SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
SPEAKER_00: Very earthy things that remind us of our very earthy origin.
SPEAKER_00: Then again, do we need dusty things to remind us of our mortality?
SPEAKER_00: Don't we skin our knees and break our bones?
SPEAKER_00: Don't we lose loved ones to cancer?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't we just come out of a worldwide pandemic, not just but four years ago?
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty in this life to remind us of our mortality.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask your favorite nurse, and they will tell you the reality of being alive today and gone tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: That might seem mortal enough.
SPEAKER_00: If it were only about mortality, then what need do we have to be marked on our foreheads?
SPEAKER_00: Understand, no real tradition is done just because that's the way we've always done it.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe the question is not really about tradition or mortality.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's also about contrition and faith.
SPEAKER_00: The sign of ashes has always been about a public repentance throughout all of Scripture, not private.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask the city of Nineveh, or King David, or even Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the question has more to do with who sentenced us to real death and who resurrects us to new life.
SPEAKER_00: Whose we were really born a child of, and who has bought us back with his own precious blood to make us children of his heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: That solemn season of Lent sets the tone.
SPEAKER_00: It prepares us to look squarely in the face of what our Lord has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: So then we enter this season through this solemn day to prepare us for the valley we're about to enter.
SPEAKER_00: We all must come down from the mountain of Epiphany, where the apex of the transfiguration, where the light of Christ shines so brightly, and we must enter into the valley of the shadow of death during Lent.
SPEAKER_00: But not to our harm, not to our detriment, but to see ourselves as we really are.
SPEAKER_00: Weak, sin-ridden human beings who need a Savior, a Savior who can redeem us back from sin and death completely, not partially, not mostly, but one who empties himself in order that he should take all our iniquity unto himself, all our hatred, all our lust, all our wantonness, our cold-heartedness, our stubbornness, our self-justification, and make himself to be sin who knew no sin.
SPEAKER_00: And in return gives us all his righteousness and makes us just in the eyes of his Father.
SPEAKER_00: Not a righteousness that we can boast in, but a righteousness that only comes from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not a righteousness that can point to any action on our part, but a righteousness that is full of grace and truth bequeathed to us through the sufferings of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: His pain, his suffering, his death means your life, your salvation, and the forgiveness of all your sins.
SPEAKER_00: So we begin this Lenten tide with this day, marked with the cross of Christ and ashes mixed with oil on our foreheads.
SPEAKER_00: Why ashes and oil?
SPEAKER_00: If it were only about making it stick, what need is there?
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to make ashes and dust stick to you.
SPEAKER_00: Your sin already sticks to you well enough as it is.
SPEAKER_00: Ash and oil, something earthy and something heavenly.
SPEAKER_00: What you were born into from below and how you were marked as born from above.
SPEAKER_00: But how are we as Christians to see ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, just maybe, this is how we as Lutherans recognize what it means to be both sinner and saint.
SPEAKER_00: To show us where our heavenly treasure is really located.
SPEAKER_00: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_00: But these words are more than just about early or earthy goods.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone can say, if your treasure is on earth, then that's where your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, if your treasure is in heaven, then you love what is there.
SPEAKER_00: If that were all there was to it, well, then we can all just go home.
SPEAKER_00: No need to say anything further.
SPEAKER_00: The formula in our minds often works this way: I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is in heaven, Jesus is my treasure, therefore, heaven is where my treasure is.
SPEAKER_00: What more do I need to convey to the world?
SPEAKER_00: But our Lord does not stop there.
SPEAKER_00: So neither should we.
SPEAKER_00: He does a good job of exposing what we really don't want to divulge to anyone else, the true nature of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees did things right according to God's law.
SPEAKER_00: They gave, they prayed, they even fasted with fervor.
SPEAKER_00: But then again, so do we.
SPEAKER_00: Don't we give?
SPEAKER_00: Don't we pray?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe even fast?
SPEAKER_00: See what good Christians we are?
SPEAKER_00: Why shine a light on these matters if it's if this is not about where our treasure is?
SPEAKER_00: But our heart's true nature can't help but be exposed by the things we do.
SPEAKER_00: Sin and pride are a heart problem, not a hand problem.
SPEAKER_00: And the activities of the hand always reveal the desires of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: When you give, when you pray, when you fast are all activities of our hands.
SPEAKER_00: And if they are on display for all to see, well then you have received your just glory, haven't you?
