August 20, 2006
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 15)

 

I Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14
Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-59

The Biblical tradition invites us to ponder the interrelatedness of sacred time and sacred space. Some of our favorite Bible stories involve “thin places” where the temporal and spatial worlds reflect God’s presence in surprising and transformative ways. Process theology invites us to “lived omnipresence,” that is, to experience God everywhere. But, process theology also reminds us that God’s presence is variable and can be dramatic and surprising. Some places and times are transparent to God’s aim for wholeness and beauty – Abraham and Sarah entertaining angels; Jacob at the Stream of Jabbok, wresting with the divine; Jacob dreaming of a ladder of angels, ascending to and descending from heaven; Moses on Mt. Sanai; Mary’s encounter with Gabriel; the healing encounters of Jesus; Paul encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus.

God is everywhere and in all things, but God is revealed in transforming ways only to those who “have eyes to see.” Diana Butler Bass, in her The Practicing Congregation , reminds us that congregational vitality is related to a rediscovery and transformation of traditional practices such as prayer and meditation, worship, community, hospitality, and service. Practices enable abstract doctrines to become concrete experiential realities.

Sometimes Life presents us with a question, and the answer we give will be a matter of life or death as we face the path that lies ahead. The Hebraic narrative describes Solomon’s personal epiphany. One evening, the new king encounters the Divine One of Isreael, who presents him with an opportunity of a lifetime, “Ask what I should give you.” Solomon’s response reveals his ultimate concern, “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil.”
In each second and over the course of a lifetime, God confronts us with possibilities for transformation and wisdom. The initial aim is God’s gift to each moment’s experience, and it is also God’s question, “what do you want to do with your life right now? how will you use the gifts of wisdom, insight, and energy I give you each moment of the day and in the future that lies ahead?”

Solomon receives much more than he asks for. His quest for wisdom opens the door to unexpected possibilities. God promises him a long life, wealth, and power as well as wisdom. Perhaps, only through wisdom – through attentiveness to God’s dream for your life and your role as God’s partner in healing the world – can power and wealth have any meaning. Sadly, most governments, including our own, prefer empire and riches as a primary goal to wisdom and justice. The cost of turning from divine wisdom is obvious to anyone who has “eyes to see.”

The Psalm affirms the importance of wisdom for a life of fullness. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Perhaps, a better translation of Psalm 111, might be “living in awe and wonder, reverence and appreciation, is the beginning of wisdom.” Wisdom, Sophia, Logos, is not about fear, but about seeing God in the dramatic as well as the ordinary, in the harmony of the spheres and the workings of our immune system, in praise and worship, but also humble service.

Ephesians counsels us to “make the best of the time.” I would render these words “transforming the time” so that all time is holy and full of wonder, even suffering and death. But, a transformed sense of time and space is the result of a commitment to living out traditional spiritual practices in new and creative ways. For Paul, we transform time and space, whether in the Jerusalem temple or a jail cell, by the practices of thanksgiving, prayer, hymns, and spiritual songs. We truly sing our faith, and as the old adage goes, “she who sings, prays twice.”  

In The Power of Affirmative Faith, I noted the importance of hymns in spiritual transformation. Hymns are affirmations that when repeated over and over transform the way we experience the world and interpret the events of our lives. Our hymns may begin at the level of consciousness, but eventually join the “sighs too deep for words” in interpreting and giving meaning to our world. Just think of your favorite hymns and how they have transformed your life in times of joy and sorrow. When I was unexpectedly fired from a long-time chaplaincy and administrative position as a result of university politics, I took solace in singing “My life flows on in endless song amid life’s lamentation.” At other times, I have been strengthened by “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound,” “God of Grace and God of Glory,” and “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.”

Ephesians notes the importance of gratitude in shaping our vision of reality. Gratitude connects us with the wider universe upon which we depend. As Meister Eckhardt noted, “if the only prayer you can make is thank you, that will be enough.” Thanksgiving joins us with God, our neighbor, and the world around us, past, present, and future. Those who are thankful are never alone or without hope. As Dag Hammarksjold affirmed in his Markings:

For all that has been, thanks.
For all that is to come, yes!

Jesus’ words are strange to modern Protestant ears. “Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” No doubt these words reminded Jesus’ first followers of his Passion and the Last Supper. But, perhaps more is at work than a literal flesh and blood participation in Christ’s death and resurrection. “Whoever eats me will live because of me.” Process thought proclaims a radical interdependence in which our lives emerge by “embracing” the life experience of other occasions. We literally “ingest” the past in our process of moment by moment self-creation. As followers of Christ, we are called to embrace the message and life of Jesus, to take his wisdom in his life, make it our own, and live by it. In so doing, Christ is embodied in our lives, and lives in us. We claim our place as words of God, “little Christs” in our world. Living in Christ, “ingesting” his message and spirit, we experience God’s loving intimacy and everlasting life in the times and places of our finite and passing lives.

For more on the issue of spiritual affirmations:
Bruce Epperly, The Power of Affirmative Life (Chalice Press)
Bruce Epperly, Mending the World (Innisfree/Augsburg)
Bruce Epperly, Walking in the Light (Chalice Press)

Bruce Epperly is director of continuing education and professor of practical theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the author of God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus and The Power of Affirmative Faith; and co-author of The Call of the Spirit: Process Spirituality in a Relational World. These titles are available from the Process & Fatih bookstore.

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