Ash Wednesday and Self-Awareness - February 18
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 95 [for the invitatory] & 32, 143; PM Psalm 102, 130; Amos 5:6-15; Heb. 12:1-14; Luke 18:9-14
Today is Ash Wednesday, and I hope many of you who are reading this reflection will be moved to attend worship somewhere today, wherever that may be. At some point during the liturgy, ashes will be placed on your forehead in the sign of the cross with the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” It is a powerful moment—one that reminds us both of our mortality and of the God who lovingly created us from the dust of the earth.
If you were to look in the Book of Common Prayer, the order of the Ash Wednesday liturgy is interesting. We gather for the Liturgy of the Word, hear the readings and sermon, and only then are people invited to receive ashes. The appointed Gospel is always from Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21, where Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
Back in 2018, we invited the Rev. Dr. Jim Turrell—then a liturgy professor and now Dean of Sewanee’s School of Theology—to give a lecture on the Prayer Book. He pointed out that this order creates a kind of tension: we are marked publicly with ashes and then immediately hear Jesus warn against public displays of piety. Since then, we have made a pastoral shift at Saint Stephen’s. We impose ashes at the beginning of the service and then hear the Gospel, so that the scripture can interpret the action—reminding us of what this is truly about and guarding us from turning it into a performance.
Today’s Gospel for Morning Prayer carries a similar theme. In Luke 18:9–14, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee stands apart, praying about himself, rehearsing his righteousness and thanking God he is not like other people. The tax collector, by contrast, stands at a distance, unable even to lift his eyes, beating his breast and praying simply, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus points to the tax collector as the model for who we are to be. We are freed from having to get it all right. Thanks be to God! But we are called to be self-aware.
This is Ash Wednesday. The ashes remind us of who we are: mortal, fragile, dependent, and in need of mercy. And in that truth, there is something profoundly unifying. Every human being is marked by the same dust. Every forehead bears the same cross. The whole Church is invited into the same season of repentance. All of us are complex and messy people in need of grace.
And what God is always seeking is not our performance but our hearts. The ashes do not change God’s love for us; they change us. At some level, they soften us and make us look inward, something that is always desperately needed.
So come, if you can. Receive the ashes. Hear again the ancient words. And let God do the quiet work of reshaping your heart in mercy and truth.
Faithfully,
John+
Questions for Self-Reflection: Where is God calling you to be more self-aware?