Lenten Sermon Series

"The Dust Returns"

+ + +

Based on Scripture 

& "Choruses from the Rock"

by  T. S. Eliot 

Ash Wednesday

March 6, 2019

In 121 lines, T. S. Eliot describes the lives of humans. In their lives he writes about their gradual loss of faith but also how they can reclaim it. Eliot writes about how people lose themselves but how they can also find themselves.

Choruses from "The Rock"
(Responsive reading)

The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying.
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), The Rock (1934)

Ash Wednesday Meditation: (Introduction to Series)

This Lenten Season we are going to address the human condition:

“We are dust and to dust we will return.”

It is not pretty and can be a bit frightening…and you may wish for Chicken

Soup for the Soul, Christian lite – full of cliches and pat answers.  But each Wednesday we will face reality – the reality of who we are and what we can become in Christ.

Our entry point will be a Biblical text and a slice of poetry from T. S. Eliot drawing us into a house of mirrors to reflect on the human condition:  the maladies in our lives that challenge our faith and the brokenness that can open us up to the living God.

We take this journey together beginning with ashen crosses on our foreheads as we attempt to learn and discern.

We spin on a pale blue dot orbiting a mediocre sun on an outer spur of the spiral Milky Way Galaxy.  Our sun is just one star of up to 400 million in our galaxy, one of at least 100 billion galaxies.  Check these statistics with Google – they are astounding.

We are dust – stardust – and to stardust we shall return.

Our significance pales in the light of the cosmos.  Yet, we embody the miracle of creation – life – conscious life – made in the image of the Divine Creator.

Yet, this night we put ashes on our foreheads, ashes in the form of a Cross.  We are dust – beloved by God – called into life yet destined for death.  We are a living paradox of significance and insignificance – a species caught in the web between spring and autumn – birth and dying.

The ashen cross over-lays the mark of the cross placed on our foreheads at the time of our baptism:  “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ forever.”  Two crosses – one life giving – the other the mark of death.  This in-between-ness carries a lot of uncertainty. 

How do we know what continues after death?  We do not know – but we trust – trust a promise of the Divine Lover who will not abandon what the Divine created.  We are a mystery to ourselves.  We see through a mirror dimly. 

Cain and Esau take to the hunter’s circuit seeking the promised left overs.

Hagar and Ishmael march through the desert under configured stars.

Bathsheba mourns the death of Absalom, her son from David.

Ruth travels from autumn to spring…Naomi from dying to birth.

We may feel like Cain and Esau, or Hagar and Ishmael, or Bathsheba, Ruth, or Naomi.  We may feel like the ragtag rejected. 

The Divine will not ultimately reject…but Providence provides…as we will see in the coming weeks of this Lenten series.

Amen.

kennstorck@gmail.com