Ash Wednesday comes early this year, February 14. When the season of Lent begins so early it catches me by surprise. I feel like I am not ready yet for the season of Epiphany to give way. Yet, here we are on the cusp of our penitential season.
We begin the season with the words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return," and end with the centurion saying, "Truly this man was God's Son." A movement from remembering our death to a statement about our Lord's death. Lent is a profound movement connecting our mortality to that of God's Son. In between we are called to repent, that is, turn back to God. What in our lives must we let go of so that we can turn toward the one who dies for us and saves us from the dust of mortality?
In our weekly lectionary group we catch ourselves often using the word "mystery." There is so much that is beyond our understanding, beyond our imagination. It is tempting to fill in all the blanks or difficulties with simple answers or gloss over the uncomfortable. Our God, though, seems to always appear in just those places where we are caught without a net, when a loved one dies, when we get the bad news, when the world seems to only desire destruction and we are left with no explanations. The mystery of resurrection seems to lay right in the lap of these moments.
Maybe it is because of seeming meaninglessness that we rely on art to convey the mystery. I think about the hymn "I heard the Voice of Jesus Say" (ELW 332):
I heard the voice of Jesus say,"come, unto me and rest;lay down, O weary one,lay down your head upon my breast.
Or the painting by Mikhail Nesterov (1889) that captures that moment between life and death:
I hope you will take seriously your 40 day Lenten journey and explore the mystery that is our faith. To delve into the dust and the wonder that is our Savior.
