“Why should it be said
among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
__Joel 2:17
It has come to this,
day of ash and
cross. and good it is that this is so: we can start.
remember o mortal:
there is nothing to
say, nothing that is real, nothing that is hopeful,
nothing that means
anything without this,
this day of carbon: ground-up
planetary minerals
designing dirt,
carbon cleansing,
reality
of God. remember o
mortal who are you.
humus
my face honest
free from artifice,
and God creating again.
we come to this day,
to this place, where truth is told:
which makes
forgiveness possible.
forgiveness, and
turning, turning, turning
returning summoning nerve to tell truth
stretching taut
muscles to lean down
‘presente’
about ourselves,
hearing truth
about ourselves.
this day. when truth
is told:
which makes
forgiveness possible.
remember, o mortal,
you are dust:
you are humus,
the very humus
God uses to fashion
your being: you come from God;
to this, dust, God-making material,
in humility, in
humus you shall return:
back into the very
heart of God;
you shall return.
And so we live:
we live,
we must live, awareness
of our humus,
our humility,
our madeness, our createdness, our
fashioning,
straight from the
heart of God.
in the Imago Dei:
the mystery of the divine shows up as we do,
the life of God
alive as we come alive. God shows up in and through us,
the fancy word is
‘manifest.’
Or you can say, God. Is. In Her. Him. Them. “People,
see, look! look at what God does.”
but we don’t.
\
we don’t ‘do’ God, we do us: broken-apart, scared, screwed-up us.
greedy, scared, anxious us.
shoot, but we are scared of our shadow like, literally.
and we project it not – oh, if only – on mother’s
hung up bedsheets like a movie in the dark.
we project it on others.
and we live in fear of who we are – the we we see in
them. the me we see in them.
so forgive me please: I’ll be back but first:
there is a tree trunk I need to pry out of my eye; it
will require excavation; does anyone
have a
crane? a winch?
ooo, there, almost,
got it, but another will get lodged in tomorrow. this is not a life for
the feint of heart, all this wrenching and rooting out. but it must be done.
for the love of God,
I’ve done it again: screw up. oh, God, how we screw it up.
so here we are.
we
have come
we have come to this
time to tell the truth
so forgiveness,
repentance can come out of us and
into us into us can happen
and again something come out of us
that is the divine,
God, who creates a new heart, a new desire, new love
for all that is God,
for all that God desires – for us and for God’s whole creation
here, this. humus
on my face, again,
so God can use it
again to make of me the one God wants
to ‘do’ God, to ‘be’
the God that is alive for now with some skin and a mouth, a brain, and a heart.
NOT GOD. but the
work of God, heart, love, inclusion, truth-telling.
so, again,
forgiveness can happen
and turning and
welcome and beloved community can find
its place on this planet.
we have come to
this. oh, good.
and we have come to
this: oh boy, but this too is true:
turning comes with
truth and truth comes with a prophetic word, a word that is honest, loving, but
clear; there is always love or there would be no bother to tell truth,
and this:
prophecy is the
return of blessing. truth gives space for blessing, for the new act,
and oh,
we still haven’t
seen everything under the sun,
there is still
something new and revealing what is and what
isn’t
brings forth the
blessing
of that new thing,
new creation, the new appearance of God’s design, desire, intention.
failure to make room
for God to make, failure
to honor what all
God has
what all God has poured
Herself into, draws us here, to this:
“have mercy on me, O
God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your
abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin…
create in me a clean
heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
the sacrifice
acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not
despise.”
this
here
is the only place
for this to begin. This, this, here, here,
here
humus smeared in
the sign of the cross on my face,
and water splashed
around it, affirming my call, in baptism, and yours,
washed ready,
having told truth heard it,
having turned and
bent down low to be fashioned anew,
built up out of the
humus, in humility,
only now do I dare
to
offer blessing, that
is truth: the possibility of return,
repentance: I call in the name of God,
in the name of grace and all that is
right and good and
kind, in the name of
Creator God, I call to "Officials"
who have hard hearts (or blind guides), to turn
turn turn
turning, come
to my friends, to
others,
as I rend my heart
over the broken hearts of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transexual, and Queer
humus-fashioned
friends and strangers, in love for them,
telling truth their
truth their reality their lives humus-in-the-image-of-God.
some harsh words for
intolerance, impatience (Lord, help me!) and indignation because, oh,
how long do we
really expect them to wait? impatience
is not a bad thing always when
God is involved.
but
it must start here,
digging the log out of my eye, knowing one will be back, I speak
only
only can I dare to
speak with a face covered in dirt, the dust
from which I’ve
come, to which I go,
and in the meantime,
now
God -- who is is gracious and merciful, slow to
anger and abounding in steadfast
love: needs our attention:
Return return, come
back, come, come to me, return to me
with all your heart: make room for me my people my banished exiled
all
all
and weep, mourn, and
rend your hearts (not your clothes), break your hearts
over the hearts of
my people, for them,
for them to see,
to know, to be clear
they are humus – “Mine,
says God, Mine, in my image.”
Like you.
Like me.
“Why should it be said among the
peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
___Joel 2:17
Now that we are here, to the days of humus, with memory of
humus, dust, fire, fresh in mind, past Ash Wednesday, the time for telling
truth, so forgiveness is possible, so turning is possible, so the breaking in
of blessing is possible, and even the miracles of change, the change we long
for: now only now we can speak these words, dare to hope, to dig and prepare the ground for
new life. After all, “why should it be
said among the peoples, where is their
God?” ---Why, right here, thank you! At work,
through us! May God enjoy her work through you!
I offer these words with humus still
smeared on my face, in humility and love – even when it sounds not so sweet and
lovey-dovey. Truth doesn’t, always. But why else do this if not for love? And I
offer these words in hope, that repentance is possible. God is compelling.