Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Joel 2:13
“Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Those were the words spoken over us as we received the ashes on Ash Wednesday just a couple of weeks ago. They are also the words God spoke to Adam and Eve following their tragic fall into sin. Adam, as we know, was created in God’s image and likeness from the dust of the ground. Once created, God declared him to be “very good.”
Yet, God also said that it was not good for the man to be alone. And so, God caused a deep sleep for Adam and took a rib from his side and created his helpmate. Later, upon beholding this new addition to the human family of God, Adam said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” The two were made to complement one another, to make humanity whole.
Yet, when temptation came to Adam and Eve, they did not withstand and became disobedient to God’s prohibition concerning the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We know the rest of the story, and through it’s telling and retelling, we are reminded of our mortality. “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
As you continue in the midst of the Lenten season, it is your Pastor’s prayer that you do so with the intention of growing in the Christian disciplines of daily reading of Scripture, fervent prayer, and honoring the Sabbath through weekly worship. These are the marks of discipleship. These are the intentions Christ has for his people so that we would all grow closer in our relationship with him and with one another.
The ashen cross that adorned the foreheads of those who received it on Ash Wednesday are the reminder of your mortality and that you too were made from the dust of the ground. It is this dust to which you will one day return. But that does not ever need to be seen as the end of the story. For since God brought forth life from the lifeless dust so long ago, so too will he bring life once again to the faithful who have died in Christ
This is the good news for the people who have walked in the darkness of a fallen and broken world, fallen and broken by the powers of temptation and sin. God will not allow those saved by his grace through faith in Christ to remain dust forever. Just as God did not allow the power of the devil to claim and steal away that which God said is very good, God will not allow Satan to steal away the precious children he has claimed through the waters of Holy Baptism.
The season of Lent is one more opportunity for you to “return to the Lord your God” (Joel 2:13). Truly, as we continue to walk through the darkness of a broken world, we do so as children of the light that is in Christ. Each of us deals with our own sin and shame. Each of us has disobeyed God’s commandments just as our first parents Adam and Eve did so long ago. But just as God promised reconciliation to Adam and Eve, he promises the same to us.
As a part of our Lenten journey toward the cross of Christ, we walk in the light of the fulfillment of God’s promise. I look forward to spending time in worship and prayer with you during Lent, just as I look forward to proclaiming to you the Good News of Christ’s empty tomb on the day of resurrection. Until then, may we all seek to return to the Lord our God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
Grace to you and peace,
Pastor David Nuottila
