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Fine, powdery, dark gray and black ashes, smudged onto our foreheads in the shape of a cross, for all the world to imagine what we’ve been doing, looking like we bumped our heads while cleaning out the fireplace, and forgot to wash that part of our faces…

Just a few ashes…symbolizing more than most of us realize as we go through the motions of Ash Wednesday.  What do we say to people who ask us the obvious question:  What IS that on your head?  Why do you have black stuff on your face?

Why WILL we participate in this strange custom this evening?  What DOES it mean?  The spiritual practice of applying ashes on oneself as a sign of sincere repentance goes back thousands of years. Frequently in the days of the Old and the New Testament, when someone had sinned, he clothed his body with sackcloth and covered himself with ashes. [Jer. 6:26]  The sacramental that we are observing today arises from that custom, the spiritual practice of observing public penitence.  Church history tells us that the liturgical practice of applying ashes on one’s forehead during the Lenten Season goes back as far as the eighth century. This was accompanied by different forms of fasting, prayer, sacrifices, charity towards others, etc… The writings of St. Leo, around 461 A.D., tell us that during the Lenten Season, he exhorted the faithful to abstain from certain food to fulfill with their fasts the Apostolic institution of forty days.  In the days of the Old Testament, many tore their clothing as a sign of repentance.

Today, we use the ashes as a reminder of who we are.  The Bible tells us

that we came from the dust and to the dust we shall return.  The first

human was formed out of the dust of the earth by God and then God breathed

life into that dust.  That is a powerful image.  One that is meant to

remind us that without the breath or Spirit of God moving in us, we are

just like these ashes: lifeless – worthless.

The ashes that many of us will wear tonight are meant to be for us symbols of our repentance and signs that we truly seek to follow in God’s path.

The people in the Biblical stories probably put the ashes on top of their

heads – so why do we, instead of putting these ashes on our heads, put them

in the sign of the cross on our foreheads?

We do so because it is a reminder of how we are sealed for Christ.  In most

churches when a baby is baptized the minister or priest uses oil to mark

the child with the sign of the cross.  The mark of the cross is a mark of ownership.  These ashes tonight remind us that we are Christ’s – that he died so that we might live.  These may be just a few ashes but they mean a lot.  They are a symbol of our need for God.  We are nothing but dust and ashes apart from God.

But what about Lent itself?  What is it?  Why do we have this season?  Most of us were taught that the lengthy period of Lent was one of penitence and fasting, a time provided for those who were separated from the church by their sins, so they could be reconciled by acts of penitence and forgiveness.

For most of us, Lent is the time of sometimes painful self-examination, during which we scrutinize our habits, our spiritual practice, and our very lives – hoping to make ourselves better, trying to make ourselves worthy of the love of God.  We “step up” our prayer, fasting, and self-denial in order to remove worldly distractions from our lives. And we take on Bible study, classes, and service projects in order to add meaning and depth to our existence.  For some children, Lent means no sweets, for teenagers, less time on Facebook. For adults, it may be consuming less meat or alcohol, or attending that Lenten course offered by the Church.

However we go about it, the goal is pretty much the same: Lent makes us ready for Easter. Quite simply put, we are better able to appreciate Resurrection joys come Easter Day by enduring these Lenten disciplines now.

The Old Testament Lessons, the Psalm appointed for today, and today’s Gospel Reading all tell us the “how” and “why” of Lent.  But then, there is Paul.  Saint Paul tells is, right off the bat, in the very first verse of the Epistle for today, to “BE RECONCILED TO GOD.”  Nowhere does he say, “Observe a Holy Lent, THEN be reconciled to God.”  Not after enduring a forty-day fast. Not after lengthy Bible study. Not even after prayer, but now, here, today: Be reconciled to God.  Paul not only invites us to be reconciled to God, he actually beseeches us. That is, he pleads, implores, presses, begs, and demands. “We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. … Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.”

If we but recognize this, if we are but reconciled to our God NOW, and THEN work toward our Lenten goals of fasting, of prayer, and of penitence, if we seek to discipline ourselves during Lent, and make those disciplines into daily habits, we will not only most assuredly have the Holy Lent we all desire, but will come to live a more holy life in general.  And isn’t that, really, what Lent is all about in the first place?  Amen.

 

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