Returning to the Lord

“Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” Joel 2:13

These words from the prophet Joel are familiar, aren’t they? Why? It is because we sing them often during the season of Lent as we stand to receive the gift which is the Gospel reading on Sunday morning. Normally, of course, we sing something like “Alleluia! Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life! (John 6:68) Alleluia! Alleluia!” But in Lent it is: “Return to the Lord your God!”

For the sad reality is that we so often simply need to return to our Savior, right? That is, we constantly seem to drift away from Jesus, and we do so in all sorts of ways. For life so often is like strolling through the state fair grounds in August, the sights and sounds of this and that pulling us off the streets and into the buildings and displays, the rides and the restaurants, the venues and the venders. And how many of us have experienced the horror of children who have wandered away from us there? Who, when we turn to say something to them, are gone, having drifted away from us in single-minded pursuit of something which caught their attention?

And what makes that situation worse? We begin to look for them here and there, and so move away from the spot from which they drifted away from us. Of course, when we find them, eventually, we hear words from them which are a bit condemnatory: “I was lost! And I returned to the spot where you were, and you were gone! You were gone!”

Nevertheless, the basic problem was that we had not wandered away from our children, but our children had wandered away from us. And that is our problem, spiritually, in a nutshell: We can find ourselves wandering away from our Heavenly Father, being enamored with life, being engaged in it, being busy with it, or simply overwhelmed by it.  And when we do, there can be a moment when we realize that we are lost. And we don’t know what to do.

But when we find ourselves to be lost, we can always return to that from which we drifted away, and that is the Word of God, and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. These don’t wander away from us.  They remain. And they remain in the same spot. The same place. As the Apostle Peter wrote: “The word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Pet. 1:25).

But can we really return after having drifted away? Of course! For the Lord our God is gracious! He is merciful! Slow to anger and abounding, yes abounding in steadfast love!

During the Lenten season this year, which begins with our 7:00 p.m. worship service on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 17^th), our theme will be “Return to the Lord!”  Throughout the Lenten season then we will hear again and again how we should always, even daily, return to the Lord our God!