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Ash Wednesday Lesson: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
February 17, 2010 Psalm 103:8-14
The Rev. Wallace Marsh Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
St. James’ Church, Marietta Holy Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
A few months ago, the Men’s Group had a dinner/movie night, and our movie for the evening was “The Bucket List.” How many of you have seen the movie? For those of you who have not seen the movie, it is about two men, played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nickelson, who happen to be hospital roommates who have both been diagnosed with a terminal illness and given a few months to live.
In the words of today’s service, these two men are told, “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” When we hear the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return,” it elicits one of two responses: (1) You get depressed and hear them as a death sentence; “Oh, there is no reason to do anything, because I am going to die.”
(2) You hear these words as a sense of liberation. You say to yourself, “Why am I agonizing over this, or worrying about that…life is to precious.” Maybe you even say to yourself, “Take this job and shove it…life is too short and I have always wanted to do something else.”
So the words of today’s service, “You are dust and to dust you shall return,” will elicit one of two responses: despair/depression or liberation/freedom.
Now let me get back to the movie “The Bucket List.” Something we need to ask ourselves today, on a day that we are reminded of our own deaths, what would make so many people across America, myself included, pay $8.00 for a movie ticket (If you take a fiancée, that is $16.00), and another $25.00 for two cokes and a popcorn. Add all that together and it is around $40.00. Now what would make so many of us pay that kind of money to sit through a movie about death?
The movie would not have made any money if it was about two men who were depressed and were afraid of death. I do not care how good Jack Nickelson and Morgan Freeman are at acting, no one would have paid money to see that film. What makes this film so good and what packed the theaters is that in the face of death these men found happiness and liberation. Yes, the movie, “The Bucket List,” is about two men dying. But what made the movie so good was the happiness, adventure, liberation and reconciliation that took place as these men faced death.
Let me borrow the words from our Burial Office in The Book of Common Prayer. “In the midst of death, there is life.” That is the theme of the movie and that is the message of today’s service. In the face of death, there is life!
Death is something that we as a country and as a culture do not handle well. Death is something that we are conscious of and struggle with, even as a child. In 1979, “Good Housekeeping” did a story on death by asking children their thoughts about dying and going to heaven:
Aaron, age 8: “The hospital is the place where people go on their way to heaven.”
Raymond, age 10: “A good doctor can help you so you won’t die. A bad doctor send you to heaven.”
Marsha, age 9: “When you due, you don’t have to do homework in heaven unless your teacher is there too.”
Alan, age 7: “God doesn’t tell you when you are going to die because He wants it to be a big surprise.”
George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The statistics on death are quite impressive – one out of one people die.” In many ways, that is what we do today, mark everyone in this room with a cross…everyone, even the youngest child is faced with the reality of their own death.
That is why British historical Arnold Toynbee wrote, “Man alone…has foreknowledge of his coming death…and, in possessing this foreknowledge, has a chance, if he chooses to take it, of pondering over the strangeness of his destiny…Man has the possibility of coping with it, since we are endowed with the capacity to think about it in advance and to face death and deal with it in some way that is worthy of human dignity.”
I share Toynbee’s words in order to make this statement: There is a correlation between the way in which we view death and the way we live our lives. Let me say it this way: The way you view death shapes the way you live your life right now.
The focus of this season of Lent and the message you will carry away from this service today (will literally be on your forehead) is that the reality of death shapes the way you live life.
In a few minutes, the sign of the cross will be made on your forehead with the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” It is a dark reminder that we will all die…one out of one…as Shaw says. However, you miss the point of today’s service – it is not to see this Ash Cross as a death sentence; rather, we are to see death as a sign of life and liberation – like the movie, “The Bucket List.”
You are probably asking me, how are we going to do this? We do this by looking death square in the face…we do this by realizing that the Ash Cross on our forehead is literally traced over the cross that was made at our baptisms. (After a child is baptized, the priest takes oil and makes the sign of the cross and says in baptism that you are now marked and sealed as Christ’s own forever.)
My message and prayer for all of us today is that the Ash Cross and the words “You are dust and to dust you shall return” direct your attention toward a baptismal cross that has always been on your forehead – a cross that was made on the day you died with Christ and were raised to new life in Him.
In the face of death, may that cross give you life and shape the way you live here and now. Amen.
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