This year’s Celtic Prayer Retreat is over, but there are many lingering thoughts and reflections from our time together. Last week Christine posted the morning liturgy from Saturday, and I posted posted my first meditation from the retreat, “Identifying Your Great Cloud of Witnesses”. This compilation from our Sunday morning reflections were crafted to help us explore our personal “great cloud of witnesses”, those in our lives who have touched and helped shape who we are today.
If you’re on Facebook you might also like to check out our photos from the Celtic Prayer Retreat. Here are links to Christine’s and Andy’s photos.
Board members and retreat participants gather around Christine to bless her new journey.
One of the highlights of the retreat for me was the ceremony our new MSA board created to honor and bless Christine for her leadership over the years. As the incoming Director, I was honored to share my deep appreciation for all that Christine has brought to our organization and, through her leadership, to many around the world.
Christine’s leadership has cultivated in MSA, and in our individual lives, what we like to refer to as “The MSA Process”. From our staff meetings to how our workshops are designed and facilitated, we begin by listening to what God is already doing in each of our lives. This is not necessarily an efficient process, but one that allows the living water of Christ to penetrate deep into our souls. As we hear what God is already doing in our personal lives, we begin to discover connecting threads that inspire, encourage, and link our lives together.
We also discover that what God is up to on a personal level often connects to what God is up to in our work together through MSA and Godspace. This process helps us not only to look back and find connections, but also to look forward to see more clearly how God is leading us into the future. It’s not surprising with all the gardening and reflection that Christine does that this would be a very organic process.
Christine’s leadership in this way is decidedly not top-down but one of listening, mutuality, and gentle guidance. Her influence in my life has been profound, and I am deeply grateful to have been able to work so closely with her these past several years. Which leads me into the next section of the retreat, where the board blessed and installed me as the new Director of MSA // Godspace.
What an honor to follow in the footsteps of Christine and Tom in giving leadership and direction to this community. I was tempted to use the word “organization” there, and technically it is, but much more than that, MSA // Godspace is a community, with a small inner core we call staff and volunteers, but a much broader community of folks, like you, who desire to create fuller, more sustainable, prayerful, imaginative, and connected lives. MSA // Godspace is you, it’s us, together with Christ walking into a future of promise and hope.
Gathering around Andy to bless him as the new Director of MSA//Godspace
As the board, my coworkers, and those at the retreat gathered around me to pray, I couldn’t help but think back on the theme for our retreat, “Celebrating the Goodness of God with All the Saints”. Right there, in that moment, I was experiencing just that. There are saints in my life, past and present, who have shaped me. And at that moment I was surrounded not only by them, but also by others, each shaped and molded by their own cloud of witnesses and now, all of them together, surrounding me to bless me into my new role at MSA. Humbling, yes! A bit daunting, absolutely! But I realize that it’s not really about me but truly about us, together.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that we don’t refer to our blog simply as the Godspace blog anymore. Over the years, through Christine’s organic leadership style, we’ve seen how God has tended and cultivated the Godspace garden. What was originally Christine’s personal blog, connected to her book by the same name, has expanded and become a community garden. This transformation has been gradual. It’s been beautiful to watch as new writers have joined the blog and begun to blossom and flower, adding splashes of color and different fragrances along the way. With your help, I hope to continue this rich heritage of community building and partnership, both on the blog and in all that we do through MSA.
Please continue to pray:
- for our board of directors as they help us walk through this important leadership change and help discern our way forward.
- for Christine as she lets go of administrative tasks and fashions a new perspective as Godspace contributor and writer.
- for our team as we also navigate these changes.
- for me as I step into this new role as Director, that I may both build on the past while engaging the future in ways that help us to flourish in an ever-changing world.
Together creating pathways of Shalom,
Andy Wade
Director
Mustard Seed Associates // Godspace
An Appeal
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So let me keep this short and to the point: Please take a moment now to send in your financial contribution to continue to make this work possible.
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by In response to Andy Wade’s Sunday morning reflection at our Celtic retreat I have been rereading and pondering the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12 this week. The passage begins with a phrase I had never noticed before When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain…
I too climbed a mountain during the retreat, at least that was how it felt as I walked the new experiential prayer trail which wended its way up and down the mountainside of our property. Then Saturday morning, in a short beautiful ceremony of affirmation and appreciation I climbed down from the mountain of MSA leadership and handed it over to Andrew Wade.
Mountain tops are important in our journey with God. We talk about mountain top experiences when we have an especially exciting time of personal revelation, and in the Bible they are places of revelation too.
My ponderings this week, not surprisingly, focused on leadership styles which can also resemble mountain climbing.
Being blessed and prayed for at the Celtic retreat
Moses and the Wrong Way to Lead.
Moses climbed a mountain to receive the ten commandments. He climbed alone. The people stayed behind. Moses disappeared into a cloud that hid God’s presence and separated God’s glory from the rest of the Israelites. He received the laws alone, written on a tablet of stone – rules and regulations that unfortunately the Israelites had never seen modelled and I suspect really did not understand. I wonder if Moses understood them either.
Moses made so many leadership mistakes, a little like the zealous but somewhat naive church leader who heads off to a conference, meets God face to face, gets a fresh revelation and enthusiastically returns to implement new rules, regulations and ministries. Then he or she gets frustrated because the followers will not follow.
Mistake #1 – Moses left his followers behind when he went to meet God face to face. No wonder Moses was soon in retreat, now behind a veil of hurt, and bewilderment. God’s glorious revelation had become even more obscure.
