"Beware of practicing your piety before others..." Hmm. Sort of flies in the face of what we do with these ashes here this evening. Come to think of it, is there any other ritual that we use that is so public an expression of our faith? As is my habit, I was watching the opening of the stock market this morning and I noticed traders on the floor of the Exchange with black smudges on their foreheads - I knew where they had been before coming to work today. The TV commentators did not interview them, but I knew! That is public! And, despite the warning in the lesson, I say good for them! They are showing the whole world whose side they are on. In a way, that is why we gather tonight. We are here to let God and everybody know whose side we are on.

This season of Lent which we begin today dev…