The Company of Women

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companions, Elizabeth, full of grace, Luke, Mary, motherhood, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Visitation of Mary, women

I am grateful today for all the wonderful women in my life who have played a part in my development and have nurtured me from before my birth until today. Why? Today’s gospel recounts that rich and meaningful story of Mary and Elizabeth, both pregnant with their first child. Elizabeth, the barren, aging one, has longed for motherhood and finally knows it is coming to her. Mary, her teenage relative, comes to visit in turmoil. She, with child when hardly more than a child herself, wonders how this has all happened and needs the solace of an elder woman who will, perhaps, help her to understand. Wonder of wonders, Elizabeth recognizes what is happening in Mary because of the gifted one she herself is carrying!

The story of the Visitation (LK 1:39-56) could be seen as a model for woman-to-woman relationships in all manner of situations. Sharing the fears and joyful expectations of motherhood, the trials and accomplishments of growing children, the prayer and struggles of women at work when challenges come – women need companions in these complex times. Younger women need older, wiser women for wisdom and elders need the young to help them accept the realities of aging.

Whether in a corporate office of a large company or in the kitchen chatting over paring vegetables, women need each other to help them feel whole. I love this gospel because if she had not had Elizabeth whose openhearted welcome greeted her, where would Mary have found the strength to manage what faced her? “Full of grace” herself, Mary recognized the one who recognized her with loving acceptance. And both were blessed.

I will spend this day, both physically and virtually, in the company of the women who sit in my memory and my reality and I will give thanks for the richness that is mine because of them.

Waiting

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Acts of the Apostles, apostles, Ascension, beloved one, Holy Spirit, I am with you always, Jesus, stay, the promise of the father, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wait

The lectionary readings on this day (Feast of the Ascension) when we consider the completion of Christ’s mission on earth are among the most familiar of the Church year. What then can be said that does not sound prosaic but rather at least interesting at such an important moment? Although the events of this day were likely earth-shattering for the apostles, of course, I wonder if the important lines that we read are not about what happened on that day but rather appear as two brief directives that move us toward what involved a preparation on the part of the apostles.

In the first reading (Act of the Apostles 1:1-11) after recounting the events of the past 40 days, Jesus “enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait…” Then in the last reading from the gospel (Luke, 24), Jesus directed them to “stay in the city…” In both cases, they were waiting “for the promise of the Father.” How could they possibly know what was ahead for them?

Wait, he said. Stay. For most of us, waiting is not the easiest task. Nor, I would be willing to wager, was it so for these friends of Jesus who had been with him in good times and bad and now, at his departure from the earth, must have been thrown back into a place of not knowing once again. But wait they did, going back into an upper room, perhaps the best symbol of encounter in the events of all their time together.

Have you ever waited for something, not knowing exactly what you were waiting for or what the outcome of your waiting would engender? Maybe you were told Christmas would bring you a great gift this year…or, as an opposing thought, perhaps you have heard a weather report of an impending storm and are waiting for the outcome. How is it possible in either of these situations to wait with some modicum of patience?

Waiting for God to speak can also take patience. Hunkering down in stillness to hear “the still small voice of God” takes practice and perseverance. Maybe you are waiting for courage or the answer to a burning question or simply to know that God considers you a “beloved one” each and every day.

As we wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit once again at Pentecost, may we recall the words of Jesus who said at his departure from this world and who promises to us: “I am with you always, until the end of the world.”

Faith Quotient

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faith, Greeks, ministry, Passion, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The speech of Paul in chapter 17 of the Act of the Apostles that appears in today’s lectionary readings is a pivotal moment in his ministry. If read aloud, one can hear the power and conviction of belief in Paul’s words and imagine how the the Greeks of Athens must have been moved by him. He was not giving them a lecture about his personal belief to inform them. Rather he was telling them what they had been missing in their lives and how this God was the one they were looking for, even if unknowingly. Most likely Paul had no written text but spoke from his heart, no microphone but rather just his passion for Christ to strengthen his message. And even now twenty centuries later people like me are moved by his words and his delivery. Imagining I am speaking to a crowd of people who are seeking some deep and meaningful reason for what is unknown yet calling them in a deep way – a more personal God to believe in, I put my heart totally in the words below as I speak out my faith.

