You are dust

Easter comes early this year: March 31, 2013.  A long time ago it was decided to set the date of Easter as the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox (or the first day of spring).  The decision was a long and complicated one, but a key factor was this: since Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples on a Sunday, then Easter should be on a Sunday.  Other proposals had it so Easter could fall on any day of the week.  The church, in its wisdom, decided instead to have Easter fall every year on Sunday.  In a real sense, every Sunday is a little Easter.

But Easter is such a profound holy day on the church’s calendar that our spiritual ancestors decided to preface it with a season of preparation marked by prayer, fasting, and spiritual reflection.  So the season of Lent was created to make the transition from more ordinary time to the day of resurrection.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday—this year celebrated on February 13, 2013—and ends on Holy Saturday, the day prior to Easter.  On Ash Wednesday Christians gather to remember a sobering fact: we are dust and to dust we will return.  This year I will stand in line—or as my British friends prefer to say, “I will queue up . . . “—and have someone make the sign of the cross on my forehead in ash and they will say: “You are dust and to dust shall you return.”

Ash Wednesday means different things to different people, I suppose, but at a very basic level the ritual we gather and perform is designed to remind us that we are not immortal, that these bodies we coddle, clothe, decorate, protect, nurture, feed, and insure will go the way of the earth.  The first man (Hebrew, Adam) was made of the dust (Hebrew, Adamah).  The Adam came from the Adamah.  That is what we are. That is who we are.  On my best day.  On my worst day.  I am dust, and on another day not of my choosing I will return to the dust.

Yet, there is another reality, the resurrection.  Listen to what Paul wrote (Philippians 3:20-21, The Voice):

But we are citizens of heaven, exiles on earth awaiting eagerly for a Liberator, our Lord Jesus the Anointed, to come and transform these humble, earthly [read . . . dust] bodies into the form of His glorious body by the same power that brings all things under His control.

All of us dust-men and dust-women down here on earth really belong to another kingdom.  Right now, we wait, hope, and long for the world to come.  It is our true home.  When the resurrected Jesus returns, resurrection will become our reality  just as it is for Jesus.  On that day we will exchange these mortal bodies for glorious ones.

Ash Wednesday and Easter are two sides of an important, very human, deeply spiritual reality.

We enter the season with this confession: “I am dust . . . “

We arrive at the pinnacle of our holy day with this confession: “Christ is risen.  He is risen indeed.”