Unto Ashes

“Unto ashes…”

Ash Wednesday is upon us, as is the command for reflection and the gift of grace. Most of us know the words by heart, Thou art dust O mortal, and unto dust thou shalt return, and in them resides the sobering reality of finitude and the divine opportunity of new life. The ashes are more than just the liturgical mark reflecting the beginning of our Lenten journey. There is another dimension prepared for us.

There is something mysterious and mystical about the ashes we receive on Ash Wednesday. That dark smudge on our foreheads connects us to something deep within us and beyond us. We are reminded that we are dust, but not just any dust. The dust of our human-ness is blessed by the holiness of our Maker. The ashes we receive are like a divine magnet drawing us toward the earth from which we’re made and to the eternal to which we long.

Counter the doom-and-gloom often associated with Ash Wednesday and Lent, we must remember that when Jesus preached repentance, it was because the Kingdom of Heaven had come near. The indwelling person of the Holy Spirit has made that an intimate reality of our lives. God has come close to us. The ashes are an invitation to joyfully and intentionally adjust our lives to God’s indwelling presence. The act of receiving the ashes is the mark of a heart and spirit inclining to God in the prayerful hope of living a life more fully marked by God.

When God created all things, life happened because God breathed the divine will into dust, and the convergence of dust and divinity became you and me. When God became flesh and dwelt among us, the Word was wrapped in human flesh—dust—and completed the circle: as we are, God is. Dust and divinity are wrapped together; Spirit and dust collide in us.

Ash Wednesday draws us inside to the divine center, the place of the Holy Spirit in us. We burn through our lives, and the Palms burn to ash. Have the ashes of our lives settled on our souls? Do we carry within us ashes of loss or regret? As water washes away the ashes imposed on Wednesday night, so the Water of Life washes away the ashes that dull and distort the Holy Spirit.

Ash Wednesday is the first step on the journey to resurrection and new life. While it is true that “you are dust and to dust you shall return,” it is also true that God’s final word is resurrection. Ash Wednesday points us not to a despairing of death, but to the death of despair.

We are not celebrating the Easter Resurrection yet, but are given the opportunity to receive resurrection from the burdens that bear us down to the dust. The ashes are more than ashes; we are more than dust. We seek to be washed clean, that our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 269 )

From the ashes,
​
Fr. Bill+