Ashes, Ashes…We All Fall Down
By The Rev. Matthew Simpson, Deacon
The title is from a well-known nursery rhyme, but growing up as an Episcopalian, it has always struck a spiritual tone for me - especially around Ash Wednesday.
I am certainly not the first clergy person to use this phrase to talk about Ash Wednesday; indeed, it may be a clergy-person’s rite of passage. However, there is a profound spiritual dialectic in children merrily singing a phrase declaring with complete candor the nature of our mortality. For me, the phrase not only reminds us of our body’s demise (ashes to ashes), but the demise of our egos and vanity as well (we all fall down). It is a phrase that invokes a radical humility, which is precisely what Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent call us to: humility.
Humility typically does not have a favorable view in our society. In our culture today, success is measured in how much wealth and assets we can acquire, how much popularity or clout we can attain, and how much influence or power we can have over others. Independence, fame, wealth, popularity, physical beauty… these are aspirations that can lead to Pride which, spiritually, is a delusional and toxic state of being. The Christian Life, on the other hand, holds true humility as essential. Humility is in essence the “right-sizing” of a person, and whether one regards this “right-sizing” as bitter or life-giving, it is based in truth. And what is the truth of humility?
The truth is that we are ashes without God. God is the giver of our life, our health, and our salvation; God is the giver of all creation, and God sustains this island home Earth from all the unimaginable perils of the Universe.
God is the giver of both The Law and The Messiah, which is the foundation of our understanding of what it means to be human, a being created in the image of the Living God. And God is the giver of grace and mercy; God offers redemption for those of us who fall short of our humanity. In humility, we are faced with the undeniable reality that we are absolutely dependent on God for all things. And while we may strive and work hard, our entire existence is held in a grace, in severe mercy. It is in this truth and light we begin to see that only in God are we more than ashes. Only in humility can we see that we are Children of the Resurrection, made in the image of God, created for the Eternal out of a Love that cannot be earned.
And so, it is in this humility that we go into Ash Wednesday and Lent. In this humility, let us remember where we come from, and where our true identity lies (Reading of Scripture). Let us connect more deeply with the eternal nature of our own being by connecting with the Divine One who loves us and created us (Prayer). Let us let go of those things that take us away from the Divine One; and let us let go of those things that distract us from the eternal (Fasting). And finally, let us claim our humanity by being who we were created to be (Charity to Others).
Cast off the delusions of vanity and pride. Embrace the truth of humility… Draw closer to God, so that God may draw closer to you, and you may know true peace.