Daily Lesson for Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 18 verses 9 through 14:

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Today is Ash Wednesday in the life of the church, a day for reflection and penance as the people come for the imposition of ashes on the forehead. This is an outward and visible sign of our inward life. It is as if the church says to us, "We know what you are made of inside.  Dust thou art and to dust thou wilt return."

Morally, we are dust and we are ashes and Ash Wednesday calls us to see and consider this truth about ourselves.  "None is righteous -- no not one," (Romans 3:10).

That word was spoken from the pen of St Paul, who like the Pharisee in today's lesson did indeed at one time consider himself righteous. He also considered his people righteous -- his nation holy and righteous and just and altogether exceptional.

But the reminder of Ash Wednesday is that there really is no exception. We have all fallen short. None is righteous. None is just. For as Reinhold Niebuhr insightfully phrased it, in the end God must not only overcome the wickedness of evil, but even more the injustice of the just and the "unrighteousness of the righteous".  This is the power of sin and death -- that it has corrupted even the so-called good persons and so-called good nations. Without exception, all stand in need of redemption.

The people stand, they file down the center aisle, heads bowed in penitent expression. They come reminded of their sin and need for grace. The church has told them the truth. As the Prophet Isaiah put it, "Even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags."  And now the priest or pastor with ash upon his or her fingers will tell them one more truth, "Dust thou art and to dust thou wilt return."

God knows what we are made of. The church knows what it is made of.  And now the so-called righteous know what they are made of all.

And now we begin to understand the depths of our own unrighteousness and the extraordinary mercy of  God's good news.