Today's Scripture Reading
Mark 1:29-39 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
The image of the desert and the market place is something that author Esther de Waal has written extensively about. She draws this image from the Rule of St. Benedict to describe the tension between spending time alone in quiet prayer vs. spending time in community working, visiting and taking care of others. Esther de Waal writes about how much not just monks, but all of us need both to be able to function with any kind of sanity. It is a way of keeping ourselves in a balance to be aware of when we have spent too much time alone or too much time with others. Yet, her point is also made that the two are not necessarily separated, but work together in harmony.
Prayer is the opus dei that is the work of God. It is not just something we do in church, nor is it limited to praying the Daily Office. Everything we do including working, taking care of family, sleeping, cooking, reading, doing our activism work, visiting with friends and spending some time in recreational activities are all done as part of a continuous conversation between God and ourselves. Prayer is not just a matter of asking God for things, it also requires some kind of openness on our part so that we are in a position to receive the graces of God.
Using the words of Brother David Steindi-Rast, Esther de Waal writes "the contemplative vision without the practical realization is barren, and service without clear vision is mere meddling." Esther writes more in her book Living with Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality by quoting the Late Cardinal Basil Hume. "The monk is safe in the market place because he is at home in the desert; he is valuable in the market place if he preserves a nostalgia for the desert. To the degree that he learns from the desert he will have something to sell in the market place."
What does all of this have to do with the Gospel? Even more important to this blog, what does all of this have to do with living up to the work of our Baptismal Covenant to "strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human person" including LGBT people?
First, the Gospel for today is about Jesus doing the work God gave him, and he took time to go off by himself to pray. We have a picture through the narrative that Jesus continues to heal and call out the evil beings of his time, and to preach and share God's love. We also see that the work Jesus does is not separate from his own relationship to the One who sent him. Jesus breaks away to spend his time with God, to keep his focus on what he is doing. Jesus wants to be totally in tune with God's will so that he can continue the work he has begun.
Second, if we are to be about the work of helping to achieve the equality and inclusion of marginalized people including, but not limited to LGBT people, we must have a "spring" from which the waters flow to do that work. It needs to come from a heart dedicated to loving others as God loves. To be able to love others inclusively, we need to know God's inclusive love for each one of us. That love that sees us as we are, and calls us to face the realities of what makes us unique and the same. As we spend time with God at the center of our being, we come to a deeper awareness of ourselves and what God wants to do with and through us.
It is also worth pointing out that none of us is a super woman/man. We all need time to be out doing the work of inclusion and justice. We also need time away from everything and everyone to reset ourselves. To refocus and recharge, so we can return to our work with new energy and passion. If Jesus needed to do that as we read in the Gospels, what makes us think that we can just run endlessly on our own?
If we are to "mount up with wings like eagle's" and "run and not grow weary", then we must also "wait upon the Lord" as the Prophet Isaiah says in our reading from Hebrew Scripture. This requires us to stop for a bit, be quite and still and be prepared to listen to the Holy Spirit speak to us in the depths of our hearts.
Remember to take time from the market place to spend some time in the desert.
Prayers
Mark 1:29-39 (NRSV)
Jesus left the synagogue at Capernaum, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Blog Reflection
The image of the desert and the market place is something that author Esther de Waal has written extensively about. She draws this image from the Rule of St. Benedict to describe the tension between spending time alone in quiet prayer vs. spending time in community working, visiting and taking care of others. Esther de Waal writes about how much not just monks, but all of us need both to be able to function with any kind of sanity. It is a way of keeping ourselves in a balance to be aware of when we have spent too much time alone or too much time with others. Yet, her point is also made that the two are not necessarily separated, but work together in harmony.
Prayer is the opus dei that is the work of God. It is not just something we do in church, nor is it limited to praying the Daily Office. Everything we do including working, taking care of family, sleeping, cooking, reading, doing our activism work, visiting with friends and spending some time in recreational activities are all done as part of a continuous conversation between God and ourselves. Prayer is not just a matter of asking God for things, it also requires some kind of openness on our part so that we are in a position to receive the graces of God.
Using the words of Brother David Steindi-Rast, Esther de Waal writes "the contemplative vision without the practical realization is barren, and service without clear vision is mere meddling." Esther writes more in her book Living with Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality by quoting the Late Cardinal Basil Hume. "The monk is safe in the market place because he is at home in the desert; he is valuable in the market place if he preserves a nostalgia for the desert. To the degree that he learns from the desert he will have something to sell in the market place."
"When Thomas Merton writes of 'the spring and the stream' he uses an effective image to illustrate this. Unless the waters of the spring are living and flow outward, the spring becomes a stagnant pool. If the stream loses contact with the spring which is its source it dries up. Contemplation is the spring of living water; action is the stream that flows out from it to others" (pages 105-106 for all quotes used from Esther de Waal).
What does all of this have to do with the Gospel? Even more important to this blog, what does all of this have to do with living up to the work of our Baptismal Covenant to "strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human person" including LGBT people?
First, the Gospel for today is about Jesus doing the work God gave him, and he took time to go off by himself to pray. We have a picture through the narrative that Jesus continues to heal and call out the evil beings of his time, and to preach and share God's love. We also see that the work Jesus does is not separate from his own relationship to the One who sent him. Jesus breaks away to spend his time with God, to keep his focus on what he is doing. Jesus wants to be totally in tune with God's will so that he can continue the work he has begun.
Second, if we are to be about the work of helping to achieve the equality and inclusion of marginalized people including, but not limited to LGBT people, we must have a "spring" from which the waters flow to do that work. It needs to come from a heart dedicated to loving others as God loves. To be able to love others inclusively, we need to know God's inclusive love for each one of us. That love that sees us as we are, and calls us to face the realities of what makes us unique and the same. As we spend time with God at the center of our being, we come to a deeper awareness of ourselves and what God wants to do with and through us.
It is also worth pointing out that none of us is a super woman/man. We all need time to be out doing the work of inclusion and justice. We also need time away from everything and everyone to reset ourselves. To refocus and recharge, so we can return to our work with new energy and passion. If Jesus needed to do that as we read in the Gospels, what makes us think that we can just run endlessly on our own?
If we are to "mount up with wings like eagle's" and "run and not grow weary", then we must also "wait upon the Lord" as the Prophet Isaiah says in our reading from Hebrew Scripture. This requires us to stop for a bit, be quite and still and be prepared to listen to the Holy Spirit speak to us in the depths of our hearts.
Remember to take time from the market place to spend some time in the desert.
Prayers
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us
the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known
to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns
with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen. (Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Book of Common Prayer, p. 216).
Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so
guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our
wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto
thee; and then use us, we pray thee, as thou wilt, and always
to thy glory and the welfare of thy people; through our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (Prayer of Self Dedication, Book of Common Prayer, p. 832).
Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our
heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove
ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will.
Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and
pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion;
from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend
our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes
brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue
with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust
the authority of government, that there may be justice and
peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we
may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth.
In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness,
and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail;
all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for our Country, Book of Common Prayer, p. 820).
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