Finding the Extraordinary in Life

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, center of the heart, extraordinary, God's path, hidden blessings, psalm 128, reflection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom

Psalm 128 is rather short, only eight verses but rich in wisdom. After reading three translations, I felt it important to pay attention to two of the lines especially. The entire psalm is about the blessings that come to those who walk upon God’s path, following God’s ways – a rather common theme throughout the book. What first got my attention was the second line of verse one which said that for those who are living that way life is filled with hidden blessings. Later, verse five proclaims that it is God, the center of the heart, who prospers life unto its end. It was upon reading the commentary that I recognized the possible richness of reflection on what was contained in these phrases. See what you think of this call to wake up to the ordinary events of life.

Sources of blessing flow hidden beneath the external surfaces of the world. These we tap as we live out our lives in right-relationship to God and to the world. Often these appear to be mundane and ordinary, but extraordinary is hidden in them. Look at your circumstances. What in the ordinary hides the extraordinary goodness of God? We are asked to see this, to penetrate past the surfaces to the heart.

Notice in verse 5 that it is at the center, the heart, where these realities become clear to us. Can you see from the level of your heart?  (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 331)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Questions

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bread of life, gratitude, John, leave, Lectionary, psalm 116, reflection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There are two significant questions in the lectionary readings for today. One would have been enough for a day’s worth of reflection (or more) but it seems only right not to choose between them. The first measures our “gratitude quotient” – perhaps for days when things are going our way, but not necessarily if we are in the habit of deep reflection. The second concerns the depth and content of our faith. I offer both in hopes that they may come to be seen as two components of unified whole.

1. The refrain of Psalm 116: How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?
2. A question of Jesus at the end of chapter 6 of John’s gospel, following his declaration that has come to be known as the “Bread of Life” discourse in which Jesus said, “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you shall not have life within you…” After that, the gospel says, “many of the disciples remarked, ‘This saying is hard; who can accept it?’ As a result, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to leave?'”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning Conversation

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cleanse, forgive, gladness, Holy Spirit, justice, Lent, light, love, mercy, Nan Merrill, Peace, psalm 51, Psalms for Praying, reflection, repentance, saving grace, strength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, weakness, wisdom of the heart

During the season of Lent it is not unusual to see part or all of Psalm 51 show up as the response to the first reading in our lectionary. It is the season when repentance for our faults is traditionally front and center and God’s mercy is a constant call. Psalm 51 is uniquely suited to those themes and appears again today for our consideration.

In keeping with yesterday’s reflection on the necessity of really listening with openness to the thoughts of others, I decided to look at what Nan Merrill’s translation added to the meaning of this psalm. Her book, Psalms for Praying, emerged from the deep reflection of silence and is decidedly softer than the traditional psalmody. I find a few of the nuances fresh and helpful for my own prayer and offer her words in prose form this morning which I hear as one side of a conversation with God from a person whose desire for right relationship is boundless.

Have mercy on me, O Gracious One, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant kindness forgive me where my thoughts and deeds have hurt others. Lead me in the paths of justice, guide my steps on paths of peace! Teach me that I may know my weaknesses, the shortcomings that bind me, the unloving ways that separate me, that keep me from recognizing your life in me; for I keep company with fear and dwell in the house of ignorance. Yet, I was brought forth in love, and love is my  birthright.

You have placed your truth in the inner being; therefore, teach me the wisdom of the heart. Forgive all that binds me in fear, that I may radiate love; cleanse me that your light might shine in me. Fill me with gladness; help me to transform weakness into strength. Look not on my past mistakes but on the aspirations of my heart. Create in me a clean heart, O Gracious One, and put a new and right spirit within me. Enfold me in the arms of love, and fill me with your Holy Spirit. Restore me in the joy of your saving grace, and encourage me with a new spirit.

Curiosity

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beliefs, conversation, curiousity, deep listening, interactions, Meg Wheatley, reflection, spiritual practice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Turning To One Another

Yesterday I was able to meet with my monthly “spiritual practices circle” for the first time this year. It was a lovely way to spend a slice of the day and a renewal of my conviction about the importance of deep listening and conversation. I was taken back to that privileged time this morning as I read some of Meg Wheatley’s comments in her book, Turning to One Another. Her point is something to remember in the complex and tumultuous times in which we live. I offer her words as a reflection that may open us in new ways  in our interactions with others today – or any day.

