What’s On Your List?

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anxieties, blessing, calm, centering prayer, forgive, holy anger, hopeful, inspiration, judge, Macrina Wiederkehr, non-violent heart, prayer, seven sacred pauses, sit in silence, spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tolerance

Not having any inspiration this morning – nor even cogent thoughts for that matter, I have been searching the words of Macrina Wiederkehr for an expression that would mirror how I’m feeling. Since I am unable to recognize myself in anything I read, I choose simply to offer her prayer that begins: There are mornings when I simply sit in silence trying to remember some of the things that rise in me. Her list is challenging but maybe if I focus on even one of the elements, it will jump-start my motivation for the day. May this day be a blessing for each of us and all of us together as we rise to the call of the Spirit.

Macrina’s list includes a tolerance for those who don’t agree with me, a refusal to judge others, a willingness to forgive, greater effort to live with a non-violent heart, a calm and hopeful spirit in the midst of my anxieties, discipline in my daily personal prayer, attention and faithfulness in my daily work, a holy anger for the injustice in our world. (Seven Sacred Pauses, p. 63-4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Whole Jigsaw Puzzle

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Alan Cohen, compassion, condemn, glorify, hallelujah, Holy Spirit, jigsaw puzzle, judge, kindness, love, Lynn Bauman, praise psalm, psalm 117, steadfast, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I think that Psalm 117 is the shortest psalm in the whole book, or at least tied for that honor. It’s a praise psalm – as many are – and our lectionary translation has it in its totality as follows: Praise the Lord all you nations; glorify him, all you peoples. For steadfast is God’s kindness toward us, and the fidelity of the Lord endures forever. A lovely, hopeful sentiment.

There was something in Lynn Bauman’s translation, however, that drew me more powerfully. Read both aloud and see what you think. Bauman writes: Hallelujah! O peoples of the earth and all the nations, it is God alone that we should name in praise. For it is God who shows such deep compassion, who loves us now and everlastingly! (Ancient Songs Sung Anew) Maybe it was the Hallelujah! at the beginning that made me sit up a bit straighter or maybe the specificity of “God alone.” Certainly kindness and fidelity are comforting characteristics that we admire in our God, but those two unbeatable words, love and compassion, seal the deal for me in the comparison.

Sometimes, just to bolster the direction in which I’m leaning, I check another source. This morning it was Alan Cohen who spoke of human judgments and then wrote a line that seemed to resonate with what I had already begun to feel. See what you think.

We cannot judge or condemn another person’s act because we do not know how it fits into the bigger picture of their life or the lives of those they touch. At any given moment, we see only a tiny sliver of a huge jigsaw puzzle that only makes sense on a level that is broader than any human being can understand. Ultimately, every experience contributes to spiritual awakening. The Holy Spirit sees only love and when we lift our vision, we behold a miraculous universe. (A Deep Breath of Life)

Cohen ends his reflection with an affirmation that jumps up a level and brings my thought circle to conclusion. He writes: My eyes are God’s eyes. I exchange judgment for compassion and look upon a forgiven world.

(Let the people say, “AMEN!”)

 

 

 

 

 

From Now On

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adultery, condemned, encounter, forgiven, forgiving, humiliation, judge, sinfulness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The gospel for today is the story of the woman caught in adultery. Leaving aside the justice question about the man involved in the incident – while not unaware of the impact it has even today – I am given to comment on the way Jesus puts his attention on the woman. After having said the famous line: Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” and doing that mysterious writing in the sand, Jesus turns to the woman. He engages her in the most compassionate way by asking, “Woman, where are they?” My guess is that he said that so she would raise her head in order to see that they had all skulked away. She had certainly been bowed to the ground in fear and humiliation. I can see her looking around in amazement as he asks the second question: “Has no one condemned you?” and then – best of all – says, “Neither will I.”

The important thing to note here is that even though Jesus is totally forgiving her, he also requires something because he ends with the charge to “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” What a wonderful moment though! She can be confident that he knows her deeply in ways that before this encounter she would have hidden from everyone she valued in her life. Her job now is to forgive herself as she goes forward because she is just like all others who know that they are not perfect but are trying to be better. And the men that were going to stone her? With luck, they learned not to judge but to take a look at their own sinfulness – in whatever form – and were converted as well. Perhaps we might do the same today, remembering that we too are forgiven.

