Bowing to Beauty

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, awe, child, humility, Jesus, Lynn Bauman, psalm 2, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I found a surprise today from the Acts of the Apostles. Paul is in Antioch, preaching in the synagogue, telling the story of Jesus. Toward the end of the text, speaking of the Resurrection he says, “…what God promised our fathers …as is written in the second psalm…”

Although there are many references to the Hebrew Scriptures in the New Testament, I don’t recall ever reading any specific reference to chapter or verse, like “the second Psalm.” I wondered at that so I went, of course, to Psalm 2 and found exactly what Paul was referencing in speaking of Jesus, a very familiar verse. (“You are my son; this day I have begotten you.” )

Looking for more as an expansion of the message of Psalm 2, I found from Lynn Bauman a lovely, inclusive translation*. “God says, ‘You are a child of mine, this day I birth you.'” A bit later in the psalm we see the responsibility accompanying God’s favor to the people, as the psalmist proclaims: Learn service to the God of earth and heaven. In humility and awe draw close, come near.

I look up from my computer and see the sun dappling my prayer plant as it bows in beauty before me. The tiniest of breezes ruffles the leaves. The birds are singing and the sun continues to warm the day. How can I not “draw close in awe and humility” to God in the presence of these beautiful signs and the expectation of what God holds for us this day.

*Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 3)

Earnest Prayer

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awe, bless us, blessings, guiding, health, instrument of praise, Lynn Bauman, psalm 67, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I made the mistake this morning of catching up on national news before turning to my blog. Finding everything to be distressing or conflictual, I reverted to the readings of the day and found Psalm 67 which reminded me of the necessity and the comfort of prayer for the world. In gratitude for Lynn Bauman’s translation, I may print it and keep it in my prayer space as an everyday goad to positive thinking.

O God, have mercy upon us and bless us with the light streaming from your face. 
And so that here on earth we know and walk your ways, restore us back to health again.
May every person, every creature become an instrument of praise to you. 
And may you be the song that makes us glad, and every nation sings with joy,
For your pure justice reigns and rules, guiding all with equal hand.
May every creature, every person, then, be an instrument of praise,
And earth itself abound with a fullness yet unknown, as you alone become “our God” for everyone.
Your blessings fill us full, and cover us and earth with awe from edge to edge. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p.165)

Spirit Of All That Lives

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awe, breath, counsel, fear of the Lord, fortitude, gifts, Holy Spirit, knowledge, Pentecost, piety, Prayer Seeds, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding, wisdom, wonder

Today we celebrate the outpouring of the power that we call the Holy Spirit. Every inspiration that leads us deeper into the transformation of our hearts in love is understood as an impulse of this face of God. This Spirit is as elemental as our breath, unseen but known in myriad ways great and small – universal and individual. It is as simple as the intake of my breath at the beauty of the burgeoning flowers in spring or as miraculous as the moment a young woman first holds her newborn child. The Spirit brings many gifts, taught in Christianity (traditionally and then in modern parlance) as wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel (right judgment), fortitude (courage), piety (reverence) and fear of the Lord (Wonder and awe in God’s presence).

Let us be grateful in this celebration as we pray: Spirit of the Universe, Spirit of my heart, I welcome you into my life. Come visit the places within me where Love has yet to find a dwelling place. Breathe within all of my existence with the power of your transforming grace. I open my entire being to you and thank you for the gift of your presence. Amen. (Prayer Seeds, p. 172)

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Young and Old Alike

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awe, beauty, fear of the Lord, majesty, psalm 111, religious education, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Timothy, wisdom, wonder, youth

When I was teaching high school and, later, working in religious education with teenagers, I always referred them to the first letter of Timothy, a young disciple of Paul, specifically to the line that said, “Never let people look down on you because you are young, but see that they look up to you because of your love and faith and purity.” This morning I find that line (1TIM 4:12) – although translated a bit differently as “Let no one have contempt for your youth…” – as a call to all of us who are older to give more than a passing glance to young people whose journey to adulthood has likely been much more complicated than mine and to seek the good that may sometimes be hidden in them.

