Following

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faith, follow Jesus, followers of Christ, Jesus, Matthew, say yes, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When I was a freshman in high school one of my favorite songs was “I Will Follow Him” (Follow him wherever he may go. There isn’t an ocean too deep, a mountain so high it can keep, keep me away – away from my love…) A bit extreme – impossible even – but as a 14 year-old who was enamored of a boy in my class (who was “way out of my league”) it was expressive of what I thought was true. Today, it’s much less dramatic to “follow” people on Facebook or Twitter…but it probably could become obsessive as well.

In today’s gospel (MT 8:18-22) a scribe came to Jesus from the midst of a crowd and declared, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus, probably sensing first fervor and wanting the man to be clear about what he was declaring, responded in a rather surprising way. He said, “Foxes have dens and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” My impression is that Jesus probably encountered this kind of enthusiasm often in his public life. We are often drawn to charismatic speakers or people who exude love for others. It is normal to desire the companionship of such a person or to wish to be part of a community led by such a one. When this kind of encounter happens in our life we often want to grab onto it without thinking of the difference between an encounter and a life commitment. I believe that was the impetus for the response of Jesus to the man. It’s as if he is saying: “You’d better really think about what you’re asking. This is not an easy road and there are no guarantees about what will happen in the end.”

It is the maturity of faith that begins to see what such a life (or any life) is about and which causes us to say “yes” to what it is and what it might cost. And it is a commitment that demands a daily “yes” because life is all about change and growth and surprise and reversal. So I am able today to say that I choose to follow Jesus and I hope to say the same tomorrow. But that declaration is about 22 hours away…

What’s Your Answer?

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courage, faults, fear, fidelity, followers of Christ, ignorance, Jesus, mission, Paul, Peter, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, zeal

Today my Church celebrates the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul whom we consider to be very important to the spread of Christianity in the world and examples of what it means to be followers of Christ. The comforting thing for me is that both of these men had rather significant faults and yet God chose them for significant roles and ministries. Peter was the one who hid in the crowd and denied that he even knew Jesus during the events of his arrest and trial. Paul, a Roman citizen, was a major figure in the persecution of Christians in the early days of Christianity. Considering those behaviors, I  am led to reflect on the effects of fear and ignorance. Peter clearly loved and followed Jesus throughout the three years of public ministry. Who of us, had we been a follower of the person some considered to be the Messiah, the one to restore the earthly kingdom of David (not yet recognized as divine), would have been willing to acknowledge him in a situation that would mean certain death for us? That was Peter’s fear. And Paul, an upstanding Roman citizen, was acting in the manner of the occupying nation in Israel when he was persecuting those who had become disciples of Jesus. He understood this as his duty and was ignorant of the true identity of Jesus until his conversion experience on the road to Damascus.

Considering Peter in today’s gospel (MT 16:13-19), we remember another side of him. He was the only one who had something to say when Jesus asked the gathered disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” His response of “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” was the proclamation of a man who was willing to spontaneously jump out of a boat into the water to get to Jesus (more than once!) for love of him, the one who proclaimed that love in a threefold answer to the question, “Peter, do you love me?” This same Peter did, in fact, die for his faith in Christ – crucified upside down – after years of leadership in the communities of faith. Paul, converted in a blaze of light on that fateful journey to Damascus, never looked back and became “the Apostle to the Gentiles” credited with more writing and more preaching than anyone else in the spread of Christianity in the known world.

I think of the dictum that “there’s a little bad in the best of us and a little good in the worst of us” as I ponder these two giants. Paul doesn’t always get high marks from women and Peter was rather impulsive but we need to consider the culture of the times and the personalities of these saints when judging them. What stands out is their zeal and the love that impelled them forward and once they woke up to their mission nothing ever stood in the way of their fidelity and courage. They certainly lived out – in word and action – their answer to the question Jesus put to Peter in the beginning. So today I ask myself, as Jesus the Christ asks me: Lois, who do YOU say that I am?

 

Of Mothers and their Sons (and Daughters)

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graduation, Jesus in the temple, Joseph, Luke, Mary, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It is perhaps significant that today’s gospel (LK 2:41-51) tells the story of the only event we have of the life of Jesus between the infancy narratives and his public life. I say that as high school graduation ceremonies and parties abound in our town. Today our Church celebrates Mary, the mother of Jesus. By extension, I think we might remember all mothers (and/or fathers) who are busy preparing food and cleaning house and otherwise readying the family to receive the crowd who will come to help them breathe a sigh of relief at the achievement of their “child” at the end of one and the beginning of another chapter in life.

The gospel story was about the trip Mary and Joseph made to Jerusalem for Passover when Jesus was 12 years old that turned into high anxiety when they found him missing on their way home. Returning to Jerusalem, they found him in the temple sitting with the elders, listening to them and asking them questions. He thought it was a fine thing to be doing, being “about my Father’s business,” while his mother remonstrated with him, trying to get him to understand her great anxiety.

