The word that keeps coming to me is HUMBLE. Studying these texts for Ash Wed, the word that keeps coming through is HUMBLE. The word HUMBLE is not actually in any of the texts for today, but it's certainly there in the texts as a concept.

The prophet Joel pleads, "Rend your hearts. Return to the Lord your God." Paul exhorts, "We are ambassadors for Christ, servants of God." The gospel of Matthew describes the contrast between hypocrites and disciples: "Give alms, pray, and fast in secret, not to be admired by others." HUMBLE

So, I looked up HUMBLE in the dictionary. That tells you right away that I'm a word-nerd. Maybe it tells you even more that I needed to look up the word! But honestly! I was looking for the English word origin. HUMBLE comes from the Latin humilis, meaning low. And humilis comes from the Latin humus, meaning earth.

The first definition for HUMBLE is what it's not - not proud, not haughty, not high. The dictionary gives three synonyms - meek, modest, lowly - and then a long paragraph explaining why these really aren't good synonyms - finally concluding that lowly is the best synonym. Well, yeah - since the word HUMBLE comes from the Latin word meaning low.

Humble means lowly, on the ground, from humus, from the dirt. Tonight we are marked with a cross of ashes, marked with humus, with lowly dirt. "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Even linguistically, the ashen cross on your forehead has to do with being humble. HUMBLE - lowly ... humilus - low ... humus - earth. Now I don't know much about humus, so I needed help from someone who does. I needed an expert on dirt, so I went to see a friend of mine named Carol.

Carol manages a greenhouse attached to a group home for emotionally handicapped juvenile delinquents. The greenhouse there is used as horti-therapy for these boys aged 10-15, and then they sell the plants to local greenhouses, who sell to the rest of us.

I've never intentionally done on-site research for a sermon before, but I drove out to see Carol at her greenhouse, a kind of sermon-adventure trip.

It looks and smells like any other greenhouse you have ever seen, a big plastic bubble set out from the other buildings, water hoses trailing all over the ground, trays of plants in various stages of growth lined up on wooden tables, wheelbarrows and trowels, big bags of potting soil, fans circulating warm air, and the smell of humid earth permeating everything.

I'm sure it didn't take Carol long to figure out I know absolutely nothing about dirt & plants. My thumb has never been even the slightest shade of green.

So she told me about dirt - only she called it "soil" - about the fertile dirt called humus that you find in the woods, the product of decomposed plant and animal matter that forms the organic portion of soil.

She told me how this humus is sterilized to use as potting soil, so you don't get surprised by any wild seeds embedded in the dirt. All the time she was talking, she was poking tiny seedlings -plugs she called them - into trays of dirt being prepared by a teenaged boy near us. (He had probably never seen on-site sermon research either.)

"Good soil is essential," Carol said, "for the plants to grow. You know, like preparing your flower bed in the spring." I didn't want to admit I don't know the first thing about preparing a flower bed, so I just said what all good listeners say, "Tell me about that."

As she began to talk, it was as if I could feel the Spirit nudging, listen to this. She's teaching you the connection between humble and humus, between the dirt on your forehead and a humble life. Here's what Carol said:

"The first step in preparing a spring flower bed is to examine what's left over from last year. Determine what you want to keep for this year, and get rid of the rest. Remove unwanted leaves and dead stalks, pull out all the wild weeds growing there, make sure everything dead or deadly is gone.

Then cultivate the soil, turn the ground over, be sure to go deep enough to stir up the nutrients, bring those to the surface. Add more nutrients this year, fertilizer, peat moss, manure, mix it all up together. Smooth out the surface, and plant after Easter." That's what she said. I wrote it down.

Carol was talking about preparing a spring flower bed, but she had also described our Lenten walk with Christ.

The first step is to see what needs to be thrown out, pulled up, raked away in our lives. Our first step is honest confession - remember the words of the psalm: "I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." Confession of sins brings to light all that is deadly in our lives, those thoughts, words, and deeds that are death-dealing rather than life-giving.

The ashes of Ash Wed are a mark of death, a mark to remind us that left to our own devices, the roots of sin grow deep within the soil of our souls, nurturing death rather than life.

The next step is to cultivate the soil, to stir up the nutrients within us, to add new nutrients this year. New nutrients refresh the soil, boost its ability to produce good fruit. Nutrients are essential for new life to grow.

During Lent, the traditional disciplines serve as nutrients in the soil of our lives - prayer, reading Scripture, worship, almsgiving, good works. Not that these activities earn us points with God, so to speak, but these faith practices nurture the gift of faith and obedience that God is already growing within us.

Then Carol said, plant after Easter. Now she meant that the heavy frost date is usually past by Easter, so the tender plants are not at risk from the cold. But this is good advice also for our Lenten faith walk, plant after Easter.

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God is planting life in us. In the emptiness of the tomb, God is revealing the fullness of life.

There is a certain mystery and wisdom in being marked at the beginning of our Lenten walk with a cross of death at night, when we also know our journey leads to the cross of new life on Easter morning.

We start with a cross of ashes, a cross of death, and journey toward a cross of lilies, a cross of new life. And in between, our walk from death to Easter life is our Lenten walk with Christ.

Your ashen cross, your Lenten journey is about being humble before God, about inviting God to prepare your humus for the new life of Easter. Being humble means being lowly, of the ground, knowing we need to be prepared for new life just like a flower bed needs to be prepared for spring planting.

Sometimes over the course of our community life as disciples of Jesus, we are exhorted to be seeds - you know, seeds of hope or seeds of love, "bloom where you're planted" - that kind of thing. Sometimes we're encouraged to be sowers of seeds, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ in the world.

Tonight, I am inviting you into a different aspect of this gardening metaphor, not to think of ourselves as seeds or sowers who need to get out there and do something for God. Tonight I'm inviting you - God's word is inviting you - to think of yourselves as soil, as humus.

Knowing we are humus, the soil for God's gift of new life, is being humble. Knowing we are the Created, not the Creator, is being humble. Being humus, being humble, means pleading Veni Sancte Spiritus, Come Holy Spirit, come into our humus and create new life in us.

Being humus, being humble, means welcoming the Gardener who comes in love to pull up, rake away, feed, plant, and nourish. Being humus, being humble, means knowing, trusting that God is determined to turn ashes of death into lilies of life.

I invite you to walk your Lenten journey as humble humus, as soil longing for and trusting in the work of the Spirit. What's left over from last year that needs to be pulled up and raked away? What nutrients will you invite God to add into your soil this year? What new life will you pray for God to plant after Easter?