Impressions [Ash Wednesday]

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Impressions

I suspect that there are many great ways to make a good first impression.  But instead, today, on this, my first day as your new priest, I am going to look directly in your eyes and remind you that you are going to die.  For many of you, these will be the first words I personally say to you.  I will then wipe black ashes on your face and send you back to your pew.  Perhaps it goes without saying: this is not typically one of the many great ways in which one might make a good impression.

But it is how we begin this new Church season of Lent together.  We begin the season with this strange ritual.  And we place this strange ritual – being marked with very noticeable ashes – alongside a Gospel reading in which Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them.”  We place this strange ritual – wearing ashes on our faces – alongside a Gospel reading in which Jesus says, “Whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.... But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face.”

But we are walking out of this building with dirty faces – disfigured by a sign of our mortality and penitence – a small, black cross impressed on each brow.  And this is where I think our Gospel, a Gospel that on the surface seems to condemn the very thing we are doing today, actually supports the very thing we are doing today. 

You should not be proud of these ashes; you wear them like failure; you wear them like a loss.  You should not parade them through the streets or proudly display them on the corner.  These ashes are not a sign of your own greatness or dedication.  They are not a way to prove your religious superiority to your clean-faced co-workers.  These ashes are a “sign of our mortality and penitence” - which is to say they are nothing less than an admittance that the wearer is a sinner and is dying.  They are not a sign of greatness; instead, they remind us, and everyone who sees us today, that we are becoming the very substance we are wearing.  They do not tell the world that we are great; instead they declare only that we are in great need.  And typically that is not really something to proudly wear around.

This is the impression we followers of Jesus choose to make.  We walk into a world that celebrates success wearing our failures.  We walk into a world that celebrates strength wearing our frailty and our mortality.  We walk into a world that is trying desperately to keep it all together wearing proof that we are falling apart. 

We might live like those Pharisees every other day of the year – drawing attention to our accomplishments and trumpeting our greatness.  But not today.  Today we allow ourselves to walk into a dangerous world with our hearts broken wide-open, made vulnerable by an honest self-assessment. 

You will leave this place today impressed with the cross of Christ – a mark that shows that you will die a death like his – the inevitable fate of every human being.  But under that black cross is another cross – impressed on your forehead in baptism.  You are dust, and to dust you shall return; that is true.  But also you belong to Christ, and so the dust does not have the last word.  Because not even death can separate us from the love of Jesus.  After the dust comes new life.

When you leave this place today that cross on your forehead will make an impression.  Today your cross tells your truth to the world: you are a sinner, you are dying and your merciful God loves you so much that your ashes, and all they represent, are bearable.  But tomorrow, the ashes will be gone – washed away from your face.  Tomorrow you must carry on their work; tomorrow it is up to you to make an impression – with your life and your lips. 

There are many great ways to make a good impression.  Instead, walk into the world this Lent wearing a symbol of death on your face, breaking your vulnerable heart open too wide, and letting the Gospel truth drip off of your lips.  Don't settle for a good impression; make a lasting impression.