Pax et Bonum

The Online worship resource for St. James Parish

February 16, 2010

This is the time of tension between dying and birth
The place of solitude where three dreams cross...
---ASH WEDNESDAY, T.S. Eliot---
ASHES
We rise again from ashes, from the good we’ve failed to do.
We rise again from ashes, to create ourselves anew.
If all our world is ashes, then must our lives be true,
An offering of ashes, an offering to you.

Ash Wednesday

For those in traditional church, Ash Wednesday marks the turning of the year as strongly as New Year’s Day, or the beginning of Advent. Once again comes the yearly reminder of who we are, and who we are not. We are not invincible. We are frail flesh. And that flesh is mortal. From humus, earth, we were born, and to humus, earth, we will return.

This has been tangibly demonstrated to me this year more than ever. On a personal level, our family has recently experienced the death of my husband’s father. A live lived, and only memories remain: ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Ever more visible, a month ago our neighbors in Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake, and hundreds of thousands of people already living below the poverty level were killed, leaving behind the dust of crumbled buildings and broken lives. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

And yet, out of the ashes there is always the hope of resurrection. Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin of Haiti shares a Lenten reflection in Episcopal Life.

In it he writes, "I look at this as a baptism. We who are still alive have had the blessing of survival, but in many ways we have died to the ways of the past. We have the opportunity to rise up and start anew. In this moment of grief and mourning, life must continue.

"During this Lenten season, it is important for us in Haiti to turn inward and rediscover all that is just within us. It is imperative that we be reborn in this moment. We will live without the physical trappings of the church because we still have the same spiritual guidance, the confessions, the conversations, the reflections…The earthquake did not diminish our worship, though it altered the places where it takes place. The church has not faltered and must now rise to a new role. Belief in Christ and love for our Lord carries us into a new phase of construction. We will raise new places to worship God.

"We are looking forward to a celebration of Easter; familiarity of religious practices sustains us. We give glory to God. We sing within the church of the world. We celebrate life with the same spirit we were given it. In the middle of all the deaths, there is a God of love and of life, and we must shout Alleluia with the living."

Ash Wednesday begins our journey inward, to rediscover all that is just within us; to rediscover that God’s love will carry us through. Liturgies at St. James are at 8:30 a.m. In the Meditation Chapel, and at 7:30 p.m. In the church.

We offer you our failures, we offer you attempts,
The gifts not fully given, the dreams not fully dreamt.
Give our stumbling direction, give our visions wider view,
An offering of ashes, an offering to you.

Taking Nothing
A Beginning for Lent

He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag,
nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic.
Luke 9:3

How free we feel when we travel lightly! In this admonition to the disciples beginning their ministry as apostles (the ones who are sent), Jesus invites freedom in the midst of proclamation and healing.

This is not so much about the specific items we are allowed to pack on our journey; rather this is about relying on the power of God.

As we turn more and more toward the One who sends us we leave behind the old ways and turn toward the new.

For most of us those old ways were self-reliance. The new ways are God-reliance.

This turning around is known as Christian detachment.

Christian detachment is not apathy or disinterest. It is caring enough to let God lead me. It is wanting closeness with the Divine above all else. It is admitting my own poverty of spirit and rejoicing in God’s abundance.

The Lenten journey we are about to begin invites us to move toward that place where we are no longer our chief resource for wisdom and direction. We are turning. We are not static.

Let us turn toward God rather than away.

The journey with Christ can be more like an old-fashioned waltz than a grueling hike. There is music-the wind through the trees, the stars at night, the hum of happy activity, the blessing of relationships.

And there is invitation. God’s hand outstretched on the Cross to embrace the whole world in the dance of conversion. We are invited to this dance in so many ways, aren’t we? A request for prayer, the insistent Word of scripture, and the deep desire we feel to help others. These are our invitations to dance.

We begin our Lenten journey taking nothing so that we can experience the freedom of traveling light. Somewhere along the way, our feet begin tapping to the music of God’s kingdom, which was hidden from us before.

Soon we start swaying to music and entering the dance as answer to the beautiful invitation of the Holy One.

Lent is a season for repentance, a time to see things in a new way. Traditionally, penance has been more about punishment than it has been about amendment of life.

A new life is the goal of a "holy Lent." It may be more efficacious to put on your dancing shoes than your hair shirt.

So I ask you, what is a better time to offer your heart to the One who loves you, and join in the dance?

Blessings,
Debra

Daily Morning Prayer

Daily Morning Prayer

This Week at St. James

Prayers Etc.

Then rise again from ashes, let healing come to pain,
Though spring has turned to winter, and sunshine turned to rain.
The rain we’ll use for growing, and create the world anew
From an offering of ashes, an offering to you.

For those on our prayer list:

For the repose of the souls of Lana LaSeta and Dan C. Penner
For those who are deployed and their families
For the Episcopal Church in Haiti and all who suffer there.
For Matt our postulant, and his family

In Closing:

Thanks be to the Father, who made us like himself.
Thanks be to his Son, who saved us by his death.
Thanks be to the Spirit who creates the world anew
From an offering of ashes, an offering to you.
--ASHES, by Tom Conry, c. New Dawn Music--

Pax et Bonum,
Loree+

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