This year Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s day fall on the same day!
So today is a time to confess before God the damage that we are doing to the Earth, but also to celebrate the wonders of the Creation that God asked us to care for.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. It’s a time to slow down, a time for penitence and fasting, a time to draw closer to God again.
The readings for today include Joel 2 – the army of locusts – a terrifying swarm beyond number causing incredible destruction. The insects swarm over vast areas, ravaging landscapes and communities. Famine and starvation can follow in the swarm’s wake.
God is telling us that our actions have consequences – each of us may be small like a locust but together we are an enormous swarm of humans, devouring and destroying, eating beyond the limits.
And so God calls us to turn from our ways, our actions that are destroying the planet.
Our focus during this Lent will be plastic, in particular single use plastic – the average South African uses 800 shopping bags per year. Globally a truckload of plastic waste is dumped in the ocean every minute.
Everything from plastic bottles and bags to microbeads end up in our oceans. It is time to say enough, we have sinned! You and I are only one of the mighty swarm of plastic throwing locusts but change starts with me and you.
12 Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Joel 2:12-13
Commit to joining us for these forty days where we confess our over- use of plastic and commit to change, on both a personal and a community level.
Let us fast from plastic, love the Earth and love God our Creator!