In the Celtic tradition, it was commonplace to begin each journey with a prayer of encircling (the “caim”). As the pilgrim departed, she drew a clockwise circle around herself with her index finger as a sign that in all things she would journey in the divine circle. Amid fears of terrorism, economic disruption, and sickness, we can always draw a circle of protection around ourselves as a reminder that we are in God’s hands – forever.  Death and destruction are real, but they cannot thwart God’s loving care.

I Timothy explores the issue of trust in terms of an ethic of equanimity or contentment.  When we know that we are connected with divine abundance, we can let go of all finite sources of security and success.  Only the Eternal One can satisfy eternally and infinitely. We can live simply so that others can simply live because we know that true happiness comes from our relationship with God and our neighbors.

In speaking of the interplay of love of God and love of neighbor, Dorotheos of Gaza described the spiritual journey in terms of our place in a circle. If we understand our lives in terms of a line drawn from the circumference to the center of the circle, the closer we are to God, the closer we are to our neighbor; and the closer we are to our neighbor, the closer we are to God.

The alienating love of money and the greed that creates a chasm between rich and poor or wealthy and exploited nations is a symptom of our disconnectedness from God and our neighbor. Wealth alone cannot soothe the broken spirit.  While the parable of the rich man and Lazarus does not give us a definitive vision of the afterlife, it affirms that even the wealthy are lost if they are unaware of their relationship to God and to those in need. Augustine notes that we are made for a relationship with God and that “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in the divine.”  When we treat the poor unjustly and choose our wealth over other’s well being, we will, as the prophet Amos warns, experience a “famine of hearing the word of God.” Recognizing that their wealth cannot save them from spiritual malnutrition, even the rich will panic:

         They shall wander from sea to sea,

         and from north to east;

         they shall run to and fro,

         seeking the word of God,

         but they shall not find it.  (Amos 8:11-12)

Just think of the sad examples of Martha Stewart, Leona Helmsley, and Kenneth Lay of Enron, to name a few stories from the headlines.  Wealthy beyond belief, they thirst for more.  Their scarcity consciousness leads to their financial, emotional, and spiritual undoing.  Although they not be aware of it, what they really seek is not wealth or power, but the spiritual stature and life-transforming love that gives authentic zest to life.

Or, consider the tragedy of Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s Cradle.”  Too late, a success-oriented father realizes that his son has become just like himself – so absorbed in his own life, that he has no time for more than a superficial relationship with the father who has finally realized that there is more to life than wealth and work.

Still, there is hope for the Stewarts, Lays, and ourselves in Jesus’ counsel: “seek first the reign of God and you will have everything you need.”   Transformation of our minds and healing of our values is always possible.

The issue is our perception of abundance and scarcity.  Do we live in a closed, zero sum world in which our neighbor’s gain is our loss, or an open system in which new possibilities and energies are constantly emerging. When we know we are connected with God, we have everything we need and, in our gratitude, we can allow the riches of life – material and relational – to flow through us toward our neighbor. Process thought counsels that, at the deepest level, our lives can be understood as an ongoing and constant response to God’s aim at beauty, justice, and wholeness.  In fact, with Kierkegaard, process thinkers affirm that “purity of heart is to will one thing,” that is, to respond to God’s aim for ourselves and our neighbors in each moment of life.

Trust is at the heart of Jeremiah’s improbable real estate investment.  With the nation in ruin, Jeremiah takes a leap of faith – he buys a plot of land.  No doubt observers think the prophet to be mad.  But, like the Psalmist, Jeremiah sees history from the perspective of divine shalom and justice and not economic competition or political scarcity.  Oppression and terrorism will not last forever.  The divine dream of peace will be victorious in the end.  Such affirmations are challenging in difficult times – when our country is going in the wrong direction, when terror alerts jump from yellow to orange, when our personal health is in decline, or we face the death of a loved one. But, God’s loving aim asks us to look beyond the “prison house of the present moment” toward the horizon of divine possibility.  The impossible possibility at such moments is that God has not forgotten us but is still at work in our lives, and that our lives are treasured in God’s memory forevermore.  This lifetime on this good and beautiful earth is part of an infinite adventure of companionship with the Creative One.

The process preacher affirms that we are always in God’s hands and that God is constantly presenting us with bountiful possibilities for wholeness even when we struggle with violence, war, and fear.  Trouble is real and death and defeat are possible, but nothing can thwart God’s ultimate aims at justice, peace, and beauty.

Bruce Epperly is Director of the Alliance for the Renewal of Ministry and Continuing Education and Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the author of nine books, including God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus and two upcoming books, written with Rabbi Lew Solomon, Walking in the Light: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Spirituality and Health and Seeing Angels in Boulders: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Death and Grief. He may be reached at bepperly@lancasterseminary.edu.

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