'Ashes to Ashes'

‘By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ Genesis 3:19

Most scholars now agree that the texts found in Genesis began to be written down sometime in the 10th century BCE and were based on oral and written traditions. It is this verse that the words of the Book of Alternative Services, ‘Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return’, harken back to in the imposition of ashes during the Ash Wednesday service.

This is a change in liturgy from the understanding shown in the words of the Book of Common Prayer which says in the same service: ‘Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection into eternal life.’

Three years ago we attended an Ash Wednesday Service where the words had morphed one more time. That time what was said during the imposition of ashes was ‘Remember that you are stardust and to stardust you shall return’ moving into the worldview of scientists in the 21st century. And as this picture shows, the traditional ashes were mixed with 'stardust'.

Astrophysicist Karel Schrijver, a senior fellow at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, and his wife, Iris Schrijver, professor of pathology at Stanford University, explain in their book, ‘Living With the Stars: How the Human Body Is Connected to the Life Cycles of the Earth, the Planets, and the Stars’ how everything in us originated in cosmic explosions billions of years ago, how our bodies are in a constant state of decay and regeneration, that everything we are and everything in the universe and on Earth originated from stardust, and it continually floats through us even today. It directly connects us to the universe, rebuilding our bodies over and again over our lifetimes. - Simon Worrhall, National Geographic, January, 2015.

~Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection into eternal life.
~Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return
~Remember that you are stardust and to stardust you shall return

These three all express the beliefs of a different world view All three call us to remember that life on this earth is impermanent and fleeting. All three, hopefully, cause us to pause however briefly and ponder how we are using it. It doesn’t really matter which resonates with you. What does matter is that it makes you stop and consider where you are and where you’re going.

All three are a valid understanding of that particular world view and as such all three are ‘right’, as long as that worldview is accepted. The problem occurs when the church tries to impose one worldview on the individual instead of acknowledging that truth comes in many forms, and encouraging many different expressions of it.

As I am becoming more and more aware, the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ of what you believe really don’t matter. It is the conclusions you reach that influence how you live out those understandings that do.

Perhaps this Lent is a good time for you to ponder just what worldview you hold and what defines your place in it.

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