Frontline Devotion for March 19, 2006 by Susan Hill

Romans 3:22-26

After receiving the imposition of ashes at our congregation’s Ash Wednesday service, I began to think about the mark on my forehead that would identify me as a Christian during my daily rounds that day. Anyone who saw me and was familiar with the tradition of rubbing ashes on the forehead in the shape of a cross as a symbol of penitence, cleansing, and mortality would immediately perceive that I believe Jesus Christ is my savior. While “wearing” my faith in this specific way included me in a group of Christian believers, it just as clearly separated me from non-Christians. Even in a free society, one’s faith can be a source of serious contention. I wondered how others would perceive my ashen cross; if I would somehow be offensive or at risk?

It’s nothing new, really. Religious divisions were as much a part of Paul’s world as ours.  In the city of Rome where people of many faiths shared the same space, Jews were persecuted because their practices were at variance with the reigning pagan culture. Then after Jesus’ ministry, Jewish Christians were faced with the new challenge of accepting Gentiles, non-Jewish converts, into their religious fellowship. The Gentiles were neither kosher nor circumcised, and traditional Jews found them unclean and offensive. No doubt the traditional marks of the Jewish population, in turn, offended the Gentiles.

Oddly, As Paul writes his letter to the Romans, he is on his way to deliver money donated by European Gentile congregations to the Jewish Christian congregation in Jerusalem.  Paul hoped these gifts of money would pave the way to wider acceptance of the Gentiles in Jerusalem and Rome. His letter to the Romans is, therefore, political as well as religious as he makes the point to the Roman church that all are the same to God in Christ. It is not religious practice that makes one righteous before God, but instead, it is faith in Jesus Christ that conquers and overcomes sin and death and restores us to our Creator.

Here’s a way I have applied Paul’s distinction between religious law and faith to my life in America in the twenty-first century. When the pastor touched each of our foreheads to apply the Lenten ashes, he said, “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” In other words, we are to understand that Christians and non-Christians one because all began as dust, and all return to dust at the time of our deaths. Our commonality began in God’s creation when we were formed by God and enlivened by the breath of God. How we have developed in various circumscribed religious traditions has not separated us from our Creator who claims us all throughout our lifetimes. Humanity - in total - is held in the infinite embrace of God, and it is God’s righteousness, not our denominations, that will bring salvation to this massive, complex, pulsing continuing creation.

Ashes wear off quickly, but Lent provides a time for us to re-identify ourselves privately and more deeply in the Christian tradition.  As we renew ourselves, Paul says we must do so with humility rather than bravado.  Rather than assuming and claiming we have a corner on God’s truth or on proper religious manifestations, we must remain open to God’s limitless power to create and recreate.  I believe our job as Christians is to live as people claimed and loved and saved by God. Ashes are nice, but the essential marks of Christianity are open hearts and generous spirits. Certainly, this is the law of God. By acting out of this understanding and these better parts of ourselves, we share in God’s creation and in Christ’s work.

God of mercy, we are thankful for the gift of your Son, Jesus.  We acknowledge our guilt as sinners and pray for your grace-filled forgiveness.  Be with us on our Lenten journeys; encourage our growth in love and acceptance of all your people. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

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