Dust, Mud, and the Waters of Baptism

Our heroes always, almost always, turn out to have feet of clay.  They are not impervious titans of moral, ethical, and philosophical perfection.  Our heroes are always, almost always, men and women who are human and flawed and frail.  The Genesis story tells us that God formed the first man and the first woman out of the “dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7, NRSV). We are dust, and the Ash Wednesday liturgy reminds us that we shall return to dust (based on Genesis 3:19).

What stands between dust and dust?  There is the breath of God, breathed into molded ground to give it life.  There is the water of baptism, poured onto this molded ground to form it into a life of service.  This watered ground becomes moldable mud; a clay for the Potter’s hand to fit us to our ministry and mission in the world. At no point, do we become other than what we are made of and made by.  We are clay footed servants of the living God.

Lent is a time when the church remembers the gift of our baptism and the cost of our redemption. The story most often remembered in Lent is Jesus being tempted in the desert.  A very human Jesus is tempted, just as we are.  The Tempter uses Jesus’ hunger, isolation, and desire to be loved in an attempt to turn a dust self into “clay feet.” However, Jesus remembers that dust is held together by the breath of God and the claiming waters of baptism.  It makes me wonder about “clay feet.”

What if Lent is a time to remember the waters of baptism and its affect on dust?  What if it is a time to stand in the desert with Jesus, to confront the Tempter, because we know who and whose we are?

We talk about “clay feet” as the moment when a hero is brought low and their flaws are laid bare.  What if having “clay feet” revealed is a gift? What if this is a call to remember?  What if this is the waters of baptism pooling at our feet in times of hunger, isolation, and desire to be loved?  In the hunger desert we learned that “we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”  The lonely desert is also a wilderness where the shepherd will be with us. “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”  The isolation desert holds Jesus promises such as, “I am with you always, to the end of the age”(Matthew 28:20 NRSV). 

What if clay- feet- moments are reminders that we are already fed and held and named and claimed?  What if having clay feet is not being laid low as our “just desserts”, but is us being re-formed?  When dust stands in the waters of baptism, dust becomes malleable. We become again the ground that is molded and feels the breath of God.  We stand in the desert with Jesus, and our clay feet are a witness to the healing, redeeming, and powerful love of God.

Dust and baptism make ground ready for the potter; it makes clay that can be reformed and refined by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Biblical heroes all have feet of clay.  This Lent, I invite you into the desert to remember that we are creatures who are created by God out of dust, mud and the waters of baptism.

Book of Worship pcusa

I invite you, therefore, in the name of Christ,

to observe a holy Lent

by self-examination and penitence,

by prayer and fasting,

by works of love,

and by reading and meditating on the Word of God. (p.223-Ash Wednesday Liturgy).

For a copy of the spiritual practice, “An Invitation to the Desert,” contact kbarden@secondchurch.org