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Good morning.

‘Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.’ So reads the somewhat sombre admonition that accompanies the distribution of ashes in many churches on this Wednesday each year.

It's a sobering thought with which to begin the day. But I think that’s the idea. Ash Wednesday is meant to remind us of the stark, uncomfortable truth of the brevity of our lives. It recalls also our fundamental equality in the face of death, which makes no distinction between rich and poor, clever and stupid, well-dressed and shabby. We are, all of us without exception, in the grand sweep of human history and the vast cosmos, merely dust.

But there’s something more than that. According to the beautiful poetry of the Book of Genesis, it was from the dust of the earth that the first human beings were lovingly fashioned, by the Creator God who breathed into the dust the spark of life. We are dust, but we’re much more than dust. ‘To dust we shall return’: yes, but I believe that that’s not the end of the story either. The foreheads now marked with dust and ashes will soon be washed clean with Easter water which speaks of new life, new creation and Resurrection from the dead.

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Almighty God, each Ash Wednesday you call us to a humble recognition of our place in creation; you remind us that our time on earth is short and that we will - all of us - one day face death. But, Father, we are also the work of your hands: remake us and refashion us this Lent. Call us once more to rise up from the dust of the earth and place us in the Paradise above, where you live and reign forever and ever. Amen.