Sermon for Ash Wednesday February 17, 2021 House of Prayer Lutheran Church

Psalm 51:1-6, 10-12, 15-17 Rev. Karl-John N. Stone

Benjamin Franklin has many proverbs attributed to him because he liked to publish words of wisdom in his famous “Poor Richard’s Almanac”. One of his proverbs went something like this: “After three days fish, like houseguests, stink.” It’s a witty and memorable way--if you are visiting someone--to remember not to overstay your welcome. Polite houseguests do not impose themselves beyond the invitation or expectations of their hosts. Beyond a certain timeframe--three days, according to Ben Franklin--a friendly visit can become an unwelcome imposition.

A traditional part of the church’s Ash Wednesday worship is the imposition of ashes. The imposition of ashes: implying that, at some level, the ashes are not welcome. What is it about ashes that would not be welcome? Well, they’re dirty. They make a mess. They are tangible and tiny leftovers of things that used to be big and alive--palm branches, for example, which is what we make our churchy ashes from. But the ashes are all that remain of things that have come to the end of their life.

You don’t build with ashes. Ashes are what’s left after a building has been burned to the ground. Ashes are a metaphor for what you might feel like after you’ve realized the sins and harm you’ve imposed upon others, or that others have imposed upon you. And of course, if you go to a funeral and see the urn holding the ashes of a cremated body--a body that once took up lots of space and filled the world with life--you see how the ashes fit in such a small and humble container.

These are things we often don’t like to spend much time talking about or thinking about. These are not fun thoughts, to ponder our human frailty or mortality; to consider the passage of time and remember that all things--even our own lives--will come to an end. Not fun thoughts, and they might even trouble us, or break our hearts. But they are important--even important enough to be imposed upon our foreheads in the shape of a cross. Because the imposition of ashes also comes with a promise from God, and we hear it in Psalm 51. “You take no delight in sacrifice, O God, or I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a troubled and broken heart, O God, you will not despise.” That’s the promise: a troubled and broken heart God will not despise.

Tonight ask yourself, what is troubling your spirit? What is breaking your heart? What is imposing itself, like ashes, upon your soul? Offer that to God--that is the sacrifice God wants most for you to give. For the sign of the cross that we impose upon our foreheads is the sign of the Christ who comes to forgive us when we are honest about our sins, and who comes to renew our spirits with the joy of God’s salvation.

After three days fish, like houseguests, might stink (as Ben Franklin says). In that case three days might seem like a long time. But three days is also long enough for God to break the chains of sin and death forever by raising the crucified Jesus from the dead. And our risen Jesus knows how to take the ashes of our lives, and anoint them with his grace, and wash us clean, and free us for newness of life whenever we turn to him in faith and humility. Amen.