The right beginning of repentance, the tipping point, between what was and what will be, that is what we do this day.
We mark the beginning of repentance by having ashes rubbed in our faces, the ashes of our failure, and the ashes of our mortality.
We often treat this journey of following Jesus, of having faith in Jesus as a way of getting God to like us. If I could just be a better person then God will like me, if I could just think and say and do the right the things then God will accept me.
That is often how we understand salvation.
But I think salvation and faith and following Jesus are something else all together.
I don’t think it’s about being perfect or getting it right.
I don’t think this is about how we fall from Grace, I think it is about falling with Grace.
This isn’t about whether we fail or not, not about making the cut.
This is about how we fail, how we handle failure, how we live with our limitations, how we respond to failure.
Following Jesus and having faith in Jesus isn’t about being perfect, it’s about being imperfect, about living with imperfection, about finding God and God’s grace in our failures, falling with grace.
There is a wonderful animated children’s movie called Toy Story, where children’s toys come alive. One of the Toys, Buzz Light-year, thinks he can fly, but it turns out he can’t fly, but what he does do is fall with style.
That is what we do when we rightfully understand repentance and following Jesus, we fall with style, we fail in a particular way and we find God’s grace in our falling short. In our weakness we find the strength of God.
This is the season for facing our weakness, our mortality, our failing, our sins.
In the ashes that we have made of our lives we discover that God’s love is stronger than death and that forgiveness is the greatest power in the universe.
So let’s fall with style, let’s fall with grace and discover the living God.