You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed “To an Unknown God.” What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you! The God who made the world and all that it in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is served by human hands because of needing anything. Rather it is this God who gives to everyone life and breath and everything…so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope and find God, though indeed this God is not far from any one of us, for it is in this God that we live and move and have our being.

Can you hear it? Can you feel it? Would you be able to move anyone to desire to know more from you about your belief? How strong is your faith after all?

Unanswered Questions

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loss, sorrow, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tornado, unite

We have just celebrated a three-day weekend in the Northeast USA, grateful for two or three days of sunshine that allowed outdoor activities. It’s raining now and I am going to my office this morning. A stiff breeze has just warned me of the necessity of closing my bedroom window and I’m wondering when I will be able to rake up all the grass I mowed into rows yesterday and how messy the project will be…

I blink and shift to a broader consciousness: all the people whose concerns are so much more than my own today. Pictures of tornado damage in so many states in our country’s mid-section are hardly believable. Winds of up to 160 miles an hour have left only shards of wood that were once walls and cars lie piled on top of one another or under huge, uprooted trees. And there seems no end in sight to the storms.

Sorrow and gratitude play within me as I face the day. Is it only luck that has placed me in this small corner of the world? We have flood damage on occasion but have generally been spared from the serious loss occasioned by such weather conditions. What can I do short of leaving home and traveling to disaster regions? (A monetary donation would be minuscule in the face of the destruction.) What then? Prayer of lament? I think so…But what else can I offer to those who find themselves homeless and bereft? How might I best unite myself to others who suffer such loss?

The Whole Song

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America the Beautiful, brotherhood, God Bless America, heroes, liberating, Memorial Day, patriot, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Songs and pictures have a way of inspiring emotion and passion in ways that the spoken word often fails to do. I find this true especially of prayer as well as in patriotic lyrics and the faces of those who serve in branches of our military – especially on holidays like today. The sung prayer of Irving Berlin named God Bless America surely helped people hold hope through World War I and before that America the Beautiful reminded Americans of the great gift of the land and the country that is ours.

I’m a fan of going beyond the first verse of any song. I get frustrated when hymn singing is truncated, leaving praise or messages about correct behavior hanging, incomplete. I say that with regard to patriotic songs as well as Church hymns. For instance, the fourth verse of How Great Thou Art takes us all the way to heaven but leaving off at the end of verse three can be deflating at best. (Just my opinion, of course.)

On this particular holiday, the best example of my argument is the aforementioned America the Beautiful. The refrain that begins each time with “America, America” is only the same in verses one and four. Great prayers are put forth in verses two and three, graces that we need as much as “brotherhood” (or sisterhood!). As a matter of fact, the entire verses are worth repeating here…so read on and see if you don’t agree.

1. O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. For purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain… America, America, God shed His grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
2. O beautiful for Pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress a throroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness…America, America, God mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self -control, thy liberty in law.
3. O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life…America, America, may God thy gold refine till all success be nobleness and every gain divine.
4. O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears…America, America, God shed His grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

Amen. God bless us all. Amen.

Memorial Day Weekend

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an instrument of praise, celebrate life, creation speaks, defend, Lynn Bauman, Memorial Day, praise, presence of God, psalm 67, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We sit today in the middle of what is celebrated during this weekend as the beginning of the summer season (although the calendar announces that late in June). Memorial Day weekend sees us stretching back to remember those brave people who have defended our nation in times of war and who have served throughout our history in all manner of capacities to preserve our freedom. By extension, we celebrate life: family, friends, colleagues – with picnics, baseball games in parks, laughter and prayer for peace in gathered communities of faith. At this hour we live in hope of weather that supports our plans, but in reality that doesn’t matter much; it is our presence together that creates the success of the day.

Psalm 67, the lectionary offering for today, can be considered, writes one commentator, as an international hymn of praise. Lynn Bauman says that our task as contemporary creatures is not simply to pray for ourselves, or narrowly for those around us who are dear to us, but to give voice for the whole earth. This is what it means to become “an instrument of praise” through which the whole creation speaks. Imagine yourself as creation’s voice, as an instrument through which those without voice can enter with praise the presence of God. Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p.166)

May the blessings of this weekend be great and may our gratitude mend division so that true peace may find a home in our hearts!

