Ash Tells A Story with Pastor Ben Carruthers

Ash tells a story—and so do our lives. From a shocking Raiders of the Lost Ark moment to the quiet ache of a broken Christmas ornament, we trace how small reveals expose what truly owns our hearts. We wrestle with Jesus’ promise of an abundant, overflowing life in John 10 and the “thief” that steals it, not by fear, but by bright distractions tailor-made to our desires. Think less horror villain and more charming lure that says, “Come on out,” while pulling us away from the good we already know.

We share the rich young ruler and Judas as mirrors for our own loyalties, then bring it close to home with the Buddy Bench—a simple playground practice that models what adults often forget: abundance moves outward. Instead of settling for checklist religion, we sit with John 6 where many walk away when Jesus says, “Follow me.” Peter’s reply becomes our anchor: where else would we go? The call isn’t to more hustle; it’s to a Person who is the bread of life.

Repentance gets a fresh frame through the Hebrew word shuv—turning back, again and again, as a proactive, hopeful practice. We name how the thief is kleptos, sneaky and subtracting by inches, and we explore how Lent helps us notice what’s been quietly taken. The cross traced in ash is not a mark of shame; it’s a sign of companionship. We don’t turn alone. Grace meets us in the turning, and communion becomes the place we set burdens down and begin again.

If death already shouts from our headlines, we don’t need more doom. We need a reminder to live—beyond the mirror, toward one another, anchored in Christ. Listen, reflect, and tell us what you’re choosing to leave behind so your ash will tell the story of a life that overflowed. Subscribe, share with someone who needs courage today, and leave a review with your one-word intention for this Lent.

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Transcript

Welcome, Kids, And Ash Wednesday Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Uh my name is Ben Cruz. I'm an associate pastor here at Central. And two things. One, parents, I'm very impressed because when she asked those children what brings you joy, I expected PlayStation, all these other things. And it was like being with friends. It was practically just saying, Jesus. I was like, well, all right, way to go, parents. Nice job. Also, uh, kids are totally welcome to stay in here. We love having them in there. But if you'd like, we do have child care available. It's right out back there. But man, they're more than willing to stay. But just so you know, that option is available for you. So it's Ash Wednesday, and the title of this sermon is called Ash Tells a Story. Ash Tells a Story. And actually, this title of this came from a couple days ago. I was watching this movie with my two youngest boys, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. And my boys are seven and nine, and they haven't seen this yet. And so, like, let's watch this. Um, and so we were watching it, and I will tell you, this is rated PG, but it's like 80s PG. And so at the end of the movie, spoiler alert, but it came on the 80s. So if you haven't seen it, shame on you. It's okay. Uh that they opened the Ark of the Covenant, and like everyone there turns into Ash, and the guys who opened it, like, their face melt off, and it's just skeletons. And my seven-year-old, no joke, as the scene's happening, he turns to me with this expression on his face. Like, what have you exposed me to? It was horrifying. But we're watching this, and I'm reminded that ash tells a story, right? Like Indian Jones, an archaeologist. He goes in these temples and he finds these relics buried in the ash. And it's true, ashes tell a story. A matter of fact, archaeology and science have come to a place where they can take ash from thousands of years ago and they can recreate what someone possibly looked like. Not only that, they can also talk about what they looked like, maybe where they lived, their age, their gender, and in some cases what they ate. In the late 1980s, the remains of this woman were found in Belgium's Meuse Valley, and they were her uh her ashes were found. And within her ashes, uh, you know, ashes is really just purified or crushed up bone fragments. And recently they were able to take these ashes and they were able to put this picture of what she would have looked like. Thousands of years later, we are able to see what this pile of ash would have looked like as a human thousands of years later. Because ash tells a story, which means in a couple thousands of years from now, when someone digs up my ashes and they do all the science stuff, they're gonna be able to tell that I look like this. Right there. There you go. Be proud of it. Disney Van Dam in the Bible. That's all you need. That's a good night, right there. Because Ash tells a story. You know, here's the thing about Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday, we come and we just went through it. We all have the ash on our forehead, and we're reminded that we are ash, and to ash we shall return. And it's a reminder that death waits for all of us. But in that message in itself is a reminder that we're also supposed to live. And in that passage today, it we're reminded that Jesus didn't call us to live a mediocre, okay, everyday, run-of-the-mill type life. No, an abundant, overflowing life. A matter of fact, the Greek word that he uses here is prososis. Everyone say persosis. I got a couple more words for the night, and that's it, I promise. There's a few. And this means exceedingly surplus or overflowing. This is the kind of life that we're supposed to be living. This