There is an old rabbinic story about a faithful Jew who every morning would write down on a piece of paper the words I am but dust and ashes and place the paper in his pocket. Throughout the day he would take out the paper and read it; the words, spoken by the patriarch Abraham in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 18: 27), served as a prayerful reminder of his mortality and humility before God.
One day he showed the paper to his rabbi. The rabbi was moved by his congregant's reverence. But the rabbi took out a second piece of paper and wrote the Hebrew words Bishvili nivra ha'olam - "For my sake, the universe was created.”
"Take these words, as well, and carry them too," the rabbi said. "Let there be balance in your life. Realize that of yourself, before God, you are nothing - but because you are created in God's image, out of love, you possess the greatest dignity imaginable: you are a child of God." [As told by Burton Visotzky in Genesis: A Living Conversation by Bill Moyers.]
That beautiful story dovetails nicely with our tradition of Ash Wednesday and the words at the imposition of ashes: remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return - maybe we need to add the words to it: Bishvili nivra ha'olam - "For my sake, the universe was created.”
When we are consumed by the notion that we are in total control of our lives, when we have arrogantly self-absorbed because of what we possess and what we have achieved, we need to remember: I am but dust and ashes and to dust I shall return. But when we feel abandoned, when hope seems far away, when we feel lost in the wilderness and unloved, we need to embrace the message: that for my sake, the universe was created.
As we sit with those two understandings that we are dust AND are made in God’s image, let us think again about the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, our first stop on our Lenten Journey after Ash Wednesday.
After his baptism, Jesus full of the Holy Spirit, is led by that same Spirit into the wilderness. A deserted place. Away from people. Away from life. There for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. At the end he was famished. (and I bet exhausted too)
And Satan tempts him three more times…
· If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread
· If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.
· If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written
Jesus in the wilderness, in the place of desolation and struggle, has these three temptations that are all focused on who Jesus is. In a place of powerlessness, Jesus rebuffs the devil's temptations. Each temptation is a call to accept power for who he is: from turning stones into bread, to worshiping a false God, and finally by testing God. Jesus holds on to both his creation (dust) and his connection to God (beloved) in his refusals to give in.
As Anglican priest and author Kenneth Leech writes (in his book We Preach Christ Crucified,) "Jesus recognizes that power [that Satan offers] and rejects it as a personal possession. Instead he offers that power to a community, the community which is to be Christ spread abroad and disseminated, a community which will be a source of nourishment, a site for miracles, and a political force in the world. So instead of turning stones into bread, Jesus created a eucharistic community which offered bread for the world. Instead of performing a miracle, he created a community of spiritual power. And instead of seeking a dictatorial imperialism, he created a community committed to values of equality and sharing to work as a subversive and transforming force within the structures of worldly power."Today's Gospel ends with the devil's departure, having finished every test, but as the Gospel tells us, "the devil departed from him until an opportune time. "
That opportune time is with us. Even as Jesus has given us his power through this church that he created, that we will be a source of nourishment, a site for miracles, and a subversive political force in the world, these same temptations remain a temptation for us today
As Simone Weil said, “All sins are attempts to fill voids.” That is what the devil does, for the devil’s temptations are to help fill that void, to fulfill our desires.
Call the Midwife is the acclaimed PBS series about a community of Anglican nuns and the young nurses who work with them in serving the working poor in post-war London.
In a recent episode, a young nun, Sister Winifred, is torn between her assignment working as a midwife in London and her desire to work with young children. Her sisters caution her that they all must obediently go where their superiors assign them, but Sister Winifred passionately argues that there is a difference between “going where we are called by God and doing what we are told by human beings.”
Later, Sister Winifred apologizes for the quarrel she has agitated among the sisters — but Sister Mildred, from the wisdom of her experience, points to the real nature of the sisters’ quarrel.
“The quarrel is not between ourselves. It is within us. The quarrel is between one’s own desires and that which is demanded. The quarrel is between the body and its longings, the soul and its terrors, and the mind yearning to be free. The quarrel defines us. It drives us forward, upwards, to our knees in prayer. You must embrace the quarrel. The quarrel will lead us to the answer. [The quarrel] is everything we are.”
This journey of Lent calls us to take up that same quarrel in our own lives: determining what God is calling us to do against expectations of the world (the temptations of the devil), realizing the meaning and purpose of these lives God has breathed into us when we are overwhelmed with the responsibilities of family and profession.
We need to take up our quarrel between cynicism and hope, between our self-centered wants and the common good, between the worldly things and the permanence of the kingdom of God.
Our Lenten journey with Jesus is a time for striking that balance between realizing our humility before God and our identity as God's beloved creation. I am but dust and ashes. I am created in God's image and for my sake, the universe was created. May we always hold on to both. Amen
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