Streams of Mercy

On Ash Wednesday, we enter a season of penitence and soul-searching that leads through the wilderness to Good Friday’s cross and on to the joys of Easter morning. It’s good that we take stock of where we are in our journeys of life and faith. It’s good that we hear once again that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.

As we think about our ending, it’s important that we look back to our beginning. We are created by God; we did not just happen. Our dust was molded by the very hands of God and his Spirit breathed life into it. Our dust (our beginning) and our ashes (our ending) are blessed by God.

So, we come this day to hear “You are dust, and to dust you shall return”, and to be marked by ashes with the sign of the cross, not as a threat, but as a promise, as these words are spoken, “May Christ raise you to new life.”

While we’re comforted by the presence of each other gathered in the sanctuary, and by the assurance of God’s faithfulness, today’s words of scripture bring only harsh words of warning. As the trumpet call in Joel gathers God’s people in holy assembly, so we are called to recognize and grieve our sins, to mourn our separation from God, and to weep and cry out for God’s healing touch.

Lent calls for a change of heart. It’s about longing for a closer walk with God and returning to the One who gives us life; it’s about recognizing and grieving our sins, breaking open our hearts and mourning our separation from God. Our hearts are troubled and divided and hardened and closed; our hearts are wounded and broken, weak and fearful, unforgiving and sinful. We hear Jesus’ words recorded in the gospel of Matthew: “If only they would open their hearts and turn to me, they would be healed.”

May this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, this first day of Lent, be a “wake-up” call for each one of us. It’s been said of most of us, that if we keep on the way we’re going, we will wake up and realize we have never truly lived. Let us open ourselves to the work of grace God longs to do in our lives as we make the Lenten Journey this year.

Elizabeth