Virtual Methodist

This is a piece that has been percolating for a few months now, from the time of the L.A. wildfires, and some startling images, including the attached one, of tall palm trees remaining standing amongst the destroyed homes of celebrities, millionaires and ordinary people. Of course there were those who used those same images to fuel conspiracy theories about the fires being caused, not by our calamitous attitude to climate change, but laser beams and other "heat attack" weapons being used to destroy the American way of life and force people into socialist 15 minute cities. If the original stories didn't make me weep, those conspiracies did.  But the images stuck with me until this morning with my Lenten reading of Malcolm Guite's "The Word in the Wilderness" where his own meticulously crafted sonnet for Ash Wednesday touches on similar themes from a broader perspective. His commentary provided the phrase "the detritus of destruction" whi...

"dust you are and to dust you will return." Genesis 3:19 (ANIV) There's cheery! But those are the words that are used at "ashing" ceremonies the world over this Ash Wednesday. Words that have shaped Christian funeral liturgies: "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" Traditionally that is finished off saying: "in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life" or words to that effect, or, if for whatever reason, the officiant is hedging their bets they will, instead, say something like: "commending them to the grace and mercy of our heavenly Father God." I reflected last year on the "dustiness" of our existence , following a particularly moving scattering of ashes one morning... It contrasted with another burial of ashes later that same day, which was conducted in the pouring rain, with little sense or expectation of life beyond this one... In the first the deceased and th...