The ashes symbolize who we are – sinners who will return to the dust from whence we came.īut within the Lutheran Church, we have fought a battle over whether what we do in church is "too Roman Catholic." This is not a new phenomenon – it is a battle we have been fighting in the church since Martin Luther and the start of the Reformation. The reason for the imposition of ashes was not to prove to the world that the person went to church, but to symbolize in a very visual way the consequences of sin: "for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." We can go further back into the Old Testament to the opening days of the world when the Lord tells Adam that because of his sin, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”įollowing the ascension of Jesus, the Church began using the symbol of ashes to mark the beginning of the season of Lent, a time of prayer and repentance for sin. All we have to do is to remember the story of Jonah when he warns Ninevah of their sinfulness that the people turn from their evil ways, and to show their repentance, the people put on sackcloth. In Holy Scripture, specifically in Old Testament times, repentace was often marked by sackcloth and ashes. Historically, the Church has imposed ashes on the foreheads of penitent sinners at the start of Lent.
I was at church this morning preparing for Morning Prayer when I started to think about Ash Wednesday and Lent, and then my mind wandered onto the topic of the imposition of ashes. If you haven’t checked your calendar, Ash Wednesday is just three weeks away.
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