Ash Wednesday - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr
Ash Wednesday 2025
Up
from the bed of the river
God
scooped the clay,
And
by the bank of the river
He
kneeled Him down;
And
there the great God Almighty
Who
lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who
flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who
rounded the earth in the middle of His hand –
This
Great God,
Like
a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled
down in the dust
Toiling
over a lump of clay
Till
He shaped it in His own image;
Then
into it He blew the breath of life,
And
man became a living soul.[1]
“Toiling over a lump of clay, He shaped it in His
image and then He blew the breath of life.” All these things around us, mere
dirt of the earth. Us, no different, in that, we were also made from the dirt
of the earth. God did not leave us sitting there, lifeless. Shaped into God’s
own image, God breathed life into our lungs.
It's in Genesis 3:19 where we first read the words we hear on Ash Wednesday. “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” We are reminded in today’s Psalm, “For he himself knows whereof we are made; he remembers that we are but dust” (Psalm 103:14). These words are humbling for me. Some of you may relate. For some people they are words of shame or despair. For others, these words can bring a sense of hopelessness.
It’s
in this sacred in-between where we choose how to walk humbly with God, knowing
that we are dust, but that we are also beloved dust; meaning that we walk
humbly with God, not in fear of our fragility, but filled with God’s breath, we
trust that our dust is held in grace. It’s in our humbleness that we recognize
that we are not invincible, no matter our accomplishments, our possessions, or our
influence. We are all the same dust. No one is above another.
The sacred in-between is where we are transformed. It is where, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we are formed more fully in the image of Christ. Where we choose grace over resentment, service over selfishness, and faith over fear. It’s in the sacred in-between that little by little, our dust is shaped by God’s hands, to become the hands and feet of Christ. Christ, who became dust with us, so that we might share in his life forever.
Lent, in a sense, is a comma in the church year. A pause between the bright light of Epiphany and the great glory of Easter. Lent is where we stop to reflect, and to turn back. It’s a pause that gives us an opportunity to slow down and turn our hearts more fully toward God. Lent is an invitation to deepen our faith as we move through the sorrow of the cross to the joy of Easter morning. Lent is a pause, to create space for us to listen and deepen our relationship with God.
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Formed like clay in God’s hands, then after the comma, after the sacred in-between………to dust we shall return. Returning to dust is not just about death. We have the promise that it’s not the end. Returning to dust is about transformation. Just as a seed has to die in order to bear more fruit, our return to dust is part of God’s ongoing work of renewal. God brings life from dust and in that is our hope in God’s promise of new life.
Today
the ashes put on our foreheads remind us that we are dust and that life is
fragile. Dust that has been touched by divine hands, shaped with care, and
filled with God’s own breath. The ashes on our foreheads do not stand alone. They
are shaped in the form of a cross, the symbol of suffering and redemption. The
ashes say, “You are dust,” but the cross says, “You are redeemed.”
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