[Propertalk] Ash Wednesday

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's a draft of tomorrow's homily.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY ASH WEDNESDAY

	JOEL 2:1-2, 12-17 10th FEBRUARY, 2016

	2 CORINTHIANS 5:20b – 6:10 PSALM 103:8-14

	MATTHEW 6:1-6, 16-21

	 Dust – dirt – earth – call it what you will, it’s not
something we keep around the house, usually. In fact, we try to get
rid of it or, at the very least, keep it in its place – which is
often wherever we pot plants, or replenish their nutrients.

	 So maybe there’s a clue to life here. If we keep soil, dirt, dust,
in order to repot plants or to encourage them to grow, to blossom, to
brighten and fragrance rooms, then maybe we ought to start thinking
about dust, about dirt, about the earth, as the starting and
continuing point of life. Perhaps we ourselves need to get more in
touch with it, to pay attention to how we’re revitalized by it, to
remember where our roots lie.

	 There are times, though, when we feel we’ve risen above that; that
we’re much better than that; that that is – well – cheap as
dirt, common as dirt, useless as dirt. You can think of some other
descriptions, probably.

	 You and I remember well what our parents said to us when we came in
from outside, whether we grew up in the centre of a city or surrounded
by fields. “Go and wash up.” “Wipe your feet.” “Don’t
trail the outdoors all over the house.” In other words, wash all the
signs and connections with the world off your body. It doesn’t
belong. Get rid of it!

	 Go into a hospital, either as a patient or as a visitor, and you and
I will find the same thing. Don’t walk past the lobby without
applying some scrubbing and sanitising agent liberally. The outside
doesn’t belong here.

	 Today, of all days, however, the Church calls everyone – everyone
– to acknowledge two things. First, the outside very much DOES
belong here. Everyone and every6thing is welcome. Nobody and no thing
is excluded. God’s love takes in the whole of creation –
literally. All of creation is recognized as belonging to God and as
being desired by God. There isn’t anything which is beyond loving.

	 Everything we do, then, from getting up out of bed to going to bed
at the end of our day; everything we do is to witness to the welcoming
redemption of God. God wants us to be agents of this welcome, no
matter where we are, or how we feel, or what we’re doing.

	 But, secondly, the Church, from the very earliest days of
Christianity, calls everyone who follows Jesus to acknowledge that our
very selves are rooted in the element of dirt. Dirt – carbon – in
however complex a form makes up what we are. Carbon holds us together.
We are not alien to dirt, or it to us, then. What we do on this day,
therefore, is to declare who we are, to openly about who we are, and
what our relationships are about.

	 There is, therefore, great health about what we do. It’s not
merely catharsis – cleansing – although it IS that. We DO all need
that, very definitely! But it’s the leaving behind of all
pretensions. It’s an act of leveling ourselves before God and our
sister and brothers, and the earth itself, acknowledging what we
believe about ourselves recognizing both God’s superiority, yet also
God’s willingness to walk with us here on earth – even God’s
willingness to become dust.

	 And perhaps here we have it. We’re made in the image of God –
theat’s the Divine in us. Then God takes on the very dust that’s
been created, becoming at one with us.

	 Of course, it can be difficult, often, to see the Divine in us. When
we’re struggling, when we’re preoccupied, when our vision is
dimmed by so much around us, it can be a real stretch even to imagine
that image. When we find things piling up, we may feel that it’ Ash
Wednesday and Lent every day. But when we remind ourselves that Jesus
assumed dust to stand beside us, then that can transform how we think
about Ash Wednesday and Lent. We can find relief, reassurance,
healing, above all, acceptance despite our faults. We can find these
in the dust.

	 It may seem an oxymoron to us – but probably not to those a bit
younger – but dirt can actually make us happy. BEING dirt can renew
us. In an article about physical and emotional wellness, I read that
“Prozac may not be the only way to get rid of your serious blues.
Soil microbes have been found to have similar effects on the brain and
are without side effects and chemical dependency potential….

	 “Antidepressant microbes in soil cause cytokine levels to rise,
which results in the production of higher levels of serotonin. The
bacterium was tested both by injection and ingestion on rats and the
results were increased cognitive ability, lower stress and better
concentration to tasks than a control group.

	Gardeners inhale the bacteria, have topical contact with it and get
it into their bloodstreams when there is a cut or other pathway for
infection. The natural effects of the soil bacteria antidepressant can
be felt for up to 3 weeks if the experiments with rats are any
indication. So,” wrote the article’s author, “get out and play
in the dirt and improve your mood and your life.” 1

	 As we come before God and God’s people; as we acknowledge our
relatedness as well as those things and times when we have failed, the
words we hear, which seem like folly and failure to others, actually
become to us, the remedy for our souls and bodies.

	 Jan Richardson has written a marvellous poem for and about Ash
Wednesday, and about all of life. She says to us:

	All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners

	or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial—

	Did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?

	This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.

	This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.

	This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.

	So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are

	but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made,
and the stars that blaze
in our bones,
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear 2

	NOTES:

	[1] “_Antidepressant Microbes In Soil: How Dirt Makes You Happy”_
by Bonnie L. Grant 5th March, 2015
http://gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm
[1]

2 _“BLESSING THE DUST: A BLESSING FOR ASH WEDNESDAY”_ JAN
RICHARDSON. THE PAINTED PRAYERBOOK ASH WEDNESDAY: BLESSING THE DUST «
THE PAINTED PRAYERBOOK [2]
PAINTEDPRAYERBOOK.COM/2013/02/08/ASH-WEDNESDAY-BLESSING-THE-DUST/



Links:
------
[1]
http://gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm
[2]
http://mail2.charter.net/HTTPS://WWW.GOOGLE.COM/URL?SA=T&RCT=J&Q=&ESRC=S&SOURCE=WEB&CD=1&CAD=RJA&UACT=8&VED=0AHUKEWIOV_GNYUVKAHVW12MKHZOZCKAQFGGCMAA&URL=HTTP%3A%2F%2FPAINTEDPRAYERBOOK.COM%2F2013%2F02%2F08%2FASH-WEDNESDAY-BLESSING-THE-DUST%2F&USG=AFQJCNF5OA1ONKKSDJGLLSHPD0XSQDREQA&BVM=BV.113943665,D.CGC

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