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…

To be curious about how someone else interprets things, we have to be willing to admit that we’re not capable of figuring things out alone. If our solutions don’t work as well as we want them to, if our explanations of why something happened don’t feel sufficient, it’s time to begin asking others what they see and think. When so many interpretations are available, I can’t understand why we would be satisfied with superficial conversations where we pretend to agree with one another. (p. 35)

 

 

 

 

 

Out Of The Silence

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centering prayer, chanting, chosen, consciousness, God, grace, Hafiz, inner chatter, reflection, retreat, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

After eight days of virtually no speaking, I am clear about the difficulty of stopping inner chatter – at least for me. I realized somewhere during the past eight days how many thoughts flow through my head (several often at the same time) without my consciousness recognizing each or any of them. I began to wonder when I began to multi-task so much that the practice invaded my inner state as well as my outer daily life. One good place to start a reversal was at meals. Because we did not talk at meals, we just ate. I came to a renewed awareness of the awkwardness of spearing raw carrots or grape tomatoes in a salad as well as the fact that I often switch hands for guiding a spoonful of soup to my mouth. (Being very left-handed, I was taught that it was only proper to eat with one’s right hand, so as a child it was necessarily a conscious practice to do so. Now I know that even very early unconscious habits die hard.)

The week was filled with grace in small and great ways. Having thought I was in need of total solitude I realized early on that I would find more benefit in the communal silence which I found in several periods of centering prayer daily, in body awareness and movement sessions, in chanting and chopping vegetables and in daily worship. These practices enhanced the ample personal time for reflection that filled most of the afternoon and shorter spaces in between.

I would love to have taken a survey of the other participants to see if my sense that all the introductory short readings, poems and chants were really chosen just for me. God is funny in that we can all feel that way sometimes – but I was sure of it in this experience. How could everyone feel as “chosen” as I was for the word that was given each time we gathered? On the first morning, the first words I heard were from the mystical poet Hafiz, in a poem that sounded like a personal message for me. I write it in prose form below, just as it was spoken by Allen, God’s messenger, to set the tone for my response all week. See if God would speak to you this way – if God were able to catch your full attention.

This place where you are right now God circled on a map for you. Wherever your eyes and arms and heart can move against the earth and the sky, the Beloved has bowed there. Our Beloved has bowed there, knowing you were coming. The place where you will be in a year, our Beloved is bowing there now, setting the table for the feast, knowing you are coming.

 

 

 

 

 

Incredible Things

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creativity, cure, history, incredible, Jesus, Luke, progress, reality show, reflection, repurposed, reverence, simple ways, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I often wonder what the next “reality show” on television will be. Whether it’s “Texas Flippers” or the latest tiny house being built, the networks seem to be birthing new iterations of demolition and rebuilding every day. In contrast to the seeming lack of desire to save anything in a house that might be “repurposed: – e.g. kitchen cabinets that might be “dated” but still in good shape – there is one, albeit very different, show that was playing when I walked into the living room yesterday. I think it’s called “Barn Builders.”

The team of a half-dozen strong, bearded, Southern-speaking, friendly workers is led by a man named Mark, whose reverence for history is impossible to miss. There’s lots to learn from this show about how barns were built long ago, what woods and other materials were used and why anyone would be interested in them today. Each episode features either the careful deconstruction of a barn whose wood is to be repurposed or the renovation of a structure to its faded glory of long ago. Often the team uses the implements of the era when renovating – like the flat axe I saw yesterday. Time and energy ran out on that one though, as they were working on a 40-foot tree that was to become a strengthening beam in the renewed structure of an 1839 tavern. The chain saw came out and did the job in record time. All involved were not only grateful for time and effort saved but amazed at the creativity that has brought us so much progress over the last two centuries. Most important was the esteem for early farmers who had worked so hard to build their homes and their lives.

