Ash Wednesday: You are of the Earth Community
To be of dust means to be part of the Earth Community
Ash Wednesday: We Mark the Beginning of Lent
As our foreheads are marked with ash today, usually made of last year’s palms, we hear the words “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This is a reminder of our mortal reality, that death will come to each one of us in our time.
It is also a reminder that we are fleshly beings, as human as Jesus was human, as Earthly as Jesus was Earthly. To be dust is to be born within the Earth community, God’s good creation. To be dust is to be born of the same material that Jesus was born of, and that all of Earth’s living and natural elements are born of. Thus, we are of the Earth community.
To be reminded that we shall return to dust is to remind us that our time in this life does not last forever and that we too, like Jesus, will die. We will return to the same place from which we, and Jesus, and all of God’s creation will return: back to the Source of Life itself. That Source is embodied in and part of the Earth community. And as we are promised bodily resurrection just as Jesus was resurrected, so too, the whole Earth community is promised the same thing. We will never leave the Earth community in which we live and move and have our being; all is included in the paschal promise of life after death.
In our time of climate and ecological crisis, we need to be reminded that we are, in fact, part of the whole Earth community. What happens to one part of God’s creation impacts all of it. And thus today, this Ash Wednesday, let us remember this truth: We are of the Earth community, and it is to the Earth community that we will return. AMEN.
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Beginning on Friday: Singing Resurrection When the Earth is Being Crucified: A Lenten Reflection
Sign up today for the Lenten reflection series, which begins on Friday. The series will focus on the question, “What does resurrection look like when the Earth is being crucified?” Every Friday for five weeks, I will offer a short reflection on the Gospel reading for the coming Sunday, some questions for you to ponder, and a short prayer.
(This is available to paid subscribers for only $8 CAD a month! Sign up now to receive the whole series.)
