A homily for Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024
When Jesus was entering Jerusalem, the people pulled down palm tree branches down and threw them before him. We commemorate this on Palm Sunday by receiving palms. And then just before Ash Wednesday we bring those palms back to church to burn them. And I think it’s a great thing to burn them because, I think, the palms represent wrong thinking. They wanted to make Jesus king like King David, or like Ceasar, or like King Herod. They wanted a physical king who would drive out the Romans, give them economic security, and give them all jobs; and that’s not what Jesus came for. It was wrong thinking. So I think it’s great that we take palms and we burn them. We burn these palms, and when they turn to ash, we put these palms on our heads to represent right thinking. Because that is what, I think, Ash Wednesday and Lent is all about – right thinking. We take these ashes and then we apply these ashes to our heads to say, ‘we’ve got to start thinking right.’ And we can have all sorts of wrong thinking. We can think, nobody loves me, or I’m a loser, or everyone hates me. Or we can have wrong thinking, I’m going to get revenge, or I’m going to get them, or I need all the money I can get. It’s me first. There’s tons of wrong thinking out there. I think that’s what Ash Wednesday is about. We put a cross of ashes on our foreheads to say, ‘let’s try right thinking for the season of Lent.’
