OK, so that title might be click bait. I confess.

During Passion Week at the end of Lent, we wave our palm branches enthusiastically cheering on Jesus as he enters Jerusalem.

Days letter the voices move from celebration to condemnation. The crowd of voices that shouted “Hosanna” later shout “Crucify him!”

These palms don’t get tossed in the trash after Palm Sunday is over.

I, like many pastors, save them to be used in preparation for Ash Wednesday.

The dried palms remind us of hope that had dried up. We burn the old palms, sift the chard remains to allow the finest ash to pass through.

Mixed with a bit of oil, we mark our mortality and fickleness on our forehead.

We made a short video showing this process. Check it out by clicking here.

We remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return.

We return ourselves to dust, remembering that out of the dust God made the first human in the Eden origin story.

Marking our heads with dust, we invite the creator to begin with us again.

Noting that we will return to the dust, we entrust our lives to the one who turns dust into life.

About Philip Ruge-Jones

After I served for eighteen years as a professor of theology at Texas Lutheran University, my family decided to return to the Midwest where my wife and I grew up, attended college and seminary. Read more...