Valentine Ash

Joel 2:12-17

2:12 Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
2:13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.
2:14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God?
2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly;
2:16 gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.
2:17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep. Let them say, "Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

For the first time since 1945, Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday coincide. For theologians, this juxtaposition creates a conundrum--ash or chocolate? repentance or celebration? For most folks, near as I can tell, this juxtaposition causes no problem whatsoever. Since my wife and I are both clergy, we know we have an Ash Wednesday service this evening, so we went to lunch to celebrate Valentine's. The place was packed, so very few people seem to be having qualms about mixing Cupid and the Wilderness!

For me, it is actually quite meaningful that the two celebrations come together. Reading Paul's definition of love as it is revealed in and through God, our human expression of love needs work, no matter how deeply and sincerely we feel love for our beloveds. We are imperfect. Therefore, our ability to love one another is imperfect. As Paul preaches, when the perfect comes, then so too shall perfection, until then we muddle along as dimly as we can. Taking the ash reminds me of my imperfection, but also of the infinite wonder of God's grace. God can love perfectly, and God does love perfectly, refusing to let us go no matter how far we wander and stray from the confines of God's love.

That gives me hope. No matter how far short I fall from being the husband I want to be; the friend I need to be; the father I hope to be; the son I am; and so on through all my interconnections, God is present, able, and redeeming. The promise of God's love is that no relationship is broken forever, that there is always hope for us, even in the face of death, for resurrection is the assurance that there is always and forever a place where it will be right and good. 

So, at noon, my beloved and I shared a wonderful meal and time to relax in the midst of full workday; and tonight, we will take the ash, knowing we still have much to do, a long way to go, and many corrections to make as we work, nourish, and deepen our love for one another. But God is good, and grace abounds! God is with us, offering the full power of God's love to redeem, reinforce, and recalibrate us, our hearts, and our very way of being. 

We need this so much.