Ash Wednesday 2019

FCF: We don’t like ambiguity, we like things to be straightforward, so what happens is we tend toward denial. Some of us might tend toward denying things are hard or sorrowful. We only want to see the Christian life as victory and we hold on to that so tight we lose grip on reality. The reality that things are not yet fully the way they should be. And then sometimes Christians can end up in denial on the other end of the spectrum. The Christian life hard, full of suffering and we must endure, and it seems they kinda like the grittiness of it, but this group of people have their minds so focused in the misery they fail to experience the joy that is offered.

But in following Jesus it is not either/or it is really a combination of the two. Not a little of joy and a little of sorrow, but both truly and at the same time.

This Ash Wednesday let us see eembrace the paradoxical truth of joy and sorrow.

So first

We should embrace the paradoxical truth of sorrow

In the 2 Corinthians passage that was read we see Paul tells the Christians in verse 2 that the favorable time is now, the day of salvation has come.

And in the next few verses we see him list off many terrible things, they are mixed with wonderful things, but they are quite terrible things listed here.

salvation has come, so we endure beatings, imprisonments, riots, sleepless nights, and hunger, treated as imposters, unknown, dying, punished, sorrowful, poor, and having nothing.

When Jesus calls a person to follow him, he does not promise all rainbows and butterfly's. He says if anyone would come after me he must take up his cross (that is the tool used for execution) take up your cross and follow me.

And Jesus said this as he set his face toward Jerusalem where he would take up his cross.

Application:

When faced with suffering we are tempted to deny its reality and try hard not to feel bad, not to feel sorrow. We try simply to act like it is no big deal

Proposition: Because God is saving his people we should embrace paradox

We should embrace the paradoxical truth of joy

There are many reasons to get down. To get low, in this world, in the face of cynicism we should see the joy

The Christian life is full of both joy and sorrow, both are true

Conclusion: The paradox of ash wednesday.

The high point of Jesus was death on a cross.

Life through death, joy through suffering

The ashes take the form of a cross.