Yesterday I was at the Dermatologist office. She was a new doctor for me, and since I had skin cancer in the past, I was a bit trepidacious. It turns out that I need not have been worried. She asked if I was taking the usual precautions, you know the drill was I staying out of the sun and wearing a hat and wearing sunscreen. I assured her that I was and am doing what I am supposed to do. That does not help what I did at twelve, however. She did a procedure that is supposed to stop future growth. She also cautioned me to be sure to follow-up regularly. And in the middle of the night, the spots on my brow hurt, not that the cancer was back, but the treatment surprised me and reminded me what it means to be ashes.
Today I have been getting ready for Ash Wednesday. We are offering Ashes out on the street for the beginning of Lent. We are marking an opportunity for people to begin a journey that explores the nature of our existence and calls us back into relationship with ourselves and others. As the Doctor called me back into an awareness of my skin, so ashes call us to take a long (40 days) look at who we are and who we aren’t.
Usually, we go to church and get a bit of ash marked on our forehead. Some take Matthew to heart and would never think of wearing a sign of repentance. Others look at the cross on their forehead as a step on the way to heaven, “an I got it on the way up to God”. Some take the ash because they are supposed to, and before leaving the church, wash it away, remembering that our baptism takes our broken selves and heals us.
In recent years the ashes have become a call to change. Faith is a gift, and if a bit of mess reminds us to look at our lives and our relationships and face outward with open hands that have nothing to offer but ourselves, well and good. The ashes remind us that we are dust and to dust; we will return. To be reminded of that common ground frees us from expecting more than others may have to offer us, literally themselves. That is the beginning of understanding that we are all just dust and that in the time we have, we are all loved and are all asked to love.
Ashes.