Another of my memories from those days of parish religious education was the shift in translation of the “seven gifts of the Holy Spirit” taught as they prepared for the sacrament of Confirmation. Most welcome was the change from “fear of the Lord” to “wonder and awe in God’s presence.” That made so much sense to me. I believe that the sense of that gift was always “God is so big and I am so small” but rather than conveying a duty to cower in the face of that huge presence, we are called to bow in wonder to the majesty and beauty of God. Perhaps that awe is most easily seen in small children for whom almost everything is a cause for wonder.

Lest you think I am lost in a reverie of by-gone teaching days, I was drawn to think of all this in connection as I read Psalm 111 today, which says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This reminds me that I need to nurture that sense of wonder and awe in young people, listen to them for growing insights about the workings of God in the world and find wisdom where it is birthed in them. We generally hear that wisdom is a virtue not characteristic of the young. While it is true that experience is the best teacher of wisdom, I would advocate for attention to what they can teach us older folks of newness and fresh perspective, and pray for them as they will be the ones to change the world.

Transfiguration

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a peculiar gift, awe, enlightenment, everyday, gifts, God, inner knowing, James, John, Mark, mystical experiences, ongoing journey, openess, Peter, presence of God, shining like the sun, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, transfiguration

One of the posts here during my Israel trip spoke of Thomas Merton’s mystical vision of people “walking around shining like the sun.” I’m reminded of that image this morning in reading Mark’s version of the familiar story of The Transfiguration, when Jesus was praying and his companions, Peter, James and John, saw him shining in the same way. (MK 9:2-10) As Merton says, mystical experiences cannot be understood with our ordinary minds but only by “a peculiar gift” – a total openness to the presence of God perhaps – which may be fleeting but never forgotten.

I’m interested this morning in the immediate reaction of the apostles – a mixture of terror and awe – which led Peter to suggest that they set up tents and stay on the mountain. And why not? Wouldn’t it be a natural desire if we had such a brilliant experience that revealed a depth heretofore unknown to us to hold onto it? But no. The moment passed and Jesus was again the Jesus they experienced in the everyday. Now, however, the three knew something that they did not know before, something inexplicable that Jesus told them to keep to themselves. Trying to explain it to others would have been difficult and perhaps distracting from the mission of Jesus. If people were to hear of the “ability” of Jesus to be transformed into a being of light they might long for that experience of him and no longer listen to the message of their own transformation into love. So it is with us. If we are granted moments of enlightenment  in whatever way they come to us we ought to be grateful for we will be changed. The challenge is to see these moments of insight (inner knowing) as gifts and to take them to ourselves as strength for the ongoing journey into God who continues to love us more than we can ask or imagine.

Who Are We?

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angels, awe, creation, Earth, heavens, moon and stars, psalm 8, sacred place, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe, wonder

Today I’m happy to be accompanied through the day by my favorite Psalm. It speaks of all creation and our place in it. It seems to me lately that we are coming to understand better our responsibility toward each other as well as the “non-human” elements of what exists. The early biblical charge of God to “fill the earth and subdue it” has gradually morphed into a gratitude for the beauty that we experience and a reverence for what we have been given. We have a long way to go and some big mistakes to correct regarding environmental waste and carelessness, but the children of the world certainly seem to have a better grasp of how we and the cosmos are all connected, giving me hope for the future. All of that comes clear in Psalm 8.

O God, our God, how glorious is your name over all the earth!…When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place, who are we that you should be mindful us, that you should care for us? You have made us little less than the angels and set us over the works of your hands… 

A reflection that I read this morning said that the night sky has always been for humanity a source of wonder and awe. Looking up on a clear night with the vast star-field spread out above puts our lives and world into a very different perspective. We see ourselves as small and insignificant in this vastness, but are we? A voice out of the universe seems to answer our question: “You have a sacred place and role to fulfill.”

My point exactly.