What we are doing here today is actually quite a curious thing. We are a bunch of Protestants who have gathered together for an Ash Wednesday service – how strange! How unusual! Why would we Presbyterians gather together for something that for centuries has been labeled "Catholic"? Well the answer is quite simple – for the past few decades, Protestants have been reclaiming some of these "Catholic" practices, recognizing that the purposes behind them are quite often useful and even necessary. And such is the case with Ash Wednesday. We Protestants are beginning to recognize that we need to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Easter, that we cannot just rush up to a celebration of our Risen Lord. We first must see our need for Christ’s work upon the cross and in the empty tomb. And part of that preparation involves a frank and honest confession of our sinfulness. Hence, Ash Wednesday, when we recognize our frailty, our need, our brokenness – that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.

We see from our Scripture readings for today that a frank confession of sins is not natural to broken human beings. John tells us that "if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8, NIV). Friends, he wouldn’t have had to say that unless our natural inclination was to deceive ourselves! And indeed, we do so in three different ways. Some seek to dodge all responsibility for their sins; they blame anyone and everyone for the sins in their lives. Turn on Oprah or Jerry Springer or Dr. Phil – you’ll find plenty of people willing to blame their parents, their siblings, their schools, their friends, their spouses or society in general for all the mistakes they’ve made in their lives. In today’s society, it seems that we are all victims and none of us is responsible for our actions.

But there are also those who are quite willing to admit to things we would call sin which they have conveniently re-labeled as something else entirely. They say that lying, that gossip, that cheating, that adultery, that promiscuity, that any number of other behaviors are really not sin at all. They’ve been liberated from our old-fashioned, outmoded and hopelessly outdated standards of morality. They live their lives by their own standards of conduct, which they say is "right for them". They not only flout God’s law, but they give approval when others do the same. They say they have no sin; they deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them. But there is still another way that humans deceive themselves about sin – for there are those who are perfectly willing to name certain behaviors as "sin". They recognize that lying, that cheating, that murder is certainly wrong or evil. But to them, sin is something that others do. They can easily condemn others, but they have no condemnation left over for themselves. I’m reminded of the person in the church I grew up in who complained to my father about having to pray the prayer of confession each week. "What if I haven’t sinned during the past week?", he innocently asked. "Why would I need to confess anything to God if I haven’t sinned?" The truth was not in him!

The problem for all three of these kinds of people is that they have closed themselves off from the one thing we all desperately need – forgiveness. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have no sin, we say to God that we have no need of His mercy, His compassion, His forgiveness and healing. We say that there is nothing at all wrong with our lives. We say that Jesus Christ did not need to come to earth for us, did not need to live as a sinless human being for us, did not need to die on the cross for us, did not need to rise from the dead for us. Without first recognizing our sinfulness, without first confessing our need for forgiveness and healing, we slam the door in God’s face, saying "I have no need for you". "If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His Word has no place in our lives" (1 John 1:10, NIV). But if we do confess our sins, if we do recognize our need for forgiveness, if we do see our need for the Lord, "He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, NIV). That’s the Good News, my friends. That’s the heart of the Gospel which we celebrate each and every day. That’s what we prepare ourselves to celebrate again during this season of Lent – that in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven!

We see an example of that in our first Scripture reading for today – Psalm 6. David wrote this psalm when he was in anguish, as he suffered some great illness. He recognized that God had sent this illness as a way to get his attention, to drive him to repentance for some unconfessed sin in his life. He finally recognized His need for the Lord and prayed "O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath. Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint; O Lord, heal me for my bones are in agony. My soul is in anguish. How long, O Lord, how long?" (Psalm 6:1-3, NIV). He then calls on the Lord to turn to him and to deliver him, to save him by and because of His unfailing love (v. 4). His eyes are weak with sorrow, he says, and his couch is drenched with tears from a night of weeping which has worn him out (v. 6-7). And the result of this confession, this repentance, this sorrow at his sins is this: "The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer!" (Psalm 6:9, NIV). If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Hallelujah!

Psalm 6 isn’t the only psalm which gives us this pattern for confession and repentance; many other psalms lead us to follow this example in our own lives, including Psalm 32, which we used as our Call to Worship for tonight. But Psalm 6 is special, in that it was quoted by Jesus during Holy Week (see John 12:27). Like David, Jesus said that His soul was in anguish – but not because of His sins, for He is truly the only human being without sin, the only One who could say He was without sin without deceiving Himself. No, in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the Upper Room, on the Cross, His soul was in anguish because of our sins; He was in agony for us. He bore our burden and our punishment; He carried our griefs and iniquities so that when we confess, we will receive forgiveness. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes, we are healed. Jesus fulfills this psalm for us. In Him – and in Him alone – is our forgiveness.

But first we must recognize our need for His work. First we must see that we sin each and every day – by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We sin in thought, word and deed. We all fall short of the glory of God. We do not love God with our whole self; we do not love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We miss the mark each and every day. And we must frankly admit our sins to the Lord. We must confess to Him and to each other that we are sinners. We must ask God for mercy. We must remember that we are dust, and that to dust we shall return. But the good news is, friends, that when we do so, when we speak the plain and simple truth to the Lord, when we recognize our need for Him and confess it to Him, He is faithful to His promises. He is righteous. And He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We have His Word on that – we have His promises! And He was even willing to send His one and only Son for us to make good on this promise! So let us all be honest; let us confess our sins to the Lord. Let us prepare ourselves to celebrate our great victory over those sins through Jesus Christ. And let us receive God’s great mercy and forgiveness, His faithful compassion and righteousness. Let the truth be in us! And as always, to God alone be the glory!