While We Wait…

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Advent, Christmas miracle, expectation, kingdom of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, waiting

I’ll be on the road today before the sun is up, long before I reach my destination. I’m reminded of an old description of how some people used to describe a visit to their doctor as “Hurry up and wait!” Not at all the same meaning however…

I hope to be in my car and on the road to the Dominican Retreat and Conference Center in Schenectady, N.Y. where “While We Wait” is the title of the Advent retreat day I’ll be leading. We’ll be talking about expectation and how it feels if we truly get into the spirit of Advent and make our waiting for the in-breaking of the Christmas miracle truly worth our effort during this brief, 24-day season. We do it every year but how does it change us? How does the coming of Jesus make us closer to a Christ-like example of what Jesus came to teach? What should we be living of his message as we celebrate his incarnation? Here are a few reminders that he left us.

The reign of God is in your midst…The kingdom of God is within you…Love one another as I have loved you…Love your neighbor as yourself…

That should be enough for now.

It’s True

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epiphany, Jesus, kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, Luke, Matthew, St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, treasure, truth, willingness

I had a bit of an epiphany this morning. (Is that possible, or is an epiphany always spectacular?) I was reading the gospel from today’s lectionary – very brief and so familiar – which read:

Jesus said to his disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. (MT 13: 44-46)

It’s such a pair of vivid images, so easy to see and understand that we can’t help but get the message of the need for willingness to give everything to experience it. Maybe because of the prayer of Ignatius Loyola that I offered here yesterday (who knows?) or maybe just because it was time for me to make the connection, as soon as I read that gospel, the following verse (LK 17:21) flashed into my mind. It’s not a simile but a statement that speaks of us and I wondered why that truth is so difficult for us to comprehend.

The kingdom of God is within you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kenosis

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all-knowing, Christianity, God, Incarnation, Jesus, kenosis, kingdom of God, Paul, Philippians, Redeemer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve just spent a bit of time reading internet information about the Greek word kenosis. After plowing through much theological language seeking something different – since I know I have written about this before – I decided ( at the risk of repeating myself) just to say a few words about the concept as it appears in Paul’s letter to the Philippians (ch. 2:6-11) and as I have come to appreciate it in my life.

In many religious traditions, including Christianity, God is seen as all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful, as well as abiding in ” the kingdom of heaven” which is viewed as far from us and from our earthly dwelling place. As we progress in holiness of life, we come closer to God and hopefully, in the end, abide in heaven for eternity. Theological and spiritual traditions often refer to these concepts as The Master Story.

With the doctrine of the Incarnation, i.e. Jesus, “who was by nature God, but who did not cling to Godliness, rather taking on human form,” put a new spin on thinking about God and us. Because the one we know as Christ, the Redeemer, entered human existence as “one like us in all things but sin,” the distance between us and God is collapsed and we can know the kingdom of God within us through the teachings and example of Jesus. Just as Jesus “emptied himself” so must we do the same – letting go of self-interest in favor of love for others. In doing so, living every day in love and actions that reflect the life of Christ more and more deeply, we will truly become the image and likeness of God that we were created to be.

This sounds so simple on paper but in reality is the most profound message – for me, at least – that I have found as a goal for life. I am happy to be reminded of it again today and every day in the simple word “kenosis.”

Undetected Growth

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bread, growth, kingdom of God, Luke, mustard seed, slow work of God, stability, Teilhard de Chardin, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust, yeast

Today’s gospel from Luke (13:18-21) has Jesus talking about mustard seeds and leaven as things that grow or cause expansion, often without notice. On occasion many years ago, I was charged in the convent kitchen with “punching” the dough a few times in its process of rising to get the air out until it’s ready to be baked. I know from that practice the importance of the yeast as an essential ingredient in the success of the bread-making process. Just a little packet does the job and without it, the whole enterprise falls flat – literally.

Even more amazing to me has been my astonishment over the years of living in the country when suddenly during a spring season I have come upon a tree that seems to have doubled in size since the end of the previous summer. The first time I noticed it, the tree looked as if a geyser had spurted out a whole new story of a house on top of what was there when the winter had begun. It was amazing and made me begin to look much more closely at the trees.

