Several years ago at the
conclusion of one Ash Wednesday service I returned to the vesting sacristy to
remove my vestments. Upon my arrival in
the sacristy, I found a person in the sacristy looking into the mirror—wet paper
towel in hand, vigorously wiping the ashes from her forehead.
At the time I was
mortified and all sorts of judgmental thoughts pinballed around my head. I thought Why isn’t she taking this
seriously? Doesn’t she have a shred of
respect for what we just did?
Of course, I am not aware
of any stipulation that says how long
one should or should not display ashes on one’s forehead. I guess it could be just a few moments or
perhaps several days if one doesn’t bathe regularly. Of course, some people choose not to even
partake in the imposition of ashes and that’s alright too.
For all I know this
person may have been taking very seriously the words that we hear from Jesus
today—to be careful when practicing piety before others. Today is a day like no other—most of us will
exit church with a badge, an “I voted” sticker, a mark that displays to all the world that we
have been to church.
And yet on this day we
are confronted by a Jesus who warns us about the dangers of letting the world
know about our faith.
Now one thing to
note—Jesus doesn’t say “don’t practice piety before others, but rather be
careful—beware of practicing piety because it can land you in a load of ---I
guess if we display our ashes proudly so as to feel superior to those who don’t
have ashes—you’d better head to the bathroom and get a wet paper towel.
Piety and faith are not
badges to be worn to make others feel bad or to make ourselves look good— we
should not to feel to morally superior today or any day that we go to church
and others don’t—like I did that day many years ago when I was going to proudly
display my ashes all day long.
So why then do we display
these ashes and what can they mean to us and to the world?
I think that one of the
most important things that ashes do for us today is remind us of our
finiteness-that we are dust and to dust we shall return-that someday we will be
no more.
Ash Wednesday is a day
where the church peers into the grave and recognizes its own mortality— today
we stand face to face with the fact that you and I-- we are going to die.
We don’t do that very
often—we hide from death—we try to ignore it and for good reason—it’s scary to
think that we will not exist-that we will leave behind those we love—death is
sad and we have very little control over when and how we leave this life.
Today the church forces
us to look into the abyss of death---we will mark ourselves for death with this
black smudge of ash and in some way come face to face with our mortality—but
you know what? We do so in the Holy presence of God— a God who animates the
dust, who breathes life into the dust and into each one of us--- infuses us
with life and love and light. We look
into the abyss and realize that that the trajectory of our lives extend beyond this
world and our mortal bodies-that God has something more beyond this life for us.
Good friends one of the
things I’ve learned over my years in ministry is that the more we can embrace
death the more we get to live—the more robust our
relationships become—the more we to say the really important things like I
love you or thank you or forgive me—the more we embrace death the more
beautiful the world becomes— a sunset becomes more than a sunset—a crocus
bursting through the soil becomes a beautiful work of art that catches our
breath. A conversation with a friend
becomes a treasure beyond our wildest imagination. Embracing death also helps to enliven our
relationship with our creator-it connects us to the only thing more powerful
than death—our creator—death teaches us to trust that only thing we can. God.
So today when you look in
the mirror or when you see someone else with that silly smudge on their
forehead remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return and remember
that embracing death helps us to live more fully and with God, with this
creation and with the world.
AMEN
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