SPEAKER_00: Like our Lord says, you have received your just reward.
SPEAKER_00: Our actions expose the intentions of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is, by nature, we love self-righteousness and glory.
SPEAKER_00: We root for the guy who looks like he's in the winning circle because we want to be like him.
SPEAKER_00: We love to be admired.
SPEAKER_00: We love for people to whisper good things in the pews of the church about us.
SPEAKER_00: For who doesn't love their good deeds to be recounted before others?
SPEAKER_00: And who doesn't love a good reputation?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus wants us to see ourselves as we really are, corumdeo, before God.
SPEAKER_00: Glory before others is nothing more than self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: See how much I care about the church or the community or the poor pastor?
SPEAKER_00: See, I give a tenth of my earnings in tithing, I volunteer at the local food bank, I work weekends at the local soup kitchen.
SPEAKER_00: Is it an attempt to justify ourselves by our actions before others?
SPEAKER_00: My friends, if we are justified by our actions, if we appear righteous before the world, what need do we have to be justified by Christ?
SPEAKER_00: What need do we have of Christ's righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is there are only two kinds of people in this world, those who justify themselves and those who are justified.
SPEAKER_00: What need do we have of Christ's righteousness if we are considered righteous by others?
SPEAKER_00: What need do we have of Christ's righteousness if we can hold it up before God and say, See what I've done in your name, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Only to have him say, I never knew you.
SPEAKER_00: For what is your righteousness compared to Christ's?
SPEAKER_00: What justification can your works bring that Christ's work on the cross hasn't already justified you with?
SPEAKER_00: If we attempt to justify ourselves by our works, his response will be, you have already received your just reward.
SPEAKER_00: You got a pat on the back, a wink, a nod.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone that said, What a good Christian you really are.
SPEAKER_00: You held up your own righteousness instead of Christ's.
SPEAKER_00: You pointed to your own works instead of Christ's work on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You failed to give glory to God by flaunting your own works for the world for all to see.
SPEAKER_00: But giving, prayer, and fasting are not to show others what great faith you have, or how righteous you believe you are before God.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, giving and prayer and fasting are for the love of God and for the love of neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: You pray because you have been baptized into Christ, and therefore belong to the priesthood of all believers.
SPEAKER_00: You have been given the gift and the responsibility to pray for others and yourself, trusting that your dear Father in heaven hears you.
SPEAKER_00: You give because you know that everything in heaven and on earth already belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: But as the Lord's baptized, you have been made a steward of all these things by God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore you give to God what is God's, and you care for neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: For this is Christ's light shining through you.
SPEAKER_00: You fast not to demonstrate what a good, pious Christian you are, but as the Lord's redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture encourages it.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not for others to see your faith or your walk with God.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, so that you realize that you're not fed by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_00: You deprive the body for the sake of the soul, trusting that your Lord will provide all you need for this body and life.
SPEAKER_00: So repent of any means to justify yourself or make yourself appear righteous before God and others.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, seek a righteousness that comes from Christ alone, where moth and rust cannot destroy.
SPEAKER_00: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, rather receive Christ in his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And for his righteousness alone has bought back your lives from eternal death.
SPEAKER_00: For this righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, and for the baptized saints of God, Christ in his righteousness is the only treasure that matters before the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Christ in his righteousness is the only treasure that lasts forever.
SPEAKER_00: On his cross he paid for your lives with his bloody death.
SPEAKER_00: And all of you were baptized into his death on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: There in baptism you receive the mark of the Holy Cross on your foreheads and on your hearts, marking you as one redeemed by Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There the washing away of your sins, there the anointing and seal of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: As water is for washing and oil is for anointing, so we are reminded this very day of what Christ has done in our stead, and having his Holy Spirit speak the truth to our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We're reminded today, this very Ash Wednesday, of the great exchange enacted by our Lord Jesus Christ on his cross.
SPEAKER_00: For in baptism Christ exchanged our wretchedness with his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: He took on himself our sins and delivered to us his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: He made it possible that we in our frail flesh could stand before the Most Holy God and live.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing more amazing than that.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, receive the mark of this cross on your forehead tonight and do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a show of your righteousness before others.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, it is a confession of your mortality and of your redemption by Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of all your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has declared you righteous for his own name's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We rise and confess our Christian faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_00: I believe in God the Father, I'm sorry, in one God, Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God.