Ash Wednesday: Ashes and Truth

Good evening.

Glad we could be here together.

Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, at the close of this day,

we gather here because you're a God who promises to be in our midst

and to speak through your word.

And that's a word that we long to hear, that we are desperate to hear.

And so we pray that you would honor your promise and speak.

In your son's name, amen.

Well, I'm truly glad to be here together.

I know it's an odd thing to say, but I'm actually a big fan of Ash Wednesday.

I love this service.

And it's an odd service to love, but there are some things about it

that I feel like every time of year when we get to this service,

I feel the same way.

And I essentially feel like, man, I really need this.

And I hope some of you understand what I'm talking about.

I wanted to take a few minutes just to think a little bit

and reflect a little bit on the meaning of what we're about to do.

At Church of the Advent, we don't want to ever do anything that we don't understand.

And so we want to make sure we understand what's going to happen.

In just a little while, Dan's going to invite you to come by rows up front.

And you're going to come just like we take communion on Sundays,

except for instead of bread and wine,

we're going to take a little bit of ash mixed with a little bit of tea tree oil.

And we're going to use our thumb.

And in the best technique we have,

we're going to put a little smudge on your forehead in the shape of a cross.

And I want to reflect a little bit on why we do this.

You know, because some people say, well, you know,

Jesus says clearly in Scripture that when we fast,

we shouldn't display our fasting so that everybody knows what we're doing,

that we should do it in secret.

So why would we do something like this and go against Scripture?

And I would say if this is an act that you think is a way of displaying our faithfulness,

that might be a misunderstanding of what this occasion is about.

Other people think that we put the ashes on our foreheads

and then it's a time to act very sad and sort of hang our heads and be very somber.

And I would say if you're focusing on that aspect of it,

that's also probably a mischaracterization.

The easiest way to think about it is this,

is that the ashes are a way of telling the truth.

The ashes tell the truth.

And Ash Wednesday is all about telling the truth.

And I don't know about you, but in my life, if I'm honest,

I find it very easy to avoid hard truth,

to deny it, to pretend like it isn't there,

to look the other way and to minimize it and to go on with my life.

It's very easy to do that.

But if you have a visible reminder on your forehead,

and on the foreheads of all of your friends and loved ones and your kids,

it's a lot harder to deny or avoid those hard truths.

The ashes tell the truth.

And I want to lay out a couple of ways I believe these ashes will tell the truth this evening.

The first is this, that the ashes tell the truth about us.

It's interesting.

There's a bioethicist named George Annis,

who once referred to America as having a death-denying culture

that cannot accept death as anything but defeat.

Now, when we put the ashes on your forehead,

we're going to say certain words.

We're going to say,

From dust you have come, and to dust you shall return.

Now, it's interesting to say those words in a culture

like this George Annis person is describing.

We live in a culture that denies the reality of dust.

We deny the reality of death.

We spend millions of dollars fighting it.

Billions of dollars fighting it, right?

We hate and avoid anything that even reminds us of aging,

much less death, right?

And we worship and idealize youth culture and youthful beauty.

That is the pinnacle of human existence in our culture,

is youth and beauty.

We hate death.

And yet, when we put ashes on our forehead,

we're telling the truth.

We're telling a very hard truth.

That at some point,

could be this year,

could be 50 years from now,

but at some point,

the day will come when you will die.

When I will die.

You know, it's interesting.

I was writing and thinking and reflecting

and actually writing these very words

a couple of days ago when I was in the hospital.

And my wife had gone in to get a comparatively minor surgical procedure

and it required local anesthesia.

And I was waiting and she was in the surgery room

and she came out and everything seemed okay.

And I had just written those words,

death comes to us all, right?

And I put my stuff down and I say,

how you doing?

And she comes in and she looks all right.

And all of a sudden,

her body arches,

her eyes roll back in her head

and her blood pressure and her heart rate

just drop to nothing.

And all of a sudden,

I'm pushed out of the way

and all these people flood in.

They say, what's going on?

What's going on?

They start putting stuff in her IV

and this and that.

And I had this moment.

Now, it turned out everything was fine.

Thankfully, I can say,

it's no big deal at all.

But I had a moment where I thought,

are you really doing this, God?

Is this happening right now?

Just a moment, fraction of a second.

And luckily that time, everything was fine.

But you know, at some point,

that moment is going to come.

And it will be that moment, right?

Is this really happening now?

Is this really happening now?

And the answer will be yes,

it's happening right now.

Right, that moment's going to come.

From dust we have come

and to dust we will one day return, right?

And then as we think about telling the truth,

even as we contemplate the truth of death,

death is actually a symptom

that points to an even deeper,

more serious truth.

Death is just a symptom

that points to the deeper reality

and truth of sin.

Right, the very fact of death proves sin.

Why?

Because sin is essentially what?

It's rebelling and cutting ourselves off

from the very source of life.

And it doesn't take a rocket scientist

to know that if you cut yourself off

from the source of life,

the clock starts ticking.

It's a matter of time, right?

Decay sets in.

Entropy sets in.

But just like our culture denies death,

it makes perfect sense

that our culture would also deny

and minimize the reality of sin.

Right?

Because they go together.

If you deny one,

you're very likely to deny the other.

And so we live in a culture where,

what do we do?

We spend most of our time and energy

trying to project a version of ourselves out there,

right?

To our employers and to our coworkers

and to our friends

and even to our family

and even to ourselves.

