REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE DUST
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Today is Ash Wednesday, 2018. Ash Wednesday is the second most solemn and sobering day of the year, after Good Friday. On Good Friday, however, we know that our sorrow will be over in three days and end with a glorious victory over death. On Ash Wednesday we are looking into forty days of introspection and purification, hard work if we do it right. As the last part, we have a whole week to go through before reaching the spectacular moment of Easter when light banishes the darkness. So, every year, it is with a heavy heart that I approach the deposition of the ashes with its stark reminder of human limitations.
Speaking of human frailties, we have the schism at hand. We are now in our sixth year of brokenness and pain in the grand old diocese of South Carolina. When will it end? When will all of this be over? This is the question I get most often in person and by email.
We cannot know the future. I have always believed this is really a good thing because if we did, none of us would want to get out of bed. Only God knows the future. That knowledge has never been given to human beings. Personally, I am glad.
What is given to human beings is free will. We are free to choose between good and evil, indeed must choose countless times each and every day. Human beings chose to make the schism. It was a willful and deliberate act of people who thought it was the right thing to do. They were wrong. It has been destruction without justification and recompensation.
Given the present state of the litigation, I regret to have to say that the schism is not likely to end anytime soon. The schismatic side has lost in the high court of South Carolina but is fighting tooth and nail to keep that decision from being implemented. They could drag this out for several more years. That seems to be their strategy now.
So, today, Ash Wednesday, and for all of the coming forty days, let us remember a prayer for reconciliation (from the TECSC website):
Gracious and living God of justice and compassion: We pray for your church caught in a crushing schism in South Carolina. We believe that you favor reconciliation in all situations; and we ask you to be with all parties involved in the case. (...) bring this process to a just conclusion. Give all of us strength and courage to act and pray in ways that can lead toward reconciliation. Help us be agents of your reconciliation with our friends on both sides of this dispute. We ask all of this in the Name of the Holy Reconciler, Jesus your Son. Amen.
