Dust to Dust

ASH WEDNESDAY
For those who do not know me, I am Heather Sisk the new priest in charge. It is a joyous time for me - and I hope for this community …(to be received into your family)!

But Here We are: also entering into Lent, the darkest season of our year.

We are walking with Jesus who has already turned his face toward Jerusalem, to a journey that he knows will take him into a sacrificial encounter with the oppressor. It is the darkest time of his World.
We are also entering into a scary and dark time with War in Ukraine…The darkest of time for those living there. We have fear for all of the individuals involved - and for what it means for our world in which we felt perhaps we were beyond this type of civilian war on European soil...
Hoping
for at least that kind of certainty…in what otherwise has been a very uncertain few years.

And
we are facing our own fears and trials. We  Are  All  Grieving….

Today on Ash Wednesday we Say these words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
And frankly most of us don’t need to be reminded of our human frailty right now. It has been acute. Over the last couple of years we have lost members of St. Paul’s and other family members and friends. And our nation and our World has been thrown into a deep state of grief and isolation and separation.

Lent is a time for separation in the aspect that it is time set apart: Sacred time.

It is a time for abiding; for abiding in God through our fears.

It is a time to turn our faces toward God in that journey. It is about finding ways into our relationship with God as well as the restoration of all of our relationships. That is the definition of our humanity to be in relationship.

Another way for us to consider our identity as "dust to dust" in the context of beloved Children is to recognize how close we are to the very source at all times: To the source we name God. We are made up of the very essence of creation, all of the elements that enliven the earth, other creatures. As Carl Sagan coined:  “Stardust.”   

When we embrace the notion that we are dust and to dust we embrace our very closeness to the power of life….Who we are and what we came from…
Dust to dust enlivened by the Holy Spirit with this mysterious power of Love, free will, and agency…our beloved humanity.

When we embrace that closeness we will find what it is that inspires us.
As Isaiah proclaims:
We “delight to draw near you”… “day after day” we seek you to delight in your ways….

and yet Isaiah also reminds us resolutely that although we wish this "Closeness"…we often miss the point that to be close to God is to be close to one another. The magnitude of this point is being displayed so horrifically in Ukraine today.
Isaiah’s answer for us:

If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.

The closeness of the power of life is what activated Jesus! And that power extends to others through the love that he came to teach us, in us, and through us.

The collect today speaks of wretchedness and sin. Words that have taken on such hard connotations that they’ve created a wedge between much of humanity and God. Many of our peers and children are just not interested in these words. The words have become jumbled, with immature definitions and at worse: abuse of their meanings….causing more distress. And yet many of us, our peers and children are still seeking to draw nearer to the source - to God -to feel spiritually connected.
That is ironic because Wretchedness is in fact a state of woe: of distress, rejection and sadness. And Sin in its greatest definition means our separation from God.

What takes us away from that relationship?
- from the relationship we have with one another as creatures of God

And what takes us away from ourselves as beloved Children of God (Our baptismal covenant: to live lives full of love and compassion and wisdom)?
Lent asks us to consider what holds us back from living fully into that identity.

The World so desperately needs wisdom.

So Lent is an abiding time: A time for us to consider our lives in the context of what God hopes for us to grow into. As the statement posted to the parish hall bulletin board says, “God is infinitely more concerned with the promises of our present than any mistakes of the past." Beyond our sins, our separations and woes…God is about the promise of our now and what is to come. God is concerned with the turning and returning: the restoration of relationship.


So Lent is an abiding time: while we consider Repentance.
Repentance means to turn back to God. So What does that look like for you personally?
How can you find your way into closeness with God during this time of fear and grief?   

As Theologian Meister Ekckhart said, "Forget about your spirituality. God is not about seeming spiritual. God is about Oneness." Our call as Christians is not about looking spiritual. As Jesus says in the Gospel today……“Beware about practicing piety in order to be seen” by others…


Jesus models for us being one with “the father” as he describes God in this Gospel. God is about Unity: the one body (Talk about closeness).
When we draw near and embrace the identity of "Dust to dust" in the context of unity with God…We soften… like the very ashes. We make room for one another. We stop quarreling. We stop warring.


Lent is a time of abiding in the One Body of Christ
So Where is your separateness: What keeps you from this sense of unity? Grudges that inhibit love? Habits that inhibit clear thinking?A lack of forgiveness for others or yourself? A self centeredness that keep us from bearing witness to others?

Lent is a time for abiding
Bear witness to yourself for these forty-days
Walk this walk with Jesus
Turn your face with intention as he did
Seek to draw nearer to God and to others
Seek to fill those places of woe with Love
and separateness with compassion
Seek wisdom there...
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
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