And we put this version of ourselves out there.

You know, this idealized version.

And we try to convince people

that we're beautiful

and that we're important

and that we're worthy

and that we're competent

and that we're all these things.

Right?

We try to convince people

that we're this person.

And we even try to convince ourselves

that we're that person.

But frankly,

I don't know about you,

but sometimes I just feel like

that's exhausting.

That's exhausting.

Constantly trying to convince people

of all of these virtues.

You just get to a point

where you're sick of it.

Maybe it's because I'm on the verge of 40.

I don't know.

Maybe I've been doing it so long

that I'm just tired of it.

But you just get tired of it.

So we put ashes on our head

and we tell the truth.

We tell the truth.

Here's the truth.

I'm not the person

that you think I am.

I'm not even the person

that I'd like to think that I am.

You know?

You take the collar off,

the cross,

the fancy shirt.

And the truth is,

this is what the ashes say.

Even if I won't,

the ashes will tell you

that I'm a far worse sinner

than I would ever dare admit to you.

And I'm a far worse sinner

than I would ever dare admit,

even to myself.

And I'm a far worse sinner

even than I would even dare imagine.

And yet the ashes tell the truth.

Even if I remain silent,

the ashes will tell you

that's who he is.

That sounds depressing.

And people think about that

and they think,

well, Ash Wednesday,

and that's kind of a downer time of year.

But frankly,

as I said before,

and maybe this is kind of why

I like Ash Wednesday,

I don't think it's depressing.

I think it's refreshing.

Finally,

you can take off the facade,

you can drop the persona,

you can cut out the act,

you don't have to keep pretending anymore.

You just put the ashes on

and you tell the truth to the world.

This is who I am.

I'm not who you think I am.

The ashes tell the truth

that we're worse

than we ever dared to admit.

And that's the first way

that they tell the truth.

They tell the truth about us,

that we die

and we die because we sin.

But then if you'll also notice

when we put the ashes on our foreheads,

we put them as best we can

in the shape of a cross

and that also points to one more truth.

The ashes not only tell the truth about us,

the ashes also tell the truth about God.

And this is the truth

that they tell about God.

That God loves you

more than you ever dared hope.

He loves you more

than you ever dared hope.

Right?

Because what is the cross?

The cross shows us this,

that God loves you.

And when you turn your back on him

and cut him out of your life,

he says that he would rather suffer

and die himself

to be able to forgive you

so that you can live with him for eternity.

He would rather do that

than anything else.

In fact,

it was the only option available

because of his love.

It's the only thing

that he would consider doing.

And so the ashes tell that truth,

the truth of our love.

So these are the two powerful truths

that collide in the ashes

on your forehead.

One, the truth about you, right?

And this is as the late Jack Miller used to say,

he used to say,

cheer up.

You're much worse

than you would ever dare imagine.

And God loves you

more than you could ever dare hope.

And those two realities exist together

in the ashes.

And so the implications,

I'll just consider one.

In order for these truths

to collide in your life,

the truth about you,

and the truth about God's love for you,

it requires that we tell the truth.

And that's why we're here.

It requires that we admit it.

That we actually admit

that we need that love and mercy.

Right?

What does Jesus say in Matthew chapter 9?

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

He says,

those who are well

don't need a physician.

It's those who are sick.

I didn't come to call the righteous,

but sinners.

Right?

He's saying,

admit it.

You're not fooling anybody.

Right?

God knows the truth about you.

Your closest loved ones

suspect the truth about you

if they don't know it already.

And guess what?

They deserve to know the truth about you.

So who are you fooling?

Jesus is saying,

admit it.

Admit that you need.

Admit that you're weak.

Admit that you need mercy.

And I will give it to you,

but you need to admit it.

You need to tell the truth.

Because we have in ourselves

this powerful temptation

to self-justify.

Right?

To justify ourselves.

To minimize and rationalize

and intellectualize away

all of our faults.

Not a big deal.

Not a big deal.

Not a big deal.

And it's that self-justification

that destroys our relationship

with God and one another.

Listen,

self-justification

is like acid to relationships.

It's like acid.

There's a book written

by a couple of social psychologists

and the title of the book is

Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me.

And here's what they say about marriage.

They studied all these couples

that got divorced

and they asked the question,

what is it that leads

happily married couples

ultimately to get

divorced?

What are the things

that happened?

And here's what they found.

The vast majority of couples

who drift apart

do so slowly over time

in a snowballing pattern

of blame and self-justification.

Each partner focuses

on what the other one

is doing wrong

while justifying

his or her own preferences,

attitudes,

and ways of doing things.

From our standpoint,

therefore,

misunderstandings,

conflicts,

personality differences,

and even angry quarrels

are not the assassins of love.

self-justification is.

Self-justification is like acid

to our relationships.

And if it does that

to our human relationships,

imagine what it does

to our relationship with God.

It renders it impossible.

You cannot have a relationship

with God

if you are bent

on justifying yourself.

So this Lent,

I don't know

what you're giving up.

Chocolate or sweets

or booze

or caffeine

or white carbs

or Whole30

or, you know,

Netflix.

I don't know

what you're giving up.

But whatever else

you're doing,

I would just humbly suggest

that you also

give up self-justification.

See what that does

to your relationships

with one another

and see what that does

to your relationship

with God.

Just give it up.

So let's come up here,

let's put on these ashes,

and let's tell the truth.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.