How often do you think about dust?
We don’t think much about dust, do we? O sure, we see it floating in the air currents on a lazy winter afternoon when the windows are shut, the house is still and the light is streaming in. But it is just a tiny MOTE of dust. Not much to think of. Just one tiny iota – it makes no difference in the grand scheme of things really. Ignore it. It’s just dust.
I got to thinking about dust as I had to do a little work with resetting the sound system in the church. I think every other space in the church is meticulously dusted EXCEPT the top of that cabinet. So what happens? THIS! << show bowl of dust >> -May not be able to see individual bits of dust, but over the course of a year or so, those tiny motes ADD UP.
In the grand scheme of things, this is really just annoying more than anything else. But then, as I was looking at this << show bowl of dust >> ) I remembered that there was another ‘dust collector in the sacristy : THIS. <<show filter>> This is the filter for the dimmers on our lighting system in the church. And what you see is not quite a year’s worth of dust – fortunately trapped by the filter instead of getting caught in the cooling coils of the lighting dimmer switches. If enough of this gets in that – it would be bad… very bad…
So, into this <<gesture to bowl and screen>> experience of dust, I heard those ancient words of the Church.
REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE DUST… It is the admonition/ invitation for Ash Wednesday. And as we hear those words, we will be signed with ‘the dust of burned palm leaves” – ashes, more precisely. And we are invited to remember that we are like that dust, like those ashes upon our foreheads.
SO, two thoughts about the dust of ash Wednesday…
- Let the dust of Wednesday be a reminder of how we sometimes think of our sinfulness. It is just a small thing. A tiny peccadillo. A white lie here. Some paperclips and pens from the office. A bit of juice gossip around the water cooler. One movie that I probably shouldn’t watch. My sin, really, it is nothing. Just a tiny mote in the course of my life.
But, unless we notice it, unless we become mindful of it – we don’t realize how it adds up. <<SHOW BOWL/ FILTER>> Ask the top of the sound system cabinet, ask the filter in the dimmer fixture. This Lent, don’t give sin a chance to settle on your soul… Go to Confession. Resist temptation. Chose sanctity.
- Dust gets everywhere, doesn’t it? Seemingly every nook and cranny. And though it doesn’t seem that much, it can have an effect. What about us as Christians? Doesn’t Lent invite US to be everywhere? Doesn’t Lent ask of us to use our prayer and almsgiving and fasting to be connected to the suffering and struggle of all God’s people. We give up a little something so that we might have money to give to the poor. We choose to do some service so that God’s light gets shined everywhere there is darkness. We stop and pray so that those struggling will be supported by our love. Be everywhere this Lent.
REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE DUST…
Not a bad way to start our Lenten journey…