I
love the down-to-earthness of our religion. Jesus told us to use things like
bread, wine, oil and water in our faith lives. He would fill these mundane
things with spiritual power, and even with his own Presence. Yet sometimes in
our worship we recoil from using language that is seen to be too earthy.
“Remember
you are dust…” The words come from Genesis 3:19, and the ceremony of ashes
finds its roots in the ancient tradition in the Middle East of the throwing of
ashes over our heads to signify repentance before God. I like the idea of
reminding ourselves of our humble origins and dependence on God. Ashes bring us
down to earth.
The
ashes are put on in the form of a Cross, and so we are launched on the way of
Lent. This way will lead us to Calvary, and there we leave ourselves at the
foot of the Cross of Jesus. In his dying breaths he cries out over us, “Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do” – and we hope that the “they”
includes you and me…
And
because it does include us, we will
then journey on past Calvary through an empty tomb in a garden. The Father
lifts up His Son, and on his shirt-tails, as it were, we hope we can hang. New
life, new hope, are possible for the sinner - and life eternal beckons.
Eventually
we will arrive at the Fire of Pentecost, when we once again remember that the
same God who made us and redeemed us, also wants to literally fire us up. We
are whipped into new liveliness by the winds of God. We are reconstructed by
the fire of the Holy Spirit. And so the
journey that will start this Wednesday in ashes, symbol of ending, of finality
and destruction, will lead us to bathe once more in the warming, inspiring and
purifying flames of the love of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment