Rend Your Heart, Not Your Garments

Psalms 51:11-17

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

“Rend Your Heart, Not Your Garments”

A Catholic priest working in an inner city was walking down an alley one evening on his way home when a young man came down the alley behind him and poked a knife against his back. “Give me your money,” the young man said.

The priest opened his jacket and reached into an inner pocket to remove his wallet, exposing his clerical collar. “Oh, I’m sorry, Father,” said the man, “I didn’t see your collar.  I don’t want YOUR money.”

Trembling from the scare, the priest removed a cigar from his shirt pocket and offered it to the young man. “Here,” he said. “Have a cigar.” “Oh, no, I can’t do that,” the young man replied, “I gave them up for Lent!”

Today marks the first Sunday of Lent, 2015. Lent is the season of the church year leading up to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. It begins with Ash Wednesday and continues for 40 days of preparation until Easter. Sundays are not counted in the forty days because we are to always celebrate Christ’s resurrected life on Sundays.  So actually Lent is 46 days including Sundays.

During the season of Lent, we prepare ourselves before the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The season of Lent is all about turning away from evil and embracing God’s will for our lives. Lent is all about repenting and being ready for the great resurrection at the last day. In Old Testament times, people showed how remorseful they were for their sins by publicly wearing sackcloth and sitting among ashes and dust or if in grief, would tear their clothes as a sign of utter despair.

And so as we prepare for Easter this year, we don’t need to concentrate near as much on what we are going to give up as on how the Lord is cleansing our lives. It isn’t about giving up some favorite food. It is about walking closer with Jesus. Lent is the season of heart transplants because God says to us, “Rend your hearts, not your garments.”  Let us pray…

The prophet Joel prophesied during the rule of King Uzziah who reigned from 792-740 BC. Sometime during that period a terrible locust plague hit Palestine, and the people saw all their crops devastated. During this same time, the Assyrian armies in the North were gaining strength and the threat of their invasion was imminent.

The people were greatly distressed about a likely invasion and about more plagues of locusts. They believed that these were judgments of God. And so they fasted, prayed, and made sacrifices in hopes that God would turn from His wrath…(Click on title to see the rest of the message)