While We Wait

Tags

Christmas, Jesus, love one another, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wait, waiting, what are we waiting for

Several years ago I created a retreat day called “While We Wait” for parish directors of religious education. I wanted to focus participants on attitudes and activities that moved them forward in their preparation for Christmas. I was happy with the process of the day and repeated it in a similar form in different situations in ensuing years. I was especially partial to the alliterative title of the retreat. (Old teachers of language never die; they just morph into something else!) Aside from the double alliteration, I was partial to the title because it suggested a process, a way to get to Christmas that was deep and meaningful.

Yesterday I received a text from the CSJ Leadership Team, part of their monthly missive, For the Life of the World that keeps us focused on our mission. I found the message from Sister Sally Harper, one of our five Congregational Leadership Team members, very helpful and wanted to share the question about waiting that Sally raised and expanded upon in several ways. Instead of my reflection on how we wait, Sally asked the basic and underlying question that seems so fundamental but maybe sometimes is just taken for granted. She wanted to know: What are we waiting for?

Of course we know that we are waiting for the celebration, as Sally says, of God “up close and personal” in the person of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, the “Word Made Flesh” but that, as she notes, happened more than 2,000 years ago, so she repeats her question: What are we waiting for? It’s a question that each of us can and perhaps should answer for ourselves so I would suggest that before you read on, you take some time to answer the question in your own way…When you’re ready, Sally says:

Jesus calls us to incarnate God’s love in our daily lives just like he did: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Sally leaves the work of how to do that to each of us.)

Thanks to Sally for this reminder of how simple, yet not always easy, it is to “wait” for the coming of Jesus.

Monday Morning Stillness

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courage, heart, humility, John Philip Newell, Praying With the Earth, reverence, strong, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, treasure, wait

The lovely book by John Philip Newell entitled Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace is set up in such a way that the reader not only finds – in addition to the prayers for the life of the world – prayers of awareness and blessing twice a day but also quotes from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and the Quran. That sounds like a lot of words but, in fact, it is not. Here are the three Scripture quotes for Monday morning that in their brevity moves one, perhaps, to a deeper, wordless place of peace.

Wait for God. Be strong and let your heart take courage. (Psalm 27: 14)

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)

Remember God deep in your soul with humility and reverence. (Quran – The Heights 7 .205)

Waiting

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Acts of the Apostles, apostles, Ascension, beloved one, Holy Spirit, I am with you always, Jesus, stay, the promise of the father, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wait

The lectionary readings on this day (Feast of the Ascension) when we consider the completion of Christ’s mission on earth are among the most familiar of the Church year. What then can be said that does not sound prosaic but rather at least interesting at such an important moment? Although the events of this day were likely earth-shattering for the apostles, of course, I wonder if the important lines that we read are not about what happened on that day but rather appear as two brief directives that move us toward what involved a preparation on the part of the apostles.

In the first reading (Act of the Apostles 1:1-11) after recounting the events of the past 40 days, Jesus “enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait…” Then in the last reading from the gospel (Luke, 24), Jesus directed them to “stay in the city…” In both cases, they were waiting “for the promise of the Father.” How could they possibly know what was ahead for them?

Wait, he said. Stay. For most of us, waiting is not the easiest task. Nor, I would be willing to wager, was it so for these friends of Jesus who had been with him in good times and bad and now, at his departure from the earth, must have been thrown back into a place of not knowing once again. But wait they did, going back into an upper room, perhaps the best symbol of encounter in the events of all their time together.

Have you ever waited for something, not knowing exactly what you were waiting for or what the outcome of your waiting would engender? Maybe you were told Christmas would bring you a great gift this year…or, as an opposing thought, perhaps you have heard a weather report of an impending storm and are waiting for the outcome. How is it possible in either of these situations to wait with some modicum of patience?

Waiting for God to speak can also take patience. Hunkering down in stillness to hear “the still small voice of God” takes practice and perseverance. Maybe you are waiting for courage or the answer to a burning question or simply to know that God considers you a “beloved one” each and every day.

As we wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit once again at Pentecost, may we recall the words of Jesus who said at his departure from this world and who promises to us: “I am with you always, until the end of the world.”

Word into Silence

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Bible Quran, courage, heart, humility reverence, John Philip Newell, Matthew, Praying With the Earth, psalm 27, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wait

In his book, Praying with the Earth, John Philip Newell punctuates prayers  of different kinds with quotes from the Bible and the Quran. I found a strong pull this morning toward a silence prompted by those “one-liners.” I thought the experience was worth sharing;

>Wait for God. Be strong and let your heart take courage. (Psalm 27:14)

>Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)   

>Remember God deep in your soul with humility and reverence. (Quran – The Heights 7. 205)

Where Is Your Heart?

Tags

Abraham, courage, faith, God, heart, Hebrews, Luke, patient, psalm 33, salvation history, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, treasure, wait, wisdom

Today’s lectionary texts offer a quick summary of what has been called salvation history, beginning with the Israelites who “with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith…have courage.” (WIS 18:6-9) Both this reading and the second are primarily a commentary on the faith and hope of Abraham whose journey of life took a serious turn when he was facing old age and God told him to leave his home and move to a land God would show him. He could have stayed home…but he didn’t. Sometimes we have to wait for God’s call as Psalm 33 tells us. (Our soul waits for the Lord who is our help and our shield. May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you.)

Things are not always clear on the spiritual journey. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us of this by saying: Faith is the realization of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Speaking of Abraham’s faith the letter chronicles his story and how God worked through him because of his faith. (HEB 11:1-2, 8-10) But none of these words are just about Abraham. It is for us also to wait for the Lord in hope. Today is a reflection on our own sense of what faith calls out from us. Sometimes it isn’t easy to be patient with ourselves or what some have called “the slow work of God.” But we look to Jesus who is the model for such trust who gives good advice for the posture we ought to take when he says: Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who wait for their master’s return from a wedding. (LK 12: 34-48) Are we willing to wait for the clarity that sometimes only comes toward the end of our lives? Can we look back from the vantage point of today and see patterns of God’s love and the deepening of our faith and hope? For me, the most significant line in all of today’s Scripture selections comes from Jesus when he says: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

May we all search our hearts today for the treasure of faith and hope that abides there – sometimes too deep to access, sometimes right before our eyes, but always, always there – waiting in the light of our God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Passages

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bounty of the Lord, courage, Easter, Easter Triduum, light, music, prayer, psalm 27, psalms, reflection, refuge, ritual, salvation, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time out of time, wait

Ten days ago I was on my way to California for a few days of family visiting and then a three-day meeting. Because of the three-hour time difference and uncertainty about my activities, I announced a brief “hiatus” for my blog. I had no idea it would last this long! Three days ago I was looking out on beautiful sunshine lighting up bougainvillea and rose bushes with temperatures of 75 degrees (F) and just now it has started to snow again here in New York! The days away seemed endless as I was stricken with what turned out to be quite a virulent virus that curtailed all but totally necessary activities. Even today I struggle with a lethargy that makes me wonder if I’ll ever be back to “normal” – whatever that means.

As I write that, I remember my thoughts as I drove home from the Easter Vigil – the conclusion of a very meaningful Triduum of services moving me to a deeper desire for continued transformation in my life. I had been so moved by those three ritual days: the prayer, the music, the silence and reflection on the events that constitute the most solemn days of our faith. I was ready, I thought, to keep that flame burning brightly, reminding myself each day of what I had experienced and living into life more consciously. Today I feel as if that experience was eons ago and I marvel at how quickly and easily circumstances can swallow up momentum and make it hard even to get out of bed in the morning.

I always have a sense of “time out of time” when I travel across the country. The view from 35,000 feet up in the sky is so amazing and sobering all at once and flying through time zones gives a sense of the relative nature of our constructs. These ten days of goings and comings, of observing and working at participation, of sensing my body as in need of more care than usual…have been eye-opening, to say the least.

What conclusion can I make from all this? I am grateful for the years of reciting the psalms in prayer as I always find something to hold onto in them. This morning it is Psalm 27 that serves that purpose:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid? One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple. I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted and wait for the Lord.