“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
As if to save us from our new year’s resolutions, the season of Lent is again upon us and so then is another chance at a new start. To mark the beginning of this season of self-examination, confession, and amendment of life, we are reminded on Ash Wednesday of our createdness and pointed to our groundedness. And we are reminded that God hates nothing that God has created, even things that are of the dust of the earth. Rather, God desires that all who have fallen away be reconciled to God by an awareness, a recalling, and confession of where they have gone astray, by a sincere change of heart, and by a true change of life.
We receive on our forehead ashes in the form of the cross as a sign of our mortality and as a sign of our desire for a change of heart and life. We hear “remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” These ashes are a visible confession of what we can often deny - that we are mortal and are not ultimately in control of life though we might live in ways that seem to deny both. These ashes are also a confession of what we often cannot receive - that we indeed are mortal, made of mere dust, fragile and easily broken like a clay pot, and yet the potter loves and cherishes us. We may find it hard to accept that in spite of what we have done and what we have failed to do - our pride, anger, hypocrisy, our greed and envy, and our indifference to the problems of others, and yet God loves us. We may find it hard to accept that God loves us when we do not love ourselves.
It does seem an odd practice that on a day that calls for humility we put such a conspicuous mark on our foreheads and then do not hide in our homes but rather go about life much as we normally would. Hopefully, you will see many of your friends and neighbors and others at Ingles, Walmart, at lunch and at dinner, and elsewhere with these ash crosses. Hopefully you will see their cross, but what you are not likely to see is the cross on your own forehead. I think that is as it should be because the things we confess this day are things we often hide from ourselves. They are things we do not see nor want to see. It takes a measure of humility to confess our humanity in its failing and belovedness and to see and receive a confession from others as fellow mortals, fragile and easily broken, yet loved beyond measure.
“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Not a curse, but a promise that when our mortal days are over the one who created us will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and will bring us home.
Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.