I keep thinking of the question that engendered the comparison Jesus was making with the growth of mustard seeds and leavened dough. He was trying to explain what the “kingdom of God” was like. Another famous mention of the kingdom of God came to mind as I wrote. He also said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” More and more I am convinced that, if we are trying to respond to opportunities to be our best selves, our day-to-day living will be the leaven. The “invisible” growth resulting from our efforts toward love will suddenly, perhaps, become visible to us as a more peaceful, hopeful attitude that will allow us to maintain a sense of stability (like the trees) in all seasons of our lives. It isn’t as if we aren’t trying all the time but rather that we don’t always notice the results along the way. And maybe that’s the point of it all. It’s in the doing that the energy is released, not in the search for a satisfying result. I guess we have to just follow the advice of Teilhard de Chardin who urged that we “above all, trust in the slow work of God.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buried Treasure

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church, compass, consciousness, God, interior experience, joy, kingdom of God, love, Matthew, presence, stay awake, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, treasure, truth, wake up

When I think of buried treasure, images of pirates or shipwrecked vessels at the bottom of the sea come to mind. This morning’s gospel from Matthew 13 would seem to make the search easier as the treasure is to be found “buried in a field” or in a jewelry store (“a pearl of great price”) but “not so fast”, I say to myself as a cartoon figure appears with a shovel on the edge of a huge expanse of rolling fields. And I’m not a great judge of the quality of gems either!

So how to find the “kingdom of God” has to be a different kind of search. Jesus gives the answer somewhere else, as we know, when he says: The kingdom of God is within you. Looking inside for God is not normally where we go first. Many of us were taught to look in church, where God actually does live, of course. But we need to spend our time there not complaining about less than stellar preaching or wondering why parents don’t teach their children proper attire for church services. We need to be consciously seeking the interior experience that is available to us in the ritual itself and in the community as it is engaged with our own moment of recognition of God’s presence.

And how is it that we miss that pearl of great price as we walk down the street and see God passing by in the eyes of a child or a person disguised as someone different from ourselves? Consciousness is the key, I think. We have not arrived here on earth to walk alone toward that field and we don’t even have to come equipped with our own shovel. We have everything we need to find God; we just need to wake up – first to the field and then to the treasure when we see it. For some – maybe most – of us it takes a lifetime. Maybe that’s how it should be since the treasure is so great a reward.

Today I am thinking that our greatest task, when we understand how willing God is to give us the map, is to wake up ourselves and then share the directions to the treasure with others, especially younger people who are searching and ripe to find what we know. There’s another reason to stay awake: to look into young eyes and recognize a yearning for truth and love – and to share the joy of that treasure every day of our lives.

Who’s on First?

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Ephesians, first will be last last will be first, Jesus, kingdom of God, lady luck, Luke, partiality, salvation, Scripture, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Reversal of fortunes by winning the lottery is less than “one in a million” and it’s clear from many stories of instant millionaires that money really isn’t everything. People who spend their lives climbing over people to reach the top of whatever ladder they’re on are sometimes similarly disillusioned to find that it’s “lonely at the top.”

As we move toward the end of the liturgical year in the Scripture readings, the questions put to Jesus are more frequently focused on who will “make it” in the kingdom of God. Jesus is clear about the universality of salvation when he says that “people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God.” But it’s the next line (LK 13:30) that should make us think. It’s familiar but not always easy to hear. “For behold, some are last who will be first and some who are first will be last.” It’s an interesting sense of reversal if we consider Paul’s words this morning as well. He’s talking about masters not bullying their slaves and says that “each will be requited from the Lord for whatever good he does, whether slave or free…both they and you have a Master in heaven and with him there is no partiality.” (EPH 6:9)

So what’s the point? It sounds to me as if we can be confident of God’s grace regardless of our life circumstances but we need to remember that we have a part to play in the story. It isn’t enough to sit back and wait for “Lady Luck” to take care of our every need. Neither can we work so fast and hard to beat out everyone to the finish line that we leave everyone else in our dust. Once again the emerging wisdom comes from the “heart of the matter.” We are all equals in the kingdom of God – here and now as well as in whatever will later come to be. And love is the prize that is only achieved as we work – and play – together.

Wedding Garments

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banquet of life, celebration, dance of life, God, king, kingdom of God, parable, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wedding banquet

I went to a wedding recently where the ceremony took place at the top of a hill and the reception in the barn below. My question upon getting the invitation was: What does one wear to a wedding in a barn? The answer didn’t help much; it was: Anything you want! The only  thing that seemed de rigueur was cowboy boots (or a reasonable facsimile).

The gospel for today is the parable about the king who gave a wedding feast for his son – with disastrous consequences. The invitees refused the invitation – some with excuses and others by mistreating and even killing the messengers of the king! So he sent the servants back out to invite others to the feast. This worked pretty well but there was one person who came improperly dressed and was cast out of the event. That last was always the sticking point because if the king decided to invite everyone from “the highways and byways” the assumption on his part that everyone would have a wedding garment seemed unfair. That is the danger of interpreting parables literally.

God is the “king” who invites everyone to the banquet of life. It is up to us to receive and accept the invitation. If I say yes, however, there are some expectations – whether or not I have “cowboy boots.” Moving toward the kingdom of God implies conversion – recognition of what has been offered and offering ourselves in exchange for such an invitation. We needn’t be perfect; all that’s necessary is that we be “on the way” – doing our best to enter into the dance of life that energizes and leads us on toward the celebration that awaits us – where all will be one and all will be fed.