There be Ashes Here

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

These words constitute your call to observe the holy season of Lent. It is your call to observe Lent by slowing down, taking a deep breath, and meditating on who you are... and what God has done for you. It is a time to strip away the non-essential and the unimportant. It is a time to listen in quietness to creation's groaning as it writhes in sinfulness. It is a time to reflect upon the depth of our own sinfulness. And thanks be to God! It is a time to savor anew God's full and free gift of total forgiveness which comes through the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Today is Ash Wednesday, and so we hear the words:

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

From ancient times, these words (a paraphrase of God's Word to Adam in Genesis 3:19) have been spoken to young and old alike as the sign of the cross is traced on their foreheads with ashes. It is from these ashes, in fact, that Ash Wednesday receives its name. The custom of places ashes on one's forehead has its genesis in the ancient custom of rubbing oneself in ashes during a fast or period of penance as a sign of humility and sorrow. In Scripture, we observe this happening among people as varied as Job (Job 2:8), the king of Ninevah and the rest of the city (Jonah 3:4-10), Daniel (Daniel 9:4-14), and Mordecai (Esther 4:1).

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

The ashes are a sign of our mortality and a sign of our repentance. By receiving the ashes, the worshiper acknowledges that God's judgment against our sin is right and just. We acknowledge our sin and our sinfulness and bow down before the Holy God of heaven and earth in repentance and mourning.

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

But even in the midst of mourning, there is joy. For the ashes are also made in the sign of the cross— the instrument by which our Lord took upon Himself the punishment for our sin, in our place. These cruciform ashes remind us of a reality that is even more rock-bottom than death: there is One who became our dying Dust for us and took that Dust through death upon a cross and burial into a glorious resurrection and a life that never ends. We are dying; we are headed to death indeed, but as Christians these ashes also remind us to look in hope toward Christ crucified to redeem this mortal clay. It is a remembrance that Christ took our place in these ashes, the ash of our mortality and the ashes of our sins, that Christ took them all the way to the cross and so has won for us everlasting joy that comes with the forgiveness of sins.

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

With these ashes we begin Ash Wednesday. Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.