ashes at judson… sitting in the dim light candles flickering beside me… robe on… ashes at the ready… reading mysticism and resistance… sound of soprano rehearsing for bailout theater from the balcony…. chop chop chop chop from the kitchen as the soups and salad take form… chop chop chop chop…. carrying tables, sorting, directing… doorbell ringing ringing ringing more help coming more help coming… chop chop chop chop… little dog toes moving across the floor… voices blending above the chop stir tap of spoons against the soup pot… chop chop chop ring ring ring step step step laughter song…

“I knew a man who saw God so clearly he lost all his faith.” Faith is the assurance of things hoped for… the certainty of things unseen. Once the unseen is seen, once the hope is realized there is no need for faith… chop chop chop - the hope of soup…. guitar strum, note or two - the hope of a song…. foot steps, voices, laughter - the hope of friendship and relationship and love… faith happens in the room around me… God is promised assured… in soup and in ashes… God for the hungry, God for the fed, God for the repentant and for the un-…

ashes to ashes, dust to stardust… Donna’s words… shifting my vision of Lent slightly… born in the ashes of the earth humanity rises brother and sister to the chopped vegetables heading for the soup pot… to the tiny dog trotting to the side door…. to the candlelight and electricity… to the broadest galaxy surrounding the furtherest start… dust to stardust…

Not that God resides out there with the stars somewhere, an ancient people heaven paralleling earth with human sized gods engaged in human size creating and destroying… but that human body may return to ashes, dust in the earth, while human spirit aches toward the stars… the flickering lights call us… hope… shifting us toward the God who is apart from us and who is our home…

chopping done, the soup must be cooking… voices rise, sopranos sing,doorbell rings… soon the empty tables will be filled…. chairs filled… space and sound filled… hope… what if no one arrives? hope only… assurance only… faith only… later losing faith will happen.. with bellies filled and spirits assuaged and love shared….

Lent.