Ash Wednesday

 Ash Wednesday 2020

                On this day we receive a mark of ashes on our foreheads reminding us that we are dust and we shall return to dust. 

                At our baptism we receive a mark of oil on our foreheads and the pastor says, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” 

                On this day we remember what is temporary and what is permanent.

                In the temporary category is this flesh, our bodies.  Someday, sooner or later, we will die.  We will stop breathing.  Our hearts will stop beating.  Our bodies will be too worn out or sick or injured to go on.  But with that body, other temporary things die, too.  Our sins and failings will be gone.  Our regrets will die.  All the lies we tell ourselves will be no more.  All our pretenses, all our showing off or trying to impress other people, all our boasting—they will be gone.  All our performances, all our trying to be what other people want and expect us to be, all our hypocrisy—all of that dies.  All of our pain, physical, mental, and spiritual will die.  All of that is dust and ashes and someday will be no more.  This is a good thing.

                In the permanent category are the following.  God made us good and claimed us as God’s beloved children.  Nothing will take that away.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God—nothing, not even our own play acting and trying to impress, not any sin, not not going to church, not not being baptized, not not believing correctly, nothing.  God who made us, claims us, and we are God’s precious children forever.   This is a very good thing.

                That washing of baptism is permanent.  Nothing takes that away.  It is a washing that allows us to participate in the Kingdom of God now, in the Christian community, dwelling in God’s promises, dying daily to sin and rising to new, abundant life.  We continue in those promises once the dust settles.  After all that is temporary becomes dust, this new life continues on, God’s promises continue on.

The mark upon our forehead of oil at our baptism and the promise that accompanies it is permanent.  We wash our face, our lives go on, but that cross is on us.  That is the cross of forgiveness upon which Christ died for our sins.  When Christ hung upon that cross he offered forgiveness for those who hurt him saying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  He told the thief hanging next to him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”  The cross is a physical reminder of what we so easily forget, that we belong to Christ.  There is nothing we have to do.  There is no way for us to get out of it.  That mark reminds us that we don’t belong to this world and all the struggle it brings, all the oppression that it causes.  Instead, we belong to one who gives us an alternative set of values and a way of resisting all that harms and destroys.

Today we receive an ashen cross as a reminder of what is not permanent, what we practice letting die this season of Lent.  We take on the discipline of prayer and repentance.  We let die the notion that we can do it ourselves.  We let die the notion that we are all alone.  We take on the discipline of fasting.  We let die the notion that our comforts come first.  We let die the notion that our possessions fulfill us.  We take on the discipline of generosity and alms giving.  We let die the notion that we deserve all that we have.  We let die the notion that other people deserve to be hungry and in need.  Through these disciplines we let go of the notion that we are powerless against the injustice of this world.  We put God and neighbor at the center, and let our usual self-centeredness be turned to ashes.

This Lent, put away what is temporary, let it die.  Take on what is permanent and live the values of God’s Kingdom.  The Wednesday Soup Suppers and lunches are simple meals of community that take us out of our isolation and bring us together more often as the body of Christ.  The weekday Lenten worship will put new songs in our hearts to help us focus on God’s will when the world tries to pull us toward fear and greed.  Our Sundays will include penitence and forgiveness, a more simple and quiet path, reminders of who we are and where we’re headed and what really matters. 

The good news is that it doesn’t depend on us, but on the grace of God.  God has already claimed us, already walks with us, already gives us abundant life, and is already at work in us, giving abundant new life to all the little ones, and showing all us hypocrites and wanderers a better way.