March 5, 2003
Joel 2:12-14 2
Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Ash Wednesday
This year has been one of ashes, ashes from the
Azusa Fires that burned acres of forest just north of us. I have been
trying to clean off the ashes from our patio, but the ash is stubborn
and is hard to simply wash away. I can tell if I move something inside
the house that has not been touched since the fires, there too is a
thin film of ash, which needs to be cleaned up. The ash is stubborn and
has found its way through the cracks in our windows and doors. This
being Ash Wednesday, I can’t help to compare the ashes we have
here, with the ash of the fires. We will in a few minutes, give
thanksgiving over the ashes, and then I will annoint each of you with
the ashes on your forehead. Now the ashes are for us Christians a
rememberence of the Life and Death of Christ, they remind us of the
fact that we all are made from the earth and to the earth we will
return. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
To take this a step further, Physicists are now
telling us that there is “high
mathematical probability” that some of
the molecules in us this very minute have come from or will someday go
to the furthest reaches of the cosmos. “A
breath of air. A cell on your eyelid, in a drop of sweat, or in the
wall of your heart has in all likelihood been to the edge of
space.”
In other words, we are made of the ashes of dead
stars. What’s more, our ashes extend in time as well as in space.
“There is an equally high mathematical
probability that some of our molecular stuff has come from the primeval
fireball of creation itself, the furnace in which the universe
began.” That we might literally
have (for a while at least) within our very bodies some of the matter
that was there during the very first moment of creation, or some of the
air with which the prophet Joel breathed. So we are connected to
the Bible in ways we may not of thought possible before, that particles
from the burnt offerings of the early Hebrews are still floating in the
air. It also means that for generations and generations to come, these
same particles added with our dust will continue to live. But it
is not enough to be connected to the Bible in this way. The prophet
Joel reminds us, to live means to repent of our sins in those times
when we have burned the bridge between ourselves and God.
Joel beckons us to find our way back to God, a God
who loves us, and is waiting for us to return. Burnt offerings were
ways the Old Testament people repented of their sins, for us we use
ashes to remind ourselves to burn away all that keeps us from God. Lent
then is a time of focusing our attention on our relationship to God,
and to concentrate on being a faithful people. The Good News is
preached by Paul is that God is more than willing to have us back, we
do not have to sacrifice any animals, only accept the invitation that
is always extended to us by Grace, the invitation to love. Once we
rediscover that love for us, we will discover that the same love that
created the earth, and breathed life into Adam and Eve, the same love
that Moses practiced in leading his people to the promised land, the
same love Jesus showed us by his life and teachings, that has been
practiced throughout the centuries, is breathed into our souls as well.
And this love is the best gift we can give to others.
John Ruskin lived in the days when English villages
were lighted by lamps along the street. One evening, he watched with a
friend as a lamplighter moved slowly on a distant hill, lighting the
lamps along the street. Ruskin said, “There
is what I mean by being a real Christian. You can trace his course by
the lights that he leaves burning.”
It is our job to keep the lights burning. Ashes are
hard to get rid of , they remind us over and over again, that we are
called to be followers of Jesus. Ashes remind us to repent of our sins,
and put aside anything that gets in the way of our relationship to God.
Ashes remind us that we join with the multitude of believers and of all
creation. Ashes remind us that we belong to God, created to love one
another as God first loved us.
