ashes to ashes

 "Where do the ashes come from?" 

I was asked on Ash Wednesday.

It depends. You can order them from a catalog (you should see a liturgical resource catalog...just to check out the models, you can almost imagine the conversation between the model and the photographer: "Okay, look really contemplative, great...now let me see: inspired...understanding...no, more understanding! That's it.") Truly, I am thankful we have those catalogs, and can order resources  when needed, but I also love having community-made things when possible.

Creating things from the community honors the community's gifts, and often helps the community discover gifts and even cultivate gifts that may seem out of reach. Church can be the community where we nurture one another, creating a safe environment not only to share develop gifts, but to discover and cultivate gifts we may not be aware of yet. That's also the tradition of Trinity by the Sea. Driftwood crosses. Judy Johnson banners. Amy Sullivan mobiles and hearts. Youth band, etc.

A few months before Ash Wednesday I discovered some palm fronds from last's year's palm Sunday. In the past, one of our church patriarchs burned the palms, and his widow warned me that it was difficult. I had seen the palms burned at a public, liturgical burning at St. Mary's in Cypress. We didn't do a public burning this year, but I did take those dried palms home and burn them with Eli to conclude our Mardi Gras experience.

It  reminded me of brewing  in an odd way. One of those long, careful,  alchemical- type process. We took something, started a fire, tended the flame, as we added just the right amount of palms so we didn't suffocate the fire, we blew into the fire to keep it oxygenated, and finally ended up with something completely different. The palms disintegrated into the ashes we would use to mark ourselves as mortal. The disintegration of the palms, once signs of victory, became signs of our frailty; signs of our own mortality. Maybe it was a "backwards alchemy." Starting with something and ending up with prima materia. The form became formless.

That's where Lent begins.

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Remember that you are mortal, and God is immortal.

Remember.

Re-Member.

Begin to put yourself back together, by taking yourself apart first. Prepare to experience the transformation of Easter: Jesus transformed through death on the cross into the Resurrected Christ.

 That's where the ashes come from.