is the kind of life that our ash should tell the story of. But my question is, as we sit here today and we're reminded that death waits for us all, how many of us are living this type of life? How many of us can sit here to say that I am living this overflowing, abundant type life? Or, and I think maybe most of us fall in this category, we can probably point to something, someone, whatever it might be, that's stopping us. That's stopping us from living this life that Christ came, lived, and died for us to have. But how come in this room, maybe that's the answer that we'd come up with? What story would your ash tell tonight? What kind of life are you living? That's the question that we want to dive in tonight. So before we do, and before we dive into this passage, will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, Lord God, we give you thanks and praise for this gathering. This time to worship, this time to come together and be reminded that life is short and death waits for us all. But also be reminded that we are called to live. Lord, in these next few minutes, remind us of that. Bring things to our attention that are blocking us from that abundant, overflowing life. Help us to have the courage to dig down deep over this next Lenten journey that we're on to see what's really blocking that life. Lord be with us. In your name we pray. Amen. So this John 10, 10 passage, I have to tell you, it's my favorite passage in scripture. It has been for a long time. I love this idea that we're just not made for mediocrity. We're not made to have just an everyday life. It's this abundant, overflowing life. And what does that look like? But in this passage, we're reminded that there's something, someone, some kind of presence in this world that is trying to keep us away from that. And this passage is called the thief. Whether that's the Satan or whatever it might be, there's something, someone, something that doesn't want us to have this abundant life. The picture that comes to mind, now this is a stretch, and maybe some remember. Does anyone remember the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? Okay. In this movie, children are outlawed in this magical kingdom, and they have this child catcher. And the child catcher is dressed up in this robe of many colors, and he's got this really colorful wagon, and he's got all the candy in the world, and he runs up and down the streets yelling, candy, candy, he's got all the suckers, and the kids are hiding. The kids are staying where it's safe. And this guy comes around with his little coat in his cart and the suckers on a string, and he dangles in front of a window, and the kids run out, man. They leave the safety, they leave what they know is good, and they run out to what they know is bad because this adversary, which is exactly what this passage is talking about, this thief is the adversary, someone who is pulling us away from what is good, someone who is or something that is pulling us away from how we're intended to live, and go into something that's not safe. Go into something that we know is not best. This is the picture that I have of the thief. Just dangling whatever it is in front of you, saying, Come on out. Come on out. Even though you know what is safe, even though you know what is better for you, what I'm dangling in front of you is what you really want. And the thief knows. The thief knows what to dangle in front of you. And time and time again in scripture, we see this. We see this played out. In Luke 18, there's the story of the rich young ruler. And Jesus has been preaching and teaching for some time, and people are hearing his message, and people are getting really involved and interested in what Jesus is saying. And this rich young ruler comes to him and he says, Jesus, what must I do to inherit the kingdom of God? What do I have to do to follow you? What do I have to do to be a disciple for you? And Jesus' response is great. He's like, You've heard of the Ten Commandments? He's like, follow those. And he's like, Man, I follow all of those, which is a lie. Come on, man, you don't follow them all. He's like, I got them all, I got them all taken care of. And Jesus pauses for a moment and looks in the heart of this individual and says, Go back and sell everything you have. Go back and give away all of your money. And then come and follow me. Because Jesus knows what has his heart. Jesus sees in his heart and sees, yeah, he might be following all these rules. He might be living that way. But something has his heart. And Jesus doesn't do this to condemn him or anything like that. He brings something to his attention. And he says, Listen, how you're living is not the right way. It's not the best way. It's not the overflowing way. This thing has your heart. We see it again in the story of Judas. One of Jesus' close friends, and for 30 pieces of silver, the thief just dangles 30 pieces of silver in front of him. And for 30 pieces of silver, he betrays Jesus. You see, the things of this world can capture our heart. And the thing about it is we may not know it and we may not see it until the brokenness appears. A couple years ago, this happened to me. I love Christmas, and I'm kind of a nerd about Christmas. I'm a nerd about ornaments, and I'm a nerd about really old antique ornaments. I know you can tell that by looking at me. You're like, you probably like antique ornaments. I get it. I found this one on Marketplace years ago, and it's this little mini record player that if you press the button, the record actually spins and plays Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It's incredibly cool. I know you're like, this is