Sermon 2/6/08
Lion King: Circle of Life - Psalm 51:1-17, Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the forty day season of Lent, the season in which we prepare for Easter. During Advent, while we prepare for Christmas, the time is marked by hope, love, peace, and joy. But in Lent, we are called on to make preparations of a different nature. We know that the end of our Lenten journey is the celebration of Easter, a time of great joy in the community of faith. But we also know that before Easter comes, the denial of Christ comes, the betrayal, and trial, the mocking, the beating, the crucifixion of Christ. So in Lent, as we set out on this journey of forty days, we set out with an awareness that the path we take is difficult, full of emotions, subdued and somber.
But today, wherever else this Lenten journey will take us, we begin here, on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is an old tradition, started centuries ago as a way to mark the beginning of this season. Traditionally, ashes for this day come from the burned palms from last year’s Palm Sunday. The Palms that symbolized the joy with which Jesus was ushered into Jerusalem. But we know that the people quickly turned on Jesus, even though they had celebrated him when it was convenient. The people who praised them were also those who condemned him. And so the Palms that ushered Jesus into Jerusalem in joy also usher us into Lent with that great awareness we have of our own inconsistency. We, too, ask Christ to be a guiding teacher in our lives only to change our minds, or at least act as though we’ve changed our minds, as soon as things seem difficult. Palms to ashes. This is the nature of humanity, the circle of life in which we are caught up.
The ashes that you receive on this day have two meanings. First, ashes were symbols of mourning and repentance. In the Old Testament, we read of the people putting on ‘sackcloth and ashes’, sitting in the dust, symbols of repentance, particularly after hearing and heeding the words of prophets who reminded them of how they had strayed from God’s path and called them to return faithfully to God’s path.
Second, ashes are a symbol of our mortality. If most of our faith symbols represent life, this symbol represents our mortality, a symbol to remind us of how finite we are, of how fragile we are, of how tenuous are lives are. We’re probably most familiar with the symbol of ashes today in the funeral service, particularly the graveside service where we hear the words, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” We’re reminded that God created us from the dust of the earth and to the dust and ashes we return in death. Ashes – this is the symbol that is our focus today. It’s an uncomfortable focus. Even if we personally may feel ready to deal with our own mortality – and that’s a big if – we certainly don’t want to dwell on the mortality – the always-coming end of life of those we love. We can accept death when it is ‘supposed’ to come, at the end of a long and satisfying life, a life filled with love and good living. But are we ready to accept death as a part of life when it means the death of the young? The unexpected deaths? The lonely deaths? I am not. We are not ready for ashes to ashes. The ashes remind us that despite how we live and behave sometimes, our life on earth is finite – we have a beginning and an ending, both of which are in God’s hands. We are not God. We are not invincible. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
The awareness of our human limitations is always lurking in some part of our minds. We know, in our hearts, even if we don’t not act the part, that our lives are precious, and that time goes quickly. And so rather than ignoring or hiding from what is part of our human identity, today we are called to wear a symbol of our mortality right on our very faces – ashes placed right on our foreheads. We will be marked with our own mortality. Why do we do this? What is the meaning of such a ritual? Why do we begin our Lenten journey in this way?
In high-school, I was never a big sports-buff. After junior high, my attention was focused mostly on the music and drama programs. But I would still usually make it out for Homecoming – a big football game at RFA – alumni celebrations – school spirit week. But I value more homecomings of a more serious nature – coming home after a long trip. Coming home after being away at college, or going to see my nephew after a month has gone by. Coming home and being reunited with loved ones – someone waiting for you at an airport or train station. A ‘welcome home’ sign. These are the homecomings I value most.
To me, Ash Wednesday is for the Church a homecoming celebration. In our text from Joel, we hear the prophet pleading for the people to turn away from their sinful behavior, to leave these things behind and return to a relationship with God. Joel is calling for a homecoming. He shares God’s words with us: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, you God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows whether God will not turn and relent and leave behind a blessing, your God?” Joel assures us that God is waiting for us to come home, calling us to return and be blessed. God is gracious and merciful and loving, not angry and punishing. So Joel calls us to return to God, if we’ve traveled far off the path that God calls us to. Return, and find God waiting, welcoming us back home.
As we being the season of Lent, a season of penitence, a season where we are called to repent and begin again and try again to be the disciples we are longing to be – as we begin, God is announcing to us that we are always welcome home. And so we wear these signs of ashes as a symbol of our awareness of our own shortcomings, but also as a symbol of our destination – home into God’s arms. We wear this symbol of ashes not as a symbol of gloom and sadness, but as a symbol of hope and promise. God’s hope for us is that don’t wait until our time in this place is complete to visit God, to journey with God. And God’s promise to us is that we don’t need to wait until the end of our days to experience the homecoming embrace of God’s arms. Our home, today and at the end of our days, is safe in God’s care.
As we go through Lent, let us heed the words of the prophet. Return to God with all your heart – for God is gracious and merciful, and abounding in steadfast love. Come, receive these ashes. Come, boldly wear this symbol of mortality, this symbol of the circle of life, the sign of the journey we are on together. Come, and be welcomed home.
Amen.