2019 Ash Wednesday

Birthday candles are weird. I mean, I am not sure if they light candles on top of cakes in other cultures, but we do here.

But take just a second and imagine, you were from another culture who never celebrated birthdays and then you arrive here and are invited to attend your neighbors childs birthday party. And this is the first birthday you have ever seen.

You arrive and people you know, respectable people, are all wearing strange pointed cardboard hats. They hand you one in expectation that you too fix this hat on your head.

You arrive eat a meal, then all of a sudden your neighbors, disappear through a door in another room. Suddenly everyone gets out small pointed cardboard cones and start strapping them to their heads. Someone hands you one and expects you to do the same. Everyone seems to know what is going on.

At some point during this gathering you notice two people disappear through a door in another room only to re emerge later with greatholding a flaming dessert.

Then your neighbors re emerge with their own pointed cones on their head and great big smiles, and this begins what can only be described as the procession of the flaming dessert.

And this begins what can only be described

And to your surprise they set this torched topped cake in front of their young child, and Once the processional song ends all eyes are on the child and the flames, and a few people are heckling the child to make a wish, what for you have not idea.

Then in one blow the child extinguishes the flaming desert, and the room erupts in applause. As if the child had done some kind of significant act.

Why is blowing out candles THE

And your sitting there thinking, what is the point of this. You ask the person next to you, why do you celebrate this way? And they look at you, and shrugh their sholders and say, that is just what we do.

You leave thinking, what a strange practice. Birthday candles are weird.

Well, if you are new to an Anglican church, you might be asking yourself the same question tonight.

What, we are all going to get ash put on our heads? What a strange practice.

So while, I am not sure why, we have candles on birthday cakes, there is a reason for what we will do tonight.

What is Ash Wednesday?

What is Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday

Throughout the Old Testament, ashes are used as a sign of sorrow and repentance, you usually read about people in sackcloth as well.

and many Christians have used ash for the same reason, to indicate sorrow for our over sin. And while we won’t be getting into any sackcloth tonight we will participate with God’s People by having ash’s placed on our foreheads as a reminder of our sin, and the consequence of sin, that is death, for from dust God created us and to dust we will return.

While sin is not a popular thing to talk about, it is real and it is deadly.

to indicate sorrow for our own sin, and as a reminder that the wages of sin is death (). Like Adam and Eve, we have disobeyed and rebelled against God, and are under the same judgment, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” ().

Why should we even really talk about sin? Aren’t we just being a downer, shouldn't we just focus on the positive not the negative.

and Christians have traditionally used ashes to indicate sorrow for our own sin, and as a reminder that the wages of sin is death (). Like Adam and Eve, we have disobeyed and rebelled against God, and are under the same judgment, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” ().

But as we are marked with ashes in the same manner that we were signed with the cross in Baptism, we are also reminded of the life we share in Jesus Christ, the second Adam (, ). It is in this sure hope that we begin the journey of these forty days, that by hearing and answering our Savior’s call to repent, we may enter fully into the joyful celebration of his resurrection.

Well, certainly we can ignore sin, but not talking about it does not make it go away. Sin is there, and sin is deadly. And it is not that sin just violates God’s law the way that chewing gum in class is a violation of school rules. Not that big of deal, and can seem a bit arbitrary.

But sin is deadly.

If you have ever seen the show Breaking Bad, it shows in detail the deadly effects of sin.

Walter White, this quarkey, lovable high school chemistry teacher who gets diagnosed with cancer and through a strange turn of events ends up making and selling the drug meth to offset the cost of cancer treatments.

At first he tells himself he will quit once he gets the amount of money he needs, but he doesn't. Over the course of a number seasons you watch him get further and further entrenched in selling drugs, and you watch him slowly becoming a different person, he loses his wife, and his son, he deceives everyone, he murders others, and by the end he is lost to himself. His sin brought death.

And the last episode of Breaking Bad begins with a flashback to the first episode. And you see what Walter once was, and it makes you ache for him all the more. You see how much this lovable guy eroded. Everything about him different. He looks different, his voice is different, his mannerism different, there is a gentleness about him.

Well so overtime he becomes more and more entrenched in selling drugs,

And you see him grab his phone and call his wife, and you see him struggling, frustrated with himself.

Everything about him different. He looks different, his voice is different, his mannerism different, there is a gentleness about him. And you see him grab his phone and call his wife, and you see him struggling, frustrated with himself. Then you see it, it is his first lie. The beginning of the end of his self destruction.

Then you see it, it is his first lie. The beginning of the end of his self destruction.

But there was a struggle within the show as well. One character, Jessie wants to change, he wants to start over, but he is always confronted with the reality of his sin, and he is in the help group where he is told he needs to just accept himself, and move on.

But he says “if you just do stuff and nothing happens, what’s it all mean?

What’s the point? So no matter what I do, hurrah for me because I’m a great guy, its all good, no matter how many bad things I do, I mean I just do an inventory and accept.”

Jessie had done some pretty terrible things, things that could not and should not be accepted by anyone. He is longing for a new life. But he cannot erase the past.

What he needs and what he is longing for is forgiveness.

Sometimes we don’t like the idea of sin or of being a sinner, but there is something really good about being a sinner,

and that is sin can be forgiven.

What he and what we need to hear is yes the consequence of your sin is death.

