Live today!

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big things, letter of james, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tomorrow

Today is my brother’s birthday. I was almost six years old when he was born, having been “the baby” all that time. I had no idea what that meant but something must have dawned on me eventually because one day having walked half-way to kindergarten with my sister who was the ripe old age of seven (walking was safer for children alone in those days), I refused to continue. After a neighbor stopped and took me home, my father took me to school, and the conclusion of everyone hearing the story is that I was jealous and thought my mother would forget me if I were not around with her and the baby. I didn’t need to have worried as there was definitely enough love for the three of us in our family and my brother turned out to be one of the truly delightful gifts of my life.

That long introduction leads me to the reading of the Letter of James for today – to a line that probably rings true for the majority of us and, if not yet, will someday for the rest. James says you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. We can probably all think of unexpected things in our lives – some tragic, some delightful. While it’s impossible not to plan ahead, the manner in which we plan is important. I read a book once whose title “A Light Grasp on Life” has really helped me learn that I can never be totally sure of the future I project. This calls me to practice a letting go of worry about what may or may not happen. Surrendering to life in the everyday events prepares me for the big things that I can’t control and my faith sustains me when those “big things” are the tragedies. And just maybe sometimes – like with my brother – what we first see as tragic or disappointing turns out to be blessing in the long run.

The Greatest and the Least

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Capernaum, deeper lessons, first will be last, Jesus, Mark, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Last evening, for want of a better choice, we watched an episode of The Waltons before retiring. You can always count on their story to teach a lesson great or small. Last night it was about change, frustration and acceptance of “what is.” Illustrations of the themes were many but in reading the gospel this morning I was reminded of Grandma Esther who stopped going to church (a monumental shift for her) because the minister had offered another woman in the congregation a share in organist duties, a position that Grandma had performed solo for fifty years. In her anger and hurt she even told “the Reverend” that she was going to become a Methodist! (Quite a threat for such a determined Baptist!) It took awhile and a bit of wisdom from her son-in-law, John, but she finally swallowed her pride and walked out her distress all the way to Sunday service.

In the gospel for today (Mk 9:30-37) we find Jesus and the disciples walking through Galilee in a rare moment when they had been able to escape the crowds. He began to talk about his future – that he would be handed over and killed and then rise again after three days. They didn’t understand what he was talking about (and, honestly, would we, if we had been in their shoes?) but the gospel said they were afraid to question him. They must’ve been having rather animated conversation though, out of his hearing, because he asked them when they reached Capernaum, “What were you arguing about on the way?” Nobody spoke because, in the face of his predictions about his fate, they had preferred to talk about who was the greatest among them – maybe because when they heard him say he was going to be killed they wanted to be sure they were chosen to take over leadership. Pretty rude and thoughtless on their part, right?

It seems to me that until we learn to wake up to the deeper lessons in the events of our lives, we often grab onto what seems most beneficial to ourselves without considering the feelings or the effects on other people. What about the love of God that Grandma’s rival wished to express through music? What about the feelings of Jesus in the face of his enemies? Today is a good day to ponder the words of Jesus to the disciples in this situation:

If anyone wishes to be first, he [she] shall be the last of all and the servant of all.

Who?

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good, heart, humility, James, life, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding, wisdom, wise

The first verse of the first reading for today caught my attention. James (ch 3:13) asks: Who among you is wise and understanding? That’s my question to myself today, something I will reflect upon as I go about my daily tasks. To help me answer it, I consider the follow-on sentence that gives a hint for the “success” of the person named. Let him, says James, show his works by a good life in the humility that comes from wisdom. This says to me that persons I consider wise are necessarily aware that all good gifts come from God and all we can do is nurture what is given to us by practice, through listening deeply and by living in an open-hearted stance to life and to those people whom we encounter on our way.

Who among you is wise and understanding?

A Plan for Holiness

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Corinthians, eye for an eye, Jesus, Leviticus, love your neighbor, Matthew, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

In this morning’s first reading from Leviticus 19 God’s message to Moses for the “whole Israelite people” is a clear imperative. “Be holy,” God says, “for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” God goes on to explain how this holiness is to be achieved, summarizing at the end of the passage with a line familiar to many of us: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” As if to put an exclamation point on that command, there’s a “P.S.” God adds for emphasis, “I AM THE LORD.” In other words, “This is a direct command to which you’d better pay attention!”

