Perseverance

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James, Meg Wheatley, patience, perseverance, persistence, steadfast, tenacity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

In today’s lectionary readings, we have a section from the beginning of the letter of the apostle James, (ch. 1: 1-11) that speaks of perseverance. It’s a good reminder in these troubled times. What are we to do with our distress and uncertainty? The advice of James is similar to the book of Meg Wheatley entitled simply Perseverance, a book that is filled with helpful thoughts and encouragement. I offer her introductory statements and questions today as the kind of reflection that can keep us on a course of hope. See what you think.

The word “perseverance” in Latin means, “one who sees through to the end,” “one who doesn’t yield.” In English, it describes how we maintain our activity in spite of difficulties. Tenacity, steadfastness, persistence, doggedness — these are all common synonyms.

In Chinese, the character for perseverance is often the same as the one used for patience.

Human experience is the story of perseverance. Throughout space and time, humans have always persevered. We wouldn’t be here without them.

Think of all the people you know — family, friends, strangers — who have just kept going, who didn’t yield, who were tenacious, steadfast, patient.

How would you describe them? What were some of their traits? Their capacities? What was it like to be around them, to listen to their stories?

At the end of their lives, how were they?

Angry? Contented? Cynical? Peaceful?

What do their lives offer you as lessons on how to persevere?

What do we all need to learn from them now?

Steadfastness

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Charlottesville, clarity, division, faithful, firm in resolve, grounded, Meg Wheatley, prejudice, racist, steadfast, steadfastness, Texas, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning I read Meg Wheatley’s reflection on the word steadfastness. I was trying to find something to redeem my world from all the racist experiences I heard about or saw on the national news yesterday. All the care of neighbor for neighbor that was imaged over the past week in Texas with no reference to preferred status for rescue seemed washed away in the same kind of horrific visuals and speech that were manifested during the recent incident at Charlottesville. I have no place inside me to find comprehension of such division and prejudice. I thought we had come farther on the road to acceptance of diversity. The question before me this morning is whether or not I will stand up and use my voice in situations that call out prejudice of the kind that I thought had been conquered. Meg Wheatley calls me to a challenge.

Steadfastness is a lovely old-fashioned word that we don’t hear much about these days. It describes how warriors stand their ground, how they find their position and stay there, unshaken and immovable. Steadfast people are firm in their resolve; they are not shaken by events or circumstances. They stand clear in their beliefs, grounded in their cause, faithful to the end. (Perseverance, p. 55)

May it be so in my life, beginning today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!”)

 

 

 

 

 

Remain

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connection, flowering, fruit, Jesus, John, remain, steadfast, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vine, wine

In my neighborhood we’re just beginning to see the flowering of trees that we hope will later produce much fruit. In the southwestern part of our state vintners are hoping for just the right mix of sun and rain that will assure an abundance of grapes this year. Driving in wine country is a breathtaking experience of seeing acres and acres first of the perfectly pruned “naked” vines secured in row after row and later those same vines in full leaf. It’s then time to walk the fields in order to see the fruit hidden among the leaves and experience the fragrance of the ripening grapes. (Oh yes, and then there is the wine tasting…)

From observing nature in this and many other ways, we come to better understand the frequent references of Jesus to life and growth in the Spirit. Often, for me, there is a word (usually a verb) that deepens the meaning of the message. Today that word is “remain.” In what scholars have come to call the “final discourse” of Jesus in John’s gospel (ch. 14-17), there are many beautiful sentiments, none more vivid or familiar, perhaps, than “the vine and the branches.” Jesus says, Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. As I read those two sentences, the verb remain, repeated four times, reverberates in me as a clear call to fidelity. The essential truth is that if the connection of the branch to the vine is severed, life is irrevocably cut off. But the responsibility for connection is not all on us! The effort of remaining steadfast in all of life’s circumstances is made worthy of any struggle because of the promise that Christ also remains in us. Knowing this, I am willing for the pruning as much as for the ripening and trust that all will come to fruition in the fullness of time.

 

 

True Repentance

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Lent, mercy, Nineveh, psalm 51, repent, spirit, steadfast, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One week into the Lenten season we hear dire predictions of punishment for sin in Nineveh and the penitential practices undertaken by the people (sackcloth and ashes and total fasting from food and drink) that turned God away from destroying their city. Jesus comments in the gospel (LK 11) on the evil existing in his day, making comparison to Jonah’s time and the Ninevites. Each generation sees atrocities that are unthinkable in the eyes of godly people and we who pride ourselves on the “progress” of history and culture are shocked that such evil should exist in our day. How ought we to approach God in the face of sin and failure to love as a world community and in our own lives today? God is certainly still listening, waiting as in Jonah’s day for recognition from us of the need for forgiveness. I believe that the answer lies in the image of compassion that we find today in Psalm 51 where the exchange with God goes deeper than actions and events and gets to the heart of things.

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense…A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me…For you are not pleased with sacrifices; should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it. My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

Today is perhaps a good day to reflect on the humility that looks deeply into the mirror of truth, offering whatever we find there to the God whose face looks back at us with compassion and love.