UR Dust
I saw this playful wording on one of those small candy hearts in a meme on social media recently. It points to the rare coincidence of Ash Wednesday in the Christian year landing on Valentine’s Day of the calendar year. Yet, while they are seeming distinct from one another, there actually is an overlap in their significance.
Saint Valentine was a third-century Roman saint, commemorated in Western Christianity on February 14 (and in Eastern Orthodoxy on July 6). Since the High Middle Ages, his Saint’s Days have been associated with a tradition of courtly love. Saint Valentine was a clergyman – either a priest or a bishop – in the Roman Empire who ministered to persecuted Christians. He was martyred and his body buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14, which has been observed as the Feast of Saint Valentine since at least the eighth century. (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Valentine). He properly understood that his life was temporary and given in love to be in service to Christ and to Christ’s people.
On Ash Wednesday, we are given to remember that our life – like Jesus’ life – is temporary and given in love by God to be in service to others.
During our Ash Wednesday service, we will read scripture and engage in responsive readings and silent prayer all allowing us to confess our sin that gets in the way of our living out the mandate Christ has given us for our lives: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). You will not receive a little candy heart, but instead ashes imposed upon your forehead with these words, “From dust you came; to dust you shall return.” It’s a reminder in part that Christ’s life and our faith in that life put to death the sin within us. The words also remind us that we have a finite amount of time on this earth to live out every day the love of that same Christ, placed in us by the Holy Spirit to share with all. It’s a quieter, reflective and darker experience that begins the Lenten journey of prayer and preparation for the Easter triumph.
I invite you to come for worship on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Sanctuary , not in spite of Valentine’s Day, but because of it.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
