Joel 2:12-19; 2 Peter 1:2-11; St Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
If walkers, hearing aids, wrinkled skin, grey hair, surgeries and cancer screenings aren’t enough of a reminder of the sever nature of our sins, then maybe this mark of dust, this mark of death and mortality on our foreheads and on the foreheads of our children will do the trick.
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Those were the words of judgment that the Lord God spoke to Adam in the Garden after he turned from God’s Word. And it was just as God said it would be: the day you eat of it, you will die.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. God never intended there to be such stark words of judgment spoken to the pinnacle of His creation. The one He had so lovingly formed out of the dirt. The picture given in Genesis is of a master craftsman at work, loving shaping a work of art the way a potter does. And then God blows into his nostrils the breathe of life and this lifeless piece of pottery becomes a living soul. The Septuagint translates it as “God blew on his face.” And then He blew some more, when He said, Be fruitful, multiply, have dominion. God wanted more of these creatures of dust made in His image.
But today its blackened foreheads and words of judgment. We are called today to remember what we have destroyed by our sins. We are told to remember because we easily forget. We forget what sin is. We forget what sin does. Sin is more than an occasional misstep. More than an occasional wrong choice. Sin is rebellion against God. Sin is a deep corruption that darkens and infects every part of us, body and soul. Sin is so deep that we are often able to keep it from surfacing too obviously or publicly. We hide it in our thoughts, in our minds.
But obvious or not, sin shuts heaven to us. Sin will cause us to return to the dust. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
So remember on this night what you have done to bring about your own death. Remember how you have lived as though God does not matter and as though you matter most. Remember how you have not honored His name as your should, how your worship and prayers have faltered. Remember how you have not let His love have its way with you, and so your love for others has failed. Remember those whom you have hurt and those whom you have failed to help. Remember that your thoughts and desires have been soiled with sin.
Remember. And repent of it. Abandon sin. Turn from such ungodliness.
And then listen to something more important that your remembering. Hear God’s remembering. His remembering His holy promises to you. Remember that He has promised to be gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Remember that He relents over disaster.
Say what you will about the prophet Jonah, about how he ran the other way when God called him to preach to the pagan city of Nineveh. But he certainly had faith in God’s Word. He knew that God would keep His promise to be merciful. That His Word would do what it says and the people would repent and God would relent. And that’s what upset him! He didn’t want those pagans to be spared.
And when Jonah finally ended up in that great city, by God ordaining a fish to spit him out there, the prophet went into the city and preached a one-sentence sermon: Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown (Jonah 3:4). The people of Nineveh believed the prophet. They repented and turned to the true God with fasting and prayer, covering themselves in sackcloth and ashes, saying God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish (Jonah 3:9). And He did! For He is slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.
And that merciful God is your God. The God who formed the man of dust is the same One who remembers that you are dust. But He also does something about it. He took on dust when He took on human flesh so that He might draw into His Body all the deadly poison of your sin and remember them no more.
This He did you for by the mystery of His holy incarnation, by His holy nativity, by His baptism, fasting, and temptation, by His agony and bloody sweat, by His Cross and passion, by His precious death and burial; by His glorious resurrection and ascension. And by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, Who is now being breathed on you.
Just as He breathed on Adam and he became a living being, now the Lord God breathes on your face through the Absolution and the preaching of His Gospel. He breathes His life-breathing breath that you might be renewed and the image of His Son be restored in you. This is the God who raises the poor out of the dust to live forever in His kingdom, to serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.
And this God has been gracious to you. Jonah’s name means “dove.” So in a sense, God was sending His dove to proclaim peace to Nineveh. For you God has done even better. Christ has sent you the better Dove, the Holy Spirit. And He has gathered you here tonight to breathe on your face His life-giving Word. His preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins raises the dead. It creates faith in those who were enemies. It brings life to the dying. This preaching opens up heaven. This preaching raises those who repent and believe they have a gracious God who forgives iniquity and remembers their sins no more.
