"And the LORD said: 'Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark
upon the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations that
are committed in it'" (Ezekiel 9:4).
See also 1 Samuel 4:12, Samuel 1:2, 2 Samuel 13:19, and 2 Samuel 15:32
In many churches, the ashes are obtained from burned palm branches of the previous year's Palm Sunday observance. The pastor places the ashes on the foreheads of the people along with the words: "Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." It is a way of emphasizing our sorrow and repentance over our sin.
"'Even now,' declares the LORD, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting
and weeping and mourning.' Rend your heart and not your garments. Return
to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and
abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity" (Joel 2:13).
Here at Bethlehem and St. John Ev. Lutheran Churches, our Ash Wednesday worship leads us into the penitential season of Lent– a season marked by stripping away the non-essential and the unimportant, by listening in quietness to the groaning of all creation as it writhes in sinfulness, by reflecting on our own sinfulness and on God’s gift of forgiveness which comes through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
We begin the season and this liturgy with a powerful act of confession, greatly expanded over our usual brief order: a penitential Psalmody and Psalm, an exhortation to keep the discipline your hearts in the struggle against sin, a public cataloging of our collective and individual wrong-doings, and the silence of self-examination and renewal.
We stand before God with contrite hearts, knowing our weaknesses and failings.
At this point in most acts of confession, we receive the absolution of forgiveness. Instead, tonight we hear the words: ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,’ and those who wish may be marked with the dust of ashes. The non-essential is stripped away. The unimportant is removed. In this act, we finally confess that all our finery, our clothing, our possessions, our abilities –all that we think that makes us who we are– is not at all who we are. We are only dust, and we stand as like beings before the Lord.