Good EVENING and thank you all for coming out. I really enjoy that our lectionary gives me a lesson, right before the sermon, which seems to question the whole purpose of having an Ash Wednesday service. It really doesn’t, of course. But it is picked to make sure that we work through the idea of what is going on here tonight. It is actually an interesting continuation of what I was looking at on Sunday, and the idea of why we do what we do.
So to start, in just a few minutes I will put ashes on our foreheads and if you didn’t catch it, Jesus just said in our second lesson:
When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
This passage, coming from Matthew 6, is taken from the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. A sermon filled with comments like this, where context is very important, and where, at times, Jesus uses Hyperbole, a fancy word for making great statements to get attention.
For instance, shortly before this, Jesus declares “if your right eye causes it to sin, pluck it out and throw it away” and “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” And yet, the disciples were not blind and handless.
If they were, we wouldn’t be able to read from the Gospels, as they never would have witnessed the events or been able to write them. Context
Here, the negative Jesus is speaking against is found at the beginning of Chapter 6, and the hypocrites who’s righteousness was only for show.
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. Not Marky Mark
This is about self-aggrandizing, and those who think that they can earn God’s favor. We put these readings right at the beginning of Lent for a reminder that our humility isn’t for show, and won’t buy God’s favor.
So, why do we do we humble ourselves? Two reasons. We’re human and it’s biblical. First, the human part. I’m sure we’re all aware of that, but being human, we are not just a spiritual being, but we have a body as well and what we do with it is important.
Not surprisingly, the Corinthians had a problem understanding this, and followed some Greek teachings we can talk about some other time, thinking what we do with our bodies, especially sexual sin, isn’t important, only spiritual things are important. Paul tells them 1 Cor 6
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Secondly, it’s Biblical. It has estimated that between 80-90% of the liturgy we use is just reworked Bible passages, and that is the same with some of the customs that have been passed down through time.
The idea of sackcloth and ashes is repeated many times throughout the Bible. When I place the ashes on the head of those who come forward, I say the words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shalt return.” The words are taken from Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve were being escorted out of the Garden, and God spoke these words from what I see encouraging Adam to repent:
“By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat until you return to the ground from which you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Adam = dirt, dust
Remembering that we are dirt should be a rather uncomfortable thought. If we consider what dust is, blowing about, it really means that we are nothing. Consider all of the billions of people that have lived on this planet. And God says, “You are ash and dust.” That should grab us.
And if we hear those words alone, it would be pretty depressing. So, we have this other symbol of God’s love for us to place on our head.
When I imposed those ashes on your foreheads, how did I do it? In the sign of a cross. And that gives meaning to the dust. That gives meaning to you and to me. We are dust, but dust that has been redeemed.
Jesus our Lord. the Son of God, God Himself, became dust. He became the same dust that we are made of. He took up our human nature.
And that dust was nailed to a cross. He died on that cross in order that you and I, though we are dust, would be redeemed dust, precious and loved in the sight of the Lord. We are God's own, for He loved us, and has made us His. In Romans 8:11, Paul writes:
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
It is to this end that we come together on Ash Wednesday: that we truly might understand who we are and what we are before God. We are ash and dust. But we are redeemed! We are people for whom God has poured out His life. We began the service with the words of Joel.
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and repents him of the evil.
There is never a time when the Lord is not happy to receive a repentant sinner, and there is no sin he is not happy to cast as far as the east is from the west.
On page 6 in the bulletin, we continue with a recitation of Psalm 51, David’s famous prayer of repentance. We will read this together in unison as a prayer, kneeling if you wish to, as we come before God’s throne, to humbly call on his Grace. Page 6 Have mercy upon me, O God….
