A Time for Turning

The reflection offered by Rev Sera R, at the St Denys Church Ash Wednesday Service in March 2025.

Bible Passages: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 and Luke 15: 11-32 (You can read both fully at the end of the blog, below)

There’s a phrase and idea woven through the two Bible readings today: Returning… re-turning….turning-again.  This is a phrase can help us as we set out into Lent, starting our journey at Ash Wednesday.

Joel – a minor prophet with a major message

We hear the prophet Joel cry out ‘‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart” (2:12)

He is one of the prophets we call the minor prophets who preached to God’s people before and after they were in exile, and who cried out God’s heart ‘Return to me.’

(I started this year reading the minor prophets each day, and it wasn’t light reading. I was struck by the holiness of God, and the repeated cry to ‘up your game’)

‘Return with fasting, weeping and mourning, rend your hearts and not your garments. Gather the people. Consecrate the assembly.. Let the priests who minister before the Lord weep..’ – why? Because God is holy, and we are not. Feel the weightiness of that kind of turning.

 This kind of weighty, holy returning would have been embedded into the lives of first century Jews… who were then told a story of two lost sons and a story of returning.

Jesus’s parable: Two lost sons. And a story of returning

Son 1: Far from home. He looked at his circumstances and recognised that everything he’d put his hopes into had let him down. He ;ooked at himself and saw that he was basically a failure. He remembered his father, and saw a glimmer of hope.

And he chose to humbly return home. (it feels his attitude echoes a lot of Joel)

 Son 2: Out in the fields, close to home. He noticed the celebrations and was bewildered by the generosity of it.  He looked at himself and saw the price he’d been paying for years of doing the right thing, and he felt ignored, unseen and unappreciated. He thought of his father, and he was angry.

And so he chose not to return home. He chose to turn away.

Our Father God's Response

Two sons made choices, whether to return or not. And I asked Sue to pause after each decision, so we can appreciate that their decision was separate from the action of the father. They did not control what the Father did, and how he responded. What they had do was decide about their own turning. To re-turn (back home), or to turn away.

• One son chose to re-turn: and the Father came to him.
• The second son chose to turn away: and the Father came to him too.

 Joel offers these words on returning: ‘Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,     and he relents from sending calamity. ¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent     and leave behind a blessing.’

 I think we see the gracious and compassionate Father responding to both sons with 'abounding love and blessing': To the first he offered celebration and acceptance. And to the second, he absorbed his anger, resentment and jealousy. (maybe after that the second son would choose to re-turn home)

Our Own Stories: 

I guess you might be sitting here thinking about whether you are the first or second brother in Jesus’ stories. Honestly, I’d suggest it’s not either/or but a bit of both. You are you.

And if Jesus was to tell your personal story of being a lost child, it would be a bit different. But I am guessing it would include doses of selfishness, laziness, irresponsibility, disillusionment, resentment & bitterness, as well as humility, inspiration, responsibility, weight-bearing, befuddlement. We are complex people. But it would still feature an invitation to return. And it would still feature a Father who comes to you.

A Time for Turning

Ash Wednesday offers an invitation of re-turning, as we remember who we are, and declare our intention to return. 

‘Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.’

Lent offers the opportunity where we can establish habits of returning. Where day by day we can make choices to turn to God, and keep turning to God. Maybe by making sacrifices, maybe by making more space for God.

I wonder what habits you plan to practice this Lent to help you with your returning. Maybe you’ve not chosen anything yet. As I keep saying this year – why not do something that expresses your commitment to turn, no matter how small it feels. I’ve chosen to commit to the Start Course and to stop eating chocolate. (I out of habit grabbed a chocolate from a box of chocolates we’d been given in the office this morning. And then part through chewing it, I remembered I’d decided to give up chocolate for Lent! Habits need breaking. And resolved to keep on going.)

And then see what happens. We cannot force an outcome, but we can allow ourselves to be met by our Father, who yearns for a relationship with each us.

Bible Readings

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Blow the trumpet in Zion;

    sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble,

    for the day of the Lord is coming.

It is close at hand –

2     a day of darkness and gloom,

    a day of clouds and blackness.

Like dawn spreading across the mountains

    a large and mighty army comes,

such as never was in ancient times

    nor ever will be in ages to come.

‘Even now,’ declares the Lord,

    ‘return to me with all your heart,

    with fasting and weeping and mourning.’

13 Rend your heart

    and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God,

    for he is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

    and he relents from sending calamity.

14 Who knows? He may turn and relent

    and leave behind a blessing –

grain offerings and drink offerings

    for the Lord your God.

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,

    declare a holy fast,

    call a sacred assembly.

16 Gather the people,

    consecrate the assembly;

bring together the elders,

    gather the children,

    those nursing at the breast.

Let the bridegroom leave his room

    and the bride her chamber.

17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,

    weep between the portico and the altar.

Let them say, ‘Spare your people, Lord.

    Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,

    a byword among the nations.

Why should they say among the peoples,

    ‘‘Where is their God?”’

Luke 15:11-32

¹¹ Jesus continued: ‘There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them.

¹³ ‘Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ ‘When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.” ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

(PAUSE)

‘But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him.

²¹ ‘The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

²² ‘But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate.

²⁵ ‘Meanwhile, the elder son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”

²⁸ ‘The elder brother became angry and refused to go in.

(PAUSE)

So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

³¹ ‘“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”’