Language That Speaks

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crowds, emotions, God, guiding light, happiness, Isaiah, knowledge, language, love, perception, prayer, psalm 126, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, voice

For thousands of years people have been trying to say just the right things that will catch the imagination of those wanting to find the essence of life. That desire is the stuff of religions, communities, nations or at least small groups of people who hear what seems to make sense of things and thereby decide to follow the one who speaks that truth. In some cases it is the power of the voice or, in another, some inexplicable quality that emanates from within the person that causes others to sit up and take notice.

This morning I was awakened by the prophet Isaiah whom I could hear shouting: Up, Jerusalem! Stand upon the heights and see your children gathered from the east and the west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that they are remembered by God! Not only hearing but seeing, in the distance of my mind’s eye, throngs of people streaming across a great space from all directions and climbing toward the sun-drenched plateau of a mountain. The home of God was certainly present and waiting for them.

Just writing that paragraph, seeing that image, reminds me that we sometimes need imagination as well as fact to come to deeper knowing. Even the words we choose to express our experiences to others are important. The psalm for today (126) is full of emotions: our mouths filled with laughter! great things! filled with joy! dreaming! I can just see the happiness of people released from exile dancing their way home together.

But here are the words that resonate deep within my heart today as essential to the good of all people everywhere. May they be a guiding light for all of us. This is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value…(PHIL 1:8)

Crowds

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, crowds, inauguration, Jesus, march, Million Woman March, peaceful change, Psalm 40, temper, tension, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, violence

I just read the gospel this morning with the directive from Jesus to his disciples about getting a boat from which he could preach on the water so he would not be crushed by the crowds. It put me in mind of the two events happening tomorrow and Saturday in Washington, DC. Although all reports say that the crowd at the Presidential Inauguration will be “smaller than usual” that still means a huge turnout. And Saturday will see the “Million Woman March” – not only in Washington but at other centers around the country. The followers of Jesus could never have conceived of the crowds we will surely see during these days.

Even in the time of Jesus, large crowds have always held the potential for tension and the need for crowd control, especially in situations where there are supporters and opponents of the reason for the gathering. When people are being jostled and “personal space” is non-existent or when chanting becomes a shouting match by the different factions present, tempers can flare and the danger of violence grows.

My prayer this morning is that all of the participants in the weekend events will remember the privilege we have of living in this country and that peaceful change is possible if cooperation is based on higher purpose. Whatever our political leanings, may we be guided by the reminders in the prayer of the psalmist this morning.

O Lord, my God, all that you do is marked with good, and all the things you have in mind for us are incomparable. O that I could speak it for everyone to hear and know, but it is vast and overwhelms the soul. Yet I know this, for you have made my inner ear to hear, that it is never bloody sacrifices that we burn for sins you want or need from us. For even in the scroll of Torah, the book you wrote, it is said that I should simply do your will. That is it, your whole desire which has now become my soul’s delight. So from my heart I keep your ways, your law of life. (PS 40: 6-10) Ancient Songs Sung Anew

 

 

 

 

 

Overwhelmed?

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crowds, divine, gospel of mark, human, Jesus, overwhelmed, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The gospel for today causes me to pause and ask if Jesus might have sometimes felt overwhelmed. We do know that he sometimes escaped the crowds for some solitude and communion with God and that the crowds got so big that there was occasionally fear that they might crush him. It was the translation of the text this morning however that made me wonder again what he felt like. It said that when they got out of their boat at Gennesaret the people recognized him immediately and they scurried about the surrounding countryside and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. (Mk 6) It goes on to talk about laying the sick in the marketplaces in the villages and begging him to allow the sick just to touch him to be healed. I think of celebrities pushing to get through crowds and needing a cohort of bodyguards to help their progress – and that’s when everyone in the crowd is standing upright! For Jesus it was a question of trying not to step on people as well!

I know that my reflection sounds a bit dramatic, but then I hear the voice in my head that repeats “fully human, fully divine” and my compassion for Jesus reaches a new level. Today I will try to remember this feeling and be grateful for the example, especially if I’m asked to go beyond my comfort zone in service to others.