A Covenant of Relationship – Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Once again, we find ourselves at Ash Wednesday, standing at the threshold of Lent. Tonight, we receive the sign of ashes, marking our foreheads with the truth we so often push aside: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” It’s a stark reminder of our mortality, our frailty, our utter dependence on God. It’s also, however, an invitation—not to despair, but to return. To repent. To reorient ourselves toward the One who formed us from the dust and breathed into us the breath of life.

Lent is a time to get back in touch with the fundamentals—what it means to be human, what it means to be in relationship with one another, with creation, and with God. And at the most basic level, to be human is to be a creature of the earth—an adam, a mud creature, shaped by divine hands and animated by divine breath. We’re not self-made. We had no hand in calling ourselves into being. We’re the work of God, God’s handiwork, and our very life is bound up in the life God gives.

But from the very beginning, our story isn’t just one of creation—it’s also a story of covenant. The Genesis account we heard tonight tells of God’s first covenant, the covenant of life itself. “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” This is a covenant of relationship: we’re not just dust, we’re dust filled with God’s own Spirit. We were made not just to exist, but to live in communion—walking with God, caring for creation, living in harmony with one another.

And yet, the story quickly turns. The serpent’s whisper, the grasping for knowledge apart from God, the hiding among the trees—all signs that the covenantal relationship has fractured. No longer do Adam and Eve stand in unashamed communion. Now they know guilt, blame, fear. And to them, and to us, God speaks the hard truth: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Paul picks up this story in Romans, reminding us that through one man—Adam—sin and death entered the world. But that’s not the whole story. Paul also tells us that through one man—Christ—grace and life have come. If the first Adam brought separation, the second Adam, Jesus, brings restoration. If the first covenant was broken, Christ renews it. Lent is the season where we make our way toward this renewal, walking the road to the cross, where dust and breath, sin and grace, death and life all meet in the person of Jesus.

So how does this connect with the words of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel? At first glance, Jesus’ words seem less directly about covenant and more about how we live in relationship with others. But when seen through the lens of covenant, they become deeply relevant. The covenant God establishes in creation is one of love and life, not mere existence. To be created in God’s image is to live in a way that reflects God’s character—merciful, generous, forgiving, abundant in goodness and empathy. Jesus’ teaching in Luke tonight is about embodying that Godly character in every aspect, every dealing in our lives.

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” This is the covenantal call—to live as God’s people by mirroring God’s mercy. “The measure you give will be the measure you get back.” This is the reciprocity of covenant life—just as we’ve received from God, so we give. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” If we’ve been shaped by the breath of God, then what flows from us should reflect that reality.

Ash Wednesday reminds us that we haven’t always lived as covenant people. We haven’t measured up. We have fallen short. Our hearts’ve harbored resentment instead of mercy, our hands’ve clutched instead of given, our words’ve wounded instead of healed. We’ve forgotten whose breath fills our lungs. We’ve acted as if we belong to ourselves, as if our lives are our own possession rather than a gift. And so tonight, we hear the call again: return. Come back to the covenant. Come back to the relationship God’s always intended for us. Let go of the things that lead to death, and turn toward the One who is life itself.

This Lent, we’ll explore God’s covenants with us—his promises of relationship in their varied facets. From the covenant with Abram, to the covenant given through Moses, to the covenant renewed toward Joshua, we’ll trace the unbroken thread of God’s faithfulness. We’ll see again how God’s never abandoned us, never given up on this relationship, never stopped calling us to life.

And as we journey toward the high holy days—toward the cross, toward the empty tomb—we’ll be confronted with the ultimate fulfillment of that covenant. Jesus, the second Adam, takes on our dust-bound existence, breathes our air, walks our roads, carries our burdens, and submits even to death. And in rising again, he makes good on the promise of life, a life that no longer ends in dust, but in resurrection.

So tonight, as you receive the ashes, hear the call. Remember that you are mortal—but do not forget that you are also redeemed. Remember that you are fallen—but do not forget that you are beloved. Remember that you are marked by sin—but do not forget that you are also marked by promise. This Lent, let us return to the covenant, to the God who has never stopped calling us into life.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.