Sermon – Ash Wednesday
February 17, 2021
In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.” Words from our Burial Office which are said standing over the grave with real ashes, if there was a cremation; with the body in the casket that is soon to deteriorate into dust.
These words are a stark reminder of the true human condition. We are composed of chemicals, all arising out of the earth. Bones, muscles, blood, the brain and nervous system—all if broken down are simply chemicals. And chemicals, in their form found in nature, are dirt. And dirt, if you live in a semi-desert, Is dust.
The traditional Ash Wednesday words are, “Remember O man thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.” The emphasis here is on “remember.”
Everything in our world has a beginning, middle, and an end. You and I woke up one day in the middle. Sometime between 6 to 18 months we became conscious of the world around us, of mommies and daddies, of comfort and discomfort, of hunger and thirst. We could look back a little, so we were in the middle—not that we knew it.
Then, sometime in our childhood and adolescence, some significant person died. Where did they go? What happened to them? A usual answer is given—“They’ve gone to heaven.” But where is that?”
A flurry of answers and explanations cluster around the child and, by the time of adulthood, one or two are accepted, enough to shelve the issue for the time being. But death hangs out there, a true mystery, a black hole. To an observer, when a person dies, it is as though someone switched off the TV. The program disappears into the ether and the set continues to disintegrate. It is the end.
Well, but maybe not quite. There’s one aspect of human beings that mystifies scientists and ordinary people alike. “Consciousness.” Scientists have not found a connection between consciousness and the physical, material body.
When we sleep, consciousness disappears, only to return when we awake. What causes a 9-month-old to “wake up?” Sometimes called “soul.” Sometimes called “spirit.” This aspect of humanity finds no basis in chemistry. And there is considerable evidence that conscious can and does persist.
So we are left with two concrete certainties:
1) Death is the end of the body and everything associated with it. The end. Period. And,
2) From the Burial Office: “…with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life…” We are left with Hope. What makes it sure and certain is our commitment to the possibility of life after death.
Ash Wednesday invites us to meditate on these things.
Amen.