Video of Vespers is here. The sermon begins around the 38:00 mark.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

If ashes remind us of anything, it is that they are what’s left when something burns up. But we have sort of mixed metaphors going on today: ashes are a sign of repentance, and they go with sackcloth (Esther 4:1; Isaiah 58:5; Jeremiah 6:26; Daniel 9:3; Jonah 3:6; Matthew 11:21). But when we receive the ashes on our foreheads, we hear the words of God to Adam, from Genesis 3:19, which have nothing to do with ashes: You are dust, and to dust you shall return. We do have dust and ashes together when Abraham says to God that although he is only “dust and ashes,” yet he will dare to speak to God about Sodom (Genesis 18:27). In Hebrew, it’s a pun: I am aphar and epher.

The fact is, both dust and ashes used to be something else. Among other things, both dust and ashes remind us what happens to everything we value, everything we treasure, in this world. Jesus says that where you deposit what is important to you will tell you everything you need to know about your heart. We can put our money in the stock market, the bank, or under our mattress, but none of it is completely safe. Stock markets crash, banks go under, and money under mattresses can be stolen or lost or burn in a fire. We can put our trust in the fact we have jobs, or retirement funds, but how certain are those things? Cars? They break down. Computers? They crash. Electrical grids go down. Earthquakes, erosion, sink holes—who knows? And if nothing happens to any of our stuff and life goes great, we will still lose it when we die. I don’t care what you put into or onto your casket; we can dig it up in 100 years, and whatever you put there will still be there, or it will be in the same condition as your body.

So there are two questions: what is it we want to keep safe, and where will we keep it safe? Whatever it is, is it something that will turn to dust or ashes, aphar and epher? And whatever it is, can it be kept in a place where no decay, no thief, no destruction can get to it? Your treasure is whatever is most important to you, whatever you most want to keep safe. And wherever you try to keep it safe, that is, Jesus says, where your heart is. Ah, your “heart”! Nice of the Gospel reading to tie in with the holiday that most people are recognizing today! But no one wants little hearts made of ashes and dust. Nothing sweet about that. Our hearts are entirely among the dust and ashes of this world. I am afraid that if it came down to it, I would far too easily give up the eternal and unfading things of God in Christ for the aphar and epher of my flesh, my buying, my consumption, my temporary comfort, my financial stability, my good retirement fund. And I ought to be afraid for good reason. Paul says to the Romans, “Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). That is the same word that Jesus uses in Matthew 6: what treasure am I storing up for myself on the earth? Nothing but the wrath of God. My heart doesn’t believe that these things will really turn to dust and ashes. My heart has trouble believing that I am really going to die—or, if I am, that I should get as much dust and ashes as I can before that happens. Eat dust and drink ashes, for tomorrow we die. “As for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord Yahweh” (Ezekiel 11:21). What your heart follows is what your treasure is, and the best treasures we can produce are only the detestable things and abominations dragging us down to hell.

This day is about recognizing that truth about my heart and confessing it. The things I treasure will never last. Only Christ and His life lasts. What do we have in heaven but Christ? Thus, only what is in Christ will last, no matter how much of it you think you have. We don’t so much need new treasures, as new hearts. But new hearts will love the right treasure, who is Christ. So Christ gathers all the treasures of this world together, and at the cross we see that all of it amounts to nothing but nails and thorns and blood and death and a grave. He buries all that dusty, ashy treasure in the ground, and then He comes to dig up His treasure from death and the grave: you, and me. It doesn’t make much sense, because He knows our hearts, and better than we know them. Nevertheless, He loves us. He loves you. And for the reason of His love, He makes you His treasured possession. He says, “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:24-28).

New hearts: better than any valentine, better than any candy or flowers or cards. Because this new heart loves God, rather than idols; loves the living and resurrected Jesus, rather than the dead and temporary things of this world. This new heart finds itself kept safe with Christ, where no sin and no death can destroy it, because Christ was already destroyed by death and rose from the dead. So, dear children of God, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:22-23). The baptismal Name by which you are marked, and by which you may mark yourself each day in reminder, has washed clean the dust and ashes from your flesh. You will return to dust, but the God who made Adam from the dust will remake you from the resurrection flesh and blood of Jesus. Your heart is with Him, and so is your treasure. “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart forever” (Psalm 73:25-26).

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 2/13/24