So come back to this Altar. You did not come here tonight to here words of judgment at this altar and leave. Come and hear some wonderful one-sentence sermons that restore you: Take, eat; the Body of Christ, given for you. Take, drink; the Blood of Christ, shed for you. Given and shed that men of dust might live eternally.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
If walkers, hearing aids, wrinkled skin, grey hair, surgeries and cancer screenings aren’t enough of a reminder of the sever nature of our sins, then maybe this mark of dust, this mark of death and mortality on our foreheads and on the foreheads of our children will do the trick.
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Those were the words of judgment that the Lord God spoke to Adam in the Garden after he turned from God’s Word. And it was just as God said it would be: the day you eat of it, you will die.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. God never intended there to be such stark words of judgment spoken to the pinnacle of His creation. The one He had so lovingly formed out of the dirt. The picture given in Genesis is of a master craftsman at work, loving shaping a work of art the way a potter does. And then God blows into his nostrils the breathe of life and this lifeless piece of pottery becomes a living soul. The Septuagint translates it as “God blew on his face.” And then He blew some more, when He said, Be fruitful, multiply, have dominion. God wanted more of these creatures of dust made in His image.
But today its blackened foreheads and words of judgment. We are called today to remember what we have destroyed by our sins. We are told to remember because we easily forget. We forget what sin is. We forget what sin does. Sin is more than an occasional misstep. More than an occasional wrong choice. Sin is rebellion against God. Sin is a deep corruption that darkens and infects every part of us, body and soul. Sin is so deep that we are often able to keep it from surfacing too obviously or publicly. We hide it in our thoughts, in our minds.
But obvious or not, sin shuts heaven to us. Sin will cause us to return to the dust. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
So remember on this night what you have done to bring about your own death. Remember how you have lived as though God does not matter and as though you matter most. Remember how you have not honored His name as your should, how your worship and prayers have faltered. Remember how you have not let His love have its way with you, and so your love for others has failed. Remember those whom you have hurt and those whom you have failed to help. Remember that your thoughts and desires have been soiled with sin.
Remember. And repent of it. Abandon sin. Turn from such ungodliness.
And then listen to something more important that your remembering. Hear God’s remembering. His remembering His holy promises to you. Remember that He has promised to be gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Remember that He relents over disaster.
Say what you will about the prophet Jonah, about how he ran the other way when God called him to preach to the pagan city of Nineveh. But he certainly had faith in God’s Word. He knew that God would keep His promise to be merciful. That His Word would do what it says and the people would repent and God would relent. And that’s what upset him! He didn’t want those pagans to be spared.
And when Jonah finally ended up in that great city, by God ordaining a fish to spit him out there, the prophet went into the city and preached a one-sentence sermon: Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown (Jonah 3:4). The people of Nineveh believed the prophet. They repented and turned to the true God with fasting and prayer, covering themselves in sackcloth and ashes, saying God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish (Jonah 3:9). And He did! For He is slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.
And that merciful God is your God. The God who formed the man of dust is the same One who remembers that you are dust. But He also does something about it. He took on dust when He took on human flesh so that He might draw into His Body all the deadly poison of your sin and remember them no more.
This He did you for by the mystery of His holy incarnation, by His holy nativity, by His baptism, fasting, and temptation, by His agony and bloody sweat, by His Cross and passion, by His precious death and burial; by His glorious resurrection and ascension. And by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, Who is now being breathed on you.
Just as He breathed on Adam and he became a living being, now the Lord God breathes on your face through the Absolution and the preaching of His Gospel. He breathes His life-breathing breath that you might be renewed and the image of His Son be restored in you. This is the God who raises the poor out of the dust to live forever in His kingdom, to serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.
And this God has been gracious to you. Jonah’s name means “dove.” So in a sense, God was sending His dove to proclaim peace to Nineveh. For you God has done even better. Christ has sent you the better Dove, the Holy Spirit. And He has gathered you here tonight to breathe on your face His life-giving Word. His preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins raises the dead. It creates faith in those who were enemies. It brings life to the dying. This preaching opens up heaven. This preaching raises those who repent and believe they have a gracious God who forgives iniquity and remembers their sins no more.
So come back to this Altar. You did not come here tonight to here words of judgment at this altar and leave. Come and hear some wonderful one-sentence sermons that restore you: Take, eat; the Body of Christ, given for you. Take, drink; the Blood of Christ, shed for you. Given and shed that men of dust might live eternally.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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