Seeking God’s Face

The Psalms were written as prayers to God. The Psalmists don't hold back their feelings from God. Some of them ask that God take revenge on their enemies. Others praise God throughout the whole psalm. There are psalms that speak from the perspective of a community and some that are personal complaints to God.

The writer of Psalm 27 expounds upon the theme that God is his refuge:

The LORD is my light and my salvation—
       whom shall I fear?
       The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
       of whom shall I be afraid?

He continues to affirm that even though his "enemies" are attacking him, God will be there protecting him.

The disease of addiction can act as an enemy for those of us who suffer from its attacks. This disease can be "cunning and baffling"—sneaky, tricky, and secretive. It operates in the darkness of our own minds, stealing our serenity, coercing us to act in ways that are self-destructive. We're powerless over this enemy. It can drive us to defeat, to where our lives are totally unmanageable.

The solution, writes the Psalmist, exists in seeking to "dwell in the house of the LORD." Where is the house of the LORD? The house of the LORD is within us. God's temple is our bodies. We need to learn to live in harmony with ourselves. We begin by moving from our powerlessness that we've become aware of in Step 1 to developing a belief that "a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity"—a place of balance and serenity, Step 2.

How we do this, says the Psalmist, is to "seek his face." This means we practice Step 11—"We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God . . " . If we're new to the 12 Steps, it may take time to work all the steps between 2 and 11, but we can start to practice praying at any time. The form we use doesn't matter. God knows what we are thinking and feeling. What matters is our desire to "seek his face."

Finally, we need to practice patience! (Darn! And I thought this was going to be easy.)

Wait for the LORD;
       be strong and take heart
       and wait for the LORD.

God’s Lap

One of my cats came to sit on my lap while I was admiring my mother's garden from the top step of our front porch today. None of my cats are regular lap sitters. When he chose to climb up on my lap, I chose to sit with him there until he decided to get down several minutes later. I began to ponder how God might do the same thing for me.

I don't choose to sit in God's lap very often. Yes, I regularly pray and meditate, focusing on bringing myself back in line with God, but I don't often focus on God's 'arms' surrounding me. And yet, I chose to embrace my cat because he chose to spend time with me; surely God would do the same for me anytime I chose to spend time with God.

Added to the experience with loving my cat, I enjoyed the lush vegetation of my mother's garden. This time of year most of the flowers has ceased their abundant display of various colors since the heat has begun to climb and the trees have leafed out, flooding her garden with shade. But the vast array of shades of green amazed me as I studied all the different plants she has chosen for her garden. The diversity of God's creation awes me.

If God did truly love me and all creation into existence, then surely we can depend on God to continue to love us, be available to us, and revel in our diversity. All we need to do is to crawl into God's lap!

Good Orderly Direction

Ecclesiastes 7:13 -14: ¹³Consider the work of God; For who can make straight what He has made crooked? ¹⁴In the day of prosperity be joyful, But in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, So that man can find out nothing that will come after him. -- NKJV

Step 3: "We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood (God)." Emotions Anonymous

The writer of Ecclesiastes, (or Qoheleth, in Hebrew), often referred to as the 'Preacher' or teacher since Ecclesiastes literally means "Member of an Assembly" in Greek, writes during a time when Jews did not believe in an afterlife. Hence, he attempts to make sense of the world, the traditions of his religion, and his relationship with God as a human with only this life to live, something all of us struggle with at different times in our lives.

The Declaration of Independence listed the pursuit of happiness as one of our "unalienable rights," given to us by God. The Preacher held the same belief. Yet, anyone who has attempted to pursue happiness for its own sake has found it extremely illusive—akin to chasing a rainbow. One day we're having a great deal of fun, laughing and frolicking, and the next we're faced with some ordeal that brings us crashing down from our high.

Of utmost importance to the Preacher was the orderliness of God. God was responsible for prosperity and adversity—nothing more, nothing less. Although I disagree that God sends adversity, I do strongly believe that God created order. Instead of believing God sends adversity, I believe adversity exists when we get out of sync with God's order, either as individuals or in community with others--an easy thing to do considering all the factors that influence us mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Many people in 12 step programs use the word 'God' as an anagram for "Good Orderly Direction." When I practice the 3^rd step, I seek that direction and believe that God's will is for my good. Yet in seeking God's direction, and relying on God's order, I need to keep in mind that God's order may not be something I would welcome in my pursuit of happiness. 


Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharif/3389991715/
 

Turn Aside

Exodus3:3: Then Moses said, 'I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.'

People are constantly rushing these days. I've thought about making a bumper sticker that says, "Make everyone angry. Drive the speed limit." Not only are people speeding down the highway, but they're multi-tasking while they're doing it. Driving home from the Brooks Center one day, one of my granddaughters pointed out that the lady in the next car was putting on her make-up while driving. Shortly after that, the woman ran through the stop light. Luckily, the other driver, who actually had the right of way, saw what was happening and didn't pull into the intersection.

In today's reading, we pick up the story of Moses as he's watching his father-in-law's sheep. He's living a comfortable life with a wife and a child, having escaped from Egypt after killing an Egyptian guard. Suddenly he notices a bush burning but not being consumed by the fire and he chooses to 'turn aside' and look at it. God notices that he has turned aside, calls out his name, and tells him to remove his sandals because he's on holy ground. What if Moses had decided he was too busy to look at the bush?