Those years of parenthood are often not easy – nor are the teenage ones always a picnic for the teens – so today I pray for all parents and graduates who have survived until this day, that joy may be the hallmark of this moment. For all high school graduates as well, I pray for feelings of accomplishment, safety and a bright future. For all, a day of forgetting the difficult and celebrating the beautiful.

The Heart Center

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God is love, heart, heart center, Jesus, John, love, sacred heart, sacred heart of Jesus, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom

When I first envisioned establishing a spirituality center years ago, I spent a lot of time reflecting on a name as well as a tag line which would explain in a few words what I hoped for. I finally settled on The Heart Center: where we find ourselves in the heart of God. I was quite enthusiastic because for me, the heart is the symbolic center of everything – our body & bodily functioning, our emotional system, our devotional life…and my tag line included finding ourselves as well as situating what we find in the heart of God. All of that was great until I tried to obtain a website domain and realized that the modern world considered a Heart Center to be a cardiac health institution of which there are an overwhelming number already in existence.

Today, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an object of devotion for generations of Catholics. The essence of the feast is captured, I think, in the second reading for today from the first letter of John which exhorts us: Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God…God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God. We can look to Jesus as the perfect manifestation of this unconditional love that is the very definition of the God who has brought us to life in this world. Jesus became incarnate precisely to mirror this love and to give us example of how to practice it.

An essential element of love is surrender, the giving over of our own will to the greater good of the other in God. In this manner, I finally gave up my “perfect” title for “my” spirituality center and in its place have found “Sophia” which is teaching me about the Wisdom (Sophia in Greek) that knows the heart as the “organ of perception” and has the tradition of mystical love at her core. So in surrendering, I have lost nothing. I realized that when I noted that there was no need to change my e-mail address because “hrtcenter 12” put me right where I want to be: in the tradition of a disciple of Christ, who is the incarnation of God’s love for us to this day and the very message I hope to convey in everything we do.

Of Rocks and Sand

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building, faith, Jesus, Matthew, rock, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

On the national news last night I watched a reporter in St. Paul, Minnesota walking in the Mississippi River up to his knees. Happily, he was holding onto the post of a walkway that usually runs along the banks of the river but now, with all the rains, is partially submerged. He said there was potential for the river to rise six more feet before the flooding subsided. This was a graphic image of what has been happening in many parts of our country lately, in contrast to those states that are experiencing drought. I was happy that he was holding on to the structure because he was up to his knees in rushing water. It reminded me of vacations at the ocean where standing in knee-deep water when the waves were strong could topple me as the waves receded and the sand around my feet was washed back out with the tide.

In this morning’s gospel (MT 7:21-29) Jesus warns of the danger of building a house on sand rather than rock. This image can lead in many directions in our thinking. “His argument was rock solid,” someone might say. “God is my rock, a stronghold who gives me safety.” Even though we built lovely castles in the sand on those beaches as children, it took only one great wave or the rising tide to wash away the entire structure.

So the message is clear. Jesus doesn’t give his listeners a chance to misunderstand. He says, “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and buffeted his house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

I have to ask myself this morning: How are my building skills? What preparation have I done for new construction? Will what I’m building last a lifetime? Are there renovations needed now that I’m able to make? Should I get some advice from a Master Builder? That might just be a good idea…

The Longest Psalm

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balance, Bible, compass, Hebrew Scriptures, listen, psalm 119, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding heart

At 176 verses, Psalm 119 is the longest psalm – actually having more verses than 14 books of the Hebrew Scriptures and 17 of the Christian Scriptural books. I’d recommend a trip to the internet or to your Bible for a bit of commentary and an explanation of the intricate formula/structure of the psalm. I’m just taken with the beauty and heartfelt desire of today’s section (vs. 33-40). Below is a contemporary translation which I transcribe in paragraph form to suggest its use as a prayer for the journey of today.

Even now, Lord, if you will but teach me I shall keep as treasure all you say. Give me an understanding heart to grasp what lies alone in you, the outlines of your law, imprint them in my soul. My deep desire is for a heart whose compass-point is aimed at your true north, and not some weaker pole. I desire eyes as well that do not wander, but hold your vision fast for all eternity. Fill full your servant, Lord, with awe and fear of you, and drain away the dread I fear of failure on your path. May I listen ever to your word as judge and balance of my soul, and in your justice, give me life.

