I was recently trying to prepare for the Ash Wednesday Eucharist when I realised I needed one more chalice. But there was the only one left, and it looked “real bad” - so bad my adverbs were turning into adjectives. And that’s not OK.

The absolute last thing I wanted to do was clean it. So I put something over it. Sorted. Now no one can see it. Then I felt guilty and I looked at the cup and I thought about the people I have encountered who were all tarnished and neglected - and the times I tried to help and the times I didn’t. 

Then I thought about the times I was tarnished and the people who tried to help and those who didn’t. And then I remembered God. The One who looks at me in the back of the cupboard pushes past all the shiny things that think they are special and picks me up. 

I know that I am tarnished, and I don’t want God to know the stupid things I have thought or said or done. At such moments I’d much rather be left at the back of the cupboard. But God lifts me out and sorts me out. As I am polished, I can see the marks, and I can see them rubbed away. I notice myself becoming shiny and new in the eyes of God. 

Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent. A time when God sees us for who we are and all we’ve done. Then she raises us up and starts to polish. The ash cross reminds us we are tarnished. Easter day celebrates God’s work that makes us new and shiny again. I pray we all have the courage to let God do what God does best.

Blessings,

Reverend Stephen Black 

Chaplain