First Wednesday in Lent
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
No thank you. I would rather think about anything other than my own mortality. Let’s talk about the latest Nor’easter. Let’s talk about the Super Bowl. Let’s even talk about the Biden – Trump rematch… if we have to. Let’s focus on anything other than the reality of our human frailty.
Yet, at some point, reality gets in the way. We reach the point where we have to admit that we can no longer live in the same house that we have for the last thirty years. We need someone else to drive us around. Trips to the doctor are way more frequent than just the annual checkup.
It is precisely at this “Ash Wednesday” moment, when we are no longer able to deny the reality of our mortality, that the lesson that the blessed Martin Luther taught us in his Small Catechism really kicks in:
“…he has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.”
The season of Lent invites us to go back to our roots. Back to Catechism Class. We take this Holy Season as an opportunity to return to this foundational truth: Jesus has redeemed us. He has purchased us. He has won us from sin, death, and the power of the devil.
In light of that amazing good news, remembering you are dust is child’s play. It is simply the first step in a whole new life. The disciplines of Lent - prayer, fasting, works of mercy - offer us an opportunity to explore a whole different way of life. That new life in Christ is one where we can “live under Him in His kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.”
Dear people of God, may these day of Lent enable you to pursue this new reality. After all, “this is most certainly true.”
Rev. Robert Boehler
Bronx Westchester Zone Pastoral Counselor
St. Mark's Lutheran Church and School, Yonkers
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