Ash Wednesday Musings, 2018

‘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 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 is referenced in the Book of Alternative Services during the Ash Wednesday service, ‘Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return’. A few years ago now we attended an Ash Wednesday Service where the words had morphed to ‘Remember that you are stardust and to stardust you shall return’ moving into the cosmology of the 21st century, connecting our bodies with the whole universe.

These express the beliefs of a different world view. They both call us to remember that life on this earth is impermanent and fleeting. They call us to pause and to ponder our lives. Which one resonates with you doesn’t matter. What does matter is that it makes you stop and consider where you are and where you’re going. Both are a valid understanding of that particular world view and as such all are ‘right’, as long as that worldview is accepted. The problem occurs when only one worldview is accepted as being ‘right’ instead of acknowledging that truth comes in many forms, and many different expressions.The ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ of what you believe really don’t matter. It is those conclusions you reach that influence how you live your life that do.

Even as far back as 325, where it was first mentioned in the Canons of the Council of Nicaea, Lent was seen as a time for study and spiritual growth. Lent’s forty days are a gift to us of time; of time to grow, of time to question, of time to mature. Nothing is proscribed or set down. We decide how best to spend this time reevaluating or deepening our spiritual practises. It could be time spent each day in reflection or meditation. It might be reading that book from our book shelves or on our Kobo that focuses on a new theological understanding. It might be committing ourselves to helping ‘the other’ in an ongoing way. It can be anything that calls us into deepening our Christian experience.

The understanding that Jesus died for our sins didn’t some into being until the 16th century when it was brought out as an extension on Anselm’s doctrine of substitutionary satisfaction.“Penal substitutionary atonement refers to the doctrine that Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinners….This Reformed view says simply that Christ died for man, in man's place, taking his sins and bearing them for him.” http://www.theopedia.com/

If the doctrine of substitutionary atonement works for you, then, of course, go with that for the next 40 days. But if it doesn’t, you have good company in all the Christians, both before and since 325, who have seem it as an opportunity for study, reflection and growth. How you respond, is up to you!

Lent is the time for you to ponder just what worldview you hold and how you define your place in it...

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