Ashes are for People like Us

Just in case anyone’s stressing over this, getting ashes doesn’t mean we’re holy. In fact, getting ashes means we’re not holy.

Ashes are for sinners, for people like me who do the wrong thing: sometimes in small ways – and sometimes in big ways.

Ashes are for people like me who screw up, who forget what’s really important, who let things slide – more often than they care to admit.

Ashes are for people like me who sometimes hurt other people, and sometimes even hurt the people they love.

Ashes are for imperfect, broken people, for people like me who let things get out of control, who sometimes do the wrong thing even when they know what the right thing is.

Ashes are for people like me who take too many short cuts, who don’t always tell the truth, who aren’t always fair, and who sometimes cheat.

Ashes are for people like me who don’t pray as often as they should.

Ashes are for people like me who sometimes speak when they should keep quiet and sometimes keep quiet when they should speak.

Ashes are for people like me who try to love some people too much and who fail to love some people at all.

Ashes are for people like me who too often and too easily let things get the best of them, things like hate, prejudice, envy, pride, anger, fear, selfishness and jealousy.

Ashes are for people like me: are they for someone like you, too?

Going to church and getting ashes probably won’t turn our lives around overnight but being here and getting ashes could be a step in the right direction, in a better direction than we’ve been walking.

Getting ashes today might put us on the path we know we want to follow but sometimes have a hard time finding, and often stray from once we find it.

Getting ashes today just might be the beginning of mending our relationship with God, our relationships with some people in our lives, or even our relationship with ourselves.

Getting ashes today might help us take an honest look at things in our lives: things that need attention, things that need letting go, things that need changing, things that need healing, mending and reconciling.

Ashes are for people who want to do the right thing but just can’t seem to do that on their own and are in desperate need of God’s help and grace.

So even if it’s been a while since you last got ashes or if you come every year, we’re here today to pray, to get our foreheads smudged, and to take that first step on the path to walk more faithfully.

And since I know that come tomorrow there’ll be a dozen reasons to forget what we did today, let’s pray that the Lord will give us a nudge, a shove, a kick or whatever it takes for us to take yet another step tomorrow and then another and another, every day, all through Lent.

Ashes are for people like us, who want to walk through Lent to the joy of Easter with minds and hearts renewed in the love, grace and forgiveness that only come from God.