Ash Wednesday

[3 Gen Rev]

This is an Ash Wednesday sermon I actually felt I could use, even though I've forgotten where it came from...

“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
With these words, a small bit of ash is rubbed in the sign of the cross on the forehead of each person. 
A mark of humility, a sign of mortality,
an acknowledgement of repentance.
While for many protestants the idea of imposing ashes or even attending an “Ash Wednesday” service is too, well, Catholic, for them, the truth is that what we acknowledge on this first day of Lent is nothing more or nothing less than being human.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a forty day period of “fasting” and spiritual attention that is intended to commemorate Jesus’ own forty day wilderness period of preparation at the beginning of his earthly ministry. 
During Lent, Christians prepare for the sublime feast of Easter by spending a protracted time in the fast of Lent.
At our Ash Wednesday Service two invitations will occur:
1)   Everyone, young and old, whatever age and stage of life will be invited to come and receive the imposition of ashes,
2)   Every Christian, young and old, whatever age and stage of life, will be invited to come forth a second time and receive the Lord’s Supper.
By coupling these two moments—one a humanly constructed  tradition, the other a divinely ordained sacrament—we wish to convey a clear message:
the starting point for all spiritual progress,
all spiritual attention,
all spiritual discipline,
is in the acknowledgement of our own genuine humanity and receiving God’s generous mercy. 
Like two blades of a pair of scissors both are needed:
humility and grace,
the truth of our mortality and the gift of eternal life, remembering that our bodies were fashioned of the dust and that the God of the universe took on the same creaturely form in order to bring us to life eternal. 
And in receiving both the ash and the sacraments,
we complete our first act of repentance.
The focus of Ash Wednesday and Lent is repentance. 
Again, many of us are confused about repentance. 
Some of us think of it as “penance,” that is, atoning for our sins with acts of contrition.  But that is not repentance.  We can’t atone for what we have done and need not try.  Jesus’ work on the cross is our atonement. 
Some of us think of repentance as sorrow and shame for what we have done, but that is also inaccurate.  Indeed the bible has a different Greek word for sorrow.
Repentance is literally to “change your mind.”  In the famous words of Dallas Willard, “To reconsider your strategy for living based on the news of God’s Kingdom that is available in Jesus.”
And that is what Lent is for, to reconsider your strategy for living. 
To begin a new process of deep consideration and reflection about your life. 
To reconsider what it means to follow Jesus, to plumb the mystery of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 
To reconsider what your strategy for living should be, based on this good news.
And it all begins with this: 
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. 
You are not an angel. 
You are not a mere soul or disembodied spirit.
You are human, you are mortal,
you are deeply dependent on the God
who formed your body from the humus of the earth and breathed life into you with his kiss. 
God has come to you, in Jesus, O Creature,
and called you to have life eternal with him.
And so, with ash on our foreheads and the taste of bread and wine on our tongues, we begin a holy lent.

[Chad]

Yes, good one 3GR.

Did you preach it then?

[Vic VDB]

Excellent.

I ended up in Liverpool cathedral for Ash Weds.

Not very popular service

[PamelaP]

Was there "ash-smudging" involved in the Liverpool service, Vic?

I have to be honest and say that symbolism doesn't work for me although I fully acknowledge that it is helpful for a great many people. "Ash-smudging" would just make me conscious of being "visibly dirty" - and I shrink from "visible dirt environments". The sight of "mud-wrestling contests" makes me feel literally sick!

Incidentally, "contamination by ash" - is this meant to represent dying to self or dying to the world? Reading this -

 http://nickbaines.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/lent-living-and-loving/

 - made me wonder!

[Vic VDB]

Of course there was! After all if there wasn't we'd need to change it to 'make it what you want Wednesday' wouldn't we ?

I'm sorry that the symbolism doesn't work but the reality of the day and the happenings portrayed are there and the service is something extremely meaningful and important as we approach Easter.

As for what does it mean. I'd have to say that it appears that it means different things for different people in that for some it is the ephemeris that is life, the certainty of death, the realisation of sin, the acceptance (and hope) of forgiveness and so very much more. Lent is not about 'giving up' but taking on and then more besides.

pax.

[3 Gen Rev]

I actually decided to preach it as it was, without comment from me, which is really not my style!
But then I thought that for Lent I'd look at stepping outside the comfort zone and trying to attempt stuff I usually avoid!
And I never just read sermons!