Sermon for Ash Wednesday 2022 - Death Can Be Good News

Once again I am not shocked…

  It is Ash Wednesday 

and we do not have a packed house,

and it is not because of COVID!

Even on Zoom there are plenty of empty pews. 

Today we come forward and hear the promise:

remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. 

Today we are reminded of our mortality;

reminded that we will die. 

Who wants to hear that? 

I think we’d all rather skip ahead to Easter

and declare Christ is risen! 

Even us faithful gathered tonight,

We’d rather skip over Ash Wednesday,

and Good Friday for that matter,

We’d all rather skip over death.

Ash Wednesday is rather somber:

it begins our Lenten journey 

towards that cross of Good Friday. 

No more Alleluias - 

not until Easter.

No one really wants Lent,

you know, that time of year 

in which we give into our guilt 

and give up things like…

chocolate, 

coffee, 

alcohol,

television, 

you know, giving up the kind of things that we enjoy!

No wonder we aren’t overflowing with visitors today! 

I’d like to suggest, 

however, 

that not everything need be bad news tonight. 

I’d like to suggest that, 

perhaps the Ash Wednesday message 

- that everyone, everything dies - 

can actually be good news. 

Everyone dies. 

Our bodies will die. 

Plants - trees, grass, flowers; will die. 

Pretty much everything that is created will die.

That also means that systems will die.

Economic and political systems that restrict,

that reward some and punish others - 

those systems will die.

The Rulers - who send young people to wage war,

who tyrant power for their own gain

- they will die just as you and I.  

Don’t get me wrong - death is often bad news,

the wages of sin,

and we have heard about too much death in the Ukraine

these past few days,

and around the world these past two years.

Yet death is also good news 

because resurrection can’t happen without death. 

It was inevitable that humanity would reject God in the flesh,

that Jesus the Christ, 

the Immanuel we worship at Christmas,

would suffer and die.

Yet Christ’s reign,

Christ’s resurrection,

our inheritance,

our hope of life everlasting,

our hope of our own resurrection

doesn’t happen without Christ’s death,

nor without our own death.

My friends,

resurrection need not wait for Easter.

New life - abundant life - 

need not wait 40 more days, plus Sundays.

I ask you this question,

please give this some serious thought:

This Lent, right now…. 

What do you really need to give up?

And I don’t mean chocolate…

what in you needs to die? 

What is it inside of you 

that needs to die 

so that you might be resurrected now? 

What is that thing inside that stinks of death

that you continue to cling to? 

I read an interesting definition of sin recently:

Don Miguel Ruiz says:

sin is anything that goes against yourself. 

You are a child of God,

you are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

you are gifted, 

you are loved,

you matter - you have purpose.

Sin is just about anything that goes against that,

against you - 

against the real you who God made you to be.

What sin are you keeping alive inside of you 

that needs to die,

so that your resurrection might happen, now? 

Maybe it is the sin of self-loathing, 

the big and little things you do and say

to belittle yourself?

Maybe it is the expectations that you place 

on your children,

on your spouse,

on your friends,

on your self. 

Maybe it’s the judgments you hold

of the people who spend their time

on the other side of the political spectrum from you.

Maybe what needs to die are assumptions.

The assumptions we make about others,

what they think of us,

the assumptions we make about ourselves,

or about God - need to die,

and that’s a hard one because 

sometimes we don’t even know 

the assumptions we've made.  

Maybe what needs to die is 

the way you manipulate that person or that group of people.

Maybe what needs to die 

are the cutting words you use,

that wound those you care about the most.

Maybe what needs to die is your habit of 

going to that website,

or that social media platform,

that leaves your heart with the stink of death.

We’ve all got something in us that needs to die,

something we are keeping alive.

We are going to take a silent pause in a moment.

I invite you to write down what needs to die inside you,

Write it in your bulletin, 

(there’s plenty of room - and pencils in the lobby)

type it into your reminders app,

or send yourself an email,

however you want to do it.

Take a chance on the good news of death,

and let’s write down what needs to die inside of you.

(After you’ve marked these down….)

My friends, death can be good news!

Resurrection is only possible with death. 

Soon you will be invited forward 

to receive the imposition of ashes. 

You will hear the words:

remember that you are dust 

and to dust you shall return.

Those things you’ve thought of,

the things in you that need to die,

especially the things that you are too scared to admit,

bring those with you to the altar,

bring them to your sanctuary at home.

When you get marked with ashes,

leave them with Jesus.

let those things die - 

let them be burned life chaff 

by the fire of the Holy Spirit.

But keep them on your phone,

keep them in that reminders app, 

or email, 

post it on your fridge

or your bathroom mirror,

wherever it’s going to work for you.

Remind yourself of what needs to die in you,

and allow yourself to wonder, 

just wonder at what new life 

God might resurrect in its place…

Imagine the love that will flow,

the self-worth that will blossom,

the compassion that might embrace you

when you let that sin 

- that which goes against you; the real you - die.  

Imagine you - the real you - resurrected today.

Let us pray…

Give courage to your people. Give insight to your people - help us to see those things in us that need to die, those things we are keeping alive, those things we really need to give up this Lent. By the refining fire of your Holy Spirit, burn away the conditions that we place on loving ourselves and others, burn away the expectations and judgments and obligations we enforce - give us grace to love your creation unconditionally, to love our neighbours unconditionally, and to love ourselves unconditionally. Create in us clean hearts that are freed from the emotional poison of sin and resurrect the real us, the real ‘me’ that you created us to be. We pray this in the strength and grace of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.