First of all, let me begin by saying parts of this blog posting are recycled from a previous newsletter article. That is appropriate for Ash Wednesday: recycling. Somehow as we border on the great outdoors springing to new life, we focus today on the great cosmic bummer: we are going to die.
The church loves turning endings into beginnings and beginnings into endings. The worship spaces are full at Christmas, Easter and, surprising for me, today, Ash Wednesday. This ancient practice perhaps is one of the most universal faith practice. It is practiced across denominations and faiths–this smudging to try on death. It satisfies that universal existential wonder in a safe time and place.
It also shows a divine relationship: self, others, God and nature. Enlightened communities of faith are finally catching on to God’s call to have “dominion” over all the earth. Dominion is to be God-like: a faithful servant, a loving care-giver, one who cherishes. It seems we are just now getting this as faith communities: we are a part of a continually re-created ecosystem, and today is the high holy day for that understanding. How does our body, mind, soul and actions feed our environment? Today, we ponder our carbon thumbprint.
A great Austin educator and author, Donna Bryant Goertz, addresses a playground squabble of two children by calmly placing a hand on the shoulder of each and saying, “Two hurt children, one that has been hurt, and one that has done the hurting.”
The carbon thumbprint of the cross on our forehead , is that embrace between the hurt and one who has done the hurting: the created earth and the created child of God. This is done in the community of others; we mourn not only our own death, but each face we see. While it does stir wonders of mortality, it is the promise of peace, wholeness and resolution of a loving God. It is the re-marking of new life at the annointing of baptism. The same way a newly planted tree is fertilized with the sprinkling of ashes at its roots, we are reminded of our connection, reliance and responsibility to care for God’s creation of which we are fully part.
And Easter will bring a glorious Spring….