Ash Wednesday – Genesis 3:1-24
Genesis 3:1-24
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Ash Wednesday – February 10, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
These are the words we hear this evening as the ashes are placed on our foreheads.
Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
They are what God says to Adam after Adam and Eve have eaten from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 3.
Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
After God says these words God also has Adam and Eve leave the garden and
places an array of angels – along with a flaming turning sword for good measure –
to guard the way to the tree of life so Adam and Eve can’t eat from that too and
live forever.
I know we usually hear what God does in this story as curse.
But what if it is blessing?
Would it really be that great to know you were going to live forever?
Forever is a long time, and fiction and science fiction have long explored its downside.
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode Death Wish, aliens called Q are discovered.
The Q were originally a human-like species who have evolved somehow
into a species that lives forever.
Originally they used their newfound power to explore and
understand and experience the universe.
But now, having done that, they just sit out eternity in their realm.
As one Q explains, you can only experience the universe so many times before it gets boring.
He now says he seeks to commit suicide as it’s the only thing he hasn’t done.
The irony is clear: living forever somehow means living less.
So maybe what God does in Genesis 3 is actually a very gracious thing.
Maybe the best thing that will happen to you this week is that
someone will place a cross of ashes on your forehead – a sign of mortality –
and say to you,
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
We live in a culture that denies death.
We rarely even say the word “death” any more, preferring to say that someone passed –
except in church, where we can be honest about such things.
A hundred years ago most people would have died at home and families would have had to
deal with death personally – but not any more.
These days, many opt to not even have a funeral or memorial service for the deceased.
Indeed, until you get very old, we are encouraged these days to think we will live forever.
The very old know they will not which is why, in my experience, the very elderly
often become very beautiful – not always, but often –
as they learn to shift priorities from accomplishments to friendships and
from work to family and
from getting to giving.
In the story in Genesis, it’s the snake that lies: surely you will not die!
And it is God who tells the truth: Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
The good news this evening is that you won’t live this life forever.
The good news this evening is that you don’t have to wait until very old age to live more fully.
You don’t have to wait till you become very elderly to understand what matters most and why.
Knowing death, knowing you will die, is actually a great gift – and you don’t have to wait till
you are near death to benefit from that knowledge,
from knowing that you have a limited number of heartbeats with which to live and love.
Death, says the non-religious writer Caitlyn Doughty, should be known. . . When you know that death is coming for you, the thought inspires you to be ambitious, to apologize to old enemies, call your grandparents, work less, travel more, learn Russian, take up knitting. Fall in love.
As I said in my e-mail yesterday, if a non-religious person can make that statement,
how much more a Christian!
In the church we announce death unafraid because we know we need not fear it.
We live in its face because we know there is more life for us waiting beyond it.
Easter Sunday helps us live confidently in the face of death knowing it is not the end.
Ash Wednesday helps us live more: more fully, more ardently, more passionately, more now.
Ash Wednesday calls us to embrace this life we have been given – this life is pure gift.
Ash Wednesday invites us to live more, experience more, and love more.
Ash Wednesday invites us to be more forgiving now,
more generous now, more aware now, and more loving now.
Ash Wednesday invites us to stand up more for our rights now and those around us now.
You don’t have an infinite number of heartbeats; your heart won’t beat forever – but
it is beating now.
Whether you are 13 or a hundred and 13, Ash Wednesday can help you live more fully now,
more fiercely, more intensely, more lovingly, and more gratefully.
Hearing and remembering that one day you will die can help you live each moment
more meaningfully and more fully in the present.
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Hearing that and having those ashes placed on your forehead this evening is the best thing
that is going to happen to you this week.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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