Pay Attention!

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attention, discernment, Isaiah, law of the Lord, meditate, psalm 1, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth, wisdom

Today it seems that we are once more being called to attend to messages that offer us clear directives for good living in a succinct and understandable way. I use the plural “messages” but in the end I see all three readings as constitutive of an overarching theme.

Isaiah (48: 17-19) proclaims God’s willingness to teach us what is for our good if we would hearken to God’s commandments. (The rewards are all nature images – beautiful and worth your time to read.) Next, Psalm 1 tells us that if we meditate on and delight in the law of the Lord, we will prosper (again – interestingly – with nature images).

What this says to me is that we’re called to a consistent and steadfast attention to discernment of what is for our good and what is not, if we are to learn wisdom. It doesn’t help to observe the practices of others and thereby judge them. Truth is the measure of what we learn in the silence of our hearts. After the advice of Isaiah and the psalmist, we hear Jesus speak in rather stark language about this. Listen to what he says.

“To what shall I compare this generation? It’s like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played for you but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”

What do you make of all this?

Sabbath Morning

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growth, jeremiah, psalm 1, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trees

There are lots of familiar images in the readings for today. In reading both the text from Jeremiah and the psalm it’s easy for me to see a tree planted near water “stretching out its roots to the stream” (JER) and “yielding its fruit in due season” (Psalm 1) because a river runs through the back of our property and we are blessed with many trees that will be leafing out within a couple of months. There are some spring days when we worry about the river overflowing its banks but rushing water or damage to the trees is rare. It is miraculous to me to walk around in the spring and observe the growth that has taken place – without any fanfare, silently and imperceptibly over the winter.

Both Jeremiah and the psalmist are comparing us to these trees. Of course there are broken branches in some cases – usually from winter wind – but mostly we can count on the strength of the roots and the trunks of the trees to persevere and grow. It gives me hope to consider this comparison, especially when I am not feeling very effective or prolific in projects or when the strictures of winter seem too harsh. All I need to do is look up from my typing and see the tree outside my window standing tall and silent against the morning sky. Two bluejays have just landed in its branches without any assistance from the tree itself.

So it is with my life (and yours). A readiness to offer space for another is enough as we wait for a later recognition of the growth that manifests even just because of the waiting.

Rootedness

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Book of Psalms, Book of Revelation, determination, discerning heart, divisiveness, energy, enurance, grace, heart, inner work, Jesus, love, Luke, Lynn Bauman, meditation, Peace, pity, psalm 1, rootedness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom

In Luke’s gospel account of Jesus with a blind man, it seems the lesson is that the man had to be clear about what it was he wanted in order for Jesus to heal him of his infirmity. We are at the beginning of a new season in the political life of our nation and need to be much clearer than we have been about what is possible and how we might effect the best possible outcome in the circumstances that exist now. I find it interesting that the first lectionary reading for today is the very beginning of the Book of Revelation and the response to that is the first in the Book of Psalms.  So we begin anew to deepen our intention, not only for endurance but for the love that has been assaulted in the events of the past year.

My pondering began with the following verses from the first reading. Grace and peace to you from the one who was and who is to come…Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. (REV 1:4, 2:2-4) I think about the divisiveness that has infected our country and I begin to examine my participation in its rhetoric. While I preach only love, I need to look deeply into my thoughts and feelings that sometimes can speak energetically as loudly as my words to prove a point, sometimes indicating a different message altogether.

Often at wisdom retreats we are guided in meditation to envision our energy going down from our feet through the ground to the very center of the world until we sense a rootedness and then draw up that energy into our heart. In the same way we image the energy reaching up high into the cosmos and again drawing down into our hearts. Thus we are stronger than before and as we do this exercise together, we know greater consciousness and possibility. Lynn Bauman’s translation of Psalm One called me today to this knowing. But the blessed ones grow strong as living trees, their roots sink deep and hidden beside flowing streams which come from you. And through life’s passing seasons they do not cease to bear a plenitude of fruit nor do they fade from giving shade of leaf that covers all with good. (Ps. 1:3)

All that having been said I am left with the question of Jesus to the blind man. It was not enough that this man was asking for pity; Jesus was likely to have been feeling that immediately upon hearing the man’s cry. What he wanted was determination and a discerning heart from the man about what was his intention for the future. Thus the question: What do you want me to do for you? We might consider that question deeply today, reflecting on the state of our hearts, to determine if we are ready and willing to follow through with the inner work involved in the intentional answer of: Please, let me see! (LK 18:41)

