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We've just left Christmas behind (and perhaps a few folk are wishing they hadn't dreamt of a White one!) but, as I write, my thoughts are turning towards Lent, which will be nearly upon us by the time you read this. 
      
About a year ago someone, who had recently returned to church and found faith later in life, asked me what Ash Wednesday was all about, and said they thought it would be a good idea if we explained it, rather than simply putting the date down and expecting people to come, because, frankly, most people have little idea what it is all about.  This sounded like a good idea to me, and I haven't forgotten, so here goes!
      
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of all who want to come forward at the Ashing service (7:30pm Wednesday February 17th - this year).  The ash is received as a sign of repentance and the ashes used are traditionally gathered after last year's palm crosses are burned.  The ashes are mixed with oil or water to make a paste used by the minister to make the sign of the cross on his or her self and all who want it, while the minister says the words, "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.  Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ."
 
This sounds rather depressing, but it is supposed to be life-affirming.  Our culture finds it hard to face the fact that we all, sooner or later, return to the dust from which we are made, which is odd seeing as we are ready enough, in this scientific age, to say we are carbon based life forms - material girls and boys as Madonna might put it!  But any culture that is so based on the pursuit of material comfort and gain is bound to have a problem with death. 
     
We work all the hours God sends to get a nice house, fill it with nice stuff, and, if that's your thing, a nice car, and then we clean them... until we die.  If, for a moment, a significant proportion of the population remembered that they were dust - fellow passengers to the grave - the entire economy, as it is now organised, would fall about our ears.  As somebody once said, nobody on their death bed says, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office!"
      
What Ash Wednesday, and Lent that follows it, is trying to do is restore a sense of perspective about all the things that usually occupy our time and stress us out.  Most of our problems don't matter much in the great scheme of things, if we remember what we are.
      
And so we are encouraged to turn away from 'sin'.  Sin, at its root, is simply self-centredness - living life for self rather than for Christ and for others.  Sin is trying to make the whole world and everyone in it revolve around us, like the planets around the sun.  But we are not designed for this - we can't bear the weight of it.  Rather we need to take our place in a properly ordered universe revolving around its Creator.  If we remember that our self is dust, we will be less likely to try to build everything around it, and will instead seek for more solid things on which to build a fulfilled life in the time that is given to us.
      
Lent, which Ash Wednesday begins, is a time of 'repentance'.  Repentance doesn't mean 'feeling bad about ourselves' - it means (literally) 'turning around' - trying to leave the rubbish in our lives behind and seeking a more fulfilled life.  A more focussed life.
      
Ashes are a symbol of our fragility, and for thousands of years have been a human symbol of this sort of turning around.  In ancient times, 'repenting in dust and ashes' was a traditional way of expressing sorrow for one's shortcomings and a determination to live better.
      
Lent is also a time for following Jesus into the wilderness (see Matthew Ch.4 v.1-11) for 40 days.  Jesus fasted - he put aside the temporary things of this world to focus on something more solid - and so he prayed.  Jesus took time to work out what his ministry was going to be about.  So Christians too take time at this time of year to work out what we want our lives to be about.  It would be arrogance to think we don't need to do so.  Ash Wednesday is the start of that.