Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. On “Fat Tuesday,” or Shrove Tuesday, we (at least symbolically!) use up all the rich foods in our houses to ready ourselves for a time of fasting and preparation. On Ash Wednesday, we are invited “in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent,…

[Note to the reader: this sermon is based heavily on the Joel reading for Ash Wednesday] For the day of the Lord is coming, it is near — a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! The powerful symbolism of ashes this year seems to need little explanation. For all…

“You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” It is one of the most ancient phrases of Scripture, coming right out of the early chapters of Genesis. As we are about to be reminded by our tradition, it forms the central theme of what we’re about here today on Ash Wednesday. We’re being reminded…

[This sermon is meant to connect to the Ash Wednesday liturgy as found in the Book of Common Prayer.] Today we retrace our Baptismal crosses with ashes. Once upon a time there was a five-year-old girl named Eleanor who, after she was baptized, asked, “Can you still see the cross on my forehead?” A marvelous…

There is an ancient Egyptian myth about a bird which regenerates itself by burning itself up. Imagine, the living phoenix literally makes an offering of itself: it carefully builds a nest, settles down in it, and burst into flame. From the ashes left by those flames emerges a magnificent reborn bird. The new phoenix is…

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you , the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus…

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Even in life, we live with death. Even as we strive to live well, provide for ourselves and others, love God, we are complicit in the forces which deny life, which desires death. It’s just as hard to focus on this now as it was in the day of…

Something about Ash Wednesday is fascinating to us. We are intrigued to see people walking through the streets with black smudges on their foreheads. When I was a child, it seemed like it was only the Roman Catholics who “got ashed”, but now the imposition of ashes has made its way into the wider church…