!

Today we got to take a look at the book of Jonah, at it didn’t even include any fish! Short summary of where we are in this biblical story: God has told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them that God’s going to wipe them out if they don’t behave. Jonah doesn’t want to go, and tries to run. That’s when the whole fish thing happens. The part of the story we don’t often look at is that Jonah eventually gets out of the fish, goes to Nineveh, and proclaims God’s judgement.

What’s wild about that part of the story is that the people of Nineveh actually respond. They turn away from whatever evil they were engaged in, and actually do it on a national level. The king himself rises from his throne, “removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” (Jonah 3:6) When the King hears about God’s coming judgement, he is confronted with the reality that he has done wrong, and he wants to sit with the devastation of that a little bit.

Tonight is Ash Wednesday. If you’re able, please come join us in the sanctuary at 7:30 to worship together. But part of Ash Wednesday is actually recognizing the parts in ourselves that are dead. It’s about recognizing that there are things we do that run counter to God’s design for the world. We don’t always get it right. We don’t always work things out for good. We screw up. We stumble. We fail. And let’s be honest: It’s a good bit depressing to think about those things, isn’t it? No one wants to spend a whole bunch of time contemplating their failures. None of us really wants to sit around in ashes, literal or figurative.

We have the good news already. It’s not actually a surprise to us (at least I hope not) that Jesus died for our sins, and offers us forgiveness. Of course that’s where we want our attention to be. Of course that’s the focus of our faith, to recognize how much God loves us. But at least for me, I know that the times in my walk with Christ that I’ve actually sat in my own ashes, when I’ve mourned for the mistakes that I’ve made, that forgiveness from Christ has actually been all the sweeter.

How will you sit in ashes today? What do you need to confess?