February 26, 2020 (Ash Wednesday) – Genesis 3:1-24; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Genesis 3:1-24; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
From Death to Life
Ash Wednesday – February 26, 2020
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Every year I get to make the ashes for the Ash Wednesday service.
It is one of the weirdest things I do as a pastor.
I take last year’s palm leaves from Palm Sunday and burn them in a big fire in the courtyard.
It is always really spectacular – it is a conflagration!
I take the remaining ash, grind it up with a mortar and pestle,
mix in a little canola oil – and then . . . I make something beautiful:
this beautiful ash mixture which will make beautiful crosses on your foreheads,
reminding you both that you are mortal and that you belong to Christ.
When I make the cross on your forehead, you hear the same words spoken that were
spoken to Adam when God asked him to leave the Garden of Eden:
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return – the reminder of our mortality.
It sounds like a judgment – having to leave the tree of life where
he and Eve could eat the fruit that would enable them to live forever
kinda sounds like a judgment.
But actually I think these are merciful actions of a merciful God.
See, Adam and Eve were made to delight in each other and
to help and support one another.
But it is not long before they quickly fall to quarrelling and being in conflict.
More, they quickly fall into dis-harmony with the natural world.
And surely God thinks that an eternity of that would be awful.
So God asks them to leave the garden where they have access to the tree of life –
and reminds them that they are mortal, that their lives have a definite span,
a limited number of heartbeats – that one day they will die.
I do think that this is, in the end, a gracious thing for God to do.
God is saying: remember: you only have each other for a limited time.
God is saying: remember: you only live on this beautiful earth for a limited time.
Make the most of it.
Make each day count.
Live fully and love intensely.
Life is precious and life is fragile.
The invitation on this day is to turn something difficult and hard and trying
into something beautiful.
The flames do their absolute worst to the palm leaves – but we have made beautiful ashes from
the flame-tried leaves that come with a beautiful reminder in the shape of a cross:
you belong to Christ. Forever.
This cross is a symbol of divine love for you that nothing can take away from you.
Something difficult and trying is turned into something beautiful.
Just so: the invitation on this day is to turn this reminder of mortality into a passion for life and
a passion for loving your neighbour and caring for this fragile planet.
Christian life is about that turning, about new beginnings, about turning from death to life.
But how do you do that?
Jesus makes his pitch today in the Sermon on the Mount.
You want to live more? This is how you go about it, he says.
Pray, give, fast.
Pray, give, fast.
Pray more for the people around you and for the world –
keep them in your heart and before God always.
Give: give more of the things God has given you – be generous to those around you,
and share what you have.
Fast: fast from injustice and all those things that are bad for you and bad for the planet and
bad for your neighbours.
Pray, give, fast.
Pray, give, fast.
That is how you live more.
That is how you live more in the limited time you are given.
These practices are how more life comes to the world.
So let us move forward together in this Lent time,
focusing on those things that bring life:
praying, giving, and fasting from everything harmful.
Marked with the beautiful ashes, let us remember that life is fragile,
and our neighbour’s lives are fragile.
But let us remember, too, that we are the flame-tried palm leaves that
God can make into something beautiful for the life of the world.
Let us move forward as a community in compassion and kindness,
together with God moving the world from death to life.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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