The love we see dimly and imperfectly reflected in every act of love and compassion between one person and another between peoples of one community and another between peoples of different races and cultures and another.Īt the same time, repentance – turning around – is not something we can think ourselves into neither can we simply pay lip service and have happen. It centers on the love that transforms ashes into a symbol of hope. Instead, this call centers on divine grace and love – on the love that is the heart of our creation – on the love that is seen most fully on the cross. That call to each one of us to repent – to turn around, to change direction – doesn’t center on fear, on what will happen to us if we don’t and it doesn’t center on guilt or duty – on what we think we ought to do. And they remind us that, because of this Good News, we are called – as we live between dust and dust – to repent and to return to Him who constantly calls us. Yes, to dust we shall return, but with Christ.ĭust and ashes point us toward the power and love of God – both at the beginning and at the end. Today we remember the promise that, as we have risen from dust to this mortal life, so, with Christ, we will rise from the dust of death to eternal life. The ashes on our forehead are not randomly placed they are placed in the form of a cross – so today we are connected with both Good Friday and Easter morning. Our dust is holy it is cherished by God.īut there is something more.
![from dust you came and dust you will becom from dust you came and dust you will becom](https://www.nhm.ac.uk/content/dam/nhmwww/discover/we-are-stars/Glow-of-nebula-rcw-120-in-Scorpius-gas-and-dust-ring-two-column.jpg)
God is with us from our very beginning, and before. The grace and love present at our creation will see us through our physical disintegration and beyond. What appears a threat – “you are dust” – becomes a promise. Our dust is holy, and our ashes blessed by the power of God. The grace and power of God are present at the beginning of our existence. Our dust was moulded by the hands of God, and his Spirit breathed life into it. The dust of our beginnings – that dust from which we came – is not just a matter of chance it is not without meaning. Yet there is hope, hope rooted in our faith that we are created by God in His image. Today we say this, and we know its truth and its power. These are what we see if we look ahead far enough and honestly enough. These words of simple, absolute truth give us a perspective the world tries all too often to either hide or deny and if we are honest with ourselves, we probably do our best to ignore that truth much of the time.ĭust and ashes.
![from dust you came and dust you will becom from dust you came and dust you will becom](https://live.staticflickr.com/1575/24763987445_6e030e7205_b.jpg)
![from dust you came and dust you will becom from dust you came and dust you will becom](https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/marco-shot-sharpen-pencil-showing-260nw-1252481491.jpg)
Today, ashes will mark us – and our fate is strangely visible. We will die, and how we live our lives matters.įrom dust, to dust. Today we say – and confirm with a touch – “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Much else that we say in our worship here today we may hope is true, or fear is true, or believe in the core of our being, or doubt. Something of that power lies in the fact that today the church speaks words of truth, words that cannot be ignored, or disputed, or evaded, or denied. What we say and what we do on in our liturgy and worship on this particular Wednesday has power. There’s something compelling about Ash Wednesday, something more than just the beginning of Lent.
![from dust you came and dust you will becom from dust you came and dust you will becom](https://quotefancy.com/media/wallpaper/3840x2160/4703072-Sathya-Sai-Baba-Quote-God-if-you-think-God-you-are-Dust-if-you.jpg)
Sermon preached by Rev Canon Lesley McCormack on Ash Wednesday, 14th February 2018