 

Weather Report

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A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen, judge, keep smiling, let go, Psalm 147, snow, spark of the divine, spring, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, weather report, winter

I smiled as I read the Psalm for today – one of the praise psalms toward the end of the book, Psalm 147, wherein we find a weather report of sorts. In verse 16, the psalmist sings of God’s activity thus: He spreads snow like wool; frost he strews like ashes. Yesterday I was thinking we were surely headed for spring but this morning there’s lots of activity out there, wind and blowing snow – as if last week’s dump of almost 3 feet of the white stuff were not enough!

My thought that I am powerless to do anything but accept the vagaries of the weather was a good segue as I read a quote about relating to other people. Alan Cohen, in his daily reflection (A Deep Breath of Life) says the following: Help me not to judge my brothers and sisters, but let me recognize  my unity with them. Help me to see the spark of the divine in all the eyes I look into. I smile again as I think of English class when I was a child and find myself cringing at the “dangling preposition” that makes me want to correct the previous sentence to say, in all the eyes into which I look. But how clumsy does that sound! The bottom line in all this seems to be something like the following:

Just keep smiling and let go of your need for everything to work according to your rules. Living will likely be easier that way!

Elizabeth Regina

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authority, destiny, divine, judge, leadership, psalm 97, Queen Elizabeth, sovereign, The Crown, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, weighty

The “common cold” has been getting a lot of attention recently. We’ve been warned about the danger of being heedless as it could lead to pneumonia – and that to death, especially for the elderly. Whether it be an excess of caution or a very serious infection, Queen Elizabeth of England has joined the ranks of those of us afflicted in this season, to the extent that she missed participating in her traditional Christmas church service for the first time in 30 years!

I was reminded of the Queen as I read a translation of this morning’s psalm (97) that used the word “Sovereign” for God in the first verse. It is God, I AM, who is sovereign over all, it said. We have been watching at our house the Netflix original series called The Crown which so far (only one season produced thus far) chronicles the period of Elizabeth II’s early life and the first decade of her reign as queen. The introduction to each episode is quite strikingly artistic, beginning with strands of molten gold, flowing and swirling and eventually forming the weighty (5 pounds, they say) crown of the queen. Just that piece and the title give a perfect introduction to the main theme of the entire series: the role of the sovereign which, as is clear from the oath at her coronation, comes directly from God. A weighty destiny indeed.

I have stopped after writing the above, not knowing where to take that thought. There is so much that flows from its meaning. Her serious demeanor seems rarely left behind, usually only when she has been seen walking her dogs in the countryside, for instance. That makes more sense to me now, having seen images of her struggling with the impossible task of one who is seen to have divine authority but at the same time is bound by centuries of protocols and traditions that seem ironclad, thus immune to her differing opinions. I feel a new compassion for her, rather than just a passing curiosity about what she is wearing or whether she is smiling when she appears on the news. Wherever this leads, it reminds me of the serious “job” of leadership and the task of the rest of us to research before we judge.

The Weight of Evidence

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condemn, discernment, guilt, innocence, Jesus, John, judge, judgment, justice, law, Nicodemus, Pharisees, psalm 7, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Both the psalm and the gospel in this morning’s lectionary remind me of a basic principle of law in the United States of America, i.e. “innocent until proven guilty.” We are still in chapter 7 of John’s gospel where people are divided about Jesus. As yesterday, they are convinced he cannot be the messiah because he comes from Galilee but the guards say to the authorities, “No one has ever spoken like this man!” The Pharisees are still resistant asking, “Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?” (as if position alone yields probity.) It is Nicodemus that enters then and asks my question: “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” Would that this question always be raised at moments of personal and/or public judging in our lives!

The psalmist turns the job of judging over to God, as in psalm 7 he cries out: Judge us, judge me, judge everything and all that’s in your care. Weigh me on the scale of innocence, according to your law, and as you establish justice, bring evil to an end. For this I know, you are the source of justice done, the fairest judge of all. You know what’s in the human heart to the very secrets of the soul. You are also the great protecting one, you shield the good, defending all that’s true. (vs. 8-11)

The faculty of judgment in the manner of discernment is essential to our lives in assessing what is beneficial and what is not – from what we ought to eat, to wear, to spend our money on, etc. When judging moves into the public arena, however, where we begin to assess the intelligence, worthiness of respect, good character – or any other quality – of another person or the rightness in a situation, we ought to be sure we have spent the time and energy it takes to really make an informed judgment. And, in truth, we would be better off leaving that kind of judgment to God, letting love be the measure of our lives. I will try today to notice how quickly I move to judgment in my thoughts throughout the day and I will try to keep those thoughts to myself for the benefit of all!