It seems as if they didn’t get the message very well as it is a constant throughout Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and in Matthew’s 5th chapter as well. Paul asks the people, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God [and that] the temple of God is holy?” He goes on to talk about us all belonging to each other, and “you to Christ and Christ to God”. How is this belonging possible unless we recognize our relationship to one another?

When Jesus came he said he wasn’t here to abolish the Mosaic law (Leviticus) but rather to fulfill it. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, God’s covenant with Israel was broadened and strengthened with each age as people learned more about this God whom they served. In Jesus, they saw the fulfillment of that covenant. No longer were they only to love those who loved them. Jesus said some startling things that even now are hard for us to accept. “You have heard it said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, but I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.” OR “You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’ but I say to you, love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you.” Pretty strong stuff, yes? What Jesus was trying to teach us is that we need to go beyond our comfort zones because all people are children of God. It was easier to just stay in our own environment (hometown, ethnic group, religious community) when there were no automobiles. Still before the airplane, it was easier for us to engage only in our own state, province or country. Now we are citizens of the world! We can hardly go a day without encountering in person individuals who were born on the other side of the world – or through the media learning about ways of life radically different from our own. It seems much more difficult to be holy in our time. But the questions Jesus asks this morning are meant to resound in our hearts, not our heads.

If you love only those who love you, what recompense will you have? If you greet your brothers [and sisters] only, what is unusual about that?

With those questions ringing in my heart, I will need to go through the day observing what and whom I exclude from my circle of acceptance, whether near or far. Then I will need to ask myself “Do I really want to be holy?”

Walking the Walk

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faithful, flock, God, Lord, Peter, Psalm 23, shepherd, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today my Church celebrates the feast of “The Chair of Peter” which is all about shepherding and taking care of “the flock” that Jesus entrusted to Peter. The psalm used in the readings for this feast is the universally best known of all 150 psalms in the Scriptures. We call it (Psalm 23) the Shepherd Psalm. It is often used at funerals and in many moments of crisis or danger. Some of us can recite every word but even if we can only get as far as “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” it brings comfort. There have recently been “contemporary translations” written, which for some are blasphemous but for some make the concepts more meaningful today. The one that comes to my mind is “The Lord is my timekeeper; I shall not rush.”

This morning I’m drawn to the verse that says, “Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage.” That certainly is an ideal mindset, but I think of all that’s happening in the world today and I wonder if I could live up to it if I lived in Syria or the Ukraine or North Korea right now. But then I think of Peter who, even though Jesus chose him as a leader, was a bit of a coward when the going got tough. Remember the walking on water incident or his denial the night Jesus was arrested. He had boasted his willingness to follow Jesus wherever he went but certainly is a failure as a model of success. Fear, it seems, is a great equalizer.

Thinking about Peter gives me another kind of courage and comfort in the face of this psalm. I can repeat the words and really mean them and draw great peace from the promise. The greatest comfort of all, however, is knowing not that I am faithful to God, my Shepherd, but that God is faithful to me. In this knowledge, in this God’s company, I continue to walk my path.

Say What?

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charity, compassion, faith, feed the poor, Jesus, letter of james, outreach, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When I’m leaving a friend after some time together my farewell line is sometimes, “Goodbye and good luck; keep warm and well fed.” That sounds cozy, right? I’m thinking lately that I should perhaps delete it from my list of favorite Scripture quotes in case the person I’m offering this wish to is conversant with the letter of James! In chapter two of this letter the author is really speaking about the interplay of faith and good works. He says:

If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and no food for the day and one of you says to them, “Goodbye and good luck; keep warm and well fed,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Jesus was a great model of compassion and our faith calls us to imitate him where we are able. We certainly cannot solve issues of hunger and lack of shelter single-handedly even in the localities where we live, but we can be aware of both charitable and just means of contributing to solutions especially in the wake of the devastating, widespread storms during this winter. Bolstered by our prayer, may we find a deepened sense of generosity in our outreach to our brothers and sisters in our midst.

What’s Your Answer?

