Ash Wednesday is one of the most solemn occasions in the church year. It’s a day to name our sins and shortcomings in detail, confessing them to God. Today’s order for confession is more specific than our usual rite for the confession of sins. And it runs the gamut including not just personal failings, but our failings as whole communities.
Today’s reading from the prophet Joel sets the tone where the prophet addresses the whole assembly: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.”
But the weight of this day, if we are not careful, can lead to a lot of self-hatred. “Woe is me a miserable sinner,” we might say to ourselves. Many of us already harbor feelings of inadequacy and guilt. A day like Ash Wednesday may stir all of that up in unhealthy ways. But self-loathing is not called for even when we confess our sins. Rather, forthright honesty is beckoned from us. To guard against falling into the pit of self-hatred, let’s meditate on a central symbol of this day: ashes.
The ashes we use are created by burning last year’s palm branches from Passion/Palm Sunday. Which is to say, these ashes are the remains of organic material. While ashes remind us of death and decay, ashes also convey a sense of life. Ashes can even be used in fertilizer to nurture conditions to generate new life. My point is that ashes are not a bad thing. They remind us of our mortality, that we die, but also that we are given the gift of life. Ashes on your foreheads is thus a bit of holistic reality therapy.
Ashes give earthy, palpable expression to the words offered when the ashes are imposed on your foreheads: “remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Or to quote from the committal portion of our funeral rite: “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
But recall the words from the creation story in Genesis which that proclaims that “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground” (Genesist 2:7a)
In short, yes, ashes are an occasion of “memento mori,” to remember that we will die, but ashes also call us to embrace our life as humans, that we are created from the dust of the earth. And that God proclaimed this as good even if we mess up.
And what is it to be human? It is to be humus, that nutrient rich material which helps our gardens grow. Humus is indeed the root word for human. And humus is the same root word for humble. And humane.
And humus is also the root word for humor. To have a healthy sense of humor is to have a good sense of humus, to be able to laugh compassionately with each other at our shared foibles as human beings. In short, and again, being humus, being human is a good thing. Especially when God in Christ comes to redeem and save us in love, offering forgiveness for our human shortcomings and failings.
So, Ash Wednesday is not about self-loathing. Rather it invites an honest acknowledgment of the fullness of our humanity, both good and bad. Our sin, but also our virtue. Or one might say that Ash Wednesday is a day to stand naked in front of a full-length mirror to see the honest truth about both our beauty as human beings, and also our scars and wounds and imperfections.
At its best, and most balanced, Ash Wednesday confession is both/and. It’s about our being half-full and half-empty at the same time. It’s about our being simultaneously saint and sinner as Lutheran theological anthropology puts it. Ash Wednesday confession is about honestly confessing our sins, but also acknowledging our virtue as mortals created in God’s image.
Then in this both/and, full acknowledgement of our earthen, ashen, dusty humanity, we are readied to hear the good news as we heard it in today’s readings: “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and relenting from punishment.” (Joel 2:13)
And thus, our faith in God through Christ is renewed by the Holy Spirit working in the words of the Apostle Paul who puts it this way in today’s second reading: “For our sake God made [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Then we are moved to abide by Jesus’ instruction which we also heard in today’s gospel reading: “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and stead.” Rather, “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there our heart will be also.” (cf. Matthew 6:19-20)
During this holy Lent, let us cherish each other as heavenly treasures, created in the image of God and restored in Christ through the gifts of the Spirit working in the means of grace we celebrate even on this solemn day. When you see your neighbors with ashes on their foreheads, cherish them as beloved children of God. When you look in the mirror and see your ashen smudge, before you wash it off, treasure yourself, too, as one of God’s beloved. And may this make for healing. Amen.