It matters that much, but there is one who can forgive you, one took the consequence you deserve. Jesus paid the price for sin, so that you can be forgiven.

And this evening we take time to re call our own sin, our own failures, not to grovel in misery, but to remember the reality of sin and our need of forgiveness. It is only because we know forgiveness is real that we can be honest with our sin.

one took the consequence you deserve so that you can be forgiven.

And that is what we are doing this evening. We are remembering the reality of sin in this world, that sin brings death.

So why would we go on putting ash on our heads for that?

And how sin brings death to those around us and eventually to ourselves.

And God says in his word that: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So that means that everyone sins and everyone is a sinner, there is not one who does not sin.

And now some might not like the idea that everyone is a sinner. But there is something really good about being a sinner. Let say you have some part of yourself that you are not pleased with, maybe you have a short temper, maybe you are prone to self-pity, maybe you are more cynical than you wish.

What is the problem? Well there maybe some psychological problem, maybe you have an attachment disorder, because of the failure of your parents.

So what is the problem?

It may be that you have an attachment disorder, and while you may get some even substantial healing and growth, we are never perfected in this life. We can grow be still have to deal with our shortcomings.

Well maybe you just score high on neuroticism, one of the big five personality traits. And so it is just the way you are made up, and there is not much you can do about it.

Or maybe the problem is your biology, you score high on neuroticism, one of the big five personality traits. And so it is just the way you are made up, and there is not much you can do about it.

And so it is just the way you are made up, and there is not much you can do about it.

But here is the deal there is something really good about just being a plain old sinner.

And its that sin can be forgiven.

can’t diagnose sin away (Attachment disorder)

can’t diagnose sin away (Attachment disorder)

The consequence for the particular sin in each circle of Dante’s hell is the sin itself.

So when Dante meets Francesca and Palo he sees them flying about in something like a tornado. They fly’s up and down, and side to side out of control swirling every which way. They have no control over which way they go.

But as it happens the wind dies down so that Dante can have a conversation wither them. And they tell their story. Francesca fell in love with her husbands younger brother Palo. And as it happens one day she was with Palo reading the story of Lancelot’s affair with King Authors wife Guinevere and when they got to the part where Lancelot kissed Guinevere they too began to kiss, and at that moment her husband found them and murdered them.

Dante feels great pity for Francesca and Palo, here they are hell, being tossed about unable to control themselves. Yeah, buy why is that such a big deal? Well, if Francesca and Palo would not have put down the story of Lancelot and Guinevere they would have seen the untold damage that was done by their affair. Friendships ruined, it was the beginning of the downfall of the knights of the round table.

So just like they were unable to control themselves in their lust, they now experience the same thing, they cannot control themselves tossed about in the wind.

Just like they could not contr

Sin is its own kind of punishment.

Sin is deadly: Dante

We can’t diagnose sin away (Attachment disorder)

I would rather be a sinner that can be forgiven, than a necrotic who is stuck

The thing about sin, is that it can be forgiven.

We aren't perfectible

Can’t we just think of it? Remember in our heads? Why get dirty?

Well we receive ashes because we feel them, see, them, maybe even smell them some. We receive ashes because God made us embodied. For the same reason that celebrate birthdays with candles and cakes,

and we receive hugs from those we love, and we eat and enjoy good food, or we give someone flowers.

It is not something we just think about, it is something we need to feel, smell, and touch.

Why do we use ashes?

It is how God made us. God made us physical. He made us materiel. He made us from the dust of the earth. As the psalm we read said.

Psalm 103:14 ESV

For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

And so as we receive the ashes we remember that God made us from dust and because death is the consequence of sin, to dust we will return.

Everyone of us will face death

And so as we receive the ashes we remember that God made us from dust and because death is the consequence of sin, to dust we will return.

And yes, the thought of that is sorrowful. But as was read in

2 Corinthians 6:10 ESV

as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

2 Corinthinas

When we come forward to receive ashes, we might feel sorrow, but for the Christian, sorrow is not without rejoicing.

For forgiveness is real. Jesus on the cross died, taking upon him the sins of the whole world.

For when the ashes our placed on our heads, they take the form of a cross.

For the God who made us from the dust of the earth, became dust of the earth, in Jesus Christ.

And Jesus on the cross died, taking upon him the sins of the whole world.

And it was through his death, that death was defeated, and rose from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven.

Jesus rose from the dead, and ascended to the right had of the Father in heaven.

Jesus in the flesh, The dust of the earth now sits on the throne of heaven.

And now all who receive Jesus forgiveness, though we will die and return to dust, yet will we live.

Sorrowful, yeah we feel sorrow for our sins,

we feel sorrow for the sin in this world, sorrow for death that sin brings all around us.

For we are dust, we are made of stuff. And this stuff,

Sorrowful, yes, yet always rejoicing, for sin and death have been defeated.

Sorrowful... yet always rejoicing, for though we sin and though we will die and return to dust, yet will we live,

Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

And when you come forward and receive the ashes on your forehead, the ashes will take the form of a cross, the place where sin and death, died, and joy sprung forth.

for the dust takes the form of the cross, where sin and death, died, so that we might be forgiven and have life.

Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

The ashes in the shape of a cross

The new life breaed into dust. We might be dust, but we are God breathed dust.