Jan 29
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God sees what is and blesses it.
God knows the turmoil of life and encourages us.
God desires to take what is churning in us and calm it.
God meets us where we are and welcomes us.
Wherever we are, however we are …
God comes into the synagogues of our lives, into our most sacred places, breathes on us and says be still, be quiet, be restored.
Chaos is that which God brings order to - God’s calming of chaos is there from the very beginning our shared sacred history … In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. The stilling of the waters, the peace that passes understanding , God as a strong rock, as a safe house. The very symbols of how we know and experience the Divine.
And into the chaos of our lives, into our personal sacred history God’s welcome comes, the presence of Love known. Our own experience of these moments so often defies interpretation, or explanation. Words can fail to express, yet, we know it. We know it because we return to ourselves. We are released from whatever hold us; guilt, shame, envy , ambition, and rage. Emotions, depression, or circumstances that once clouded our minds and covered our hearts, shrouding us in despair or longing or hopelessness, are lifted.
In those moments we remember God and we are restored.
This is the true authority of the spirit of God with us, among us, near us. This is the authority that comes not necessarily from right practice or right action or even right belief but in recognizing of the Holy One of God.
This may be difficult for us. It is the place where I am most likely to stumble, because there must be something I can do, say, wear, eat, that makes me clean, whole and more acceptable to God. Something I ‘have to do’ or get right that makes me more able to evoke the holy name of God, to be in the presence of God.
If we are to believe the gospel of Mark, this story of the healing …. it is not what we eat or wear or do or say that restores.
It is recognizing, seeing, sitting with, the Holy One of God, it is resting in the presence of the One who heals and calms, who brings light to the darkest places of our lives.
And it is like the old hymn says just as I am Lord, just as I am. We cannot improve upon what God has made.
Often our pride presumes that we are not all we should be, that God does not want us until we have done so and so … if ever there was a Gospel proclamation to rid us of that notion, this is it.
God meets us where we are and blesses it and in that blessing we are changed, healed, forgiven and welcomed. We need only turn our faces toward the One who offers the welcome.
Gratefully we are obliged to tell the story to all who listen ….
So it begins there and goes out into the wider world.
The good news spreads like smallest spark touched to dry brush,
like the ever-widening circles created by the tiniest pebble dropped into a still lake.
Once blessed, or having come near to blessing, in our amazement the good news travels on through us to others possessed of other spirits, to the legions who suffer with preoccupations of this and every age. Telling again the promise in our sacred history … God is forever with us, continually subduing what troubles, offering respite and welcome for those who are weary and heavy-laden.
We gather in our synagogue, in our sanctuary and receive the blessing of God in the form of bread and wine, bread and wine that both reminds and nourishes. Reminding us of God’s faithfulness, of God’s desire to be near us, of God’s love and attraction that honors our cheerfulness and our weariness, our reluctance and our exuberance , our loss, our grief, our failings and victories. The breath of God falls on these gifts and blesses them to nourish us to come and see, to come and be in the full presence of the God.
Jesus bid the disciples to come and see, and we, we are offered the same invitation, come and see … and having seen … Jesus bids us come and be. Be the healing presence in world that so desperately needs it, allow the love of God, the welcome of Jesus, the shalom of Holy Spirit to shine right on through.
God sees what is and blesses it.
God knows the turmoil of life and encourages us.
God meets us where we are and welcomes us.
Amen.
With special thanks to Jan Richardson, and her insights found in the paintedprayerbook.com