Let us pray: Dear Lord Jesus, we feel the ashes of mortality upon our foreheads and on our hearts. Give us the courage to acknowledge them; then give us the faithful sight to see them on your forehead; for you have died in our place, our Redeemer and our Lord we pray in your name.
Amen.

Every year when the journey to Easter begins, it must always begin right here; at the contemplation of your death, in the cold conviction that you shall die. For centuries Pastors have dipped fingers in bowls of ashes and marked the foreheads of believers saying: "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return."

Ash Wednesday, is the day of personal ashes, the first of the forty days of Lent: like a deep bell tolling, the word "remember" starts the season and bids you to begin your journey of not only remembering your death, but also to remember the faith active in love God commands you to practice: giving to the poor, prayer, and fasting.

If this brings dissonance to you life, it should, because it is counter to everything we hear from the world around us, "you deserve a break", "positive thinking", "maximizing your assets and your life", "feeling good about yourself." Not necessarily bad things, just not ultimate things.
Ash Wednesday interrupts our easy flow of life by the unexpected and unwelcome abruptness of "you shall die."

"Remember" tolls the ageless bell. In spite of our resistance, the day and the season bid us to remember: our death, and then goes on to urge us into a deeper relationship with God and our neighbor.

Ash Wednesday and the season of lent insist that you and I think of our death and the sin that caused it-to examine ourselves to know ourselves so deeply and so well that self knowledge drives us to confession and confession to God's forgiveness.

In acknowledging our own death, we are moved to remember the death of our Lord, because he died for you and me. As we remember his passion and his death our hearts will be more and more open to the Gospel story and we will yearn to hear it again to know that when we die in the Lord, we shall also know a rising like his. And that resurrection life will be forever.

Ashes on our foreheads remind us of our humble beginnings and our common end. Ashes are an extraordinarily rich symbol rooted in ancient customs and practices. In a Christian context, ashes suggest judgment and God's condemnation of sin. They remind us of our frailty and vulnerability, and our total dependence upon God for life. Ashes remind us of humiliation and repentance. On Ash Wednesday, we are reminded forcefully of the words of the committal in the burial service, "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." This day, while we are still living, those words are said over each of us.

Ashes also suggest cleansing and renewal. In times gone by, when there was no soap, ashes were used as a cleaning agent. So on Ash Wednesday the ashes also remind us of the cleansing water of Baptism - the water that refreshes, can drown, but also gives life. So ashes tell of both death and life. In the spring or fall, sometimes we see a farmer burning one of his fields, the burning destroys the old and prepares for the new.

In Italy, and end of winter custom is to burn all the old junk one has accumulated over the year. The village square collects the whole community's discards. Rather than have a yard sale, or a garage sale, everyone simply has a good house cleaning and piles up the old discarded items. On top of the whole pile perches a straw witch. The witch is called La Befana. Her end marks the end of the Epiphany season, the end of winter and the beginning of spring. From death to new life.

I wonder if our tradition of spring house cleaning comes from this Italian tradition? It is an opportunity for children to sort out the things of a childish past and put them away or give them to those who will use them. Adults can clean house both inside and outside. We can sort through our childish attitudes or haul out the inner attitudes that are not life giving.

We can let in the fresh air, shake out the bedspreads, clean out the drawers and cupboards. We can collect all the inner useless accumulations of our life style and contribute them to the dust and ashes of Ash Wednesday.

Tonight, take a close look at yourself. How is your relationship with God? Where are the good places that you have been this past year? What are the challenges you have met? How many relationships have you enriched this year? How have you served the Lord? Be truthful with yourself.
In our Scripture for this evening, Jesus talks about hypocrisy. He tells us that what needs to die in us is not the real self, but the false one, the self that thinks it is whole, perfect and complete, when, in fact, it is all in pieces.

Jesus does not attack religious hypocrites because they are ruthlessly opposed to the gospel or to helping the neighbor, but rather because they have missed the point of it all. Jesus says harsh things about the hypocrites not because they are so far away from the kingdom but because they are so very close, and yet miss the destination. They are on the right path, but they are satisfied with the minimum wage- human approval and applause, when so very near-lies the real treasure-the pearl without price, the affirmation and intimacy of God. They have lost sight of the divine parent who sees in secret, who cherishes in the divine heart, who graciously rewards beyond measure.
Jesus' harsh reprimand to the hypocrite is intended to reclaim, not to destroy. Jesus' scolding words are the white caps on a sea of grace. Underneath the reproach is the promise that God desires to draw near in love, mercy, and forgiveness.

God knows our lives thoroughly . God knows we all have a tendency to show off for others. But God gave his only Son to die for you and me, for God has seen our authentic self, the child God claimed in baptismal waters, the one God still invites to come and follow no matter where we have been or what we have done.

Discipleship is not about loving God in the abstract. Loving God is about being dependent on God. Loving God is loving our neighbor with the sort of self-love we have indulged ourselves in for years. Loving God is loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us. We must take seriously the well-being of every person, even those who for years we excluded from our responsibility as being in the wrong camp, who vote for the other party, our spouse, when we know he or she "is simply wrong," the person at work who is constantly in competition with us.

Remember - ashes- death. Remember-body and blood given for you - Jesus -life. A small sip, one bite but oh so powerful in our lives to forgive and renew. The word and the sacraments assure us that we belong to Christ. They give us hope for something better in our world and tell us that we do make a difference. They take away our fears and give us the freedom to make life giving choices. They comfort our souls with a word of peace that gives us respite in our warring world. They give us new energy and send us on our way to follow Christ's compassionate footsteps in our world. Yes, you must die, but in Christ, yes, you also must live!

Amen.