You are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Genesis 3:19
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, Joel 2.12-13
"In the ritual of Ash Wednesday, which begins the Lenten journey, we receive a cross-shaped smudge on our forehead. The ashen sign reminds us of what we are fashioned from, and to what we will return....
At the heart of this season, however, is a call to remember that something gleams among the ashes... Lent beckons us to cling to the one who dwells within and beneath and beyond every ritual and practice and form: Christ our Light, who desires us to receive his hospitality even—and perhaps especially—among ashes."
Jan Richardson, The Painted Prayerbook, www.janrichardson.com
We begin our Lenten journey with ashes: a call to remember our mortality. But the ashes are not the only story. If we pay close attention, as Jan Richardson writes: "something gleams among the ashes." The light of Christ glimmers through the darkness of our fears, lighting the path we are invited to walk this Lent.
The journey of Jesus' ministry begins with something "gleaming." In obedience and humility, he presents himself to be baptized by John, and as he rises up out of the water, the Spirit of God descends on him, like a dove, a voice from heaven saying, "This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." From there, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, a place of preparation and encounter.
Our journey through Lent also begins with a blessing. The ashen mark of a cross might seem a strange benediction, but perhaps, besides reminding us our mortality, it is also an invitation to live more and more fully as a beloved child of God, our truest identity.
Blessing for Ash Wednesday So let the ashes come as beginning and not as end; the first sign but not the final. Let them rest upon you as invocation and invitation, and let them take you the way that ashes know to go. May they mark you with the memory of fire and of the life that came before the burning: the life that rises and returns and finds its way again. See what shimmers amid their darkness, what endures within their dust. See how they draw us toward the mystery that will consume but not destroy, that will blossom from the blazing, that will scorch us with its joy.
Jan Richardson
In the above scripture from Joel, the call is to return to God with our whole heart. This returning is the journey of Lent. We are traveling home. To God.
Music: Return to God (Marty Haugen)
May we return home living from our whole heart, journeying as God's Beloved.
May we accept the mark of ashes not as a sign of shame or humiliation, but as a claim that in the dark presence of these ashes, Love can shine even brighter -- bright enough to lead us home.
Marked by a cross
Marked by a cross, cherished and forgiven We are traveling home. Called to be holy, called to be happy We are traveling home. Across deserts, over mountains We are traveling home. God in our hearts, God in our lives We are traveling home.
Ruth Burgess
Questions to ponder:
1) How are you being called to return to God with a whole heart? Where in your life, do you seek wholeheartedness?
2) How have you experienced being beloved: by parents and family, friends, spouses, the world around you, God? If you haven't yet experienced it, or long to experience it more deeply, what does your heart hope for?
For when we love, Simply love, Even as we are loved, Our weary world can be transformed.
~Charles Silvestri, from "When We Love"
Our online Lent retreat begins next Sunday. We invite you to read along with us the inspiring book by Henri Nouwen "Life of the Beloved" as a Lenten practice. (Reading is not required.)
The theme for the upcoming weeks will be taken from chapters in the book:
Week 1 - Being the Beloved
Week 2 - Becoming the Beloved
Week 3 - Taken
Week 4 - Blessed
Week 5 - Broken
Holy Week - Given
Eater: Living as the Beloved
The online retreat is free, and will be posted in this blog on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday through Lent. Donations ($20-30) are welcomed to support the Sacred Rhythms ministry. Please make checks payable to Donna Holstein and mail to: 2917 Village Green Lane, Eagleville PA 19403. Thanks so much!
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