Out of the Dust

 

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground.  He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.  Genesis 2: 7

You’ve heard (perhaps many times) the words of Adam and Eve’s punishment after their sin in the garden of Eden:

“…in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”  Genesis 3:19 ^KJV

This was, of course, God speaking the awful words of consequence following humankind’s disobedience.  And thus the die was cast, that we all follow the same path, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. 

We hear those words at funerals, and there is nothing so sobering and thought-provoking, primarily because it brings our own human fragility into full view.  The statistic on mortality has always been one birth = one death, separated by a few years. 

There is nothing quite so disturbing and humbling as seeing a friend or family member with whom you spent time, joy, laughter, toil, and tears, lying lifeless, unmoving in the casket before you, devoid of spirit; just a shell of dust.  The hushed whispers of gathered mourners adds to the surreal otherworldliness of such moments.  Frankly, it makes the hair on the back of one’s neck stand up, rigid.  Or it should! 

But the problem with such scenes isn’t the hushed whispers, or the weak attempts to frame a maudlin, creepish moment with funny stories of better times.  Our dilemma facing the funeral bier is that we spend too much thought on the dust, and not enough on what’s missing from the dust.

When God created humans, from dust into man’s body, then bone to woman’s body, the only things visible were flesh, bone and blood, re-formed dust!  We tend to trust our senses, and so we recognize each other first by the physicality of our being.  But notice Scripture declares that Adam did not become a man, nor Eve a woman, until God breathed the breath of life into them.  It is the gift of God that transforms dust into being.  And without that we are but piles of dust waiting for the vaccuum cleaner…unknowing, unmoving, unthinking, and un-being.

Considering that unmitigated fact, isn’t it rather odd that we invest so much in developing and maintaining our physical, or dustly bodies, and so little in the growth of spirit?  Many families spend a thousand dollars or more a month on health insurance, and (if they give at all) find it hard to let go of a $10-bill to the offering plate.  We work out an hour a day with Nordic Track, but pray only when trouble hits.  We spend time in intense psychotherapy with the counselor, but can’t find ten minutes a day with the Wonderful Counselor.

For You Today

When I find my priorities a little out of order I call a time-out.  I then call a family meeting of me-myself-and-I to the table and do a little taking stock of where I went off the track. 

The meeting always ends the same…repentance instead of excuses, and prayer for God’s strength to get this dusty pilgrim back on track with the Spirit God breathed into me.

Is it time for your family reunion of dust and Spirit?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Pyxis Points

By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made.  For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”  Genesis 3:19(NLT)

On Ash Wednesday all over the land people flock to churches to have ministers take ashes mixed with oil and smear it on their foreheads.  It’s a not-so-subtle reminder that we were made from the stuff, and someday we’re going back to it. 

It’s Important to Remember that we are dust…

Ashes are an ancient symbol of our humanity.  In Genesis, we read that God formed human beings out of the dust of the earth ^{(Genesis 2:7)}.  The Hebrew word translated dust is occasionally translated ashes elsewhere.

When Abraham felt the need to acknowledge the difference between him, a human being, and the infinite God, he referred to himself as dust and ashes.  He said, I who am but dust and ashes ^{(Genesis 18:27)}.

It’s Important to Remember that to dust we shall return

Our humanity also calls to mind our mortality.

After expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the first human beings are told by God, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” ^{(Genesis 3:19 NRSV).}  We know the day is coming for each of us when we will return to dust.

We wear black as a sign of mourning.  Ancient people wore ashes.  For example, a priest named Mordecai puts on sackcloth and ashes to grieve the many deaths he sees coming from an order King Ahasuerus gives to kill all Jewish people ^{(Esther 4:1-3).}  The prophet Jeremiah later calls the people of God to “roll in ashes” as a way of mourning the coming devastation from an opposing army ^{(Jeremiah 6:26)}.

Receiving the imposition of ashes is a powerful way to confront our humanity and mortality.  They remind us that we are not God, but God’s good creation.  In these ashes we recognize that our bodies will not last forever; we come face-to-face with the reality of our eventual death.

It’s Important to Remember to Repent

Ashes also signify our sorrow for the mistakes we have made.  People in ancient times wore sackcloth and ashes as a way of expressing their repentance of sins.

