Hello,
A lot of
Christians will be walking around with a cross of ashes on their foreheads this
Wednesday, “Ash Wednesday”. So, what is
that all about?
Well, to put it
simply this practice is all about honoring the truth. When the ashes are applied to a person’s
forehead, the applier says, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall
return.” That is the truth of human existence. We begin as a microscopic speck of carbon,
and when this life is over the multitude of carbon particles that we have
become disintegrates into the store of carbon that creation holds. Between the beginning and the end, the
amalgamation of this carbon takes its place in the wonder of a body, and that
body enjoys spectacularly amazing animation, which we call life. The truth is that this life that we enjoy is
a temporary thing, bookended by dust and dust, carbon and carbon.
As Christians, we
do not assert the immortality of the soul that purports that we have existed in
some form from before creation began, and a form that will exist after creation
is over, making our bodies simply a temporary hotel for this eternal thing. That is an ancient Greek concept, a concept that
has sort of crept its way into a lot of Christian belief. Unfortunately, this concept has a way of
making our bodies “prisons” from which the “soul” must try to escape, and that
turns this wonderful thing called life into a thing of terror and evil.
Thing is, the
heart of the Christian message is that this experience of life, the unique
experience of life that is you and me, is not the enemy. It is a treasured gift, so treasured that the
Giver of life took on life to fill every moment of life with eternity, and fill
eternity with life, your life and mine. In
Jesus’ death and resurrection, we encounter the depth of God’s love for us that
destroys the bookends of dust and dust, carbon and carbon, so that God might
have us in God’s realm, a realm that is not bordered by time or space. As the Bible says, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17)
That is why the ashes that are placed on a
person’s forehead are made in the shape of a cross. For it was what God did on the cross on which
Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, hung that gives us hope. If not for the cross of Christ our only hope
would be what we could make of our ashes and carbon, which in the end is
really nothing. But because of the cross
we can live in the hope of God’s almighty love and what God can do with
ashes and carbon, which is everlasting.
That is why when death comes our way we, who have been marked with
Christ’s claiming cross, have “certain hope” (words from the funeral service)
that dust and carbon won’t be our end, but life, life anew, will greet us …. us. Resurrection – not reincarnation – not
immortality of the soul…but resurrection, new life, from the dead.
So, every time on
the day that Christians begin Lent, the reflective journey to the cross (that
is, Ash Wednesday) that we look in the mirror and see those cross-shaped ashes
on our forehead we see the truth staring at us right in the face: the truth of the
temporary length of our days witnessed every time we stand by a grave if not
for Christ’s cross, and the truth of life beyond the border of days because of
Christ’s claiming cross and the grave out of which he walked on Easter.
There….that’s
what Ash Wednesday is all about!
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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