March 3, 2022

Jesus went up the mountain with three of his disciples to pray. 
As he prays he is transformed, his outer appearance changes, it is transfigured as he shines with the very glory of God. This change in outward appearance reveals the truth of Jesus’ identity as God’s beloved and chosen son. The Son shines like the Sun that we might see the ways that God’s glory shines particularly brightly as the Word of God made flesh.

Yesterday we were marked outwardly with a sign of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Marked with the cross of Christ in ashes and dust. 
A reminder that we are at the same time simple dust and particles like everything else in all of creation, and filled with the life and love of God in Christ who gives his very life for us.

In Christ, God becomes like us, taking on our perishability and mortality and even our sin. So that, in Christ we might become like God. You are a walking paradox of saint and sinner, brokenness and wholeness, sorrow and joy, spirit and bone, dust and sou – all held together by the God who creates something out of nothing.

And so, even as we look upon the ashes and are confronted with the truth of our mortalilty, the truth that death is never far. We are at the same time looking upon the truth that death is not the end, that we have life abundant in Christ through the cross.

The ashes themselves show this to us. Because when we gaze upon them and are reminded of the ashes of war, the ashes of forest fires, the ashes of loved ones no longer with us in the same way, we also see in the ashes the fertilizer and potential for new life that God is already bringing.

We look upon the truth of the cross – a symbol of suffering and pain and at the same time a symbol that death is not the end and another way of life is possible now and forever. 

Rest in the grace and peace and love and life of God with you in the messiness of dirt and dust making something beautiful.

Blessings,
Pastor Drew