Granted Moses was presented with a rather unusual spectacle that most of us have never experienced. But what is interesting is that prior to God proclaiming that Moses was on holy ground, it was just ordinary dirt, good for raising sheep. Esther de Waal wrote: "The Celtic approach to God opens up a world in which nothing is too common to be exalted and nothing is so exalted that it cannot be made common" [1]. God comes to us during our ordinary life—even at a stop light. We need to take the time to 'turn aside' and recognize what might be a 'burning bush' moment.


^{1. Rupp, Joyce. The Cup of Life: A Guide for Spiritual Growth. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press. 1997:35.}

Obedience

Matthew 1:24: When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife 
 
Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph. We know the story from the 1^st chapter of Matthew--Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant and he decides he will "dismiss her quietly;" the angel of the Lord appears to encourage Joseph to continue on with his original marriage plans because the baby is from the Holy Spirit; Joseph is obedient to the angel's instructions.

Obedience entails respect for our elders, others in authority, and each other. In our quest for freedom and individuality, we often sacrifice learning from others who have experience and could act as our guides. Our society seems to venerate the young instead. Even some parents seem to defer to their children, rather than assert their authority. Obedience has become a dirty word. St. Benedict had a much different perspective.

Because the Roman culture smacked of decadence during his lifetime, Benedict left Rome to pursue a simpler, spiritual, and secluded life. Eventually others followed him, establishing a community near Lake Subiaco. Somewhere around 540, after founding another community, Benedict wrote his monastic Rule. In his chapter on mutual obedience, he wrote, "Obedience is a blessing to be shown by all, not only to the prioress and abbot but also to one another, since we know that it is by the way of obedience that we go to God."

The Rule of St. Benedict is still practiced around the world. The Order of St. Julian is a contemplative Episcopal order, located in Wisconsin, which includes the practice of Benedictine spirituality in their lives. The Customary of the Order of St. Julian states that "obedience is practiced as a means of freeing ourselves from the tyranny of self-will." [1]
 
During the sacrament of Holy Baptism, the candidate is asked, "Do you promise to follow and obey [Jesus Christ] as your Lord?" To which the candidate replies, "I do." We need to regularly ask ourselves this question and answer in the affirmative to free "ourselves from the tyranny of self-will."

1. Chittister, Joan. The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company. 1002:176.

One Body

1 Corinthians 12: 14: Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

On March 18^th, we celebrate the life and works of Cyril of Jerusalem. He was born in 315, around the time that the Roman Emperor, Constantine, legalized Christianity. When Cyril was still a youth, Constantine convoked the 1^st General Council of Nicaea to settle a controversy that had arisen over the divinity of Jesus. It had become especially troublesome between Arius, a pastor in the Baucalis church district in Alexandria, and Alexander, his bishop. Arius asserted that Jesus wasn't omnipotent or eternal, a lesser being than God, having been created by God. Bishop Alexander vehemently disagreed. The controversy escalated throughout the Church, even to the point of rioting in the streets. After much debate, the Council of Nicaea agreed with Alexander and concluded that Jesus was "one substance with the Father."

However, this didn't settle the debate! Cyril became the Bishop of Jerusalem around 349, with Arius as his bishop. Cyril's belief that Jesus was one substance with the Father, as well as other religious and political disputes, eventually got him into trouble. Arius deposed him twice and Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, deposed him a third time. After the emperor's death, Cyril was reinstated and remained bishop until his death in 378.

Controversy has been present in Christianity since its beginning. Initially, the early church fought over inclusion of the Gentiles. As our priest, John, pointed out in a sermon recently, when Peter went to the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and baptized Cornelius and his whole household, he was breaking years and years of Jewish laws and practices, creating a great deal of controversy.

Paul's letters to the church at Corinth reveal he struggled to bring together a divisive group there. In 1 Corinthian 12:12-13, Paul describes how Christians need to think of the Church: "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body . . . and we were all made to drink of one Spirit."

Regardless of our differences, spiritually we are one Body in Christ. We need to "have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it" (1 Cor. 12:25-26).  

Do Not Be Afraid

Genesis 50:19-But Joseph said to them, 'Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God?'

On March 17th, we celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick. Patrick grew up in a wealthy family. His father was an important official in the Roman government of Britain. But when Patrick was 16, he was captured, became a slave, and was made to work as a shepherd in Ireland. Around six years later, he had a dream in which a voice told him he needed to escape. Believing the voice to be from God, he obeyed and successfully escaped. After he made it home, he had another dream. An angel told him that he needed to become a missionary in Ireland. After many years of education and his ordination as a priest, he returned to Ireland to have remarkable success ministering to the Christians already living there and converting many of the pagans to Christianity. 

The story of Joseph in Genesis tells of a similar miracle. Although he was sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph rises to a high position in the Egyptian government, eventually saving his family from famine. After their father dies, his brothers fear Joseph's revenge. But Joseph replies, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God?" According a Hasidic Jewish master, the Oztrotzver Rebbe, "Joseph was saying: You did me an evil which turned out for the good; if I wished to avenge myself on you, I, too, would have to do the same. But this I cannot do, for only G-d can do so... ."Chabad.org
 

Interestingly enough, God's revenge of Joseph's brothers was to turn the evil they did, not only into good for Joseph, but into their own good! We don't need to fill in for God. Whatever befalls us, we know that God is in charge and will transform the situation to God's own glory if we continue to trust and endeavor to follow God's will. "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age", Jesus told his disciples (Matthew 28:20).

 

There's a portion of a poem by James Dillet Freeman which elaborates on this theme:

The light of God surrounds us;

The love of God enfolds us;

The power of God protects us;

The presence of God watches over us;

Wherever we are, God is.