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Gospel, Jesus, letter of james, Mark, poor, rich, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There’s a great challenge in this morning’s gospel reading (Mk 8:27-33) where Jesus asks two questions of his disciples, two questions that are similar but not matching. First he wants to know “Who do people say that I am?” which obviously refers to “the word on the street” among the crowds that have been gathering when he arrives in their territory. They give him some answers but then he asks the question that is probably more what he wants to know because it speaks to the level of their faith in him. “But,” he asks, “who do you say that I am?”

I’m interested that this gospel is linked to a text from the Letter of James (2:1-9) this morning dealing with how we judge people. James says, “For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person with shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes…have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges…?”

It’s quite easy for us sometimes when we’re asked about our faith to give the easy answer of what we’ve been taught about who Jesus the Christ is but unless our faith causes us to act in ways that manifest the depth of what we say, then we are still standing on the periphery of the crowd, interested but not willing to become a disciple. The true test of this, of course, is our willingness to treat others as we would treat Christ if he were at the event where the two people James spoke of were in the room. It actually might be hard to recognize him unless we took the time to get to know him, because he might be the one in the shabby clothes. It behooves us then to stay awake to how we treat each person that crosses our path, a worthy practice for today.

The Face in the Mirror

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beloved, doer, God, hearer, letter of james, mirror, serve, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I have a friend who used to do workshops for women wherein she would ask the question: “How many of you get up in the morning, look in your mirror, smile and say, ‘What a woman!'” I’ve used that line (with obvious changes if there are men in the room) and the first reaction is usually hearty laughter. If pushed to really answer the question, there’s rarely more than one or two people who admit of the practice or even the possibility that they might be able to say those words about themselves.

This morning’s reading from the Letter of James reminded me of this sad commentary on our self-esteem. But James is getting at something different, albeit related, in what he says. Never one to mince words, James is talking about daily behavior when he says that “everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…[and] humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you…” Then comes the relevant paragraph.

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like. But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts; such a one shall be blessed in what he does. (The lack of inclusive language here only proves the point more forcefully, were this a contemporary text!)

Truly knowing ourselves as beloved of God, we are enabled to look deeply into the inner mirror of ourselves, accepting what we find there. In that way, we do not forget our call to live what we have accepted, knowing also that each person’s face reflects God’s love in some way and is worthy of our care. Thus we will act on this knowledge, never forgetting our call to serve.

Still?

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Jesus, Mark, still, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Again today, I am filled with compassion for Jesus whose disciples fail once again (in Mk 8) to catch the deeper meaning of his words and actions. The last line of today’s gospel has Jesus asking, “Do you still not understand?” I could actually hear him saying that – maybe more out of disappointment than of frustration because he knew the ones he had chosen and was not about to give up on them, but it must’ve been hard nonetheless.

I continue to hear him ask that question, but now it comes to me to answer. I know that my desire is to follow, to learn, to imitate the pattern that Jesus has set for my life, but often now I get glimpses of how little I understand the depth of where that might lead me. So today again I resolve to stay awake so I might not miss what is put on my path that will allow me another flash of understanding, another opportunity to live from the heart of God.

Signs

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faith, Jesus, letter of james, Mark, perseverance, signs, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I often marvel at people of strong faith who seem to persevere no matter what distress befalls them. For some, I’m sure, perseverance is hard-won but it is such a witness to me of the possibility of living through the dark times. This morning’s readings remind me to be grateful for those people and their example. The beginning of the Letter of James says that we need to ask God for wisdom in our struggles and it will be given. He adds a condition, however. We “should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.” Clearly this steadfast faith is developed over time, not just given with our eye color or curly hair at birth. Practice makes perfect, as they say. Jesus seems a bit tired of the Pharisees in today’s gospel as they ask one more time for a sign from heaven to test him. Mark (Ch 8) says, “He sighed from the depth of his spirit” before telling them that no sign would be given them.

I often play with God, looking for signs that everything will be okay when I’m late for work; green lights calm me down. When I have too many things to do and someone cancels an appointment, I breathe a sigh and remind myself that God is taking care of me. But this isn’t what today is about. Today is a day to take a hard look at my faith, to “cast my cares upon the Lord,” as Scripture says, and to believe that God will support me. Whether or not my “cares” are taken away, whether I can see that my prayers are answered, the goal of my reflection is to trust, deep down, that God does not and will not abandon me. This is the faith that perseveres.