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To “sanctify” (“consecrate” in the NIV) is to set apart the congregation for God’s purpose.  We do this by confessing our sins before we begin the Eucharistic Prayer and approach the Lord’s table.  In making our confession, we should engage in self-examination – a process that should leave us convicted of our unworthiness and of the mystery of God’s grace.  Here’s today’s lesson scripture:

12 Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy. Joel 2:12-16 (NRSV)

Rending clothing was a sign of deep grief and distress for the Jewish people, but the prophet urges us to rend our hearts instead.  For the people of Israel, the term “heart” referenced reason, intellect and purpose and so they were being urged to tear apart their own will and allow God’s will to be worked in them instead.  Moreover, this act of repentance was to be made without expectation of any sure reward.

“Who knows whether he will not turn and relent” – we should understand that God’s grace is not to be compelled, but is freely disposed of according to his pleasure.  Just as God’s grace is a gift bestowed upon us without our merit - but for the glory of and as a testament to God’s steadfast love - so we should seek to reflect God’s holiness in our lives by turning to God not with any expectation of mercy, but in the spirit of true repentance.

This does not come easily.  Our nature, even when we desire to be otherwise, is to be selfish.  The next time you prepare to participate in the Lord’s Supper, try to not only confess your sins, but to do so in a spirit of absolute worship and love of God - without hope of any reward or dispensation – but solely for God’s glory in remembrance of his ultimate act of sacrifice and love.

To do this is to fashion ourselves in his image and to better equip ourselves for our part as servant-workers in God’s new creation.