March 1, 2006
Joel 2:12-18; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
There are no ashes without fire. What we shall use in a few moments to mark our foreheads comes from fire. Ashes are a startling reminder that fires have lit our age: Hiroshima, Auschwitz, Vietnam, Baghdad, and even New York. The image of ash covered firemen in New York City is set in our minds and memories. We are citizens of a world aflame with hatred and violence that rains down embers upon the innocent and the guilty alike. Yet now and then we experience a miracle through these ashes. New cities arise. People are restored by hope and by faith. Repentance and forgiveness may fan embers of hatred into flames that warm hearts and cast golden light upon the faces of those who dare to gather around to brave darkness together.
We are a people of fire, the fire of the Spirit. The tongues of fire that gave birth to this church leave a mark on our faces. Year after year, we gather around a fire and carry its light into our assemblies to proclaim the Risen Christ and fan into flame again the fire of faith, the fire of the spirit, the fire of love.
Throughout this long winter, the land around us has burned. The smell of smoke irritated our eyes. The news of destruction saddened our evenings. Even the fear of local fires disturbed our security, and as the dry wind blew, we looked anxiously for rain. But I’m told in the pine forests after a fire, something happens to pinecones that pop open in the heat spilling seeds on the bare ground that quickly sprout and in time bring new life. We know how much more quickly our grass greens up through blackened ash when rain comes in the spring. This fire and the ash it leaves is not all bad. With a little water life returns.
We are working here with powerful ancient symbols that have everything to do with the Paschal Mystery celebrating the victory of life over death. We have and we will again stand around the Easter Fire. We have once and often sprinkled and immersed ourselves and our children in the living waters of baptism.
What’s a little ash in between times except a reminder that we are a people of fire,
a people of the Spirit, a people of Pentecost who know, believe, and live in such a way that even though we are dust, we shall rise again if the power of God’s love
leads us to turn away from sin? Even though we are dust, we shall rise again.