Keep On Keeping On

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generous heart, Lenten journey, Luke, memory walk, natural world, perseverance, psalm 1, roots, strength, tenacity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the Word

I have come to understand many things about life by living in a rural area and observing the natural world. I remember two specific examples of the same lesson about strength and tenacity that involved tree roots; in both cases the roots triumphed over me. The first experience was early in my days here when it was decided that the grape arbor in the middle of the yard had outlived its usefulness (very little fruit which was not pleasant to eat) and was obstructive of the sight line and path to our conference hall. I decided that perhaps a second chance should be given this old but revered vine so set to digging it up. After a week of hard exercise I yielded to the reality that I would be in China before finding the end of the taproot, even though the vine itself had obviously “given up the ghost.” My second attempt at transplantation came at the edge of the asparagus patch where one of the ever-present maple seed-pods had taken root in the spring. I was astounded later in the season when I tried to dig out the slim, 18-inch slip of a branch and found myself once again on the way to China! How quickly and tenaciously roots had been set down and the seedling had determined to stay. It is now a towering tree and I take example from it quite often.

This “memory walk” began this morning as I read the verse before the gospel which proclaimed: Blessed are those who have kept the Word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance. (See LK 8:15) Wondering what the gospel reference was I went to the Bible and found (of course!) Luke’s version of the sower planting seeds. Having been drawn to the verse by the qualities mentioned – generous heart and perseverance – I was glad I looked because the New American Bible translation (circa 1970) added a stronger nuance of responsibility saying; The seed on good ground are those who hear the Word in a spirit of openness, retain it and bear fruit in perseverance.

So how does this connect with the trees – other than my failure to persevere in the task? For me it all came together in Psalm 1, a template for all the other 149, which speaks not of seeds but sees us as trees being planted in God’s law. It is lyrical and meaningful and I offer it today as a way to pause on our Lenten journey to take stock of our progress and to rest in the Creator’s care.

Blessed are those whose steps are firmly planted on Your eternal law…[They] grow strong as living trees, their roots sink deep and hidden…and through life’s passing seasons they do not cease to bear a plenitude of fruit nor do they fade from giving shade of leaf that covers all with good. 

First Thoughts

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evergreens, leaves, morning, psalm 1, seasons, sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Everything is stillness this morning as I sit to ponder Psalm 1:1-6. Light is coming to the sky; there are apertures in the cloud cover, just barely lighter than the gray. There is no movement of branches, no stirring in the kitchen or on the road. I wonder if it is a holiday for surely Monday morning traffic should be buzzing by now. I cannot yet see the bronzing trees on the hill or the gold of the not-yet-harvested cornfield behind the house. I know in my bones the passing of the “fruitful” season of apples and take a deep breath as I read of the trees planted “by running streams” that “yield their fruit in due season.” Their leaves are mostly gone – for now – as we prepare for the hibernation of bear and earth and, if we can manage it occasionally, ourselves.

I am feeling the rhythm of the seasons this morning, grateful to live in a region where they are all wildly different in unique beauty. In the same way, I have the certainty of the psalmist who compares people to evergreen trees whose “leaves” never fade, the ones who delight in the law of the Lord. And now the clouds are pink, a car just sped by and a song bird has offered a lovely welcome to the day. It is time for me to move along, surprised that I have been sitting for 45 minutes as the world continued its silent turning. I think of my relatives in Australia as they experience the turning and all those people in between and I give thanks for this day, this life, this amazing mystery…

Have Hope

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Emily Dickinson, hope, jeremiah, psalm 1, roots, Spring Equinox, St. Teresa of Avila, stream, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trees

Image and analogy generally help me to get my head or heart around a concept. Both today’s first reading from Jeremiah and the psalm compare those who hope in the Lord to trees planted near water. In Jeremiah 17 we hear that the one who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green. In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit. Psalm 1 is similar but says that this “tree” yields its fruit in due season and says of the hopeful person: Whatever he does, prospers. Emily Dickinson weighs in on hope with a little poem that often comes to my mind and lifts my spirits. It begins: Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.

When I’m feeling less than hopeful, these images help me to remember, with St. Teresa of Avila, that all things are passing; God never changes. Today seems a good day to reflect on the little things that call us to remember hope. Oh yes, and today just happens to be the Spring Equinox!