Surely my most important insight today (amazing at 6:33AM) will be something that I have known for a long time but now makes more sense and came from a familiar verse from John’s gospel this morning. Jesus is getting ready for his final “goodbye” to his friends and leaves them with this message: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
What is clearer than ever for me this morning is that Jesus is talking about inner peace – peace of heart, we would call it, so that no matter what’s going on outside of us, the inside can remain hopeful and loving and kind because God remains steadfast in us. Disturbing events in the world around us are real but cannot shake our knowing of that truth.
I feel as if I have taken a further step into the deep waters of truth that will allow me more peace in the everyday recognition of troubling events. If I can remember to live from my heart where peace abides in God, I can face external events with equanimity. Perhaps it sounds strange to say that this is a new knowing for me. I certainly should be familiar with this teaching by now in my life, shouldn’t I? Well, of course! I have known those words of Jesus for decades but the world has become more complex, more challenging so I needed wider eyes and clearer recognition of the great gift of inner peace where we can meet each other and become that peace. Are you there as well?
From the mouth of Moses to the gospel of Mark the Scriptures repeat the same message about how we are to live. We hear it today, not in a long diatribe but rather a brief directive about love. When asked what is the first and greatest commandment, we can all likely reply – at least with the short form of “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” The deep impact of what that effort calls out from us, however, is in the almost staccato list of capacities that follows. We are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength. In other words: Give it all you’ve got!
Home again this morning in my own space, I first did what is my usual Sunday morning task: checking my calendar for the week to make sure nothing creeps up on me for which I’m not prepared. I was reminded that there is some creative work to be done and that is a good thing for my spirit. That task done but still in waking mode, I turned to Alan Cohen to find the perfect message for this morning. Perhaps you will find it to be so as well.
I can’t help thinking as I read the lectionary psalm for today (15) how timeless the messages of Scripture often are. As we think of those who might be found “on God’s holy mountain,” we might include “the one who walks blamelessly and does justice; who thinks the truth in her heart and slanders not with his tongue…” (vs.2-3)
We know only two things about St. Matthew whose feast we celebrate today. First, we know him as a tax collector and secondly that he responded to the call of Jesus who approached him with the command: “Follow me,” and later was credited with the Gospel that bears his name. In the time of Jesus, tax collectors were not beloved members of society. It seems that, once again, Jesus was trying to make an important point by calling Matthew to be a disciple – a call that Matthew was unlikely to accept in the unquestioning way that he did. He was making some money, after all, and his job was likely secure. But Matthew got up from his customs post and seems to have never questioned the motives of Jesus or his own response. Clearly, others questioned however! “Why does the teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” they boldly said – not thinking of any transgressions they themselves might have committed. Jesus was clear in his response to these queries. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
It is said that “old habits die hard.” I was aware of that in a small way during the days of retreat from which I returned yesterday. Each morning when I awoke to the sounds of silence one of my first thoughts was of my daily writing task. Since I had announced the 5-day hiatus, I was able with just a grateful breath to simply turn toward the silence and enter the day where the only speaking was in sessions of prayer & reflection on the mystical practices of Sufism. What became the most obvious truth for me swirled around and into every hour of the day in the words of the chant: Wherever I turn, there is the face of God.
Yesterday I spent an uncommon amount of time (for me) on YouTube. I watched the eulogies of Barack Obama, Meghan McCain and George W. Bush during the funeral of Senator John McCain. All were quite different, as are the individuals themselves, but at a moment during the speech of former President Bush I was struck by a rising sensation that I can only express as “love of country.” It was clear to me that in moments of great import, small things no longer have any place. I have known this often in the past year during weather disasters and mass shootings, but this was in some way different. It struck at the heart of how we as Americans are able, perhaps, to agree in times of great division because we recognize what is important at the center of everything. We do not need to be perfect in order to be together; we just need to be willing. We have not reached 100% participation in this truth but yesterday allowed me a glimpse of possibility that has been sorely lacking for us as a country lately.
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: