The Word of God

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Christmas, John, light, light of Christ, light of the world, love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Word

John’s gospel speaks today – and always – of the Word breathed into the universe at the beginning. “What came to be through the Word,” John writes, “was life, and this life was the light of the human race. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” We know this light to be the light of Christ, shining in our hearts. May our love be strong, trusting that the light remains for us and those we love, in spite of any darkness that may appear. And so it is on this Christmas Day.

Our Choice Now

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A Sleep of Prisoners, action, Christopher Fry, exploration, God, peril, response, soul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wake, Word

This morning I woke with a line from Christopher Fry’s poem, A Sleep of Prisoners, in my head. It comes to me in moments of significance – often as the whole poem but sometimes just the part. I always look it up to make sure I’m not misquoting and in the version I clicked on today, the line was set off in bold. It says: Affairs are now soul size. The enterprise is exploration into God.

The past two days (if not the entire past year) have brought me to that conclusion and it is clear that our country is in peril. Our choice of response (not reaction) as we go forward will be crucial to our long-term future. Initial messages – in word and action – to the national elections run the gamut from violent and divisive to peaceful/prayerful and unitive. It is my hope that the populace will come to answer Fry’s final question in the poem for the good of the nation. He says: It takes so many thousand years to wake. But will you wake, for pity’s sake?

Longing for Light

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autumn, Lectionary, Lord, mercy, Psalm 130, redemption, Scripture, soul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, waiting, Word

It’s staying dark longer these days as we move deeper into the autumn season, so in the morning I often look out the window hearing the words from Psalm 130: My soul waits for the Lord more than sentinels wait for the dawn from inside me. Today, when appointments did call me to rise in the dark, Psalm 130 appeared in the daily lectionary. Often, especially when the psalm of the day is long, only part of it is used in the liturgy. I knew something was missing from this psalm of only 8 verses. (One gets used to the cadences after 50 years of reciting prayers.) I went to my Bible and there it was; they had left out my favorite verse! To compensate for the oversight, I read all my alternate translations of the psalm and found, among the similar texts, two vivid versions that read as follows.

1. My whole being waits for you, my God, listening for your presence. I long to hear your voice again, speaking. So like a watchman who anticipates the crack of dawn, my heart waits for the first-light of your word.

2. I wait for You, my soul waits, and in your Word I hope. My soul awaits the Beloved as one awaits the birth of a child or as one awaits the fulfillment of their destiny.

Despite the diversity and meaningfulness of those words, the unfolding of the coming of light (now complete outside my window) makes me know I’ll keep my traditional words of welcome that repeat and continue: More than sentinels for the dawn, let my soul wait for the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.