03.02.2022 - Ash Wednesday - Prayers of the Dust

03.02.2022

📷

Scripture

Genesis 3:17–19 NRSV

17 And to the man he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 1-2

Light from darkness

Dirt from water

Calling forth plants and animals

Then forming us from dirt and dust.

Life is fleeting, even in paradise. By Genesis 3 humanity is headed back to dust again. We cannot live without God any more than we can live without food and water. The rest of the story of Genesis flows from God's people seeking a new home, a new paradise. They struggle through disasters of water and fire, family strife and famine, and finally land in the river valley of Egypt. They became slaves by the curse of their own making, constantly hungering and thirsting and never finding fulfillment.

The Struggle

It is little wonder that we struggle to trust and obey God. If those who walked in God's physical presence could not obey Him with one command to obey, what can we expect of ourselves? Of course, that means we cannot claim to be better than our ancient ancestors. We follow our appetites into slavery just as they did. Like the Prodigal Son, we leave the Father’s house to sleep in the fields with the hogs, perhaps not intentionally, but driven by the desires that betray us, we end up there nonetheless.

Sometimes we have these moments on the road, between the Father’s house and the hog farm, where we stop and look at the footprints (our footprints) leading back and forth. Those tracks that cut a deer trail-like path in our youth may have stomped out a highway in our adulthood as we walk toward and away from God over and over again. We use that road often enough the grass doesn’t have time to grow underfoot. We come from the dust and we have a natural leaning to return to the dust.

It is bad enough that we get ourselves in trouble. We usually take others with us wherever we go. Sometimes we do it because misery loves company. Sometimes we don’t even know others are watching and following our lead. Sunday afternoon our youth taught me that otters tie their babies into the kelp and seaweed to keep them from floating away. At night they tie themselves in so they don’t float away in their sleep. It sounds like floating away is one of the biggest problems in the life of an otter. Sometimes we go exploring waterfalls not realizing that we are tied in and connected to others we are bringing along for the same deadly ride.

Lent

Lent is an important season in our lives because it reminds us that we are not God. It reminds us that we are loved, but we are not perfect, and we are certainly not better than others. In fact, God’s Word tells us in James 4:17 - “Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin” Those of us who know God are judged harsher than those who do not know Him because we know better and have greater access to help than those who remain ignorant of their sin. There is a difference between sin that is forgiven and sin that is excused. As Christians, we have no excuse.

Lent gives us time after the celebrations of Christmas and the New Year to pause and reflect on our spiritual reality. It helps us know our current situation and gives us an opportunity to take those baby steps toward the hope and vision we find from God in the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes that takes place by fasting and giving up things we enjoy in our lives to leave more time and space to spend with God. Often it is paired by picking up a new spiritual discipline like bible reading, prayer, joining a study group, or taking time each week to serve. Some of you may be struggling to get back into the daily and weekly spiritual habits you had several years ago, and this is a very good time to jumpstart habits that you will stick with long after Lent is over.

However you choose to use this season is between you and God, which means it is God you will answer to, not us. However, we as a church together make this journey together and I encourage you to fast, serve, read, pray, study, or do whatever God tells you to do, and share the experience with others. In doing so you knit yourself into the church as the otters knit themselves and their pups into the kelp, and as you lead move toward the solid rock of Christ, you may bring others with you. It could save someone’s life. It could even save your own if you get caught up in the waves.

You may have heard the many stories of Ukrainians leaving home and becoming refugees in other countries. I have also seen stories of Ukrainians returning home - some knowing they will not survive. They have turned their natural hunger and thirst for their own personal comfort into a hunger and thirst for the betterment of their people. They are doing politically, what Jesus has asked us all to do spiritually and truthfully in our own lives: deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Him. In doing so, we remember that hidden hunger and thirst for God buried deep within us.

Ironically, we only find eternal life by giving up the life we have on our own. The power of resurrection is always found through the cross. We are only reformed in God’s image when we allow ourselves to remember that we are dust and to dust, we shall return.

Before we take on the sign of ashes this evening, we are going to share a prayer of confession. Psalm 51, written and shared by King David, is his own reminder that at the height of his power, he forgot where he came from, and he ran off like a Prodigal Child again. We are without excuse for our sin. But we are not beyond forgiveness.

Scripture Reading Together

1 Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned,

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are justified in your sentence

and blameless when you pass judgment.

5 Indeed, I was born guilty,

a sinner when my mother conceived me.

6 You desire truth in the inward being;

therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and put a new and right spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me away from your presence,

and do not take your holy spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and sustain in me a willing spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will return to you.

14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,

O God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

15 O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 For you have no delight in sacrifice;

if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.

17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;

rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,

19 then you will delight in right sacrifices,

in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;

then bulls will be offered on your altar. 1

1 The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Ps 51:1–19). (1989). Thomas Nelson Publishers.