In the Gospel or the dictum Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.Remember that you are dust and unto dust you shall return. To get what Genesis 3:19 means in detail, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity.Sermon preached by Rev Canon Lesley McCormack on Ash Wednesday, 14th February 2018Ash Wednesday is a Christian holy day of prayer and fasting. The ashes are put on the heads of participants while reciting the words Repent, and believe in the Gospel or Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Then He breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being (Genesis 2: 7).There’s something compelling about Ash Wednesday, something more than just the beginning of Lent. We read in the Bible that The Lord God fashioned man from the dust of the earth. Lent is a time to come home to God.
But this we know: We are mortal. Today we say – and confirm with a touch – “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Much else that we say in our worship here today we may hope is true, or fear is true, or believe in the core of our being, or doubt. Something of that power lies in the fact that today the church speaks words of truth, words that cannot be ignored, or disputed, or evaded, or denied. The traditional formula for imposition of ashes alludes to.
Our lives are gifts from God. The dust of our beginnings – that dust from which we came – is not just a matter of chance it is not without meaning. Today we say this, and we know its truth and its power.Yet there is hope, hope rooted in our faith that we are created by God in His image. These are what we see if we look ahead far enough and honestly enough. Today, ashes will mark us – and our fate is strangely visible.These words of simple, absolute truth give us a perspective the world tries all too often to either hide or deny and if we are honest with ourselves, we probably do our best to ignore that truth much of the time.Dust and ashes. Hearing the words is not enough today.
The ashes on our forehead are not randomly placed they are placed in the form of a cross – so today we are connected with both Good Friday and Easter morning. Our dust is holy it is cherished by God.But there is something more. God is with us from our very beginning, and before. The grace and love present at our creation will see us through our physical disintegration and beyond. What appears a threat – “you are dust” – becomes a promise. Our dust is holy, and our ashes blessed by the power of God.
It centers on the love that transforms ashes into a symbol of hope. Instead, this call centers on divine grace and love – on the love that is the heart of our creation – on the love that is seen most fully on the cross. And they remind us that, because of this Good News, we are called – as we live between dust and dust – to repent and to return to Him who constantly calls us.That call to each one of us to repent – to turn around, to change direction – doesn’t center on fear, on what will happen to us if we don’t and it doesn’t center on guilt or duty – on what we think we ought to do. Yes, to dust we shall return, but with Christ.Dust and ashes point us toward the power and love of God – both at the beginning and at the end.
But it was the people from local church of St. That same tower stands as a biblical scale condemnation to a whole society and the values it espouses. As a consequence, 71 people died and many more traumatised following the fire at Grenfell Tower. We live and we act ourselves into it.In the UK’s wealthiest Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the voices of some of the poorest people, and those on the lowest incomes, asking for safety improvements to the flats in which they lived were repeatedly ignored in the corridors of power. It depends on concrete action.
Faith in God revealed in our religious observance is worthless unless it reflects both in personal relationships and communities the love, compassion and justice which is of God.Isaiah’s words were echoed centuries later by Jesus who demonstrated what it really means to loosen the bonds of injustice.We encounter Jesus sitting in the temple, amidst the dust, teaching the people who surround him. The prophet challenges the people of Israel to look at themselves and think about what they are doing – they may well fast, but what good is that when they oppress their workers and continue to fight and quarrel. Yet as people who bear the mark of Christ given at our baptism we are called to listen carefully on this day when we will be marked once more, not with oil but with ash and words reminding us of our mortality and the transience of all things: ‘Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return’.The words of Isaiah shake us from any feelings of comfortable complacency we may have. Characteristically, these words were addressed to people of wealth and power. These are questions that demand our urgent and committed attention as we begin our Lenten journey with those words ‘Remember that you are but dust, and to dust you shall return’ whispering in our ears.The prophet Isaiah’s words are addressed to all people and nations who would claim to believe in a God of justice and love. The tower still stands and challenges all of us about the values that underpin our lives – as individuals, as organisations, as communities, and as a nation.
The community of faith needs first to look at itself. But Jesus remains still, seated on the ground and speaks – ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone’. The woman’s life hung in the balance. But amidst the noise, the shouting in the Temple, there is a stillness, a silence in the centre – Jesus remains seated, bends over and begins to write in the dust – perhaps words or symbols of significance, perhaps playing for time – who knows. This frightened woman is made to stand in the midst of her powerful accusers threatening to have her stoned, painfully aware in that moment of her own mortality.
Go on your way and from now on do not sin again.’ God’s power, unlike the power of this world, is revealed in stillness and compassion, gentleness and love, not the self-righteous indignation or implications of guilt and shame experienced by so many. He doesn’t rise above her, but remains seated, looks up at her and asks ‘Where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one sir.’ ‘Neither do I condemn you. In the stillness of that early morning, the woman and Jesus are alone. The noise abates as the accusers gradually leave, first the elders who by tradition, would have thrown the first stone, followed by the others.
Then, by God’s grace, we may become repairers of the breach, builders of streets to live on.
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