As Morning Breaks

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As Morning Breaks, morning, strength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I woke up this morning during the first part of the 5:00 hour (which means I was still too asleep to remember exactly what time it was). The sun was already doing its job of drying the grass which is growing at quite a rapid pace and in my head was a sweet morning song – a psalm setting so gentle it lulled me back to sleep for a bit…As morning breaks, I look to you. I look to you, O Lord, to be my strength this day…as morning breaks…as morning breaks.” Just the refrain, offering everything up to God’s strength for whatever is needed every moment of this day. Just enough to take me through until tomorrow. I’m still singing…

Blessed be!

Shedding

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branch, connection, John, lesson, nature, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vine

I”ve spent some time yesterday and the day before picking up branches under one of our large maple trees. I hope that today I will complete the task and be able to rake and then cut the grass under that tree. We’ve had an inordinate amount of shedding going on this spring, mostly because of the heavy winds of the past few months. Some of the branches could be mistaken for trees themselves because they are so very large. As I drag them to a pile on the edge of our property, I sometimes wonder what made them separate from the tree as many of them seem strong and not at all diseased. People would say that it’s just the way of things in nature: they live, are nourished by their root system and then they die – either from a weather event or just old age.

Clearing the branches makes me more aware of the gifts of the trees to our ecosystem and to me. Beauty, shade and release of necessary gasses as they breathe are notable reasons to be grateful, as is the shelter they provide for the birds. Interestingly, today the gospel is the familiar “vine and branches” reading from John that speaks to us of our connection to one another and to God. And that is perhaps the greatest lesson of all.

Inner Peace

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inner peace, Jesus, peace of heart, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth

Surely my most important insight today (amazing at 6:33AM) will be something that I have known for a long time but now makes more sense and came from a familiar verse from John’s gospel this morning. Jesus is getting ready for his final “goodbye” to his friends and leaves them with this message: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

What is clearer than ever for me this morning is that Jesus is talking about inner peace – peace of heart, we would call it, so that no matter what’s going on outside of us, the inside can remain hopeful and loving and kind because God remains steadfast in us. Disturbing events in the world around us are real but cannot shake our knowing of that truth.

I feel as if I have taken a further step into the deep waters of truth that will allow me more peace in the everyday recognition of troubling events. If I can remember to live from my heart where peace abides in God, I can face external events with equanimity. Perhaps it sounds strange to say that this is a new knowing for me. I certainly should be familiar with this teaching by now in my life, shouldn’t I? Well, of course! I have known those words of Jesus for decades but the world has become more complex, more challenging so I needed wider eyes and clearer recognition of the great gift of inner peace where we can meet each other and become that peace. Are you there as well?

Idols

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faith, healing, idols, the living God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There’s a lot in the Scriptures for today about idols or “false gods,” both in Psalm 115 (their idols are silver and gold, the handiwork of men) and in chapter 14 of the Acts of the Apostles where Paul healed a man, lame from birth. In that case, Paul was clear that his power to heal came from “the living God” but the people refused to believe that he was not “a god in human form.”

I am sitting with these two impressions of long ago and thinking about how the world of “healing” works now. Besides our incredibly complex pharmaceutical system, there are still places in the world where inhabitants have their “kitchen gods” and others, and where Christian people pray to saints, named as intercessors for certain things (most commonly St. Anthony to find lost articles). I can say that there is a difference in prayers to saints and praying to “the living God” and that the distinction is clear to me – but is it always? Are there not people who attribute a measure of divinity to those whose power seems “super-human,” especially in situations of physical healing?

How do we explain these things? And is there not an element of faith necessary in the exchange of those involved in such a healing – between the healer and the one healed, I mean? Could that faith be generated by trust in “the living God” transmitted through a human being? Does the quality of the healing have anything to do with the humility of the healer – e.g. giving the glory to God rather than to his/her own power? In addition, shouldn’t we be looking more closely at the relationship between our physical, psycho-emotional and spiritual selves as we live each day? Physician, heal thyself, the adage from the gospel of Luke, might merit some reflection.

No definitive answers here as it is all a matter of personal belief, religious training and life situation. This is just what happens when I face a day with the Scriptures in my lap…The likely value for me is to ask myself all the above questions and consider alternatives so that when I am asked about my beliefs I have something to say.