Ash Wednesday
February 21, 2007

The observance of Ash Wednesday is a practice of the ancient church that fell out of favor during the Reformation and was reinstated in the Episcopal Church in the 20th century, especially in the 1979 prayer book. Although it is not required, one of the central elements of our Ash Wednesday liturgy is the imposition of ashes. In a just a few minutes I will invite you to observe a Holy Lent, and I will invite those who wish to do so to come forward to receive that ashes, placed on your forehead in the sign of a cross. Given the gospel we just heard, the gospel we always hear on Ash Wednesday, some may wonder why we do this—why we mark ourselves in such a conspicuous way. Is this not what Jesus is cautioning us against in Matthew’s gospel when he says, “Beware of practicing your piety in order to be seen by them”?

Perhaps...but perhaps not. I think what Jesus is warning about is acting as hypocrites. If we come here tonight to receive ashes to demonstrate to others or even to ourselves what good Christians we are, what good church-goers we are, and only for that, we are missing the point—then we are doing the thing that Jesus warns us about. But if we come to receive the ashes because they carry meaning for us, if we wear them because they help us to remember something essential about ourselves, something essential about the season of Lent that we are about to embark upon, that is a different matter.

So then, what significance might having ashes imposed on our foreheads carry? What are the essential things that this mark on our heads might remind us of?
In scripture, being marked on the head is a sign of belonging or ownership. When we are baptized, the priest makes the sign of the cross on our foreheads with the words, “…you are marked as “Christ’s own forever.” When we receive the mark of the ashes tonight it is yet another reminder of whose we are—we belong to Jesus who died on the cross.

The ashes themselves serve as a stark reminder of our own mortality. As we receive the ashes we hear the words God spoke to Adam, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Ashes remind us that we are from the earth, a part of God’s creation, part of something greater than ourselves. And they remind us that we will return to the earth, that we will remain part of that creation even beyond our deaths. No matter what our status—from the lowliest street people to the most exalted dignitaries—we share these common origins and we face this common end.

Ashes, too, are a sign of mourning, humility and penitence. Donning sackcloth and ashes historically was a way to demonstrate mourning or sorrow. When Job loses everything, he sits among the ashes. Cursed and overrun by enemies, the Psalmist "eats ashes like bread, and mingles tears with drink." When we are marked with ashes, it is a vivid reminder of the sorrow our sins bring—to those whom we sin against, to ourselves, even to God. Being marked with ashes is an equally vivid reminder that we are entering a season during which we are especially called to recognize those sins, to name them, and to repent, to turn away from sin and turn towards God, towards the new life promised through the death and resurrection of our savior, Jesus.

So receive these ashes if you will.

Receive them as a reminder of whose you are and what you are about: a child of God, marked as Christ’s own forever, called to be Christ’s body in the world.

Receive them as a reminder of your place in creation—coming from dust and returning to dust.

Receive them a reminder of the call to repentance that is central to the season of Lent we are about to embark upon and as an invitation to live fully into that season as we prepare for the joy that is Easter.

AMEN