Call me crazy, or strange, or a total church nerd, but there is something about Ash Wednesday that I really love. I love the quiet and the time for reflection. I love the Ash Wednesday liturgy that has the extended confession that calls us out on our failure to really truly love and serve God, our neighbors, and all of God's creation. I love kneeling at the altar and hearing the words "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." I love that on Ash Wednesday, there is a sense of calm and a way of shifting attitudes and priorities.
Perhaps my love of Ash Wednesday comes from my love of the earthiness that links deeply to the sacraments. Though receiving ashes is not a sacrament, it can be what is sometimes called a "sacramental"--its a place where God might just show up. Sacramentals can be all kinds of things--fresh baked chocolate chip cookies or coffee that comes with conversation after church or a cold beer shared with a friend or a picnic in the park or flying a kite or seeing the first spring flowers. The list is endless. Sacraments--baptism and communion--are tied to the very stuff of the earth--water and bread and wine. And all of that is tied to the incarnation--to the fact that, in Christ, God comes to us. I love that we sense God's presence in the stuff that is sometimes messy or dangerous, and yet cleansing and beautiful. I love receiving communion, tasting the bread of life and the cup of salvation. I love feeling ashes fall down my forehead and seeing candlelit faces on Christmas Eve and smelling incense or Easter lilies. I love feeling the hands of babies clasping onto my finger and the fragile hands of octogenarians held in mine. I love hearing voices raised in song, breaking into harmonies that couldn't be achieved by one person alone.
Even as we begin this season that is so often equated with giving up, we remember that we are people who are intrinsically tied to stuff--the stuff of creation, the stuff of God. Water, wine, bread, and ashes. We remember our mortality and that we are made of dust. We remember the promise that in the messiest places of our lives--those places where the ashes are falling down our foreheads--God shows up, loving us in spite of our messiness. Or is it because of it?
God showed up with the flocked trees loaded with snow today. What a beautiful sight. It was kind of messy as suddenly the snow would fall/blow from the trees as it let go of the branches and plopped down hitting whatever was there to catch the snow. Pastor Karen's comments Ash Wednesday about giving up coffee or whatever and being really crabby three weeks later made me smile. It is not really about that...we can make a change in our lives that is bigger than 40 days without coffee or chocolate, etc. I am contemplating still what that will be. It is a challenge for Lent this year. Kathy
ReplyDeleteI love this multi-sensory perspective on the faith experience. How refreshing and positive! I find it often takes being truly present in the moment to appreciate the sight, smell, feel, and sound of the world around us and our place within it. Andrea
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