Ash Wednesday (Fr. Fred)

​     There are certain religious songs that I learned as a child.  I can’t remember exactly when I learned them I learned them, or even in what context.  Perhaps Sunday School was the place, or Vacation Bible School.  I don’t believe I ever saw them written down.  You just picked them up from listening to others around you singing them.
 
     “Kum bay yah, my Lord” is one of them.  “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” is another.  Yet another is, “I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”
 
     You and I made that decision when we were baptized, or it was made for us by our parents and godparents.  If they made the decision for us, they promised that they would rear us in such a way that we would indeed make that decision for ourselves when we got old enough to know.  And when the decision was made that we would follow Jesus, either by us or by our parents and godparents, we were baptized.
 
     “Fredrick, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” were the words said as I was baptized.  In that act, I was given the gift of the forgiveness of sins, made a participant in the death and resurrection of Christ, given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and made a full member of the Church, the Body of Christ.
 
     After a person is baptized, the priest takes the oil of chrism, that has a sweet aroma of balsam in it, and with his thumb makes the sign of the cross on the person’s forehead.  As the sign of the cross is made, these words are said, “( N ), you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.”  Though the oil gets washed off eventually, the cross remains.  You belong to Christ, you’re a marked person, and the sign is the cross. 
 
     From then on, whether you’re in church, or at the office, or at school, or at home, or on vacation, you’re still marked, because you belong to Christ.  You can’t see that cross with your eyes, but it’s there, more permanent than a tattoo, and God sees it.  From your baptism on, whether you’re giving out lunches to the needy, or serving on Sacred Spaces, or ushering, or engaging in a bit of gossip, or cheating on your income tax, you’re still marked.  Whether you’re a faithful Christian or an unfaithful Christian, you’re still marked.  For the purpose of your life has been forever altered.  You belong to Christ, and now you are called not to live for yourself, but “for him who died for you and rose again.”
 
     Ash Wednesday, and really the whole season of Lent, is a time to acknowledge that we fall far short of the mark, not only as individuals, but also as a people.  We’re called to live sacrificially loving lives, but too much of the time we live to please ourselves.  We’re called to live in such a way that Jesus Christ is evident in our words and deeds, but all too often his image in us is obscured or even invisible.
 
     And so we come here today to seek forgiveness for past unfaithfulness, to acknowledge that we have not lived wholly as “marked” people, and to seek God’s grace in living more nearly according to the cross that marks us.  In the same place where we were sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever, there will be placed a cross of ashes, clearly visible to all, reminding us and all who see us, of who we are and Whose we are.
 
     Today, by our presence here, by our decision to have a cross of ashes on our foreheads, and by coming forward to receive the Body and Blood of Christ at the altar, we are saying, “I have decided to follow Jesus; no turning back, no turning back.”