Good evening Emmanuel and welcome to Ash Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday is the one day in the year when the church invites
us to contemplate. Our own mortality in a really
personal, and even tactile way My guess is that this was a much
less jarring asked in ages past than it is for us today.
It's true. That some of us here have been
impacted profoundly and painfully by death by the death
of someone close to us. And some of us through injury or
illness or age have already begun a serious process of
coming to terms with our own death.
But, for many of us, death is kept safely at an arm's length.
It's an abstract eventual possibility rather than a
personal imminent, certainty. We may witness tens of thousands
of deaths per year on screen but that's where it's all
make-believe and marketed for entertainment.
Even actual death in our society is packaged for consumption
round-the-clock via news outlets.
So on the one hand, awareness of death is all around us all the
time. And on the other hand, we are
always encountering it in a heavily mediated way that
encouraged us us to glance as quickly as possible and move on.
A real awareness of Our Own Death kush's us to the extreme
edge of human vulnerability. And so we tend to insulate
ourselves from this awareness for as long as possible and then
when it's no longer possible, our vulnerability is so
profoundly exposed that it feels overwhelming.
Consequently, even a very gentle invitation to contemplate.
The brevity of Our Lives can feel awkward and artificial and
scary. But in the church and in the
scriptures, the invitation to solemnly, consider our death is
offered alongside and exhortation to rigorously and
wholeheartedly. Praise the lord to bless him
from our hearts. Because even as tonight's Psalm,
Psalm 103 reminds us of our mortality.
It is also setting death in, its proper relationship to life in
Christ. Our Lives as feeble and frail as
they are have a very specific context and purpose.
Our lives were meant to be woven into the bigger Holier and More
Beautiful Life Of God. Our lives are like a very small
and fragile gemstone, that is surrounded and supported and
directed by the Amos glory and goodness of God for greater
purposes and a longer life span than what we can see.
Now, Confronting the reality of our own impermanence requires
both courage and humility. But if we are willing to begin
their repenting and Ashes, the Lord becomes the lifter of our
heads, directing our gaze to Mighty acts of God performed on
our behalf. So, let's begin.
We'll start in the middle of Psalm. 103 verses 15 and 16 and
you're welcome to look there in your bulletins.
This is where the songwriter offers a meditation on the
brevity of life that is both poetic and very matter-of-fact
the psalmist writes, our days or like the grass, we flourish like
a flower of the field when the wind goes over.
It It is gone and it's Place shall know it.
No more. Now, this imagery is so pretty.
That it's easy to skim past the implications, the psalmist draws
an analogy between our bodies and the bodies of plants that
only Thrive for one short season.
We are not like the oak trees or even shrubs and bushes that may
endure for several years. you and I the poet says are like the
kinds of grasses and the kinds of flowers that flourish or just
a few months and cannot be found at all when the season changes
Death is coming soon, the psalmist, bluntly States.
And then, we're gone from here. Now our short lives do matter,
they matter to us and to others. And to God, we flourish like a
flower of the field, the psalmist, says, and hooray for
flourishing, may it be. So let us cooperate with God to
make it so in our short lives. But however, meaningful and
precious this life, maybe however, fully we are called to
invest ourselves in the well-being of others while we're
here. None of that extends, the length
of our days The years will pass and this Earth will know us no
longer. Before long, our bodies will
fail and we will pass into eternity.
Now, maybe you're here this evening, and you're young, or in
love. And today, you see nothing but
sunny days ahead. The psalmist would like to
remind you. That still your life will end in
death. Maybe you are on the brink of
curing cancer or eliminating racism or housing, the homeless
of the world, and this would be an amazing gift.
We should be investing ourselves in these.
Pursuits would be a huge leap forward in quality of life for
Millions. But the psalmist would like to
remind you, that all those people that we can benefit those
who might be then house. And cancer-free and living with
a greater measure of Justice. Each one of them like you will
nonetheless be dead in a matter of years.
Or maybe you're here tonight and your experience of life has
begun to feel mostly like a series of painful
disappointments. A burden that is too heavy to
carry. Whether you are experiencing
life in this moment as good and meaningful or painful and empty,
we need to know it matters. If this life is all that there
is Because if the only thing, the psalmist had to say about
our lives is that they're short and end in death, this
invitation to contemplate death would be cruel.
Happy lives would all be way too short and painful lives way too
long. If they are a flourishing and
fading is really all that there is but brothers and sisters,
this is not all there is our fleeting and fragile lives can
be caught up and held in the Life of Christ are transient
Earthly Joys can deepen into Eternal.
Heavenly ones. Bitter disappointment and
prolonged suffering here and be transformed can be Redeemed by
God's grace. For those who are in Christ, The
Mighty love of God, in circles, us and bears us up and Carries
us safely into an eternity with him.
We can recognize clearly the brevity of our lives.
At also, set the eyes of our hearts on Jesus Emmanuel
Emmanuel God With Us our Lord Jesus Christ.
Took on mortality, just like our own, his flesh was as grass,
just like ours. He lived in this scene precious,
but painful world that you and I are living in now.
And after his brief season here, he died.
Just as surely as you and I will die.
But it is through his death, that you and I become recipients
of all the blessings of his life and his death and his
resurrection, Our Lives, not limited.
They do not have to be limited to this short span of years.
Our Lives, infused with the love of God can extend through death
into an eternal life shared with the whole Holy Son of God.
Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me.
Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord O my soul and
forget, not all his benefits. Scripture gives us an ability to
preach the goodness of God to ourselves.
We can preach these words to ourselves in times of gratitude
and distress a like bless the Lord O my soul and all that is
within me, the last His holy name, and remember all his
benefits. What are these benefits?
