My good friend, Drew Henderson passed this along to a number of his friends. I asked if to post it here.
Soil(ed)
A meditation offered by Rev. Andrew
Henderson, Associate Minister for Mission and Outreach,
Covenant Presbyterian Church, Charlotte,
N.C. on Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17
2 Corinthians 5: 20b-6:10
From dust you came and to dust you
shall return.
From dust you came and to dust you
shall return.
From dust you came and to dust you
shall return.
There is nothing to deny in this
statement. This is not a complicated
sentence, or a complex idea. Whether
you are convinced of Dawinian theories or more attuned to creationism, this
description of life is disturbingly and beautifully true.
I’d like us to consider a few
ideas.
First, biochemists and
environmental scientists tell us that the elemental composition of our bodies
is not too different from the earth in terms of the proportion of liquids and
solids, water and carbon, as well as the evident sympathies between global
ecology and human metabolism. We are of
this planet. Our matter is like its matter. And as we study the relative health
of the planet and our people, we see a symbiosis between the planet’s wellness
and our flourishing. In other words, we
are of this planet in an embedded, embodied way. We are close to the substance of dirt, in many ways, we are not
unlike the soil. From dust we came.
In contrast, as we die, our
bodies, fade and come apart. And if
they bury us or cremate us, we all return to the earth - We become soil. Even if you spend thousands of dollars to
protect your decaying parts, everything will come apart. Why we fill acres of land with caskets and
stone is lost on me. We were God’s to
start with and he will receive us according to his will. A bronze box and
pastoral scene will neither serve us or Him. To dust we shall return.
But what of this message of Ash
Wednesday tells what transpires between creation and decay is the matter of
life and living? The will and warning
of this way of worship comes from the pressing Word from God for humanity not
to forget the nature of her origins. Life came to us from outside our
imagination or command. It is not our
toy. It is not ours to abuse or neglect. It is not a game or a shadow. It
is not a veil of suffering or a vehicle for ecstasy alone. Life exists and very few Americans or
Europeans appreciate that we simply ARE. We are alive.
And as the children begin to ask
their parents, adults will ask for a lifetime, “Where did I come from? Who made
me? Why did I come here? Why is the world?”
What sits quietly between the
statement of where we came from and the statement of to where we shall return
is what one philosopher calls the “foundness” of life. We find ourselves where we are. That we are breathing, alive, somewhat aware
and thinking.
How
is that?
Why
is that?
Why is it that at one day, before
sometime in October of 1966, I was not. I did not exist. And within a
few months, my mother “found” me inside of her. I was known, expected,
anticipated, cared for and loved. But
back in July of 1966, no one knew me, named me or called my name. At least no
one I know that I can call on the phone or have a picture of. But the witness and testimony of God to
humanity tells the world that he knew us back in the day. He knew us before creation and imagined us
in his heart and mind. We are his
handiwork, shaped from the matter and substance of the earth.
But there is, if we are frank with
ourselves and our understanding, a point that we cannot find in
archaeological digs, nor in the bones of hominids from Peking to the Olduvai
Gorge, or within the double-helix of the genetic code, nor within the dynamics
of our own cognitive perception.
I know that my parents wanted two
children. There was a child who died in
utero before me. If he had lived, I
would not be here. When I was born, I
was born six weeks premature and given a sixty percent chance to live. But I made it.
From the imagination of God you were
formed from the base compounds he invented for our living and thriving. If you can hear me, you are sitting between
the dust of creation and the dust of death. You were marked for life and death in your making it out of God’s
imagination and coming to fruition here amongst the rest of us. From dust you came and to dust you shall
return.
There is just one stretch of life
we are handed between genesis and terminus. It was not yours to start with so do not sit lightly with it today. You were made for something and if you can
find the Maker, or he finds you, you will know that you were made to show,
share and prosper his life and peculiar power for others.
Jesus Christ changed the nature of
how and why we are.
His battle and victory over death
and decay are for us and for all of creation. It is from the ashes that the children of God emerge and it is there we
shall all return to. But in between these irrevocable markers is all of us,
running along, playing with our time and our bodies and our lives as if there
was no great gift to start with or an impending exit to come.
Ashes are not our enemy, but our
destiny. But that is not to ever allow
the propagation of a culture of violence, neglect or war. God is the giver of life, alone. It is our calling, in god to protect life
and the living.
God and his creative spirit are
for us. But we are dirtied with our own
wandering, deceit and separations. Our
distracted and disruptive hearts lead us constantly away from the fold of
grace. Our sin reminds us that we are
not just messy, not just dirty, but that we are incomplete mounds of clay
trying to shape ourselves when we have no natural skill at making ourselves
whole. We only have delusions of
sovereignty and grandeur. We have lost
any real sense of the difference between the creature and the creator.
This difference can be considered
now or at the point of death.
You choose.
God is with us and for us in this
moment.
He believed in you enough to make
you happen. What would you do to say thank you for bringing
you out of the soil? Who would you
become if you found yourself planted in the soil of his garden? You are privileged to be in
between dust and dirt, different from both and at various states of life.
Go forth and sin no more. Grow in Grace.
Be fertile ground for life and
flourishing.
Come down and bear fruit in your
soil.
From dust you came and to dust you
shall return.
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