Dear Friends,
Our Lenten journey is underway, an inward journey of self-examination and repentance that we pray may draw us closer to God. Our journey began last week on Ash Wednesday, a day on which we contemplate our own mortality. To my mind, there’s no more profound self-examination and reflection we can do than that.
This year, in addition to our regular services in the church, we brought Ash Wednesday out onto the street, imposing ashes on the steps to hundreds and hundreds of passersby. Several more hundreds worshiped in-person in church or joined the livestream. It was an extraordinarily powerful experience and a truly wonderful day.
It has always astonished me and, frankly, perplexed me that so many people are drawn to worship on Ash Wednesday. We impose ashes on a person’s forehead with the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” We basically tell them they are going to die, and they say, “Thank you!” I’m not sure what that’s about, but I’ve spent some time reflecting on it. I think, perhaps, that Ash Wednesday – and the Lenten season it inaugurates – taps into something deep within us that most of the time goes unacknowledged and unspoken. It is a recognition that we are so far from being the people we want to be. It’s also a reminder that as imperfect as we may be, and as different as we may be from each other, we’re in this life together, God’s beloved creations. We are all dust and to dust we shall all return.
Our common life and communal hopes are also expressed in the prayers for healing and renewal that have been tied to the St. Bart’s fence since Ash Wednesday and which will be presented at the altar this Sunday. We will quite literally bring the prayers of all those who passed by our church - prayers for themselves, prayers for those they love, prayers for the world – into our sacred space to offer them with our own, a physical embodiment of our common prayer.
And that may be the most powerful thing of all in this season. As we continue on our individual Lenten journeys of prayer, or fasting, or study, or meditation, let us remember that we do not travel that road alone. We are traveling through Lent as a community of faith, a community of mutual support, and a community of love. However you are choosing to observe Lent this year, remember that you are dust, and also remember that we are all companions on this journey together.