dumb. It's not, it's awesome. Okay. And I love this thing. And all my kids and my family, they know how much I love this thing. And I remember I came home from work a couple years ago. And normally when I come home, my kids will kind of run up the stairs and be like, ah, dad's home, dad's home. And on this particular day, Arlo didn't do that. My at the time, probably a seven-year-old son. And I was home for quite a while. Five minutes passed, ten minutes passed, no Arlo. And finally he comes up the stairs, and in two in his hands, one hand is the record player, and in the other hand, the record that is supposed to be on the record player. And he says, Dad, while you're at work, I broke your ornament. And I wasn't aware that a stupid thing like this had my heart. Because instead of saying, son, it's okay, it's an ornament. We'll get over it. I looked at my seven-year-old kid and he said, Dad, I'm sorry. And I said, Yeah, well, that's good because this meant a lot to me. And I walked away. My parenting book is available after the service. If you'd like, I'll sign it for you. But that's what happens. We don't know the stuff has our heart. We don't know that the things of this world and whatever it might be has taken hold of us until the brokenness appears. And the brokenness appeared in my life that day. What is the thief dangling in front of you? That's pulling you away from the abundant life, the overflowing life that Jesus came, lived, and died for you to have. What is he dangling in front of you? There's another piece of this, is that this the thief is really sneaky. A matter of fact, the word thief used in the scripture here is kleptios. I think it'll pop up on the screen. Kleptos, everyone say kleptos. Does that sound like a word you might know? Klepto. That's where klepto comes from. Because the word kleptos kleptos means incredibly sneaky and taking away. And so the thief is incredibly sneaky that takes away. And one of the biggest ways that he is incredibly sneaky or that life can be incredibly sneaky and come up on us when we don't even know, is when maybe it's nothing tangible dangling in front of you. Maybe it's when you look in the mirror. Maybe it's when you look in the mirror and you realize that your life is completely about that person in the mirror. Every decision you make, it's about what's best for this person. There are a cool story happened a few years ago. I was picking up my boys from school and they told me about something at Meadowvale called the Buddy Bench. Anyone go to Meadowvale or heard the Buddy Bench? There we go. There's some kids in the back. They're the Buddy Bench. Yeah, there we go. The Buddy Bench, and so I pick up my kids from school. I'm like, how was school? All that kind of stuff. And I always ask how recess was because it's their favorite part of the day. We start there and then we go down to math, English, and all that kind of stuff. And they said, I went over and took someone off the buddy bench today. And what this is, is they have a bench at the playground where if you don't have a friend to play with, you can go over and sit on this bench. And then, man, this sounds kind of sound horrifying. And then you can hope and pray that someone sees you and comes and gets you off the buddy bench, right? And like kids are talking about this. I'm like, man, does it work? And they're like, Yeah, we went over there. I went and grabbed a friend off the buddy bench. And I heard about this, and I'm like, this is incredible. This is why this is incredible. This is why this buddy bench is so powerful. Because if you are a first, a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth grader, if you're in middle school, do you know what the best time of the day is? Recess. Because it's about you. You get to decide what you do, you get to decide who you play with. You get to decide what you do. It's all about you for 20 minutes. The rest of the day, you have to do what you're told, you have to follow the teacher's instruction. But for this magical 20 minutes, it's all about you. And these elementary school kids do something that us adults don't. Is that when we have a moment that's just for ourselves, or when we start looking, we're like, no, this is my time. This is my thing. This is mine. I deserve this. I earn this. These kids, when they're one thing that they have, they put it aside and they look to the bench. And they look outside of themselves for a need that's there. Because Central, we can get caught up in this. This can be the thing that pulls us away from the abundant life. Forgetting about what it looks like to live for other people, forgetting about that abundant, overflowing life is outside of the man in the mirror, and it's looking outside of yourself, and it's following the will of God for your life. That's where the abundant life, the overflowing life is found, not here. And we see this too in scripture. There's an incredible piece of scripture in John chapter 6, where Jesus has fed the 5,000 and he's walked on water, and he has all of these people who want to follow Jesus and be his disciples. Hundreds of people, we don't know how many people, but more than just the 12. Hundreds of people want to follow and be disciples of Jesus. And in John chapter 6, we see just how hard it is to live not for the person in the mirror. He goes to him, they go up to him, they're like, Jesus, what must we do, right? Like, what do we what do we have to do to follow you? What do we have to do to walk with you? What do we have to do to be your disciple? And I think there's they're thinking like a checklist. They're like, well, first you have to, you know, memorize the Ten Commandments and follow the Ten Commandments, then you got to do 25 jumping jacks, 50 push-ups, all this kind of stuff. And instead, he simply says, follow me. He simply says, I am the way, I am the way to the Father, I am the bread of life. It's about me. It's not about you. And Scripture tells us that these people said, you know what? That's too hard. That's too hard. And scripture says that they left. And Jesus sees this happen. He goes up to his 12 and he asks him, He's like, Are you guys gonna leave too? Do you guys see what's happening? Are you gonna leave too? And Peter, who doesn't get it right a lot of the time, he misses the mark quite a bit. But Peter gets it right here. Jesus says, Do you want to leave too? He says this to the 12. Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are holy one of God. He gets it right. He gets it right that life is not just about him and his needs and his wants and his desires, but there's something more with the life with Jesus. It's an abundance with the life with Jesus. And he gets it. Now, a couple pages later in the book of John, he misses the mark. And that's okay. Because what he does is he turns back to God. And that's what we're here for tonight. Because whatever is rattling in your cage right now, whatever it might be that's coming to your mind, of what's dangling in front of you that's pulling you away, or maybe it's the person in the mirror, whatever it might be, whatever is going on in your soul, in your stomach right now. Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent is all about the word shuv. It's this Hebrew word that simply means to repent. And when we think of the word repent, we often think of the crazy looking guy with the sandwich board sign that says repent, the end is near, right? Like kind of a creepy word, kind of a creepy guy. But Pastor Ryan said exactly what I mean. The Hebrew word shiv means simply to turn away from, to turn around. And that's what we do. You might be here today and you're like, man, I am looking only in the mirror. God calls us to shiv, which means simply turn around and face him. Like Peter, he got it right. But then a few pages later, Peter gets it wrong. But then a few pages after that, he gets it right. There's a great website that I use a lot to translate the Greek and the Hebrew because believe it or not, you know, when I took Hebrew and Greek, I wasn't a scholar immediately, so I cheat and use the internet. But this is what it said. Shuv, to turn, to turn back from. It represents a return to God, one's true essence, or proper moral alignment rather than just remorse. This is the best. It is a proactive, continuous process of changing direction. Because there's gonna be a time, man, when you are walking this direction and something's gonna happen. Something's gonna break. Your kid's gonna break your ornament and you're gonna snap at them when you shouldn't. Something is gonna happen that's gonna make you wake up and be like, what am I doing? And you're gonna turn. And you're gonna face that overflowing, abundant life again. And you're gonna walk that path for a little bit. And yeah, you know what? Something else is gonna happen when you're looking back in the mirror. It's this continuous journey that we're on. Because I can guarantee you, whatever the thing is you're dealing with tonight, it's probably not gonna be the last time. You might have to battle it again and again and again. And this is the beauty of what's on all of our foreheads right now. Because we don't do it alone. This isn't the shape of a square or a triangle or a sad face. It's the cross. Because you walk with Christ in these battles that you face, these moments when the thief tries to pull you away, you don't face it alone. I love what Pastor Ryan said earlier. You turn and you realize that he was there all along. You're not in this thing alone. The grace and love of God and the forgiveness of God is with you always. And when we repent, when we shove, when we turn, we recognize it. But it's a journey. It's a journey that we're on, it's a journey you're on, I'm on, and that's what's beautiful about this Lenten journey. That we're gonna go on this thing together and dig up what's going on inside of us. And maybe turn away from something. In a few moments, we're gonna come up for communion. And I encourage you, man, if something's stirring in you, when you come up and receive communion and you and you hear those words, leave whatever it is there. Leave whatever is there. Turn away from it and start your Lenten journey there. I want to leave you with this thought. And that's this. I know the Ash Wednesday message is really supposed to be about you're gonna die, right? Could have been a lot shorter. We'd have been out of here by now, right? You're gonna die. Here's some communion, we're out of here. But in thinking about it, and and this could be just a personal thing, and so forgive me, but it's I'm getting older in life. I don't need a reminder about death right now in my life. Because it seems to me I'm surrounded by it. I have friends that are losing parents. I have a sister who lost both her in laws. You turn on the news and you just see death and destruction. I don't need a reminder about death. What I need is a reminder to live. Maybe that's what we need right now in our culture, in what's going on in the world, is a reminder to live, not for the person in the mirror, but live that abundant life to love one another, to seek God, to turn away from the things of this world and to truly live. So, Central Lutheran Church, remember that you are dust and you are ash, and you will return to that. But please don't forget to live. Amen.