Lent gives us an opportunity to "dial down" our lives, quiet our souls, and listen.

To Listen for the eternal answers about our life, and our death.

To Listen for God's direction, comfort, and gentle nudging to do the right thing.

And to prepare joyfully for the Pascal Feast to come.

We begin that journey this evening.

In a few moments, we will receive ashes with the words, "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

These words are a direct reference to Psalm 103. For he himself knows of what we are made, He remembers that we are dust …

Ash Wednesday is a reminder of our humanity - we are born, we live a certain number of days, and we die. We return to the earth, from which our humanity comes.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Here we come face to face with our own mortality, with the fact that God is God and we are not.

With the fact that we are made of dust and not of steel.

Here we come face to face with our own mistakes, as we pray together, We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives.

And here we come face to face with God's amazing mercy -

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is his mercy great upon those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us.

At this present time, I find it very comforting to know that I am dust, and to dust I will return. Perhaps it is this brush with my own vulnerability that has done it.

I have been waited on hand and foot, and have experienced amazing amounts of love from persons in the parish, as I endeavor to heal from these two sprained ankles.

Yet in the midst of such love given me, I find a multitude of ways to reproach myself for falling in the first place!

It is part of the broken human condition to desire to be more than we are.

Most of us have at least a bit of the perfectionist in us.

And I imagine there are many of us that blame ourselves for one thing or another.

Or we blame others when our own human frailty is the cause of the problem.

Meanwhile we are surrounded by God's love through the arms of this community, through the sacraments, in worship, and in action.

God remembers that we are dust at all times - not just on Ash Wednesday.

God neither expects perfection nor is surprised when it is not to be found.

We are the ones who need to be reminded of the human condition - that we are frail flesh, composed of dust and water.

We are the ones who need to be reminded that being dust is a good thing.

So let us together, with feet of clay, approach the altar, confess our sins, and receive God's abundant mercy.