There is certainly an irony in the fact that the one day each year that we do something in church that is visible to others after we leave here and go out into the world (that is, today, when we put ashes on our foreheads) is the same day that we hear Jesus saying “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward in heaven.”  

Of course, Jesus does give us that little phrase “in order to be seen by them,” which is probably important for us.  I would expect that more people who come to church on Ash Wednesday are embarrassed about being seen with ashes than are coming to get ashes in order to be seen as pious by other people.  I know that I have gotten lots of funny looks over the years, along with the comments:  “there’s something on your forehead,”  “did you hurt yourself?” and so on.  I have taken to simply saying “It’s Ash Wednesday,” and leaving it at that.  

I figure it is a sign of the increasing secularization of our society that so few people remember about Ash Wednesday, even when they see someone with that smudge on their forehead.  More and more, then, walking around with ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday has nothing to do with wanting to be seen by others as pious--it’s more like risking being seen by others as having not checked a mirror recently.  Having someone tell you there’s something on your forehead even becomes an opportunity for evangelism, even if all you say is “Oh, I know there is, it’s Ash Wednesday.”  But even that is not the reason we put ashes on our foreheads.

We put ashes on our foreheads to remind us that we are dust, and we shall eventually return to dust.  We are nothing without God; God gives us all we have:  life, air to breathe, food to eat, light to see by, love to keep us going.  Everything.  And what does God ask in return?  

Everything.  God wants us to turn our entire selves over.  It’s not just about some kind of behavior modification, whether temporary, like giving something up for Lent, or permanent, like giving something up for the rest of our lives.  It is about living our whole lives, in every aspect, in thanksgiving to God, in love of God who loved us first.  But God doesn’t force this kind of thing.  God gives us freedom.  It is like that saying, so frequently quoted:  “If you love something, set it free.  If it comes back, it is yours.  If it does not come back, it never was yours.”  God loves us, and God has set us free.  It is up to is whether or not we will come back.

So what might it look like, to come back?  Isaiah suggests:  “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”  That was what Isaiah said.  What does coming back to God look like to you?

This isn’t a Lent thing.  It is a whole life thing.  But Lent can be a time to start, to re-start, to explore further, to widen or to deepen.  Lent can be a time to consider where our treasure is, and if that is where we want it to be, because, as Jesus reminds us, our hearts will be there also.  Where is your treasure?  What will this season of Lent mean to you?  What difference will these ashes make in your life?