Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust...Lord have mercy

My life experience has had a way of constantly keeping me in awe of the simultaneous resiliency and fragility of life.

The summer between my first and second years of seminary was the first time I got to see this in a tangible way. As part of my Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) experience, I got to witness an autopsy. Did you know how resilient the human body is, even after death? That afternoon, I stopped by the nursery to see the newborns and in watching how those nurses moved those babies around, I was equally as struck by the strength of the human body just after birth. And yet, our bodies as strong as our bodies are, they are still so fragile that sometime microscopic can put an end to our lives, or at least our lives as we know them.

In Genesis, we are told that God formed Adam (the Hebrew word for "dirt person") from he dust of the ground. And when Adam and Eve turned away from their total dependence on God, God reminded Adam of this saying "you are dust, and to dust you shall return"

That phrase was burned on my brain yesterday as I imposed ashes upon the foreheads of those who came to Ash Wednesday services yesterday. I thought of my college classmate, Rachal, who died this week after suffering multiple seizures and cardiac arrest suddenly last week. I thought of Martha, an elderly member of our congregation who also died this week due to complications from Congestive Heart Failure. And I thought of Penelope and Arianna who were born on the same days that Rachal and Martha went to be with the Lord. We are simultaneously resilient, strong creatures and fragile creatures. So when 3 month old Brooks, his 6 year old and 3 year old sisters, and 5 year old Thomas were presented to me for the imposition of ashes last night, it took all that was inside of me to hold back the tears.

How do you say to life that is so new "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return"? and yet, how do you say to life that has seen so many years "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return"?

But then, I think of the oil of gladness mixed in with the ashes...I think of the hosannas shouted by those who waves the palms that became the ashes...even in death, there is life and hope and joy because of the life, death and resurrection of Christ. And it is because of this I can say to the 3 month old and the 96 year old "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."