Ash Wednesday, 2009 Dust in the Wind February 25, 2009 by Howard Anderson Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind. Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind. (Sung) This song from the group Kansas, we popular way back in the 70 s. But is has become my Ash Wednesday hymn. That was cemented in my heart and mind on September 11, 2002, as I stood on the edge of gaping hole that is Ground Zero, in the lower Manhattan on the one year anniversary of the attack that killed so any there, A huge crowd stood around the edge of this mass grave that was all that Remained of the massive twin towers and the people who had perished there. Most of us wept as the bell of St. Paul s Chapel tolled, and as a series prayers were said by religious leaders of all faiths. The Kaddish was sung, Muslim, Hindu, Seik, Buddhist, Native American and Christian prayers were all said. At the moment the prayers finished, as if on cue, the still air became a vast and strong wind. Hugh clouds of dust and ashes were swept into the air. And then, as quickly as the wind had come up out of the stillness-it stopped. And the dust and ashes from the buildings, the heroic firefighters and police, ceo s and janitors, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus fell silently, like snow, on all present. Blessing us, reminding us that we are all, in the end, equal, brothers and sisters dust in the wind. The Lakota Indian people with whom I worked for years call such a wind that comes at the end of a prayer, Ta-te. The Holly Spirit Wind. They chant a ceremonial song to honor God for sending Ta-te. So we are dust in the wind. All of us. We are reminded in the season of Lent that we are mortal, that our lives will end, that we should make the most of the precious gift of life of which God has made each one of us steward. The author Kurt Vonnegut, once called human beings sitting up mud. The Hebrew word for human comes from the word Adamah, literally something like red soil, a rich, loamy kind of earth out of which things grow. The dust we come from and to which we return, is the rich earth that sustains all life as we know it. From the same root word comes humility, and Lent asks us to humble in the face of such an enormous gift of life, of the sacrifice of Christ for us.
A Friend of mine, who was a priest in Minnesota, Paul Nancarrow, reminds us in his book which draws from his Ph.D and dissertation in theology and science, that this dust of life is more than it appears to be. He writes, Think of scooping up a handful of soil and leaf litter and placing it under the microscope. This unpresupposing lump contains more order and richness of structure and particularly of history, than the entire surface of all the other lifeless planets combined. It is a miniature wilderness that it would take a life time to explore. Every species living there is the product of millions of years of history each organism is the repository of an immense amount of genetic information. There are a million fungi, and 10 billion bacteria. To be a creature of God is to be a part of this teeming earth, this incredible network of prolific life. God s abundant creativity and surpassing love are made evident in the very soil, the dust form which we come and to which we return. Our life is surrounded, begun, ended and sustained in the larger life that is God s gift. So as the ashes are imposed, we are reminded that we are dust, but ahh what dust, what rich and wondrous dust is this the very dust out of which God fashioned the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their coursed and the fragile earth, our island home. We are made of the same dust as the stars. And through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we heirs to everlasting life. But part of what Lent is about is living into the reality of this miracle. For all we have fallen short of the glory for which God intended. The 40 days of Lent are such a gift to us. They give us a chance to start over. They give us a chance to turn from destructive and dishonest and petty and mean spirited of selfish behavior. In the spiritual classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, we read It is not what you have been, or what you are now that God looks most mercifully upon- but what you want to be. In this rat race of a life we live, here is the time to stop. To repent. To fast. To do selfexamination. To reflect, To pray. To be reminded what a gift our life is. To listen. Listening is something of a lost art in America. Let me shift your
consciousness a bit. Please sing this chant with me. I will do a line.then repeat it with me. Listen, listen wait in silence listening. (ALL SING) For the One from whom all Blessings flow. (ALL SING) REPEAT? Annie Dillard writes about the wisdom and presence of the holy in the natural world. Her words remind me of what we are called to do in Lent. At a certain point you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountain, the world, Now I am ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself and wait, listening. After a time you hear it. There is nothing but those things only, those created objects, discrete, holding or swaying, being rained on or raining, held, flooding or ebbing, standing or spread. You feel the world s word as a tension, a humm, a single chorused note everywhere the same. This is it: this hum is the silence the silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega. It is God s brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blended note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings. You take a step in the right direction to pray to this silence. I like what Dillard has to say because it reminds us that God is every present. That in this time of repentance and penitence, we need not fear. Our God is God who desires good for us and so when in the Ash Wednesday liturgy we say Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return, we are also saying, Remember that you are God s and to God you shall return. If the disciplines of Lent seem to much to you, simply hold still long enough for to reach you. God will in a million small and large ways. Jesus told us time and time again, be not afraid. Be not afraid to approach the living God, for my sacrifice has made you worthy to stand before God. William Loader wrote this Prayer for Ash Wednesday that I want to share with you. It says it all. The darkness asks us questions. You are out there and we do not see.
You invite us into the night., The stillness, the loneliness, the desert place We cannot see our shadow; The cold damp of unknowing rises us from beneath our feet. We tread cautiously, tentatively, We afraid, afraid of ghosts, Haunting us with specters of guild and shame. We would like to run back, reach the river bank, Swim the Jordan, sit in the sun by the sea, mending our nets But you have brought us here-with no bread. When we look we can see only ourselves, our darkness. When we read, it is invisible words which cannot be grasped Thoughts we cannot clutch, hope we cannot capture. Yet the wild honey remains a taste in our mouth. A memory for a new day. Why have you brought us here? What miracle will you perform for us? The darkness sighs around us, Dense with your unseen presence. Close to our breathing. Close to our breathing. O Lord, enlighten us, Embrace us with your invisible love. Let us see your glory in the ashes. Take us by the hand that we may trust the darkness. Minister to us by your spirit that we may not be afraid. Jesus, keep the beasts away. Dust, in the wind all we are is dust in the wind Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind. (Sung) The Lessons Isaiah 58:1-12
Thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. The Epistle 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for
the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see-- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything. The Gospel Matthew 6:1-6,16-21 Jesus said, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. "So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."