Saturday, February 7, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Feb 7-8, 2009


Have you not been paying attention? 

Have you not been listening?

Haven't you heard these stories all your life? 

Don't you understand the foundation of all things?

God sits high above the round ball of earth. 

The people look like mere ants.

He stretches out the skies like a canvas— 

yes, like a tent canvas to live under.

He ignores what all the princes say and do. 

The rulers of the earth count for nothing.

Princes and rulers don't amount to much. 

Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted,

They shrivel when God blows on them. 

Like flecks of chaff, they're gone with the wind.
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?

God doesn't come and go. God lasts. 



- from Psalm 147, appointed for the Liturgy
for the Fifth Sunday in Epiphany, Year B, RCL



OK. Pay attention. I am going to define “God”. “God” is our best understanding of the character and nature of Existence, of Being, of “What Is”. (Though do remember, I didn’t say I was going definitively to define God. This is always an ongoing project!)

And, I have a simple criterion for “best”: is it an understanding of “God” that most blesses the World with Peace, Joy, Compassion, and Loving Service to each other. (This has not been garnered just from Christianity, but from many sources.)

I hope these are the stories you have been hearing all your Life! Alas, I know many who have not - people whose understanding of “God” filled them with bigotry, intolerance, fear, guilt, self-righteousness. Most unpleasant!

“God” is all the things we humans need to know to have a wonderful life (ALL of us!); to be grounded in Reality; to know the power of Trust and Surrender; to understand the power of Service; to have some inkling of the Mystery of Love as the highest action of Free Will; to know that we ourselves are diminished whenever any other human being or part of the Universe is damaged or mistreated. I’m sure there are many things you could add as you search your own heart and longings for your Life.

This “God” lasts. As the Bible says, all else shall pass away. And it passes away in our own time and in our own fleeting Earthly lives, for everyone who strives to live by the “God Who Lasts”. What only is left is ….. Love.

“Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? To your own deepest heart-songs? Choose what “lasts”, what most blesses Life.

Brian+

No comments: