we'll shoot! (no wait, don't)

Today's readings:

Psalm 61, Genesis 42:1-17, 1 Corinthians 5:1-8, Mark 3:19-35

That Hatfields and the McCoys feuded is well known, why they fought is not.
A few may say it started with a dispute over a hog but the bad blood goes back to a scuffle with a returning vet from the civil war. The feud was fulled by sex, booze, guns, politics, and pride. It "started"  January 7, 1865 and "ended" June 14, 2003 when relatives from both families signed a declaration.

So much blood spilled over hate but masked as "family honor"

This feud was not God-honoring, but there is a feud that is. 

I can anticipate the response that is coming: 

“I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. 

Isn’t this also your experience?” 

Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. 

What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, 

but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. 

So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, 

it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.

Romans 7:15 (Message translation)

We cannot have Godless feuds in the church family, but that does not excuse us from discipline. But we need to be careful of a few things. 

1. We must be very aware of our own spiritual health (Luke 6:42)

2. We must remind ourselves of our own sin-nature (1 John 1:8)

3. We must be quick to receive and welcome the contrite (1 Corinthian 5:1-8)

Why?

The goal of correction is turning around. When someone turns to face us, we should greet them with open arms, not a fist. 

amen

 

Happy Celebrate Slavery Day!

Today' readings:
Psalm 56, Genesis 41:46-57, 1 Corinthians 4:8-21, Mark 3:7-19

I am not anti-Irish.
Up front.
Period. 

The headlines tell us this year that today is about beer companies and mayors boycotting parades.  I am not commenting, just observing. Be honest, that is what is popping up in headlines.

We will not read about the man for whom the parades march so here is a bit of his story. It is about a man who was the antithesis of what most of Americans will do today to celebrate him .

Today will be (for many) a day of "kiss me I'm Irish, drink heavily, eat ethnic foods, and sing drinking songs.  This is "American Saint Patrick's day. So let's take a look at who he was.

Today, for some, it will be a day of national pride and remembrance.

Today, for a few, will be a day to remember a young boy named Patrick who's father was murdered and who's sister was lost when his homeland was attacked and he was enslaved until he was 22.

Today a few may recall that Patrick, after a perilous two-year journey back to his homeland, was visited by a vision while he slept and saw those whom he had lived amongst as a slave shout at him "“Holy boy, we beg you, come back and walk once more among us.”

Today fewer will recall that he was persecuted by his family, his country, and his church to return to those who had enslaved him;
 
 "Of this opposition Patrick later wrote; “So at last I came here to the Irish gentiles to preach the gospel. And now I had to endure insults from unbelievers, to ‘hear criticism of my journeys’ and suffer many persecutions ‘even to the point of chains.’…And should I prove worthy, I am ready and willing to give up my own life, without hesitation, for his name…There was always someone talking behind my back and whispering, ‘Why does he want to put himself in such danger among his enemies who do not know God?’” Patrick had to sell his title of nobility in order to become the “slave of Christ serving the barbaric nation.”

I am not anti-Irish
I am not against green beer or bagels
I am not against celebrating heritage or citizenship

I am pro-Irish, pro-slavery, pro-partying.

Patrick was so pro-Irish that he gave his life for them just as Jesus had given his life for him.

Patrick was so anti-slavery to sin and the devil
that he enslaved himself to sinners to win their freedom 

Patrick was so pro-partying that he rejoiced with all the angels in heaven each time a soul was freed from death by the atoning blood of Jesus.

Today we can celebrate our slavery to Christ, or our slavery to ourselves. Ask yourselves WWPD? What would Patrick do? He celebrated with his whole life that he had died to sin and was made alive in Christ. Have you? This is Lent. Look at your life.

Sing the anthem that speaks of his life him. It is a celebration song of his slavery to Jesus. 

I summon today
All these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel and merciless power
that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul;
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man 

who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone 

who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

the road

Today's readings
Psalm 24, Genesis 41:14-45, Romans 6:3-14, John 5:19-24

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

I'm a little teapot, short and stout

Today's readings:

Psalm 95, Gensis 40:1-23, 1 Corinthians 3:16-23, Mark 2:13-22

I am not an old sage.

I am old (er) than I was, and the wise(r). 

I have made mistakes and fought for my rights too often.
I have spoken to soon and listened to late.
I have missed the opportunity to dispense grace, and to receive it.

This puts me in good company.

I am finding out I am that little teapot I sing about with my kids. 

Too often I have had the heart of the servant in Scripture who, having been forgiven of a great debt, quickly forgot the magnitude of that grace and refused to extend the same. I get steamed up and scald.

We are to to pour our lives out for others, not on others.

God has done this for us and our repeating this act is but a drop compared to the ocean we have received. 

I have have had moments of clarity of God's grace to me and have honestly tried to live a life of grateful joy and giving in response. But as I press in deeper to my God, I am seeing all the more what has been given to me. In joyful response, not fearful compulsion, I am moved to offer all the more.

I wish to pour all my life out. Jesus poured all is life out for me. 

This poured out life will look like a  continual act of charismatic worship.  A charismatic, worshipful life is not  a particular expression or posture. The outsides will look different and take on different paths according to where we are and what we can do.

The insides will be the same.

We will  be a life freely given in gratitude to the dispenser of all things. They will be the spiritual act of worship to the one who life itself.  They will be the widows' penny that was given out of great poverty out of great thanks. 

The live we offer  is not great in and of itself. Yes, we are highly valued by God but he is not in need of us. He does not need our likes, our offerings, our anything.
 God was in perfect joy before anything that is, was.

The value comes from the posture of the give and that posture should be joyful thanks. 

How can we acquire this joyful, charismatic, worshipful life?

Seek God.

Ask for it.

I began yesterday to change the first thoughts that form in my mind as I wake up.
I have begun to pray:

"Almighty God, to you my heart is open, my desires are know, and none of my secrets are hid. Cleans the thoughts of my heart by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit that I may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your Holy Name, through Jesus Christ my Lord, to whom with you, and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen."

Some may recognize this as the "collect for purity". We pray this at the start of  worship in the Anglican Church with the  understanding that if we are to worship God as he desires and deserves to be worshiped we need the help of the Holy Spirit.

If our lives are to be worship, should we not ask the same?

Lord, tip me over and pour me out. Drop, by drop, by drop. In Christ we have become a well of life that can never run dry!
amen

Why clap on the 2/4

Today's Readings:
Psalm 50, (Evening Psalms Psalm 59, Psalm 60, Psalm 46)
Genesis 39:1-23, 1 Corinthians 2:24-3:15, Mark 2:1-12

We were packed into the tiny church in the sleepy little town of Tariffville, Connecticut  to listen to one of the most influential giants of gospel music of all times, Horace Clarence Boyer. He had found his way through the doors and into our lives.

"Now, fine people" he began with a voice that could make both a colicky  baby swoon and the Devil tremble, "to properly sing Gospel you must let the words from here, in your jowls, and not down here, in your belly".

We began to sing. Oddly enough when using the proper technique of singing from a higher place, the words seemed to come from a depth I had never felt before.

..."wade, in the water, wade, in the water children, wade in the water, the Lord's gonna trouble the water"

We not so much sounded better as we did feel better.
It was believable.

A few bars in he stopped us again.
"I am pleased you wish to clap, all Gospel music should stir the soul, the hands and the feet. Do not clap when you feel you want to, however. Clap on the two and the four, not the one and the three. You may find it helpful to stamp your foot when you want to clap, and then clap your hands when you should"

With these two simple tips, a master transformed a bunch of white-bread singers into a buttermilk biscuit Gospel Choir.

In the same way, Paul speaks to the church in Corinth:

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, 

for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them 

because they are spiritually discerned.  

The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.  

“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” 

But we have the mind of Christ.

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people,

 but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. 

And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. 

1 Corinthians 2:14-3:2

The church had been trying to sing the songs of the Lord, to follow his way, but they were off beat and singing from the wrong place. As a result, the music was off and it expressed itself in fighting, quarreling,  and self-centeredness. No matter what words they sang it sounded wrong and as a result the Good News was not believable. 

They were doing what they wanted to, not what they should done

To be fair we can't blame them too much. These folks had only recently come out of a society that actually forced everyone to clap whenever they wanted and to sing whatever felt good. 

Many gods, many temples, indulge in your own way. 
If it felt good, do it. 

In fact, the only thing that was forbidden was following the heart beat of the One True God. 

The cure for this off beat-band is the same cure for us:

Spending time with the Master; learning to sing from the right place, stomping at the wrong beat

This is Lent; putting down our drum sticks and playing back the tapes and changing the notes if need be.

When we spend time with God, when we seek after him, when we yearn for him, then we will have the mind of Christ. We will learn to when to stomp our feet "no" at the natural desires of a sinful heart and move our hands to do the works of God. 
We will all be in rhythm of one voice and heart, a heavenly choir.

We will not simply sound better. We will be better. He makes us better. That is what the cross was all about. 
And that, is what makes us believable. 

 amen

NB 

Horace had his "great gettin' up mornin' in 2009. He is perhaps remembered less for what he sang, than he is for preserving the music. May our lives in Christ be the same.

Lady GaGa, baby Jessica, fracking and the Gospel?

Today's readings:
Psalm 45, Genesis 37:12-24, 1 Corinthians 1:20-31, Mark 1:14-28

This past Sunday I sat in the community room of the Simsbury Public Library drinking lemonade and listening to Lady Gaga's original DJ Brendan Jay Sullivan (DJVH1)  spin tales of his childhood and his early years in NYC when she and he were nothing close to being  Her and Him, much less a "them". 

I've known him since he was a freshman in high school and I have lots of stories. That day I was here to listen.
I heard what I did not expect.
Such is the case with all great stories.

Brendan is a great writer and he shared some truths he had gleaned along the years. He pulled from various authors and, interestingly enough, from the rescue of "baby Jessica", the toddler who spent spent a horrifying 58 hours 22 feet below ground after she had fallen down a 20 inch wide well pipe in Midland, Texas.  Sullivan took us back to the vigil the world kept because it was there he learned the true art of writing, and in it, I heard the Gospel:

"she was sitting on top of a tangle of branches. They couldn't simply come down on top of her for fear of unsettling her position and sending her deeper down the well. Instead they drilled along side her but the solid bedrock quickly broke the hardest of drill bits. One man had a new solution, which ironically would later become known as "fracking". He drilled a hole alongside Jessica, eventually reaching her and bringing her to safety. Great writing is like this. Getting us right up next to the story, without disturbing what is happening at all."

There it was. The Greatest Story.

People have tried for 2,000 years to explain the greatest escape story ever pulled off:
humanity from death.

This is the Cross.
Looking at it is Lent.

In today's reading Paul fracks alongside the Cross to show the rescue and our futile attempt.
He can't do anything else but come alongside it. He  refuses to do so.

 God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 

but we preach Christ crucified: 

a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,  

but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, 

Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, 

and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

1 Corinthians 1:21-25

Brendans' life was changed by a rescue story. Will yours?
How?
I found a side-story while researching baby Jessica about a man named Ron:
 "Ron Short, a muscular roofing contractor who was born without collar bones because of cleidocranial dysostosis and so could collapse his shoulders to work in cramped corners, arrived at the site and offered to go down the shaft; they accepted his offer, but did not use it."

The world was offered a rescuer of abnormal birth whose plan was also not used.
He came on Christmas to those who had had not yet become anything folks would go ga-ga over, but he was ga-ga over them...even to the point of death.
His name is Jesus. What do you make of him?
 amen.

A taste for shoes

Today's readings:
Psalm 41, 52, Genesis 37:1-11, 1 Corinthians 1:1-19, Mark 1:1-13

"You've got simple chronic halitosis".... it was a tag-line for mouthwash. A person with dragon-breath would have some green smoke come out their mouths. The poor person next to them would make a nasty face and tell them they have bad-breath. 

I've got a disease in the same family:
simple chronic pedi-tosis, or foot-in-mouth-breath

We all have it, we all put our foots in our mouths, don't we?

How do we contract this disease? Folks say it's because we speak before we think. Words fly out our mouths unrestricted by common (or un-common) sense. 

I think we have foot-breath because the thoughts spring from our sole, not our heads. Emotions are hard to tie up, they never heel. (sorry, couldn't help the pun). But it is truth, the heart is burning passion and the tongue the its escape. It can cause a world of problems.

But foot-breath can also smell really sweet.
How?
It depends on what we are walking in;

If we walk in love, as Christ loved us, then our feet will be a pleasing aroma. When we speak from our hearts, it will be like a shot of air-freshener in a teenage-sneaker.

If, however, we walk in darkness, things that don't please Lord, then our feet will smell like we romped barefoot through the dog park. When we speak from our hearts, it will reek.

No I am not advocating not thinking about your words! An unexamined life is not worth living! I am saying is that if we watch where we walk it will help keep what is in our heart sweet.

In today's reading we see in the Psalms that David sang love songs, and Paul sang of the Cross. David and Paul both walked with God. If you read the life stories of these men you will see that they both got themselves into so seriously deep doo-doo with God.

But then the beautiful happened. God met them in the mire, and He will meet us too. He bathed them from the inside-out so that the words that came from their new hearts were sweet and full of life.

We can keep our feet clean for awhile, but we will always make mistakes. The only cure for simple chronic pedi-tosis, is a clean heart. And only God can do that.

“‘For here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over, and bring you back to your own land. 

I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. 

I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. 

I’ll remove the stone heart from your body 

and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. 

I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you 

and live by my commands. 

You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. 

You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!

Amen

are you good enough?

Today's Readings: 
Psalm 63, Daniel 9:3-10, Hebrews 2:10-18, John 12:44-50

A radio station posted this on their Facebook page and I came across it by a third party. I don't want to name anyone. That would cause a flurry of posts and that is  exactly what this photo was meant to do.
 
My friend and I would say that this image is like putting a burning bag of dog-doo on a person's step, ringing the doorbell and then diving into the bushes to watch the action. 

So what then are we to do with it?

May I suggest you read the links up above first?

Lent is not about opening the door to the mess that is burning outside on your front step.

Lent is about opening yourself up and dealing with the mess that is within you.

The one who is knocking at the door or your soul will not run and watch you deal with it.
He wants to come in and talk. He wants to help

A popular bumper sticker reads "I'm not perfect, just forgiven!" As true as this statement is, it does not get anyone off the hook. Jerks come in all shapes shapes and sizes but God calls everyone to live a life above reproach. If God is sovereign we might as well be honest with him, right? And if we are honest he will be honest with us.

In the final analysis, no one is good enough, you see. But God has handled that problem.

That is why we call a certain Friday "Good" 

“And I’ll give them a heart to know me, God. 

They’ll be my people and I’ll be their God, 

for they’ll have returned to me with all their hearts. "

Jeremiah 24:7

amen

boomerangs and badboys

Today's readings:
Psalm 30, Psalm 32, Ezekiel 39:21-29, Philippians 4:10-20, John 17:20-26

 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel 

went into captivity for their iniquity, 

because they dealt so treacherously with me 

that I hid my face from them and gave them into 

the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. 

I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.

Ezekiel 39:23-24

I don't know what my parents were thinking when my gave my brother and me our first boomerangs, but I will be forever grateful for their momentary lack of sanity.

