All of which are good, by the way. Contrary to some narrow understandings, the Christian faith is not opposed to people enjoying themselves, laughing, loving, letting their hair down, having a good time. God is not a sourpuss or a wallflower. Christianity does not aim to stamp out romance, parties or anything else that smacks of fun and enjoyment. Instead, the Christian faith calls us to live in and observe all the seasons of life. For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. There is a time to dance and make merry, and also a time to mourn. There is a time for embracing and celebrating, and also a time to refrain from embracing. A time for carefree exuberance, and a time for sober reflection.

Valentine’s Day invites us to remember love and romance—and especially to remember and appreciate the ones we love most. This is right and good to do! Ash Wednesday also calls us to remember—but to remember something quite different. The ashes on our foreheads this evening call us to remember we are dust, and that to dust we shall return. Ash Wednesday is a start reminder of our mortality. It reminds us directly of an awesome reality—we are all terminal.

On September 11, the atmosphere in Manhattan was filled with ashes, and as a nation we were made grimly and profoundly aware of our human vulnerability and mortality. On that day people were quite literally marked with ashes, covered by the falling soot of the devastated World Trade Towers. All of lower Manhattan was blanketed with a layer of ashes. On September 11, there was no avoiding or denying the disturbing realities of sin and death. We witnessed the reality of human mortality. We experienced grief and sorrow and dread.

And yet, being human, we somehow get past it and move on (as we must). We have found ways to again include in our lives laughter and rejoicing and love and celebrating—time to dance and make merry, time even to be silly. We can and must move on, but we also need to REMEMBER. And so we gather to hear the message of Ash Wednesday. It’s a message not drowned out by the noisy revelry of Mardi Gras or the romantic overtures of Valentine’s Day: “REMEMBER YOU ARE DUST, AND TO DUST YOU WILL RETURN.” Memento mori—Remember Death. Remember that the flower which blooms today will fade and soon be thrown away. Remember, death comes not just to some, but to all. We are born to die, some of us long before we think our time is due. In the midst of life, remember death.

Why should we remember something as chilling and unpleasant as our own death? There are many reasons. Consider a few:

a. Remember death because it’s the simple truth. Jesus said knowing the truth will make us free. It’s not good to live a lie, to live with an illusion, to live in denial. Better to remember death than to pretend we are immortal or invulnerable.

b. Remember death because it is part of what makes life momentous and beautiful and precious. Yes, the red roses of Valentine’s Day will soon wither and die, but no silk rose will even approach the beauty and fragrance and magnificence of that rose which dies. The stuffed bird in museum is but a shadow of the living bird on the wing. Humans are the only creatures who know they will die, and this lends an urgency and a poignancy and a value to each day we live. Remember death so that you appreciate the wonder and goodness of life.

c. Remember death so that you do not squander life, so that you do not postpone real living. Tomorrow is guaranteed to no one. Remember death so you get your life in order. Life isn’t like that wonderful moving, “Groundhog Day,” where Bill Murray keeps living the same day over and over until he gets it right. This life is not a dress rehearsal. We don’t have forever to get it right, to grow up, to make amends, to repent, to become wise, to love the ones who need our love. Death says, “Carpe Diem! Seize the day!”

d. Remember death, because the seed of our mortality is our own sinfulness. Remember the direct link between our moral fallibility and our terminal condition. The wages of sin is death. We have brought death on ourselves by denying God, resisting God, by defying God, by wanting to be God, by failing to love and trust God, by failing to love the world and the people God created. Remember death so you see yourself as you truly are, not as you wish you were.

e. Remember death, because in this remembrance we remember our need for God. Sin is a persistent problem that none of us can solve (We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves). And so we need a Savior. Death is likewise and implacable dilemma. To know death is to know your abiding need for God.

And so we have this day we call Ash Wednesday. And we receive this vivid, tangible reminder of our own sin and mortality. We have much that is good to remember and to celebrated. Yet we also need to remember that we are dust, and to dust we will return. So, don’t try to avoid it or deny it-remember death, and teach those you love to remember. It is a solemn and awesome remembrance—but it doesn’t have to be paralyzing or disabling, because we are not the only ones who remember…

God also remembers. Psalm 51 is the appointed psalm for Ash Wednesday, and rightly so. Psalm 51 speaks frankly of our sinfulness, wickedness, iniquity and mortality. Psalm 51 assures us that we truly are “dusty people.” There is another psalm, Psalm 103, which we need to hear today, “As a father cares for his children, so does the Lord care for those who fear him. For he himself knows whereof we are made, HE REMEMBERS THAT WE ARE BUT DUST. We may be dust, but we are made in God’s image, and God neither forgets nor forsakes us. Remember that!. Psalm 103 continues:

“Our days are like the grass; we flourish like a flower of the field;

When the wind goes over it, it is gone,

And its place shall know it no more.

But the merciful goodness of the Lord endures forever…”

Today, remember you are dust, and to dust you will return. Remember the reality of your very own sin and death. And today also remember God. Remember the God who created you, who walks with you through all your dusty peaks and valleys, who will be with you when death draws near, who will finally lead you to a place where sin and death and ashes are no more.

Remember how much you depend on your good and loving God, so that you remember to stay close.

Amen.