{"id":650295,"date":"2024-01-17T21:53:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T02:53:54","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-07-16T10:08:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:08:31","slug":"our-ashes-ash-wednesday-february-14-2024","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/our-ashes-ash-wednesday-february-14-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Ashes, Ash Wednesday \u2013 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-black-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-black-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=DFMS4243675051&#038;light=true\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-black-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-black-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/lectionary\/ash-wednesday-b\/\">[RCL] Joel 2:1-2,12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12; Psalm 103 or 103:8-14; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6,16-21<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/AW-2024-Cover-FB-1024x536.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-300298\" style=\"width:512px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are times when our fellow Christians \u2013 and perhaps we ourselves \u2013 can be extremely iterating to the rest of society. Even setting aside the major downers like the Crusades, witch hunts, and the general condemnation of an astonishing number of social groups, we Christians are guilty of creating <em>billions<\/em> of self-righteous posts on social media. And just when we think that we\u2019re merely doing our jobs as faithful witnesses by telling the rest of the world how direly wrong, immoral, and inhumane they are, we hear this challenging Gospel: \u201cBeware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What\u2019s worse, it comes on the one day in which we\u2019re all going to be walking around with big crosses of ash on our foreheads for all the world to see! It\u2019s almost as if some liturgical prankster has sneaked a zinger into the annual cycle of readings. We may find ourselves tempted to ask, \u201cWhy<em> are <\/em>we going around wearing these ashes, if not for everyone to see our piety? Isn\u2019t this a public proclamation of our Christian dedication, of our Episcopal superiority to the rest of the ash-less masses? Are we really any better than those praying on street corners or fasting with drawn faces?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the ancient world, giving alms, praying, and keeping fasts were signs of holiness and devotion, but wearing ashes was not. Wearing ashes on your forehead was not the ancient equivalent of a \u201cHonk if you love Jesus!\u201d bumper sticker; instead, it was the ancient world equivalent of a dunce cap. Rather than serving to declare our holiness, wearing ashes is literally a proclamation of our sinfulness, our mortality, our finitude. In the ancient world, to go about in ashes and sackcloth was to say to all the world, \u201cI have really, really messed up!\u201d I am nothing, less than nothing \u2014 literally, just a handful of dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday, we are not showing what good Christians we are, but in fact what <em>terrible<\/em> Christians we are! Our ashes proclaim that we have strayed from the path of Christ, turning each to his or her own way like lost sheep. That each of us has been overwhelmed by pride, by selfishness, by unkindness, by anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our ashes proclaim to the world that we are mortal, that we are finite. That, in the grand scheme of things, our lives are inconceivably short \u2014 nothing but an infinitesimally small blip on the giant screen of history \u2014 that all of our anxieties and fears, all of our great accomplishments and impressive attainments, are almost nothing, for we ourselves are nothing but dust, and to dust shall we return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The big difference between the ashes that we will wear, and the ashes worn by other ancient people proclaiming themselves to be miserable failures, is that ours are not thrown indiscriminately onto our foreheads. Instead, our ashes take the form of the Cross. They are not merely a reminder of our incredible finitude, of the extreme brevity of our lives, and of our general inability to live as we should, but they are in the shape of God\u2019s <em>answer<\/em> to that finitude, God\u2019s <em>answer<\/em> to that brokenness and that weakness. They are in the shape of God\u2019s <em>answer<\/em> to our selfishness, God\u2019s <em>answer<\/em> to our pride, to our sin: they are in the shape of Jesus\u2019 self-sacrifice, the shape of the way in which he poured himself out for us, gave himself, not to be our accuser, but to be the remedy and cure for our sin. <em>Not <\/em>through saving us from his wrath or condemnation, but through saving us from <em>ourselves<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Cross of ashes proclaims to the world, \u201cEverything I\u2019ve ever accomplished, everything I\u2019ve ever failed at, all of my dreams and all of my fears, are all totally insignificant in the grand sweep of history<em>, and yet<\/em>, to God \u2014 to the only One who is <em>eternally<\/em> older than all of history, who is <em>infinitely <\/em>beyond the immensity of the universe \u2014 I and <em>every single one<\/em> of my little, tiny concerns, are of infinite importance because God loves me infinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through God the Son\u2019s incarnation, through his life and teaching, and most of all through his suffering and death upon the cross, we know that every single one of us is worth everything to God because <em>all<\/em> of this was done specifically for you, specifically for me. That is how much you matter. That is how important you are. That God incarnate gave himself to wake each of us up to reality, to call every single one of us, his children, back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today you will receive the cross of ashes upon your forehead: for this one day, you will wear your deepest, darkest, most shameful secrets on the outside, as a mark upon your forehead. But you will also wear your hope, your hope that all is not lost because of your weakness, but instead that all has been gained because Almighty God became weak to join you in weakness, because the Eternal Word of God became a finite person to join you in your mortality. That even in the depths of sin we are completely known and completely loved by our Heavenly Father, who is in the world, searching for each of us like lost sheep, actively seeking us out, to take us into his arms of love and bring us home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This sermon was written by <strong>the Rev. Bertie Pearson<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-153228dd-ec70-486f-aa8e-0a57ed90182b\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Sermon-Ash-Wednesday-English.docx\">Word \u2013 Ash Wednesday Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Sermon-Ash-Wednesday-English.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-153228dd-ec70-486f-aa8e-0a57ed90182b\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-569381f6-d009-4ed4-a9c6-c1af48b0e877\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Sermon-Ash-Wednesday-English.pdf\">PDF \u2013 Ash Wednesday Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Sermon-Ash-Wednesday-English.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-569381f6-d009-4ed4-a9c6-c1af48b0e877\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[RCL] Joel 2:1-2,12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12; Psalm 103 or 103:8-14; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6,16-21 There are times when our fellow Christians \u2013 and perhaps we ourselves \u2013 can be extremely iterating to the rest of society. Even setting aside the major downers like the Crusades, witch hunts, and the general condemnation of an astonishing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[51,43,52,3],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-650295","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-ash-wednesday"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":51,"label":"Lent"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":149,"label":"Ash Wednesday"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/650295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/650295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3474697,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/650295\/revisions\/3474697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}