Ashes – Dust – Sin – Nails. We are beginning the season of Lent –a somber season with harsh images, images I don’t like to think about: ashes – dust – sin – nails.
“Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” We are dust, you and me, and receive a grim reminder when we kneel at the altar rail on Ash Wednesday and feel the sooty black ashes marking our foreheads. Dust – nothing. And even those ash crosses don’t remain on our foreheads very long; they smudge, they fade, and are usually wiped away before we go to bed – the sign of the cross gone.
You and I probably will begin a Lenten discipline, and some of us will complete it through the 40 days of Lent but many of us will fail. Even if we exercise the willpower to finish, we will mess up in other areas. We might look pretty good on the outside, but each one of us, if we are honest, knows of moments in our lives when we have messed up terribly—mistakes we have made that we cannot undo. During those times, we might feel as if we are sitting in an ash heap, defeated and surrounded by our failures, our sins, our limited human condition.
In the Biblical creation story we read about God forming humans from the dust of the ground – but he doesn’t stop there. We are told that God breathed Life into the nostrils of man – and because of the breath of God, this dust person became a living being. In whatever way we want to interpret those early writings, I believe that God has put some of Himself – His breath, His Spirit, His Life – into you and me.
And he continues to breathe His life into us. At our lowest, most despicable moments – and we all have them whether in thought or deed – God meets us in the ash heap and says, I can help you – I am going to fix this – and he breathes his breath – himself – his Spirit into us. He resuscitates us, so to speak, reviving us and bringing us back to life.
Psalm 103 says, “As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were formed; he remembers that we are dust.”
God not only breathed life into us, but he encased himself in human flesh and entered our world as Jesus who loved us so much that he was willing to die for us – even though we mess up over and over again. He came down to raise us up, and this changed us forever.
When we are at our very worst, God offers us His very best – if we are willing to receive it. So let’s not be afraid of these images of Lent – the ashes, dust, sin, nails – because Jesus loves us and is on our side – right here with us – in the middle of our ash heap, our failures. And because of his grace, when we think of the ashes, dust, sin, and nails – we are reminded of his resuscitation, redemption, resurrection, Divine Love.
Remember – it was not the nails that held Jesus to the cross, it was love – His love for all of creation, His love for each one of his dusty children, His love for you and for me.
Wishing you a holy Lent.
holymeetsordinary 