Ash Wednesday was a surprising day this year, as we worked out how to be faithful and safe in level 2. In this year with reminders of our mortality constantly nagging away we were invited to wear the mark of the ash – a reminder that from dust we come, and to dust we shall return. I wonder what that evokes in you? For me it is a mix of responses including wonder and awe. This dust we are made of comes from stars. You and I, we are made of star dust. And in a gesture of profound love God took this star dust, and breathed life into it to create us. Wow! That ash cross holds a lot of meaning. In the early church Lent was the time of preparation for those to be baptised at Easter. This was more than a time to learn about the being Christian. It was a time of preparation to take on new identities as followers of Christ. It was modeled on the story we hear every first Sunday in Lent of Jesus in the wilderness. This year we hear Mark’s bare bones account of Jesus hearing God ...