We had just enough space in the backyard to get ourselves in trouble. We would aim for trees, branches, and each other pretending we were kangaroos. The object was of course to have it return but it was always an added bonus if we blew the throw and hand to climb onto the rood to retrieve it.

The  boomerang is an Australian icon, which of course makes it intrinsically cool.
Here is what they say about them:

"This is a fairly simple sport to learn. Almost anyone—boy, girl or even old folks—

can handle a boomerang well enough 

to get satisfaction from it after an hour or so of practice. 

And one sensationally nice point in its favor is that 

it's the only thing you can ever hope to own which, 

when thrown away, comes back. 

Now, that's what you call a sweet possession."

...that is what God says about us, you see. 

We are like boomerangs hand-carved by a Master Craftsman.

We may be in the Throwers hand. 

We may traveling away, 

we may be on the return. 

Lent gives us the chance to pause and think where we are in flight. 

Perhaps we are far from God. Is it because our actions have sent us away? 

Perhaps we are coming back, after running away. 

Perhaps we have come back, and we find ourselves falling at the Feet of the Craftsman. 

Boomerangs are made to come back. 

We are too. 

God does not like it when we don't return and find ourselves lost. 

It breaks his heart and he has done all that he could to find us. 

At times we may be sent away for good reason...but God always wants us back. 

That's called repentance on our part, and love on his. 

Homecoming, this is what Lent is about.

Where are you? 

In the hand, in flight, or headed back? 

Come back, says the Lord. 

Do not delay. Come back while it is still daylight.
The end of Lent is Easter, the Great Dawn will come and we don't know when.
The things lost in the dark the day before will remain in the dark. 
You are his sweet possession.

amen

wait, you're kidding, right?

Today's readings:
Psalm 95, Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32, Philippians 4:1-9, John 17:9-19

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, 

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7

"Give your life to Jesus and everything will be great!"

"The Lord helps those who help themselves!"

"When God closes a door, he always opens a window?"

These are the most famous bible verses that are not in the bible.  
We will still have trials. 
We are helpless. 
God can stop us and make us sit . 

What really is hard to swallow are the verses that ARE in Scripture. Like today's. 

How can Jesus tell us to never be worried? 
Maybe he just can't see what is going on?
Maybe he is deaf and can't hear?  
Maybe he just doesn't care?

Well, these can't be because  he listens, he sees, he hears, he cares. 

So how can we be calm when we are in rough waters? 

Trust in the Father. Trust him like his son did.
Jesus trusted. Not my will, but yours.

After a long days work, it is said that  Pope John XXIII  prayed the following:
“Well Lord, it’s your church, you take care of it; I’m going to bed.”

Do you trust him? Can you trust him more? Don't feel guilty. The answer is yes for everyone.

This is what Lent is about. Trusting less in us and more in him. It's taking an honest look at our own self-sufficiency  and seeing it for what it really is; insufficiency.

But give yourself grace, as a beautiful ministry will remind us.  Easter always comes. We are being remade. And that should give us the peace that surpasses all understanding.

amen
 

Lent for everyone: day 2

Psalm 31:1-49, Habakkuk 3:1-18, Philippians 3:12-21, John 17:1-9

Though the fig tree 

does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Habakkuk 3:17ff

"I hope I win the American Girl doll!" my daughter said as she placed her tickets into the basket at her schools fundraiser. She had already made plans with her bus mate the day before; she would win the doll and then give her friend the one she had now. Her bus mate reluctantly agreed and I am told tears and words of anger were exchanged. 

Over dinner that night we talked about hoping for things, and raffles, and what the money was being raised for but behind all that blah, blah, blah, I was her dad telling her that not all dreams and hopes come true. 

Breaking a child's heart is the last thing a loving Father wants to do. 

Have you ever felt like your heavenly Father has broken your heart? 