There were two prompts for the above reflection. First, what may seem a stretch but is really true, was the last line of this morning’s gospel after Jesus had cured a paralyzed man. They said, “We have seen incredible things today.” (LK 5:26) Secondly, there is the reverence for history that is evident not only in the actual project of the Barn Builders episode but also in the vignettes sprinkled throughout the hour where Mark tours other properties or gives brief lessons about historical building processes. The premise of this show truly does remind me that we continue to see incredible progress but also that we need to remember our history that is so rich in seemingly simple ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan’s Wednesday Advice

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evil, good, Jan Phillips, light, No Ordinary Time, reflection, shine, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vulnerable

Needing someone else’s words this morning to speak for me, I turned (not surprisingly) to my friend, Jan Phillips. In her book, No Ordinary Time, I found the reflection for Wednesday’s hour of prime perfect for a message for today. I will take it to heart and share it in the hope that others will find resonance there as well.

We live on a tectonically unstable planet. The rose doesn’t ask in a windstorm, “What did I do to deserve this?” The forest doesn’t look at the maple ripped apart by lightning and say, “God has punished it for wrongdoing.” We are the children of Holy Mystery, born of the marriage of heaven and earth. Our bodies are made of stardust and clay, our spirits are as infinite as Creation itself.

We are vulnerable and invincible, wise and wicked, generous and greedy. The line between good and evil runs from the temple to the toes of each of us. When evil occurs and drops us to our knees, all we can do is intensify our light, turn up our heat against the chill of the dark. 

We do not think of God as a punishing force, as the creator of events that rob us of hope. Look instead inside yourself and ask what you can be to the ones crying out, ask where to shine your light to overcome the shadow. The mysteries of life keep us in awe and protect us from arrogance – that is their gift to us, as the gift of an ending is a new beginning. In this human lifetime, evil haunts and humbles us day and night. Catastrophes confound us, paradox surrounds us, and there is nothing for us to do but give what we can give, withhold judgment, radiate kindness, and use every sorrow as a stepping stone to love. (p. 69)

P.S. While I am not in the habit of advertising in this blog space, as a reminder for those within driving distance of Binghamton, NY: Jan will be with us at the Sophia Center on April 28-29, 2017 for a concert and workshop, the title of which is No Time for Ordinary. Save the date and watch our website for updates in the new year.

Perspective

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basic principle, experience, good, hear, heavenly, incomparable, love, opinion, perspective, Psalm 40, reflection, see, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Reading Psalm 40 this morning led me to the dictionary for some definitions of the word perspective. After the basic ideas, there were some interesting and even funny examples of the word in context, like: From their different perspectives, the scientists and musician both agree on music’s emotional power, and It took me awhile to put the housewives’ rebellion into perspective. I remember when I first realized a very important truth about perspective in one of its definitions. Sitting directly across from someone in a group having a conversation, I recognized that it was totally impossible for that person to see what I could see (physically) because we do not have eyes in the back of our heads (although many Catholic children thought the nuns that taught them in school were exceptions to that rule!). Because we do not have 360 degree swivel ability, we can only see just so far around us without turning our heads.

This truth about perspective has helped me when I am astounded or appalled that someone with whom I am speaking disagrees with what I’m saying. “How could he think that way?” I ask myself, or “Can’t she see the flaw in that opinion?” The difficulty is that when we move from the practical, physical definition to the intellectual, philosophical arena, there is a much more complex process of apprehension going on. I have come to the conclusion that in order to avoid distress it’s better to stay in the realm of “he just can’t see it” than to try to convince someone of something I see as simple truth.

Here’s what started all the ruckus in my brain this morning: O Lord, all that you do is marked with good, and all the things that you have in mind for us are incomparable. O that I could speak it all 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 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 40:7-10)

My perspective on life with God is that if I do my best to do my best God is satisfied, actually overjoyed, with that and doesn’t require anything more than my love. Some would say that perspective is a cop out, as in: What ever happened to “Be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect?” Atonement looms large in that perspective. For me, God’s “law of life” is love and that is the perspective from which I view everything. Our socialization and education contribute so much to our perspectives on things; it takes personal experience and reflection on that experience for things to start to shift. It’s all very complicated…so I try to keep that first basic principle in mind (the impossibility of you seeing exactly what I see unless you are standing beside me – or, more precisely, in my skin) and always move from the perspective of love. Not easy, maybe flawed, but more and more often, it works for me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

David

Tags

Acts of the Apostles, David, faithful frienship, fountainhead, God's love, imperfection, psalm 89, quiet, reflection, sheep, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When I was young I always thought that if I had a son I would name him David. For no logical reason, David was my favorite name. It sounded both strong and gentle to me; I just liked it – not Dave really, but David. And this was before I ever encountered the famous David of the Scriptures.

