On Ash Wednesday, setting the stage for our Lenten journey, we heard the prophet Joel’s call to repentance: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing [a traditional mark of mourning for the Hebrews]. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.” (2:12-13) Years ago, I went to an Ash Wednesday Quiet Day at the College of Preachers in Washington, D.C. To draw us into silence, the leader used a tape with a song by Carey Landry focusing on this passage. The day, the setting, the music, the message obviously reached a place deep within because I can never read or hear that scripture without being back there, hearing Landry’s voice: “Return to me with all your heart.”

The collect for today continues the theme of repentance, speaking of our need for penitent hearts, hearts that have recognized how they have gone astray and are ready to repent and return to the Lord for pardon and renewal. Like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable in Luke’s gospel (15:11ff), we need to come to our senses and make a U-turn in our lives and return to the loving Father who is longing for us, watching, and waiting for us to return to him with all our heart.

Why is this so difficult for us? As our readings tell us, here we have God who calls into existence the things that do not exist, who calls us into relationship with him, who preserves us from all evil, who justifies the ungodly, and who so loves the world that he gave his only Son so that …the world might be saved through him—yet still we stray, wandering off on our own, ignoring God’s loving presence. If and when, however, we, like the prodigal son, finally discover the error of our ways and find the courage to return to the Lord, it should be no surprise that we will at once be enfolded in the steadfast love that Joel has promised.

There is no time like the present to return to the Lord with all your heart.