I would venture to say that many of us would answer yes. 

where were you when.....

why did you let....

I prayed for this...

Is this because our faith was not even as small as a mustard seed, 

or that we didn't know how to pray? 

I wish I could give you all the reasons why things happen but I can't. 

I can tell you that God is good and does not want harm to come to us. 

He bore all of our burdens, and pains, and sorrows. Sin, the bible tells us, has caused deep brokenness between us and God, and between us and our neighbor, and even the earth does not work right. 

So how can God say he has plans for good and not harm? Is he not paying attention? 

He is. Have no fear. 

The prophet Habakkuk asks us a question today on our 2nd day of lent. 

Will you still rejoice in God even when things look their worse?

We can do this because our future, those of us who have come to new life with Jesus, are living with Hope. This is not the hope my daughter had with the American Girl Doll. Her hope was a feeling. The hope that God gives us is a noun, and a proper noun at that. 

His name is Jesus. 

So I ask you today on this second day of Lent. 
Is your trust in God based on who God is, or your situation in life? 

There are no ashes left on your forehead today but your promise to die to your agenda remains. 

Did the promise wash down the drain withe ashes,

or did they trickle down into your heart?   

NB
I am not in anyway downplaying real emotion or real pain. I have experienced both and if we could sit over a coffee I would tell you my stories. I am saying that eternal life-God full life, is not about what happens after we die. It is about what happens when we live the life we are offered. It is in dying to our selves that we can know God.  

Lent for everyone; day one

Today's readings:
Psalm 95, 32, 143, AMOS 5:6-15, Hebrews 12:1-14, Luke 18:9-14

My youngest daughter once looked at me and out of the blue stated: "dad, I have beautiful words in my head".  I melted.

We all are attracted to beautiful words.

So what is the most beautiful word in the Bible?

Is it love, or peace, or joy, or eternal, or forgiveness, reconciliation?

It it is all of these and more. 

The most beautiful word in the Bible is repent. 

Repent, really? 

Yes. Repent within the heart of God does not carry all of the baggage we conjure up.

I'll love you... if

You'll have peace... as long as

You'll always have feel joyful...only when

I'll forgive you...only so many times

We can be reconciled...when you do...

Repent has no conditions. It simply means "turn around and come back"

God does not make repentance conditional, we do.

This is what Lent is about, taking time to turn back, and there are a few things we can do to help

1. We give things up (fast)

We give up things not only to remind us of what Jesus gave up for us,  but also to make space in our lives to turn from our business and be with God.  Fasting is a great practice but to really experience the joy of it follow these two simple guidelines: 

...give up something that distracts you from spending time with God (Facebook, TV, gaming, etc.), 

...and find something that keeps you from keeps you from bearing the full image of God (harmful language or sarcasm, gossip, etc). When we give ungodly things, do not take them back up after the 40 days! We want to remain more lovley.

2. We take things on

We give up "ungodly things" or distractions so that we can spend more time on the good things: reading the Bible, praying, acts of service for others. Work at a soup kitchen, visit a nursing home, give of yourself.

3. Finally, the ashes on our heads

Some don't follow this tradition and this is not a place not to argue but to explain. 

Some people wear them to remind themselves that they are not the center of universe, God is. 

It is a symbolic act of what folks used to do in the Bible when they were really sorry. They would put on old clothes and sit outside the camp in the trash pile and put ashes on their heads (which was burnt garbage).

It is like putting a sticky note on your forehead that says "I love you dad!"

It wasn't to get God's attention, but a way of saying "I turn back". You don't have to wear ashes. It makes many uncomfortable. But this is good. If makes us think that what we do for God is about us and him, not what others think about us. If you have a problem with it it is best not to do it but struggle through it today.  Put ashes on your heart. That is what matters.

All of this (ashes, giving up, taking on) simply boils down to the essence of repentance.

God says come back, I love you my child.

 And we reply: I love you dad. 

 

amen