Ash Wednesday
March 5, 2025
Sacred Heart, EGF – 8:00 AM
St. Francis of Assisi, Fisher – 6:00 PM
Holy Trinity, Tabor – 7:30 PM

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In the beginning, God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.

From dust: nothingness, lifelessness. Death.
To a living being: spirit, vitality. Life. Destined to live forever.

Along came the enemy.

Once a being of great glory – Lucifer – “Light Bearer”…
Fallen because of his rebellion…
Now in the form of a serpent,
a snake,
one crawling on his belly in the dust.

Jealous of the life in man, he desires death for all.

He tempted them, our first parents.
They plucked the apple from the tree, from its life-source.
As soon as they plucked it, that apple began to die.
So did they.

With the first sin, death entered the world. Death entered the heart of man.

“Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”

And return to dust, they did.
Like the palm branches received here and waved in the air last year,
once green with life,
then dry and brown,
and finally, yesterday, burned into these ashes here before us.

Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel.
Cain: a grower of crops
Abel: a shepherd

Cain brought an offering of his crops to God.
Abel brought his best lamb to God.

God was pleased with Abel’s sacrifice.
Cain was jealous of Abel. He harbored the dust of hatred in his heart.
So, he murdered his brother.
Abel’s blood returned to the dust of the earth, from which it cried out to God.

Cain was sentenced to roam the earth.
Blown away from the presence of God, the Source of Life,
like dust in the wind.

Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham, our father in Faith.
His brothers, jealous of him, sold him into slavery in Egypt.
They sent him away,
like dust in the wind.

Famine struck. There was no food.
The winds of hunger drove the brothers to Egypt in search of grain. They traveled through the desert sands to get there.
Joseph was in charge of rationing the grain. He recognized them. His heart was pierced with grief when he saw them and he remembered what they had done to him.

Rather than take revenge, he forgave them.
They were reconciled.
The family moved to Egypt. They brought their father Jacob – Israel – with them.

Four hundred years passed.

The family of Israel grew into the nation of Israel, living in Egypt.
A new Pharaoh came to power, one who did not know Joseph.
Fearing the growing nation living within his own, he enslaved them,
not unlike how the Tempter enslaved our first parents,
not unlike how he enslaved us.

From life to a living death. Slavery. Misery.

We know the story. God will lead them home to their own land,
by way of the desert.

Brothers and Sisters,
he does the same for us.

Lent is a time to journey through the desert, to the freedom of the Promised Land.

It is a hard journey.
We must face our sins:
like Adam and Eve,
like Cain
like the brothers of Joseph,
like David who repented by lying in the ashes and weeping after his sin cost him his son.

If we are honest, we would rather skip the desert and jump right to the Promised Land.
If I am honest, I would rather skip this doom and gloom homily about repentance and jump right to the good news of Jesus saving us.

But there is no bypassing the desert.

Today, our faces are rubbed in it.

We are commanded: Repent and Believe in the Gospel!

That statement highlights the two parts of Lent.

For the first three weeks of Lent, we are confronted with our sin by the commend to “Repent!”.
We must acknowledge our sins.
We must feel sorrow for them.
We must repent,
and we must feel our powerlessness to set ourselves free.

Only then will we experience the truth and beauty of the Gospel.

We cannot free ourselves, but the good news is that we do not need to free ourselves.
We have a Savior,
and that brings us to the last two weeks of Lent.
“Believe in the Gospel!”

Jesus enters into the desert.
He fights our ancient foe.
Where we failed, He will be victorious.

Like Moses leading the people out of Egypt by way of the desert,
so Jesus will lead us out of the Egypt of our sins by way of the desert of Lent.

And so we are urged to repent, to let our sins trouble us. To rend our hearts.

When is the last time that you wept for your sins?
When was the last time that you felt sorrowful enough, guilty enough, to sacrifice, to pray, to atone.
We want to skip this.
We cannot.
It is essential.
Repentance is essential.

Replying not on our own efforts,
although we indeed must put forth our best effort.
Even though it is insufficient in itself,
our efforts are sufficient with God’s grace.

God’s grace will meet you there.

God is ready to meet you in the desert.

Repent! And Believe in the Gospel!

…

Someone recently asked me: “How do I know what I should do for Lent?”

Ask yourself this question:

Where am I slipping in my life these days?

Where is my struggle with sin right now. Am I even struggling? Or have I given in?

What is draining the life from my soul, turning it into a dry heap of ashes?

How are my sins harming
my relationship with God,
my relationship with others?

How are my sins harming ME?

Take a piece of paper, and write three headings:
Prayer
Fasting
Almsgiving

Commit to doing one thing in each area,
in a spirit of repentance,
asking God’s grace to meet you there,
and to lead you into freedom and new life.

He will,
because He already has:

He enters into our death,
and restores life.