Sermon Archive

From Dust to Glory

The Rev. Canon Carl Turner | The Solemn Liturgy of Ash Wednesday
Wednesday, March 01, 2017 @ 5:30 pm
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Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


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Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Ash Wednesday
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The Solemn Liturgy of Ash Wednesday
5:30 pm
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Scripture citation(s): Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; II Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

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Our Lenten journey begins with a simple yet dramatic symbolic action; ashes, placed on our foreheads in the sign of the cross. “Remember that thou art dust and unto dust shalt thou return.” Echoing the words of God to Adam and Eve in the story of the fall – “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:19)

And what is this ash? The product of a chemical reaction that results in carbon; the stuff of which we are made.

It is easy to think that this ash, this carbon, is worthless and that, by extension, the marking of our foreheads tells us that we, too, are worthless. This is not so. Carbon is the element found in all known life forms and is the second largest element found in the human body. Carbon exists in our planet in different forms and what we see here as mere ash today, has the potential to become a diamond. Dust can become glory.

Lent begins not simply with a reminder of our mortality, but also the encouragement to discover how our lives can be transformed.

In the Old Testament, ashes were used as a sign of penitence; sprinkled on the head and, in a precursor to the sad character of Cinderella, people would sit in them and look miserable. Ashes reminded the Hebrew people of the absence of God’s glory. One such story about the absence of God’s glory we read in 1 Samuel. In an epic battle, the Tribes bring the Ark of the Covenant to the front line in the hope that God’s presence will give them victory. They were very wrong. They were roundly defeated and the Ark of the Covenant was stolen by the Philistines. The old priest Eli and his two sons died (see 1 Samuel 4). Eli’s pregnant daughter in law, on hearing the news of the loss of the Ark and the death of her family, immediately gave birth to a son who found he had no father, no grandfather, and no uncle. She named him Ichabod, which means “The glory hath departed”.

But in the Christian faith, ashes are marked on our forehead in the sign of the cross; to those who do not believe, a symbol of death, but to us a symbol of the transformation of dust into glory. This signing of the cross with ash will remind us that our lives are, in fact, full of worth because our mortality is not the end of the story. Jesus, God’s Son, came among us and died on a cross to reconcile the whole world to himself. Although sinless, he took the enormity of all the world’s sin – past, present, and future, and embraced it. Because of that loving embrace, his body, though dead, did not decompose and turn back to dust. Instead, he went to Sheol (translated hell in the Apostles’ Creed) so that even those long dead might hear his redeeming voice. The orthodox icon of the Harrowing of Hell is a powerful image of Jesus, dragging Adam and Eve out of the grave. On the third day, he rose again from the dead; his body was changed from that which could have been dust and into glory – God’s glory – the glory that the disciples had glimpsed many times.

These ashes are not just a reminder of our need for contrition and repentance or even our mortality – they are, ironically, also a reminder of the glory that is to come.

There is nothing passive in the redemption of the worlds by Jesus – his passion, his agony on the cross, his bloody death, his burial, his resurrection – this is God at work in our world and on this Ash Wednesday we are charged to co-operate in that work.

Go back to the scripture readings today; there is no passivity there. The prophet Isaiah tells us to shout and lift our voices like a trumpet! We are not to sit in self pity in ashes but to get up and do something beautiful for God: To let the oppressed go free; to share bread with the hungry; to do something radical for the homeless; to heal estrangement in family relationships. (see Isaiah 58:1-12)

Paul, writing to the Corinthians urges reconciliation – the same reconciliation Christ obtained for us on the cross. Paul gives encouragement to us now, even when we are desperate or in despair: “As dying, and see – we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10)

People wallowing in self-pity did not impress Jesus; for he knew that there is a very thin line between humility and spiritual pride. His words in the gospel are strong and he challenges us today to discover where our true treasure is.

My friends, we begin a journey today that will help us change our lives – to turn them around, for that is the meaning of the word repentance. We begin by saying sorry to God; we receive the ash as a sign of that repentance and a reminder of our mortality. But, encouraged by the scriptures and the tradition of the Church, we use our Lenten journey to change from dust to glory; just as the carbon in the ash shares the same chemical composition as the diamond, so our fragile lives are bound up in the glory of Jesus Christ.

A poem by Francis Lightbourne:

The smudge of ashes on the brow,
The charge, “Remember that thou Art dust and shalt to dust return-“
These are the words, the dictum stern
Of God, relayed in rite
The ages down to hearts contrite.
Remember then, O Ichabod,
That dust thou art, gold dust for God