When Jonah reluctantly preached to the people of Nineveh after the giant fish spit him up on the beach, the King and his people put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.  God saw this act of repentance and spared the people ^{(Jonah 3:1-10)}.

In the New Testament Jesus mentions this practice.  Warning the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida Jesus said,

if the miracles done among you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have changed their hearts and lives and put on funeral clothes and ashes a long time ago. (Matthew 11:21 CEB).

When we participate in the service of ashes, we confront our sin.  We recognize our inability to live up to all God has created us to be, and our need to be forgiven.  No matter how often we go to church, nor how far we have come in our spiritual journeys, nor how accomplished we may feel, each of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God ^{(Romans 3:23)}.

The container holding ashes is called a Pyxis.  Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky.  Abbreviated from Pyxis Nautica, its name is Latin for a mariner's compass.  In Greek the word literally means “box”.[1] 

The ashes are our life’s compass-points contained in a box, reminding us of that from which we’ve come and that to which we are going.  It reminds us to repent, remembering and rejecting the life that led us away from close fellowship with God.  It helps us remember the cost of rising again from the dust and ashes!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…Let it be so!

Go to VIDEO 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

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[1] Wikimedia

Pyxis Points

[1]

Monday, February 8, 2016

VIDEO

By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made.  For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”  Genesis 3:19^(NLT)

Two days from now is Ash Wednesday.  All over the land people will flock to churches to have ministers take dirt mixed with oil from their Pyxis box and smear it on their foreheads.  Some ministers will even take up a place on the street to impose ashes.

It’s a not-so-subtle reminder that we were made from the stuff, and someday we’re going back to it. 

Remember that you are dust…

Ashes were an ancient symbol of our humanity.  In Genesis, we read that God formed human beings out of the dust of the earth ^{(Genesis 2:7)}.  The Hebrew word translated dust, is occasionally translated ashes elsewhere.

When Abraham felt the need to acknowledge the difference between him, a human being, and the infinite God, he referred to himself as dust and ashes.  “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord,” he said, “I who am but dust and ashes” ^{(Genesis 18:27)}.

…and to dust you shall return

Our humanity also calls to mind our mortality.

After expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the first human beings are told by God, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” ^{(Genesis 3:19 NRSV).}  We know the day is coming for each of us when we will return to dust.

We wear black as a sign of mourning. Ancient people wore ashes.  For example, a priest named Modecai puts on sackcloth and ashes to grieve the many deaths he sees coming from an order King Ahasuerus gives to kill all Jewish people ^{(Esther 4:1-3).}  The prophet Jeremiah later calls the people of God to “roll in ashes” as a way of mourning the coming devastation from an opposing army ^{(Jeremiah 6:26)}.

Receiving the imposition of ashes is a powerful way to confront our humanity and mortality.  They remind us that we are not God, but God’s good creation.  In them we recognize that our bodies will not last forever, and come face-to-face with the reality of our eventual death.

Repent…

Ashes also signify our sorrow for the mistakes we have made.  People in ancient times wore sackcloth and ashes as a way of expressing their repentance of their sins.

When Jonah reluctantly preached to the people of Nineveh after the giant fish spit him up on the beach, the King and his people put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.  God saw this act of repentance and spared the people ^{(Jonah 3:1-10)}.

In the New Testament Jesus mentions this practice.  Warning the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida Jesus said, “if the miracles done among you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have changed their hearts and lives and put on funeral clothes and ashes a long time ago.” ^{(Matthew 11:21 CEB)}.

When we participate in the service of ashes, we confront our sin.  We recognize our inability to live up to all God has created us to be, and our need to be forgiven.  No matter how often we go to church, how far we have come in our spiritual journeys, how accomplished we may feel, each of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God ^{(Romans 3:23)}.[2]

For You Today

The container holding ashes is called a Pyxis.  Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky.  Abbreviated from Pyxis Nautica, its name is Latin for a mariner's compass.  In Greek the word literally means “box”.[3] 

The ashes are our life’s compass-points contained in a box, reminding us of that from which we’ve come and that to which we are going.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title images: By Sidney Hall - United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs, via Wikimedia Commons and By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Brian May [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Joe Iovino, Why ashes? Connecting to who we are and who we can be

[3] Wikimedia