Practicing Law

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holy, judge, judging people, justice, Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Leviticus, Matthew, mosaic law, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The stories on the news since Saturday about the unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia have been a lesson to me. Knowing only that Scalia was seen as one of the most conservative judges on the court, I failed to see this longest serving member as the brilliant scholar and interpreter of the law that he was. More interesting to me was the report of his close relationship with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose comment to the press about Scalia was that they were “best buddies.” They disagreed on everything about the law, it is said, but were able to discuss everything and remain deeply committed to their relationship. High praise from many quarters across the political spectrum helped me to see the unfortunate consequences of labels like “conservative” and “liberal.”

I felt somewhat the same when reading the lectionary texts for today. Matthew 25 is the familiar chapter about the sheep and the goats, i.e. the law of love for neighbor. It was the reading from Leviticus (19: 1-18), however, that brought the lesson to my consciousness. Leviticus is about the Mosaic Law, a book that I have tended to skip over, determining it “dry” or not applicable to life in 21st century America. I was surprised at the tone and the examples of the directives that I read this morning that were each followed by the declarative, “I am the Lord” – God’s reminder of who is in charge of making the laws. Two sections drew my attention the most after the command to “be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” Take a look:

You shall not defraud or rob your neighbor. You shall not withhold overnight wages of  your day laborer. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. (much warmer and relational than the specific dimensions of the temple building…)

(This one’s for Justice Scalia.) You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly. You shall not go about spreading slander among your kin; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake.

Reading these relational statements from Leviticus makes me see that perhaps even the tiniest or seemingly banal tenets of the Mosaic Law might hold some meaning if I took it upon myself to look deeply and not judge this book by the proverbial “cover.” Today, then, I will resolve to pay more attention to any tendency in me toward judgment without evidence, and I will pray in gratitude for men like Justice Scalia who clearly lived a life of integrity in service to God and to the law.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Are You Wearing?

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body of Christ, Corinthians, diversity, dress, holy attire, judge, psalm 96, St. Paul, Sunday best, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, worship

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians contains lines that are quite familiar to most Christians, some recognizable even by a few words, like “Love is patient…” or today’s section, “There are many gifts, but the same spirit…” Paul is talking about spiritual gifts and the value of diversity for the benefit of the community (1COR 12:4-11). My attention was diverted from reflection on that topic, however, by a line in the psalm that preceded Paul’s words. It sounds rather silly but may make sense in the end. Let’s see.

The line in Psalm 96 says: “Worship the Lord in holy attire.” It’s a praise psalm with all sorts of images and imperatives for the ways we ought to worship God but that line reminded me of how we always got dressed up on Sundays to go to Church. Some of us still do and others complain about the “attire” – generally of young people – who appear in all sorts of what their elders consider as totally improper dress. I always say to those who offer that opinion that “at least they’re here.”

My point that arose from the line in the psalm juxtaposed with Paul’s words is not about what’s right or wrong but rather how we judge people by the clothes they wear. Teens are judged by the brand of their jeans (now best if they look like they’ve been through a paper shredder), adults by the name on their exercise outfits, women celebrities by the peepholes in their gowns and the rest of us by any number of regional or other fads that appear and disappear somehow that is beyond my comprehension. Paul doesn’t speak of the ability to intuit what is correct attire; he’s more interested in spiritual gifts. What he does add to this stream of thought, however, is that diversity is a good thing and we need it to broaden the consciousness of the community.

So hurrah for those unfazed by fads, people who wear what they wear either to be comfortable or to make a statement. Blessings on those who wear what they wear with dignity even if their lot is necessity and their clothes are well-worn and not of their choosing. May we never judge by what we see but always look deeper for “the manifestation of the Spirit…given for some benefit” and may we always celebrate the diversity of all the members in the body of Christ.

Rainy Day Thoughts

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God, Jesus, judge, love those who hate you, Luke, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, turn the other cheek

It’s a rainy morning in the Northeast, the kind of dark day that seems to warrant climbing back into bed for awhile in order to get up the energy to face what awaits…If that weren’t challenge enough, Jesus has some tough words today that have the same effect on me as the weather (LK 6:27-38)! It’s not enough that he says, judge not that you may not be judged. (I’ve been working on that one for a very long time!) Here are the challenges that can cause a person to cringe:To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

But then I think, “Wait a minute! I don’t think I can say that I hate anyone and I’m hoping that people aren’t going around cursing me. I am certainly not being mistreated.” But hold on…Jesus pushes even further for people who can slide through the first part unscathed. He says:

To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back. For if you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you?

The text goes on but there’s enough there to outlast all the rain that could possibly fall today. May there be enough honesty in me to approach the last question with an open heart and an intention to see God anew in each person that I meet, so I’ll move toward the love that is required of seekers of this loving God.

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.