Greenblade - creation - faith - justice

Extending the Table

— by Our Community

We Are But Dust

On the 17th, much of Christendom will be celebrating Ash Wednesday, the official start of the forty days prior to Easter that many call Lent.  In the Episcopal tradition, participants in the ritual for  Ash Wednesday are invited into a Holy Lent of prayer and fasting with the words, “you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  Mind you this is an odd statement of invitation in today's world, but as we enter this time of reflection, these words bring us back to the second story of creation found in Genesis, when God forms Adam from the dust of the earth.  And then, these words bring us to the end of the creation story, when God discovers that Adam and Eve have disobeyed God's command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and as punishment death becomes part of the human experience and to the earth from which we are created, we return.

As  I reflect further on this invitation, I wonder if this statement tells us more about human life than just its beginning and end.  Is it also about our need to remain at one with nature?  In recent days I have been reading Karen Armstrong's book, One City, Three Faiths. In her discussion of the anthropology of religious understanding, she discusses the Genesis story and basically asserts that since the beginning of humanity we have longed for the day of regaining the tranquility of the lost paradise. In this case, the Garden of Eden. Her thoughts are not that far out of line with the developing school of Ecopsychology which asserts that there is a mental health link between humanity and the environment.  Ecopsychology's basic premise is that of Havard biologist, E. O. Wilson who believed that evolution endowed humans with a craving for nature.

As I read Daniel Smith's article, Is There an Ecological Unconcious?(The New York Times, January 31,2010), I was fascinated with the arguments and controversy swirling about this nascent school of psychology and had to ask myself, are their assumptions that far from my own experience and my relationship with God?  In the first story of creation, humanity is made by God in the image of God, both male and female and we are placed by God in the crown jewel of God's creation, the Garden of Eden.  It is there humanity begins, at one with God and one with God's created order.  In further stories of creation we are told that humanity was able to directly commune with God while they lived in the Garden.  It seems as if, at the very of heart of creation was the meeting point of God and humanity. 

Is this the beginning of our unconsious need to commune and be one with nature as ecopsychology suggest?  Personally, I believe this to be so.  In my own life, whenever my wife Maureen and I have looked for housing, we are naturally drawn to houses surrounded by a natural setting.  It iis the ability to live in the midst of nature that we find peace and refreshment in our daily lives. But let's widen the circle a bit.  It's not just us who seem to seek natural settings.  The most sought after property in the United States is that with a view of natural surroundings.  Waterfront property is the most over exploited real estate and often the most expensive properties in the nation. In Puerto Rico, the wealthy of San Juan, now seek to build weekend homes to escape the hectic realities of city life.  Historically, city planners have allowed for “green space” when planning neighborhoods acknowledging humanity's need to leave behind the man made world of architecture to relax and be soothed by “nature”.

So what is at the heart of our innate call to nature?  Is there something deeper than just a mental health need to connect with something green, or does it go deeper than that? Does the need for “green” actually have something to do with the spirit, as so many of my parishioners espouse when they discuss God being  more present to them in the woods than in church?  As their pastor, I believe that there is validity in their claims.  Jesus goes into the wilderness and into the Garden of Gethesemene to pray.  Elijah hears God's voice, not in the tempest, but in the stillness of the world outside a cave.  Adam and Eve are at one with God in the Garden of Eden in the midst of God's creation.  It is in the quiet of the created order that God is found and most often easily present.  It is in the midst of the created order, digging in the dust of the earth, that we are able to connect with our beginnings and find the wholeness of being one with God.

In the end as I reflect on the invitation of this Ash Wednesday, "you are dust, and to dust you shall return," I realize that in truth we are a glorious part of God's creation and to God we shall return.

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