I was asked to kick off Morning Star’s Living Lent devotional book this year. Below is my meditation for Ash Wednesday. If you’d like to sign up to receive the upcoming devotions in your email, you can visit their website: https://morningstarcfs.org/you-can-help/living-lent-campaign/  We also have a few printed copies in the office. Have a blessed Ash Wednesday!

Ash Wednesday

Morning Star Living Lent, 2023

In my tradition, we begin Lent today by making the sign of the cross on our foreheads in ash, with the words, “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It sounds a bit ominous. These words remind us of our start and our end; birth to death – ashes, dirt, dust. It communicates our smallness, a sober reminder to be humble; we are finite beings. These aren’t often seen as words of comfort and assurance, yet I think they can be that too.

Lent reminds us of our brokenness and sinfulness, which is uncomfortable. Sin often equates to being bad, failure, and condemnation. In some traditions, sin is the starting place for everything - a kind of spiritual contamination we are forever tainted by. But sin is not where we really start. These words reference the Garden of Eden. Adam’s name can mean, “from the dirt”. God made humankind out of the dirt of Eden – dirt infused with the breath of life. These words come as God laments Adam and Eve’s choice. God is displeased, and we tend to hear these words in this light. 

What if God isn’t primarily angry, but heartbroken? What if these words are not a sentencing only, but also a form of promise, as God points to the ground at their feet? “Remember, you were created out of that dirt – before you were you, you were mine in form only, as I imagined you – made out of dirt – a perfect possibility. A lot will happen from this point on, but in the end, you will return to that perfect form, that nothingness where you belong only to me, that perfect possibility I created you to be.”  

The story we choose to tell is often one of exile and banishment alone. The story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about reconciliation; we were not cast out and left to ourselves. We created this distance between us and God; Jesus crosses it and comes to us. We believe we are untouchable; Jesus reaches out in embrace. We think we’re dirty; Jesus makes us clean. We feel broken; God responds with reconciliation. Today, we remember we started out as God’s dirt, and we will end that way. The next 40 days will show Jesus demonstrating that we remain God’s dirt in between, too. We find our beginning and our end in God through the reconciling actions of our Lord. Reconciliation may be simply about learning that we are God’s. Full stop.   

Here is a mark of ashes, of our dirtiness, yes, and also a reminder that our dirtiness itself is of God. 

Tom+

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.