There is a song by Grammy Award Winning Band, Mumford and Sons with a line in it that goes like this,
In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life. In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die, where you invest your love, you invest your life. Awake my soul. For you were made to meet your Maker.
It’s a favorite of mine. And it’s a favorite because every time I listen to it I am reminded of the urgency to invest my life in something that matters. That I only have this one mortal life to walk this earth, to make a difference here - that in this body I will live but that one day I will die and therefore these days that I am alive, matter.
They matter because if I want to make a difference for good in this world, if I want people to know that I love them, then I better not waste anymore time on things that at the end of my life really won’t matter. Where I invest my love - there, I invest my life. Or, as Jesus so eloquently said, where my treasure is, there my heart will be also.
But sometimes I forget this. Our culture sends us a lot of messages about who we are supposed to be, what we are supposed to look like, how much money we should be acquiring, what kind of car we should be driving. And, if you’re anything like me, you frequently believe these messages! My husband currently drives a ’94 Dodge Caravan minivan. We call it our ghetto van and I have to admit, I am quite embarrassed whenever he comes cruisin’ down the street with the radio blaring. I’m like, can’t you at least turn the radio down so you don’t call so much attention to yourself! But he drives that minivan because if we were to buy ourselves a nicer and newer car that would mean my husband would have to spend more time at work and less time with our kids. It would mean that he wouldn’t be able to coach our son’s basketball teams or be at home with our daughter in the mornings. He knows, where he invests his love - there he invests his life. His treasure is his kids, not his car, and there his heart is also.
If my husband were to die tomorrow, my kids would be able to say they knew their dad and they knew that he loved them dearly. That’s a life well invested.
And not to be a downer, but a fact of life is that we will all die and we don’t get to know when that time will come. But let me assure you, no matter how many vitamins you take, magic creams you rub on your wrinkles, or exercises you do to keep your body strong, death will come. Though we may like to live in denial about death - I mean, nobody likes to think about being vulnerable to death, - what the reality of death makes clear to us is that we are completely and totally dependent upon the Creator who fashioned us together out of the dust of the ground. We were made, to meet our Maker.
Today we will mark you with ashes. We will take ashes upon our finger and draw a cross upon your forehead. This might seem to contradict that part of scripture we just heard in which Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them”, I mean we’re going to walk out of here wearing a sign of our faith front and center on our FOREHEADS, in ashes, and I’m going to guess that more than a few people will stop you and say, “Hey, you’ve got something on your forehead...” which then you’ll have to say, “Oh, yeah, thanks, it’s actually ashes from our Ash Wednesday service....blah blah blah.” And that might just come off as being a bit pietistic.
But hopefully, that is not why we walk around all day looking ridiculous with a smear of ash upon on our foreheads. On Ash Wednesday, yes, we’ll be marked with ashes - but not so that we can proclaim to the world that we are Christian and others are not.
We are marked with ashes for a few reasons. In scripture ashes are repeatedly used as a sign of repentance or a need and desire to return to God. In the Hebrew bible, to repent means “to return” so putting on ashes symbolizes our desire to return to God - to remember that we are wholly and completely dependent upon God. And here’s the Good News, the putting on of ashes also symbolizes God’s generous invitation to us, to return to God’s open arms, to return to walking with God!
Ashes also remind us that all things are temporary - When you put something in a fire, eventually it will turn to ashes. Ashes remind us that all things are in our world are fleeting, including us.
But we won’t leave here with death as the last word - with you turning into dust as the the end of the story because we also mark you with ashes, in the sign of the cross, as a reminder that you belong to God. That even though, this life is temporary, that these bodies are temporary, that from dust we came to dust we shall return, even in all of that, we belong to God. We may be dust, but we are loved. You are God’s beloved child. Precious and wanted. And nothing, in all of life, in all of creation, and in all of death can ever separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Many of us will incorporate a Lenten practice this season with the intention growing closer to Christ. Some of you might fast from something - Starbucks, Facebook, chocolate. Some of you might add a practice - reading scripture daily, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry. But what if instead of focusing on just these forty days as a time to change our habits and grow closer to Christ, what if we make a life change - something that isn’t done or forgotten about at Easter but that continues, changing us and changing the world - for good? A change that says to the world - these days matter and I’m going to make the most of them! Where you invest your love, you invest your life. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So how will you use this gift of time upon this earth? God invites you to return, to walk with your Maker, investing your life, your treasure, in the the things that matter to God: relationships, justice, the poor, people, creation, mercy, peace.
You are dust. But you are beloved dust. You are God’s child. You are marked with the cross. Amen.
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