Ash Wednesday - February 13

You Are Not Dust

This may seem like a bit of a stretch on Ash Wednesday, but bear with me. I enjoy one of the new sets of Geiko commercials. These are the “happier than” commercials. There is a standard format. A couple of entertainers ask one another, “How happy are people who switch to Geiko?” “Happier than…”

How happy are people who save money by switching to Geiko? Happier than a body builder directing traffic. And if you remember that one, he’s a very well-sculpted body builder, doing body builder poses in the middle of the street as he directs traffic.

How happy are people who switch to Geiko? Happier than Christopher Columbus with speed boats.

Or my favorite—I think it’s the newest one. How happy are people who switch to Geiko? Happier than a slinky on an escalator.

In each of these ads, people (or a personified slinky) are placed in situations tailor made to appeal to them because of some individual skill or interest or quirk. The situation is specifically imagined to be a perfect fit, bringing happiness or fulfillment.

It was this Ash Wednesday service that got me thinking about this. Why do people come to this service, this Ash Wednesday service? People do come. My sense is people have a strong internal motivation to come to this service. It is an important service. Within the parish I’ve urged people to come. But It’s more than that. And, why? The service is a downer with its emphasis on mortality, sinfulness, human insignifance. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

So if this service were a Geiko commercial, for whom would it be a perfect fit? It seems tailor made for someone with really low self-esteem. Come to church on Ash Wednesday and have your extremely poor sense of self-worth affirmed and reinforced by the church. You are dust!

How happy are people who switch to Geiko? Happier than people with low self-esteem attending church on Ash Wednesday.

I say this not out of insensitivity to people who do struggle with self image, nor just to be funny. But to emphasize that it is the perception that the point of this service is to bring us down. To bring us soberly to a place of despair and emptiness. And it works. The service works. Even on the most sanguine of Christians. Even the most normally cheerful and confident are brought to dust.

And, as someone who has preached at this service many times, I can attest that, within the context of this service, it is very easy to tap into that place within all of us, no matter what your prevailing psychological disposition may be. It's easy to tap into that place where each of us is aware of the weight and insignificance of our mortality. And for some reason there is something attractive about going to that place for all of us. I think that is what draws us to this service. It feels significant to face our insignificance. It feels spiritually noble to acknowledge our mortality.

But I think we may have it all wrong. I think Ash Wednesday is not primarily about affirming our wretchedness. I think the value and purpose of this service does not lie in bringing us to the place where we can feel our mortality. In fact today is not primarily about us at all. It’s about God.

This day is an important reminder, an in-your-face sort of day. But it is a reminder more about who God is than who we are not.

God… the God we know and worship is a God who can and does create light in the midst of total darkness. God is a God who can and does create life (life!) out of clay—or dust. And not just life. Life that is filled with meaning and beauty and wonder and courage and joy. The God whom we know and worship longs for and builds reconciliation from the broken pieces of human sin and hope from despair. God takes our mortal hearts and makes them new!

There is a General Thanksgiving prayer in the back of the Prayer Book. I refer to it fairly often; many of you know it. In one phrase of that prayer, we thank God for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence upon God alone. That’s a good prayer for Ash Wednesday. A prayer of thanksgiving that this day leads us to acknowledge our dependence upon God alone.

Yes, without God we are but dust. We do have to start there. And it’s easy for us in our daily lives to forget that piece. But the primary message of Ash Wednesday is not so much about us spiritually wallowing in the dust as it is about acknowledging the difference between dust and what we are. Only and wholly by God’s grace. We are not dust.

By God’s grace, we are not dust. That’s the thing to remember. By God’s grace alone, but by God’s grace, we are not dust.

Ash Wednesday is about gratitude. Humble, but joyous gratitude. Today, this Lent reflect upon the difference between dust and the life you’ve been given. And turn to God in humble and joyous gratitude.