The Forerunner

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Jesus, John the Baptist, Luke, miracle of life, psalm, psalm 139, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today the readings celebrate John the Baptist, the one born to “prepare the way of the Lord” before Jesus. There are great stories of John in the Scriptures, not the least of which precedes his birth (see Luke, chapter 1). This morning, however, I am drawn to the psalm (139 – my favorite) where the psalmist speaks to each of us of the wonder of our own coming into this world and God’s care from before we were born continuing throughout our lives. There is nowhere, he says, that God is not. There is no time when we are without the presence of God. We need only look or call to God to recognize the great love that holds us. Whether in happy times or sad, in the throes of doubt or the certainties of faith, our God is not absent. It is we sometimes who fail to notice. Our most secret thoughts are known to God who accepts all of them – and everything about us. We have such reason for gratitude!

And there’s one more thing that I find a constant miracle, also mentioned this morning by the psalmist who says, “You knit me in my mother’s womb…I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works.” Looking at a baby I always marvel at the amazing process that brings us to this world. A miracle indeed!

So the questions I ask myself this morning are: How am I called – like John the Baptist – to prepare the way of the Lord in my life and in the places that I dwell and work and visit? How will people know and trust the presence of God more because I have been among them? What does my life say about the miracle that is life?

Judgment

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humility, hurt, Jesus, judge, judging, Matthew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There’s no doubt about the meaning of today’s gospel (MT 7:1-5). Jesus begins with “STOP JUDGING!” (Emphasis mine). Those words are enough for me as my judgmental mind knows the strength of my tendency to judge everything – and everyone – by appearance. This is my most consistent spiritual practice: to let go of judging others and myself by the measure of perfection that I appropriated in childhood or along the way from culture or image of God or the opinions of others. Our voyeuristic culture loves to sneak into the lives of the rich and famous and find their flaws. Our economic culture tells us what is “in” to wear and drive and eat and do for recreation. Our religious upbringing sometimes still sends echoes of “not good enough” into our minds while God withholds nothing from us if we look to our hearts.

Judging is sometimes an automatic function of our make-up but is not always a bad thing. We must be discriminative in our choices in life and so the ability to judge between goods, or between what would be good for us and what would not, is crucial. I know that isn’t what Jesus is talking about this morning, however, because he goes on to say, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” That sentence always stops me cold as I think of how even the smallest foreign object in my eye hurts. Humility quickly follows as I ponder my judgmental self. Then I take a breath, try to let go of what I’m thinking (even though I’d rather share my opinion!) and start again to walk the better path where I know God waits with a smile of understanding.

Bread for the Journey

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bread and wine, communion, Corpus Christi, Israelites, Jesus, John, manna, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning’s readings move through what I have learned to call “salvation history” beginning with the story of God’s gift of “manna” in the desert – the bread that sustained the Israelites as they wandered toward the Promised Land. In the Christian Scriptures, Jesus speaks of himself in John’s gospel as the “bread that has come down from heaven” that will lead us to life. We become, we are told, the true, mystical body of Christ. This is truly a mystery and in our day we are coming to see new and deeper meanings that derive from this truth. Christians speak of the “communion of the body of Christ” celebrated in the ritual of Eucharist and see that communion in the bread and wine that we share in the living memory (anamnesis) of what Jesus did at what we call “the Last Supper” before his death and resurrection. The unity of his body is becoming clearer as we join with others across the Christian spectrum for ecumenical dialog. We find that what joins us is so much more than what separates us so that while we reverence our own tradition, we embrace those all over the world whom we are coming to know as brothers and sisters. It is this sense of unity that impels us further to interfaith dialog where we find the possibility of understanding even beyond the borders of Christianity toward the hope of unity that recognizes all those who journey toward God (however we envision or name God) as our companions.

On this feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ) then, let us pray for one world, a unity of hearts yearning for peace and fellowship that we trust to be possible if we will widen our hearts in the unified embrace of God.

Of Birds and Flowers

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birds, Jesus, lilies of the field, Matthew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, worry

The birds were up very early this morning and they were in good voice, waking me long before my alarm had a chance. Although it’s now officially summer we have been enjoying birdsong and lovely flowers for quite awhile. I am always amazed that no matter how diligent or dismissive I am, flowers thrive and bring joy with colorful beauty to the world. It’s a perfect time to hear Jesus say, “Consider the lilies of the field…the birds of the air…Will God not much more provide for you? So do not worry…” (MT 6:24-34). I always knew I wasn’t supposed to worry but recently, blessedly, the truth of that concept dug deep into my spirit and now I understand at some elemental level the truth of how useless worry really is. Worry about what may or may not happen is a waste of energy because when whatever it is does not happen we are just left depleted for no reason. Is it not better to trust God and do our part to forestall a potential situation so that we still have all our energy if it does, in fact, happen? Easily said, of course. What if, each time we recognized worry rising up inside, we visualized God holding out large, capable, willing hands to us inviting us to hand over the worry. Perhaps after awhile, if we did hand it over, this practice would sink down into our souls and allow the trust necessary to face situations with confidence, hearing clearly the conclusion of this text as Jesus says, “Your heavenly Father knows what you need. Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness…Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself…”