Ash Wednesday: March 1, 2006.

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Psalm 51:1-17

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Cupped Ear/Psalm Sounds

Psalm 51 is heard against the somber sounds of the Ash Wednesday service and the scraping of ashes on foreheads. With a cupped ear, we listen for psalm sounds:

Psalm 51 begins with a focus on the character of God. Three key Hebrew words ring out the word grace: mercy or gracious, steadfast love, and compassion. God's steadfast love is a tolling bell that rings throughout the biblical land. It was heard in the ear of the prophet Hosea through his faithful marriage to his unfaithful wife Gomer (Hosea 1-3). It was heard in the voice of a loving parent (God) spoken to his rebellious child Israel (Hosea 11). God's steadfast love sounded through the mountain cloud and filled the ears of Moses at Sinai as steadfast love was being written on stone tablets. The "grace notes" of God always precede any sounds of sin.

The sound of sin echoes through three words. "Transgressions" (v. 1) suggests the sounds of a rebellious child (Isa 1:2). "Iniquity" groans with the pressure of being twisted (Isa 24:1) or bent down (Ps 38:6). "Sin" (vv. 2, 3, 4, 9) fills the ear with the windy noise of arrows missing their targets. Sin is the sound of missing the mark.

Balancing the sin-filled noise of rebellion, groaning, and missing are sounds of forgiveness. The sound of washing with divine detergent is the desire of the sinner who wishes to be washed (v. 2). The psalmist wants to be cleansed like Naaman before his river bath. Finally, as one who has tears blotted away (Isa 25:8), so is the blotting of sins.

In the words of the weekly liturgy, we hear the psalmist ask for God to create "a new heart" and to put in us a "steadfast spirit" (v. 10). The verb create occurs in Scripture with God as the subject, and it means to bring into existence what was not there before. Only God can create a new heart and fill our ears with the sounds of praise.

Open Mouth/Psalm Speech

The season of Lent begins with a liturgy that shocks us into awareness of our sin and mortality. Ashes are marked on our foreheads, and we know the psalmist's cry "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me" (v. 3). Perhaps we can speak the words "blot out," "wash," and "cleanse" as we approach the bowl of ashes. Could the preacher use this season of Lent to emphasize God's action to create something new in us? Creation is God's doing, not ours! Can we pray with the psalmist, in this penitential season, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a right spirit within me?" For the joy of forgiveness is not an end but a Lenten beginning. DRB