Ash Wednesday - March 2, 2022

 

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent; a time of renewal, of rebirth.   On Ash Wednesday we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return - reference to Genesis 3:19.  In the natural order of things we do indeed return to the dust of the earth, a slow decay that replenishes the soil that eventually springs forth new life.  As Diana Butler Bass wrote in Grounded, "We are animated dirt.  Soil and life joined.  From living ground we were made; to living ground we will return."  This is part of the circle of life that has been going on for eons, since God first spoke the words and made all that we see and all that is still invisible to us.  On Ash Wednesday we acknowledge that God has the power, the creative juices, the wherewithal, and the glorious inspiration to make amazing things out of nothing, out of dust - things like stars and planets, mountains and oceans, trees and plants, and us.  

But on this particular Ash Wednesday, I am reminded that we human beings have the capacity to upend this natural order.  We have the capacity to destroy life on our own terms, to render that "animated dirt" to rubble, as tanks roll into Ukraine and bombard cities and people with missiles and weapons that kill life.  

Ash Wednesday also marks one of the most intense periods of prayer and self-reflection in the Christian year, a time to embrace our forgiveness from sin.  We have much to pray about, we have much to ask forgiveness for, and we have much to do and act on the world's behalf - for the sake of our "animated dirt".  I thought of offering a specific prayer for Ukraine, but I think the need is so much bigger than just Ukraine.  Instead, I offer this prayer from Ann Weems for Ash Wednesday in light what we all really need.

“I No Longer Pray For Peace”

By Ann Weems

On the edge of war, one foot already in,

I no longer pray for peace:

I pray for miracles.

I pray that stone hearts will turn

to tenderheartedness,

and evil intentions will turn

to mercifulness,

and all the soldiers already deployed

will be snatched out of harm's way,

and the whole world will be

astounded onto its knees.

I pray that all the "God talk"

will take bones,

and stand up and shed

its cloak of faithlessness,

and walk again in its powerful truth.

I pray that the whole world might

sit down together and share

its bread and its wine.

Some say there is no hope,

but then I've always applauded the holy fools

who never seem to give up on

the scandalousness of our faith:

that we are loved by God......

that we can truly love one another.

I no longer pray for peace:

I pray for miracles.