Ash Wednesday - Naming Death. Affirming Life.

I must admit I rather enjoy Ash Wednesday. Probably more than I should.

You see, Ash Wednesday is macabre.  It names the reality of death in our midst. A reality we spend a great deal of time trying to ignore and erase. 

We live in a world full of distractions and solutions and temporary fixes for the reality of death. 

We spend a great deal of time and energy trying to ignore the presence of death in our lives. We sell ourselves out to the idols made of cloths and cosmetics and diets and surgeries and material possessions and visible symbols of vibrant life too many to name. Some of these are important to life, but they can be used as a method of escape. All in an effort to put a mask on the specter of death in our world. We literally become slaves to the power of death because we spend so much time trying to undo its very common and unstoppable effects. At least in the american context.

And this is why I love Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday names and unmasks our tireless efforts to hide from death.   


Ash Wednesday is the day when we who are God’s children are truly honest about who we are. We are dust. And to dust we shall return. 

The ashen mark of the cross on our foreheads stands as a stark reminder of where we are going. Dust.

The ashen mark of a cross on our foreheads stands as contrast to all we do to try and avoid death - the cloths and the make-up and the cosmetic surgeries and the promises of eternal youth present in magazines and on TV and the material symbols of a vibrant life. Ash Wednesday is a reminder of the fact that we cannot outlast the marks of time and we can take nothing with us. 

We are dust. And to dust we shall return. 

Ash Wednesday is the day where we are honest about death. And it is good for us.

The above mentioned litanies are all ways that we try to avoid death. And they hold a great deal of sway over our lives. They distract us from God and our call to follow Jesus. They can be described as the “principalities and powers” - the New Testament phrase that describes those things that attempt to take our attention and lives away from God. In essence they are idols or institutions or ideologies that promise life, but in reality can only give death.

William Stringfellow writes;
   
    “Death is the only moral significance which a principality proffers human being beings. That is to say, whatever intrinsic moral power is embodied in a principality - for a great corporation, profit, for example; or, for a nation, hegemony; or for an ideology, conformity - that is sooner or later superseded by the great moral power of death. Corporations die. Nations die. Ideologies die. Death survives them all. Death is - apart from God himself - the greatest moral power in this world, outlasting and subduing all other powers no matter how marvelous they may seem to be for a time being. This means, theologically speaking, that the object of allegiance and servitude, the real idol secreted within all idolatries, the power above all principalities and powers - the idol of the idols - is death (An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in A Strange Land, pg. 81).”

To lives held captive to the idol of death, Ash Wednesday is a reminder that we are God’s created ones. To God we belong. And to God we will return. 


Ash Wednesday is a counter-cultural message to the world.  We do not belong to that with which we fill our lives - our jobs, our possessions, our consumptive natures. We belong to something greater. 

Ash Wednesday reminds us who we are. And whose we are.

We are dust. And to dust we shall return.

We are dust, but not waste. We are created out of the dust of creation, the nourishing dirt used by God to form us and shape us. The dust/dirt that received the breath of life. The dust/dirt creatures that were called “good” by God. Remember - we are dust!

And to dust we shall return. We are not long for this world. Numbered days. Numbered heart beats.

But all time given to us as gift. To grow. To share. To live. To love. 

To dust we shall return. But not yet.

Ash Wednesday reminds us of who is ultimately involved in our life.  The one who has set us free through Jesus Christ from our struggle with death. Set us free so that we can join in the struggle of God for abundant life for the world. 

Ash Wednesday names death as part of our life. 

Ash Wednesday affirms life as our gift from God. A gift given to us now. And into our future with God. 

Remember. We are dust. And to dust we shall return.