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Return to Me |
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Summary
Return to Me If you have ever joined Netflix or another online movie-rental company, then you know the convenience of having movies shipped to your home. From time to time, you go online and put the movie titles you want to rent in your file, tailoring the list to your liking. The movie-rental company then sends you two or three movies at a time. You watch the movies, return them and get more movies shipped to you the moment your movies are received in the warehouse. The membership can give you delight and joy. Renting movies has never been so easy. You do not have to stand in line at the movie-rental store. You do not have to pass the candy counter with your children, so you are spared hearing them beg for the colorful, family-size box of gummy bears. You do not have to get out in the rain on the perfect, “stay at home and rent a movie night.” As long as you pay your dues, you always have a movie to watch. You probably watch many movies during the winter months. You are maximizing your membership, seeing more movies than you have ever seen before. When springtime comes, your schedule takes on new activities. You begin to spend more time outside with friends and family members. You go on long walks. You watch baseball games. You enjoy working in the garden. There is not enough time to watch movies. Your movie-watching patterns begin to change as you go from watching eight films a month to maybe one or two. You soon conclude that it would be cheaper to go back to the movie-rental store when you want to watch a movie, and you cancel your membership with the online company. Everything is fine. You feel good with your decision. You do not miss the movies in your mailbox. But then invitations to restart your movie-rental membership begin appearing in the mailbox. The company misses you, the notices say. You can now come back and get more movies for less money, the invitations tell you. The company is willing to do whatever it takes to get you back. Return to us, they request. Come back. Join us again. The devouring horde A similar invitation is offered by the prophet Joel in our scripture lesson today. Writing five centuries before the birth of Christ, Joel is communicating with a people who have experienced a nightmare. Cutting, swarming, hopping, destroying locusts have eaten almost everything. What one type of locust could not consume, another type of locust has devoured. The vines, fig trees, fields and grain have all been impacted. Just as army forces march over a land, destroying everything in their path, the locusts are marching across the land, destroying everything in sight. Can you imagine such a thing? The locust plague Joel writes about has left the people desperate, wondering how God could allow such a thing to happen. The attention of the people has been captured by the locusts — by these swarming insects that have destroyed the basic necessities of life. The people are prepared to do whatever it takes to get rid of the locusts when Joel sounds a call to change. Joel’s words are filled with apocalyptic images about the return of the Lord. The Lord is coming back, and the people must prepare for his arrival. Yet, the people do not have to wait until God returns in order for them to experience the fullness of God. The people can return to God now — at this moment. The people can offer back to God their hearts and their devotion, practicing the disciplines of fasting and weeping. The Lord has taken pity on his people, turning the destruction into blessing. The Lord is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.” The Lord is worthy of our return. “Return to me now,” says the Lord. “I will have pity on you.” Lent begins Today marks the beginning of our 40-day journey to Easter — the day on which death and destruction were defeated once and for all. Christians across the globe gather today to remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. While our society does a good job of protecting us from the face of death by making corpses as beautiful as possible and keeping the really sick out of sight, we cannot escape today the one guarantee that we all have in this life. We will all die — we will all one day return to the substance from which we were formed. But death’s destruction does not end in the grave. Death’s destruction is replaced by the promise of eternal life made possible by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ — the events to which we journey during these six weeks. While we were created in the image of God, we have erred and strayed from being the people we were called and created to be. Still, something happens today. Horns are blown this day, summoning us to repentance. Today we are asked not to feast but to fast. We are called today to begin our journey to the cross of Good Friday and the empty grave of Easter by returning to the Lord. If you know anyone whose spouse has betrayed him or her, only to receive forgiveness, then you can begin to understand the power of betrayal and destruction, forgiveness and blessing. We have also seen public figures caught in unfaithful behavior, but sometimes, those incidents are also accompanied by accounts of forgiveness. The husband has an affair. Someone finds out about the affair. The wife asks the husband to move out. The husband then comes back to his wife promising to make a change — promising to never again to betray her love. The wife accepts his change of heart, forgives him and welcomes him home. While we may not have done anything as severe as committing adultery, we are all in need of correcting our behavior. We are all in need of making a change in our life that allows us to fully return to the individuals God has created us to be. The call to return You may have awakened this morning knowing exactly what you would give up for Lent. You decided weeks ago to let go of movies or alcohol, of e-mail on Sundays or of going dancing on Fridays. Others of us were already in the shower this morning when we realized it was too late to give up what we intended to give up. We were on our second cup of coffee with a little Dove dark chocolate heart floating in our mouths when we remembered that this is Ash Wednesday — the beginning of our 40-day fast from coffee and chocolate. And whether we were ready for Lent or not, how much do we encounter God by giving up cola, coffee or chocolate. How is it that giving up these things enables us to grow closer to Christ? If we are to heed the call of Joel, then we need to take something on during this season of Lent instead of only giving things up. Lent is about finding God and discovering the fullness of joy that comes from being in the Lord’s presence. Lent is a time to put away the things that separate us from God so that we may see more of God. Lent is about following Christ’s call to forgive and forget, to serve the poor, to act for justice. Lent is about pursuing God’s will for our lives. Lent, above all else, is a season of transformation. It is a time of restoration as we return to the Lord. Like a tornado warning that sounds in an effort to get people to prepare for possible destruction, the ram’s horn is being sounded today. The horn is blown not to frighten us, for the destruction has been destroyed. The horn blows as an invitation — a call of God that says, “I know you were once here, but you have gone away. I miss you. Will you please return to me now?” |
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