Spiritual Sunday – First Sunday of Lent
Lent began this past week with Ash Wednesday so here’s Walter Bruggeman’s “Marked by Ashes.” The poet plays with the idea that the season begins mid-work week, which find us “burden[ed] with the tasks of the day.” Beginning with “committees and memos” and “calls and appointments,” he moves on to “failed hopes and broken promises,” “forgotten children and frightened women,” all of which leave a “taste of ash in our mouth.” Given the chain of associations, one can’t help but wonder about the poet’s experiences with office work.
But because it is Wednesday, we are also “halfway home,” so that our “ashness” is counterbalanced with anticipation of Easter victory. We are “half frazzled, half expectant,/ half turned toward you [God], half rather not.” Even as we face up to our ashes-to-ashes mortality, we look forward to “the Easter parade of newness.”
“Come here and Easter our Wednesday with/ mercy and justice and peace and generosity,” the poet calls. This of this as the ultimate hump day poem.
Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day…
This day — a gift from you.
This day — like none other you have ever given, or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day, for we are already halfway home
halfway back to committees and memos,
halfway back to calls and appointments,
halfway on to next Sunday,
halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
half turned toward you, half rather not.This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday,
but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes —
we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
of failed hope and broken promises,
of forgotten children and frightened women,
we ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
we can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.We are able to ponder our ashness with
some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky taste of death.On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you —
you Easter parade of newness.
Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
Come here and Easter our Wednesday with
mercy and justice and peace and generosity.We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.
