Season 4 - Episode 26

To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.

In the historic church calendar tomorrow, March 5, is Ash Wednesday. It marks the beginning of Lent and is a day of confession and repentance. My relationship with Ash Wednesday is complicated by the fact that I grew up not acknowledging it. In fact, my church growing up fought against anything that even felt Roman Catholic. As I started to understand Ash Wednesday, I was also discerning the truth that the heart of God is love. This led me to pause at the deep penitence that is so central to Ash Wednesday. Yes. We acknowledge we’re not perfect, but if our emphasis is on God’s gracious and generous love, do we need to be so bold in our declaration of our sin? Is it right to approach God with a proclamation of our “wretchedness”? (A word that some liturgies use to describe us.) I’m going to consider these ideas of confession and repentance and our relationship with God in this Covenant Weekly for March 4, 2025 - the week of Ash Wednesday.

This year, I’ve been considering Ash Wednesday in light of the story we call, “The Prodigal Son.” Most of us know the story which Jesus told. A second of two sons asked his father for his inheritance early. The father chooses to comply with the request and the son takes off and squanders all of his wealth in wild living. Eventually left with nothing, he finds himself doing menial work feeding pigs. He has sunk so low and is so poor that he wishes he could eat the pig's food. In a moment of clarity, he remembers that his father’s servants eat their fill and are treated better than he is. He decides to return to his father’s house, throw himself on his father’s mercy, and ask if his father will hire him back as a servant. The whole way he rehearses his speech.

Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.

As he turns the corner towards home, his father, who has been watching for him, sees him coming. Throwing his own dignity out the window, the father pursues the son. As his father embraces him, the son begins his speech.

Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.

But before he can even get to the request to be a servant, the father starts to call to his servants:

‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

What does this have to do with Ash Wednesday, confession, and repentance?

Let’s begin with a conviction that this father represents God and God’s heart towards all who have wandered away and gotten off track - whether a large amount or even just a little. He demonstrates to us the reality of God’s love.

When we bring confession and repentance into this context we see that it is not done to appease God. God’s forgiveness and embrace was always available. Rather, our humbling of ourselves through confession and repentance is to avail ourselves of the Father’s already available love and grace. The Confession and repentance of Ash Wednesday doesn’t make God forgive us. It moves us into God’s forgiveness which is already there and ready for us. The party has been planned…God’s just waiting for us so that it can get started!

This doesn’t mean that confession and repentance only benefit us and don’t benefit God. In this parable, the father made himself vulnerable to the son’s choices. Until the son was willing to confess his wrongdoing and repent (literally turn around) and come back to his father, the father was deprived of a relationship with his child. God is this vulnerable with us. God longs to have a relationship with you and with me. The barriers between God and us, when we avoid confession and repentance, are ones we put up by our choices. Acknowledging the faithful love of God is an essential part of Ash Wednesday.

Listen to this prayer that is a part of the Anglican Church in Canada’s Ash Wednesday liturgy.

Almighty and everlasting God,
you despise nothing you have made
and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts,
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our brokenness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

I love that even before it gets to confession and repentance - before lament is stated - this prayer starts with God not despising anything he has made and God’s forgiveness. What follows is a process of entering into that forgiveness.

So maybe take some time tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, to bring your brokenness to God - the places where you have been wounded, where you have done wounding, and where you have gotten off track. If it’s helpful for you, come asking for God to receive you as a servant. But be prepared - God’s welcome will be rooted in his love and he’ll be so excited to meet with you that you’ll be welcomed again as his beloved child. And whether this is the first time or the millionth time you’ve come to God in this way, God’s gonna throw a party!