From dust you have come and to dust you shall return…

Ash Wednesday 2022 and I am attempting to unpack my own spirit. Does it feel as though I am entering into a new season of Lent? Or is what I am experiencing more like a two-year-deep-dive? I will let you know when I figure it out.

Already this morning, I have added oil to the soot of Palm Sunday branches and today/tonight Pastor Manuel and I will draw crosses on foreheads of old and young alike, with the reminder of our humanity and fragility. Not that a pandemic or declaration of war haven't already imprinted that message upon our hearts and minds. But there is something more, something beyond the notice of our mortality in the messy business of Lent.

Yes, there is sin and suffering, pain and death. All very, very real and true. But the cross is our sooty reminder that struggle and darkness do not have the last word. After the journey to the cross, after the burial, after three days, there is an empty tomb.

Even in Lent, we are an Easter People. Inheritors of life and of hope, and that is the Spirit in which we receive those ashes upon our brow this day.

Pastor Leah