All the readings for this morning speak of or at least advert to David in some way. The Acts of the Apostles and Psalm 89 name him, while Jesus just speaks of “my chosen.” That got me thinking of what a complex character David was and how wonderful for the rest of us that he was not perfect – at least for those of us who tend to compare ourselves to others (a very bad habit indeed!).

I think of David in the fields tending sheep and wonder if he was sorry to be called away from that duty. Being alone out in nature with the animals – recalcitrant though they might be at times – in the quiet that allows reflection must have had its appeal for him. I can only imagine the shock of hearing when he was summoned into the prophet’s presence that he was to be King of Israel. No one could have predicted that, it seems, but God.

If one believes that David is the author of all or even a majority of the scriptural Book of Psalms, it’s easy to intuit the ups and downs, the sins and repentance in his life. Noted for expressing every emotion known to humans, they are the perfect witness to his misuse of power, adulterous behavior, deep friendship with and loss of Jonathan and – most of all – his recognition and humble acceptance of God’s deep, all-encompassing love for him. I like to think about David because although he seems in every way larger than life (no event in his life was a small thing) he is also, essentially, like the rest of us: sometimes faith-filled, devoted and well-motivated and sometimes less so. He made big mistakes, was even punished for them, but never gave up on his relationship with God nor did God give up on him. So I sing with the psalmist this morning in gratitude for the example of great love even in imperfection and with confidence that God sees us no differently than this beloved servant.

Your love, O Lord, I will forever sing, your faithful friendship shall be the subject of my song. For I have come to know your love as fountainhead, its ceaseless source not here, but in your high abode. And you yourself have made this oath of faithfulness to us and all of David’s line, a covenant proclaimed to all you chose, a promise made to us that never ends. (Ps. 89:1-4)

 

Known By Name

Tags

Jesus, Mary Magdalene, name, name of God, post-resurrection, psalm 100, reflection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I spent the 24 hours from Friday evening at 7:00 to yesterday at 7:00pm with four lovely women delving into the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. I was going to say we took time out to sleep Friday night into Saturday, but I think in situations like that even our sleep is engaged in the reflection. One of the most beautiful moments in those Scriptures takes place in the garden where Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene who does not recognize him; she thinks, rather, that he is the gardener and pours out her distress that someone must have stolen the body of Jesus and she doesn’t know where they have taken him. We spent lots of time with the lines in the stories that we considered which note the lack of recognition of Jesus on the part of those to whom he appears and how they came to finally know him. This encounter with Mary is the most touching, I think, because most of us can relate to it from personal experience. When Mary begs to know where Jesus is, he simply replies by saying her name: “Mary” with, I imagine, all the feeling and tenderness of a beloved companion.

Our conversation about this text was spent in consideration of the way our name sounds from the mouth of one who loves us. Just the sound reveals the relationship. On hearing her name, Mary knew immediately that, however changed he was, it was certainly Jesus who was speaking to her. This morning I was reminded of this conversation and of the names we use to call on God by the appearance of Psalm 100 in the lectionary. I share the translation and commentary that I read as a synchronistic chance to reflect not only on the names of God but also of our human relationships and calling one another by name.

O, lands of earth, fill up with joy, and overflow in service to your God. Come before the holy presence, singing. Know this: I AM alone is God, and all that is and we ourselves are creatures made. Like sheep we enter through the gates of life to feed upon the living pastures unafraid. Our praise becomes the doorway to that realm where we can know and speak the sacred name and taste the everlasting good of God from age to age.

COMMENTARY: Verse 3 introduces the use of the sacred name, which has already been mentioned in verse 2 (as I AM). To know God is to know and be able to use or speak the name of God much in the same way we get to know someone and are able then to speak their name. Think about this imagery and the knowledge we have of the name of someone. If you do not know someone’s name, what is your relationship like? When you both know the name and the person behind the name in a personal way, how does that relationship change? Pause and reflect on your own knowledge of the name of God. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 252)