My colleague, Jim Reisner, and I each had a set of ashes that we used to mark worshipers' foreheads. As we did, we said the traditional words, "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return."
As I spoke these words over and over, I couldn't help but consider them. If we are told to "remember" that we are dust we must already know, we must have been told before.
When were we told? Every Ash Wednesday for starters. But we were also told earlier: at our baptism.
Baptism is another ritual in the church that we are told to remember. As the saying goes, "Remember your baptism and be glad."
In general, we think of baptism as a joyous celebration of a new Christian in our midst. When we celebrate infant baptism, we also give thanks for the new life God is welcoming into the world. We don't think of it as a celebration of dying.
But that's what baptism is: dying to ourselves so that we can be alive in Christ.
A blessing said over the water at baptism contains these words: "We thank you, O God, for the water of baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death. From it we are raised to share his resurrection..."
While we have been told before, we still need some reminding. That is why once a year we are told in word and in deed that it is not about us. We are told that our small self-centered world is not all there is, that we are called to die to our very selves in order to live in Christ.
This Lent, may it be so among us.
Also, see this Ash Wednesday photo slideshow from NPR.