What has the Lord done for us? This psalmist provides us with a
lengthy list of what God has done.
And these are not blessings that we have to hunt down and tackle
and drag forcefully into our lives to offset our fears of
death. These are blessings that Jesus
Christ has won for us on our behalf already.
The Lord is hunting us down with these blessings.
Seeking us out with them, showering us With an abundance
of good things. Every one of which will endure
into the next life. He forgives all your sins and
heals all your infirmities. How horrible it would be to live
forever if our sins and our moral and for formalities and
our physical diseases were to follow us through death,
clinging to us and dragging us down into the grave.
That would be a horror of Horrors, but Glory of Glory's.
God has willed it to be otherwise for those who are in
Christ, all sins are forgiven all infirmities of body and mind
and soul are Old forever and forever after death hums, not
just more life, but a life, free of sin and free of these
weaknesses. He redeems your life from the
grave and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness, those who
died in Christ will not lie in their graves forever.
There is a redeemer, eager for us to share in his own.
Hard-won Resurrection Life when we see him, Key will cover us
with his own righteousness and Crown us with mercy and
loving-kindness. He satisfies you with good
things and your youth is renewed like an eagle's.
We may be surrounded with suffering in this world, but the
Savior comes to us. Now bringing food that will
satisfy us and restore us to a strength like that of a young
eagle. The Lord executes Justice
righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed.
The Lord is at work in our lives.
And in this world, every little bit of righteousness that we
witness here has been accomplished by his hand and his
power and every little bit of Injustice.
Every last bit that we are witnessing now will be judged
and set, right? He made his ways known to Moses
and his Works to the children of Israel.
The Lord not only acts on our behalf, he reveals himself and
his ways to us that we might know him and worship him and
imitate him. The Lord is full of compassion
and mercy slow to anger, and of great kindness.
He will not always accuse us nor will he keep his anger forever.
The anger of the Lord against sin and Injustice is real.
It is a force to be reckoned with and a powerful.
Reminder that what happens here in this present life has
meaning, he does not turn a blind eye, to the suffering
caused by sin and yet his anger is brief.
His mercy and great. Kindness is Everlasting.
He has not dealt with us, according to our sins, nor
rewarded us. According to our wickedness for
as high, as the heavens are above the Earth.
So is his Mercy, great upon those who fear Him as far as the
East is from the West so far. Has he removed our sins from us.
When the fear of the Lord falls upon a man, a woman, a child,
and they turned to him and hope and repentance is forgiveness,
is immediate and complete. He does for us what we cannot do
for ourselves and whisks away forever.
Our iniquity as a father cares for his children.
So does the Lord care for those who fear Him and our heavenly
father is more tender and more caring than even the best of
Earthly fathers. And he bends near to tend to us.
Why or he himself knows where of We Are Made, he remembers that
we are but dust the Lord knows your weaknesses, even better
than you know it yourself. He knows that our days are like
the grass. He knows that even are
flourishing Fades with the summer heat and were we are
remembered here, no more for a human being.
This sort of weakness, may seem pitiful.
And likely to move, a mighty God to disdain or to discussed but
the it is the opposite with our heavenly father, our limitations
our Frailty, our deep dependence and need is what captivates and
activates his generosity, his kindness and his mercy and be
merciful, goodness of the Lord in doors.
Forever. The merciful goodness of the
Lord indoors forever. We are as dust.
All Flesh is as grass but The merciful goodness of the Lord,
indoors Forever, on those who fear Him and his righteousness
on children's children on those who keep his Covenant and
remember His Commandments and do them.
Tonight, we celebrate the merciful goodness of the Lord.
In a ritual that acknowledges that even our death can be
transformed by his merciful goodness.
In a few moments will begin the practice of the imposition of
ashes and at its simplest to impose means to put upon If you
come forward, as you come forward, standing or kneeling,
you will have ashes put upon your head in the shape of a
simple cross. Whatever your relationship is
with your own death tonight, whether it seems comfortably
abstract and a million miles away or whether you feel like
you've been living in the cold air of the Grave for years
already. This night is a night of
profound hope in Jesus, our very fragility, the Mortal weakness
that we fear. That is the very cause of the
Lord's remembrance. And Darkness toward us, the
symbol of our death. These ashes are mingled with
holy oil and formed in the shape of the cross of Jesus on our
bodies in this way, we remember, not only that we are dust and
that to dust we shall return. But we remember that, Jesus has
forever Sanctified death by his own death.
Jesus brought his own Holiness and life into death and he
changed the nature of death for us forever.
He has robbed death of it's victory through the cross and
now we can wear The Mark of Death of his death.
With our own proudly on our foreheads.
He has removed Forever, The Sting of death and the shame of
sin, he has made of Death, a pathway into life and all who
repent and believe the gospel will find their way to him.
Our repentance may be flawed tonight, our faith may be
feeble, but our hope is not in the completeness of our
repentance or the strength of our own faith.
However small the seed of your faith tonight.
However imperfect your repentance invest it all in the
Lord. Jesus Christ whose Throne is in
heaven and whose compassion and mercy is steadfast.
Fastly. Turned toward you for those who
entrust themselves to Christ fully there is nothing.
Left to fear. The Lord has set his throne in
heaven, and his kingship has dominion over all.
Bless the Lord. You angels of his you mighty
ones who do his bidding and hearken to the voice of his
word. Bless the Lord.
All you, his hosts. You Ministers of his would do,
his will bless the Lord. All you works of his in all
places of his Dominion. Bless the Lord O my soul.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen.