Ashes, ashes... we all fall
Rev. Kelley J. Lackey II
Friday, March 2, 2007
In the Ash Wednesday liturgy that begins the season of Lent, each person is marked on the forehead with a cross of ashes and told, “remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” This is a radical proclamation in the face of a society that denies the reality of death. It occurs to me that death-denial is just one part of a larger myopia that we suffer from.
Advertising is obsessed with youth, health and control over forces of nature. Conversely, old age, frailty and lack of control, including control over death, are to be shunned. Just note how many ads on TV, radio, the Internet and in print promise youth, sex appeal, strength and eradication of natural things such as bugs, dirt and other stuff that break down our neatly ordered and well-controlled world.
Then, when our bodies do begin to break down and we begin to lose control of our own realm, we find polite, clinical ways to talk about or deny the reality before us. Finally, when we die, our bodies are quickly shuttled off to private places to dispose of the evidence of the reality of our state as mortal bodies.
I believe that this is a result of our inability to readily accept and embrace, not just our own mortality, but all of our limitations as finite creatures. As human beings, we have a compulsion to be all-knowing, to have access to all things and to be in ultimate control of our lives and destinies, to be our own self-creating gods. This condition is known in theological terms as being “fallen.”
While many responsible biblical scholars do not see the creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2 to be a literal, historical or scientific record, most Christian scholars agree that, as human beings, we are in a fallen state. The tragedy of forcing the stories of Eve and Adam to function as fodder for a science debate is that we lose the powerful reality that they convey about the human condition. Human beings continue to replay the tragedy of Eve and Adam, the serpent, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Here is the gist of what I mean.
The human beings in the story are created by a loving god and placed in the garden (or universe). They are given clear indication that they are limited by what they should and should not do: namely, they are not to go to the center of the garden to partake of the knowledge of good and evil. They are given the freedom to be perfectly human, finite, relational beings by virtue of God’s clarification that they should not burden themselves by making themselves the center of their own universe and functioning as their own self-creators. That is God’s role as the creator.
The humans begin to be overcome by their need to be in ultimate control of their own destiny. It is not good enough that they have been created by and are cared for by God. They think that they can do a better job. Tragically, in taking on the role of self-creating gods, the humans become fragmented from God, the cosmos, one another and even themselves. Their first act is to hide themselves from each other and from God. When God confronts them about what has happened, Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent. They have excused themselves from any responsibility for their own actions and any concern for the well being of the other. They have opted to “go it alone.” They will become their own shoddy substitutes for the creator god and their self-delusion will lead them down a path of power-grabbing, suspicion, finger-pointing, fear, anxiety and despair.
My brothers and sisters, each of us finds ourselves at the center of our own garden. Lent is here again. It is a time of being intentional about relinquishing our obsession to be gods over ourselves and each other. A holy Lent is marked by penitence, fasting, alms-giving and additional devotion to God. Each of these practices serves to move us away from our own self-centeredness and back into right relation with God and one another. Practicing a holy Lent opens us up to see the example and the gift given to us by Jesus Christ when he chose to relinquish all power and claim all responsibility on Good Friday. And it helps us to see anew the love of the creator who shows renewed creation in the empty tomb. I pray that each of us will take this Lenten season as an opportunity to relinquish our need to be our own self-creating gods in order to make room for the God of Resurrection celebrated at Easter.
F “Sunday Sermon” is a forum for Emporia area ministers to share their sermons, thoughts and observations. This week’s sermon is from the Rev. Kelley J. Lackey II, rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.