Back to Ordinary

Tags

healing, holidays, Jesus, Mark, Ordinary Time, praying, preaching, surprise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, work

This morning as I checked to be sure I was reading the correct lectionary selections for this date I noticed the heading: Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time. Not really meaning ordinary in the “ordinary” way, I know that I should be thinking of it as ordinal/counting time. It struck me as the former, however, as it seems that way. Holidays are over, routines have returned and, whether or not we are happy about it, life goes on as it always does. We may have done a year-end inventory – financial or spiritual. We may be grieving large or small losses or celebrating gains as individuals, but on a macro level, the world is still turning.

Jesus is busy in the beginning of Mark’s gospel. (Mark’s writing always reminds me of the saying, “Just the facts, Ma’am” as there is little embellishment in this shortest gospel.) Today in just eleven verses of chapter one (29-39), Jesus finishes his worship in the synagogue, heals Simon’s mother-in-law, has a meal – served by the former invalid, cures “many” including those possessed by demons, spends some time before dawn the next day in the desert praying and then leaves to preach and heal in the nearby villages. That’s quite an agenda!

Some of us are lucky enough to have variety in our work but, seen in another way, sometimes a routine job is more comforting. At least in that way we know what the day will look like. Here’s a nod to the Christmas story that we’ve just left, however. Our God is a God of surprises. If the long-awaited Messiah could be born as a baby of what were reputed to be poor, insignificant parents in the eyes of the world, we ought to be looking deeper than our “ordinary” circumstances for the extraordinary work of God. Life does, in fact, go on and it is ours to stay awake to the little miracles inherent in the everyday.

 

 

 

 

 

Being Disturbed

Tags

beliefs, challenged, curious, disturbed, holidays, ideas, identity, Meg Wheatley, Turning To One Another

I probably should have said something gleaned from Meg Wheatley’s book, Turning to One Another before the holidays started since so many of us were on our way to gatherings during these days. If close to home, we are probably back in our own space by now, safe in our daily routines. For some, today may be a travel day, perhaps an unlikely time to be on the internet – unless stuck in an airport, of course. Anyway, I wasn’t feeling as if I had anything to say this morning that was worthy of note but, since I needed a companion for my second cup of coffee, I pulled Meg Wheatley off the shelf and opened to a section named willing to be disturbed. Although the entire section is worthy of note, the beginning caught my eye immediately. I will only submit to you the first paragraph and a short addendum but once again, I offer the book as one to review on a regular basis because her words are relevant, it seems, to whatever day we find them in – ordinary or not.

As we work together to restore hope to the future, we need to include a new and strange ally – our willingness to be disturbed. Our willingness to have our beliefs and ideas challenged by what others think. No one person or perspective can give us the answers we need to the problems of today. Paradoxically, we can only find those answers by admitting we don’t know. We have to be willing to let go of our certainty and expect ourselves to be confused for a time…

It is very difficult to give up our certainties – our positions, our beliefs, our explanations. These help define us; they lie at the heart of our personal identity. Yet I believe we will succeed in changing this world only if we can think and work together in new ways. Curiosity is what we need. We don’t have to let go of what we believe, but we do need to be curious about what someone else believes. We do need to acknowledge that their way of interpreting the world might be essential to our survival. (p. 34-35)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Busy?

Tags

blessings, busy, holidays, honor God, Paul, Peace, psalm 128, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thessalonians

One of the most frequent comments I hear these days is how quickly time is passing. We wonder if it’s just because we’re getting older that it seems so – but younger people are saying it too. Perhaps it’s because we’re so busy and it seems time is being stolen from us by our over-active lives. (There was a website in my in-box this morning offering workshops on how to be less busy as well as “keeping your eye on the path.” – common themes lately.) The Christmas rush is already in high gear, mixed with groaning about the “warp speed” approach of Thanksgiving and potential travel glitches. Even writing this brings a feeling of urgency, although I plan to stay home and relax through both of those holiday events; the whirlwind is just everywhere in and around our days.

All this blathering on my part arose from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians this morning (1 THESS 5:1-6) He’s talking about “the day of the Lord” overtaking people who aren’t alert “like a thief in the night.” The beginning of the reading says, however: Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you…presupposing that they’ll be ready for whatever comes. It seems a bit of a warning not to get caught up in our busyness. He says at the end of the reading, Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.

Going back to that website, I was thinking that rather than abdicating my responsibility (and my financial resources) to someone to find out how to be less busy, maybe I should just sit down, take a breath and make a list of priorities about the next six weeks so that I can then spend a little time thinking of the deeper meaning of these “times and seasons” that are upon us. While I’m waking up to this activity, finding peace and focus for the task, I might choose to read my favorite translation of the psalm for today (128) that gives a vision of what it’s all really about.

Blessed are you who walk upon the paths of God. Your life is filled with many hidden blessings, which overflow as from your hands, the gift of many labors. And blessings like fruit-bearing trees and vines spring forth and flourish from the garden of your house; your spouse and children are its yield. And all who honor God upon this path shall know a cornucopia of good. For it is God, the center of the heart, who prospers life until its end. So you who hear and pray this prayer, come close and live within the circle of God’s care, and may God’s special peace be yours, one generation to another.