There are parts of the Body of Christ, sisters and brothers of ours in other Christian communities, who tend to mark their Christian lives in terms of significant days, time and experiences, especially, the day they were “born again.” Believers in these communities often point to a particular day, time, place, experience, as the moment when they “gave their lives to the Lord.” But for those of us from the Lutheran perspective, such a distinction doesn’t really make sense, or, at least, we use different language, because understand God’s work in different ways. For us, it’s not a matter of when we give our lives to Jesus, or accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, or when we get born again by saying a particular prayer, or doing a particular act. For us, it’s not so much about us at all, as it’s about God – God comes to us, God acts, God saves us, God initiates, God performs, God changes us, God gives us new birth, and God does all this completely apart from our doing anything, apart from our efforts, our deserving, our righteousness or holiness. God does this saving work because that’s what God wants to do – because it is God’s good pleasure to do so, plain and simple.

 

And we believe that God does this saving work through the Church, particularly, through the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, the means of grace – Holy Baptism, through which we are born again –

reborn children of God, as the old LBW Baptismal Rite said it, and Holy Communion, through which we receive the forgiveness of sins, and nourishment, as it were, for the journey of faith.

 

But there are other rites of the Church that can have a powerful impact, if we open ourselves to the possibility that God’s going to work through them. And tonight provides a classic case in point.

 

The imposition of ashes is not a sacrament. Jesus never commanded it to be done. God never promised to work forgiveness through it, or to grant us saving grace through it. In fact, one could argue, based on today’s Gospel text, that we really shouldn’t be doing this rite at all. Smearing ashes on our faces as a sign of repentance seems to stand in direct conflict with what Jesus teaches. But in this rite, as in the Sacraments, for that matter, it’s not the action alone that has the desired effect. In other words, it’s not just the act of eating bread and drinking wine that causes our sins to be forgiven, but the word of God connected to the action. And it’s not just washing someone in water that causes sins to be forgiven, but washing connected to God’s word of promise that this particular washing will bring new life, and signify an adoption of the one washed as an adopted daughter or son, forgiven and set free from sin and death.

 

So, too, in this rite of the imposition of ashes, it’s not the smearing of ash on the forehead that’s important, but the fact that that action is accompanied by God’s word: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. It’s God’s call to remember our human frailty and our sinfulness that does its work on us and in us. It’s God reminding us that apart from God we are just dead hunks of clay – dust, returning to dust – that compels us to repentance. It’s the realization of our frailty that draws us to our only source of hope – the saving love of God in Christ Jesus, who died to destroy death, and rose from the dead to restore us to life everlasting…

 

So, while we don’t generally think in terms of particular dates and times, when we were born again, or when we got saved, or when we accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, in the Lutheran perspective, there is for each of us such a time, and more than just one such time.

 

• The day we were conceived in our mother’s wombs is one such time – as God knit us together in that secret place, already active in each of our lives.

 

• The day we were baptized – whether that was a decision we made to be baptized later in life, or whether we were brought there as an infant, God was there, naming and claiming us each as beloved daughters and sons, forgiving us of our sins, and loving us with a love that will not ever let us go, a love that is, in fact, stronger than death.

 

• Each time we’ve come to the Lord’s Table, receiving the bread of life and the cup of salvation – nourishment for the journey of faith, a free gift of forgiving grace summed up in God’s promise that this meal is “for you” and “for the forgiveness of sin.”

 

And there are many other such days, days in which God is active in our lives in big and small ways…

 

And today is such a day.

 

As the prophet Joel says: “even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; ¹³rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”

 

And as the Apostle Paul reminds us, we ought “not to accept the grace of God in vain. ²For God says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!”

 

Gathered together here, keeping this solemn assembly, marking the beginning of our time of Lenten observance – a time of purposeful fasting, increased devotion and prayer, and intentional generosity for the sake of the needy – now truly is the time of salvation, as God comes to us, telling the truth about who and what we are, and challenging us to do the same, confessing that we are mortal, dust returning to dust.

 

And also, telling the truth about who God is, the One who brings salvation and new life to us, though we are but dust, returning to dust.

 

Welcome to Lent.

 

Amen.