A Peculiar Valentine: You Are Dust and to Dust You Shall Return

 Do you remember handing out tiny Valentines as a kid? Perhaps you still do or have children in your life who share them with you.

I always found it difficult to decide how to hand out the cards – to everyone in the class, or just a select few.

 

Tonight, I have no issues deciding who does or does not get a Valentine. There are ash crosses for everyone!

It is a peculiar Valentine, a peculiar gift, to hear the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return.”

 

Do you hear these words as a love gift?

 

Those who attend Ash Wednesday will know that fewer people attend Ash Wednesday service than Easter Sunday, even Sunday service for that matter. Over my career, I have had parishioners tell me they avoid Ash Wednesday service because it makes them feel ‘bad,’ for some ‘bad’ means guilty, or sad, or depressed, shamed, judged, worthless, condemned.

 

Do you hear “you are dust and to dust you shall return” as a love gift?

 

I am one of those strange people who really appreciates, even loves, Ash Wednesday.

And the feeling begins in hearing and acknowledging the thought of being dust.

The ritual itself is earthy – an ash cross – on the forehead; awakening all the senses. There is no other experience like it. The words are spoken directly to one person at a time, eye-to-eye; heart-to-heart. There is connection.

The words are truthful and honest. Each human life comes to an end. Our bodies die and return to the earth. Where else do we hear such honesty about death? Where else are all human beings absolutely equal, no differences, no special treatment or possible loop holes? The words are true for everyone, every human being – the God-fearing, the atheist, and the spectrum in between. You are dust and to dust you shall return.

 

Is it not a love gift to hear that one is dust? There is freedom hearing the words because with that settled - death is inevitable- one can go about fully living what time one has.

 

Ash Wednesday’s ritual is a love gift too because of the symbol made with ashes – the cross.

We are drawn into the life of the Human Jesus, a night where we start a journey of reflection through the Season of Lent and Holy Week. We walk with the Human Jesus as he connected with humanity – the sick, the possessed, the seeking, the scoffers. We walk with Human Jesus through betrayal and cruel death.

And still, amidst the troubles and the suffering of the world, we reserve in our hearts this past Sunday’s Transfiguration story, where God’s glory appeared on the mountain. We reserve in our hearts stories of Mystery, of resurrection --- of the Cosmic Christ.

God who could not be held in the human form of Jesus in death, rises as Cosmic Christ: there before what is, was.  You are dust and to dust you shall return – is a Valentine of freedom and love of cosmic proportion. It is a promise of collective continual participation in that which is bigger than we can ever hope to imagine.

 

Cosmic dust. Did you know that thousands of tonnes of cosmic dust land on the earth every year? The dust of the Solar System is highly processed. It has been recycled and reformed over and over again from the time before time. Grains of dust have been part of stars, comets, asteroids, and planets, and have returned to dust. Star dust is a particular kind of dust, that makes up a small portion of cosmic dust. It is dust that is resistant to decomposition by heat; it is material that retains its strength at high temperatures.

 

Nikita Gill wrote the poem:

93% Stardust - We have calcium in our bones, iron in our veins. Carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains.

With souls made of flames. We are all just stars that have people names.

 

When I look up at the night sky and see the vast array of twinkling stars – the brilliance of star dust- I am humbled - overwhelmed by beauty and stillness; I am awed into an experience of feeling connected. A connection that spans the ages. When I look at the night sky – the overwhelming feeling- begins to describe the embracing vastness of a God who is gracious. Merciful. Slow to anger. Abounding in steadfast love.

Consider the words of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Grace, mercy, steadfast love --- cosmic dust!

 

For centuries humans have looked up at the night sky and drawn connections; humans have drawn out constellations and follow them by seasons through the sky. Each star is seen in relation to those around it – connected. Paul talks about connection in terms of ‘be reconciled to God.’ Greek philosophers, like Aristotle, used the same Greek word as Paul for reconciled, in a manner meaning to mark a change from enmity to friendship. Be reconciled to God – is a change in heart – from wherever our heart is to a relationship of friendship. Paul is clear that God initiates reconciliation with humans, and did so by coming to earth, incarnate in human flesh. Dying as human Jesus and reconciling all in rising as Cosmic Christ.

 

When I look up at the night sky, when I look at ash crosses on foreheads, when I look eye-to-eye in the ritual of ashes, when I hear the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return,” I feel Paul’s words…

Being a human, who because of Christ, lives …as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

 

Reconciled to God, we are ambassadors of Christ. We are star dust, in that we are resistant to heat and retain strength amidst the troubles and sufferings of the world. We are enveloped in the treasures of the heavens --- grace, mercy, slowness to anger, abounding steadfast love.  We are covered with this cosmic dust – the love gift of “you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

 

Reconciled to God, be this cosmic dust in the world.

Amen.