On Ash Wednesday, Christians intentionally remind themselves that we are mortal. And that our bodies are organic material. The dust that collects under your bed? Some of it is you! Your skin and hair and toe nails and stuff. Why do we need to know this or remember this fact? Because our other faculties can transcend this basic truth about bodily weakness and vulnerability. So far as to reduce the vulnerability in many ways. From protective clothing to HVAC, we create an environment that is more comfortable for our bodies. We can become too comfortable. Not to mention, our minds and spirits take us places our bodies cannot go. We dream dreams and have visions. And so we exercise powers, not so much from our physical capacities but from our mental/spiritual/emotional ones. We have, of course, physical strength, which is why athletes are popular. (And so are steroids). But it is often the athlete's mental determination and motivations that excel some beyond others. But for every athletle, there comes a time when their bodies fail.
God is dusty, too. But mainly because the biblical God is the maker, fashioning human kind from the dust of the earth, according to the biblical story. God gets God's hands dirty. And for Christians, this God is incarnate in the person of Jesus. Jesus,who eats and drinks. Jesus, who weeps and laugh. Jesus, who wades in river water and sits on mountains, and walks on lakes, and touches trees, and writes with his finger in the dust. Jesus, who dies and is buried in the ground.
I spent Ash Wednesday among church people, mostly. There was prayer and bible study at 7:00 am. "Devote yourselves to prayer," says Paul. We try to pray, bu don't know how sometimes. The Sr. high youth and I planned their presentation of the ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans for Sunday. I went into Ash wednesday's remembrances with the confidence of having done this so many times before. What to say, what to say...remember that you are dust...and do this in remembrance of me are both spoken on that night. We are not as significant as we think we are. And Jesus is more significant than we think he is.
At the end of the day it was a brief interaction at the turkey hill that spoke to me. I stopped for milk on my way home from worship. There was a big black smudge of ash on my forehead. The cashier said, "Its ash Wednesday, isn't it? You're not the first person to come in here with that on your forehead. What are you giving up for Lent?" I told her that I give up coffee and that I don't really miss it all that much and that I fast from coffee every year because it is one obvious thing I can fast from. I left with my milk. In that moment, a stranger read my forehead and recognized me for who I am. I am a Christian. I am giving up. I am dying. I am a child of GOD.
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