Mistake #2 – Moses presented his message in a way that must have been incomprehensible to the Israelites. Written commandments for a group of illiterate slaves used to oral communication and stories. What was he thinking? Seems to me there was a little cultural insensitivity there and I don’t think it came from God. He was educated in Pharoah’s household. He could read and write. His followers could not. It must have just accentuated the differences.
Mistake #3 Moses got angry because his left alone followers had made their own path right back into the Egyptian culture. And I can’t help but wonder if that golden calf was something from Moses’ past too.
No wonder they all, Moses included, needed forty years in the desert. It was really there and not from those stone tablets that they learned generosity, compassion and caring. It was there that they learned to trust God in an intimate, personal way no other people had ever known.
What is your response?
When have you messed up as a leader because of your ignorance of the culture and traditions of your followers? Where has your education and upbringing gotten in the way of your success?
Andy ready for afternoon session at Celtic retreat.
Jesus Gets It Right.
Jesus’ mountain climb was very different.
Right principle #1 He didn’t disappear alone into a cloud. He invited his disciples and the crowds that followed craving something new out of life to come too. He sat down in their midst and began to teach. He wanted them to understand with their hearts not just their heads.
Right principle #2 Jesus taught what was written not on a stone tablet but on his heart and in his life. Yearn for justice, work for peace, show compassion. These principles were woven into the very fabric of his being. His followers had seen him live them out. They were what made them crave something new with so passionately they left livelihoods and job security to follow him.
Right principle #3 Jesus carried on a conversation that both instructed and inspired. I can imagine that beatitude gathering was a very lively event that imprinted Jesus words on the hearts and lives of his followers – a new and living covenant that turned the world upside down in a way that the laws Moses brought down from his mountain never could.. Oral traditions are passed on by story telling, questioning and discussion and I am sure Jesus wove all of these into his sermon. Why is this teaching different from our traditional teachers? How do we live it out?
What Is Your Response?
All of us are both leaders and followers. In what ways have we modelled Jesus in our leadership styles and practices?
What Happens When we Come Down from the Mountain?
As he talked about my leadership, Andy Wade affirmed the discernment process I incorporated into Mustard Seed Associates, a process of listening to the whole team that has become a foundational process for MSA. It is an organic and at times messy process that sometimes derails us from the rules and regulations of professional education and training to embrace new concepts God is leading us into.
I wonder if Jesus sharing the beatitudes was something like that. Everyone sharing how they felt and then together shaping something new that became not just the bedrock for this band of disciples but for the whole Christian movement.
I know this is all speculation, but I love to imagine the possibility, and the organic way in which the church has grown over the centuries, I think gives some credence to it.
What Is Your Response?
As I sit at the bottom of my leadership mountain the question that revolves in my mind is: How have I climbed God’s mountain and conducted myself when I reached the top? Have I been like Moses or Jesus?
This is a question I hope you will ponder with me today. How do we climb our faith mountains, as community, together with Jesus and others who crave the same life transforming knowledge we do? or do we climb as Moses did – as a solitary leader venturing alone into a cloud that hides God from our followers? Do we sit down on our mountains to teach those that follow or do we hide the glory God has revealed with a veil because we think it is too intense for others to appreciate?
Christ and love – they go hand in hand for me. I have spent a lot of time thinking about it this week and contemplating how that love is expressed in my life. These three prayers have come out of that reflection.
by When people tell us to listen to someone, they usually mean to pay attention to their words, but quite often the largest lessons from a life well-lived are discovered by hearing and seeing the things that person puts into practice.
And I ask myself, for those of us determined to follow Jesus, what is the one thing we need to learn? And all the “right” answers strike me straight away: prayer; ministry; knowing scripture; loving everyone. But waiting in the quiet, one more answer comes, and clangs a deep, loud bell in my depths. Waiting.
Waiting can be a sacred act. And Jesus’ earthly life was full of waiting. The Son of God, used to having an entire universe to dance in, must grow from a seed and wait nine months in a tiny space to be born. He then waits to speak, to walk, to grow up. As a toddler he waits in a place far away from home, for it to be safe for him and his parents to return. He waits years until he is old enough to be allowed to talk to the men at the Temple. And even then he gets roundly told off. “Where else would I be?” he basically exclaims (my paraphrase of Luke 2:49).
Thirty whole years before his ministry can truly begin, and even then his patience is mesmerising, “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” (John 2:4 NLT) And perhaps at this point even his wonderfully patient mother was tired of waiting for things to kick off, pushing him forward to do his stuff. Sometimes he got frustrated himself. He cursed the fig tree for having seasons, because where he came from, the fruit was ever at hand. He grew impatient with the self-righteous Pharisees, who could not see what was right under their stuck up noses. He even (and who can blame him) once got a bit tetchy with his dear but dim disciples (as I’m sure he must do with us all now and again) used as he was to being obeyed by angels, “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” (Matthew 17:17 NIV). I’m not sure that we can even begin to comprehend how agonisingly small and tiresomely long being human must have felt.
And we hear ourselves and our fellow Christians complain because our ministry has been delayed, or because we have not found out what it is yet, and we are desperate to know how we are going to help save the world, before we have even discovered that we are not of it, let alone that someone else got there before us. We want healing now, and not to wait twelve years (the woman who touched Jesus’ cloak), or thirty-eight years (the disabled man at Bethesda). We want to know now, Lord, and see now, and understand now, not ten years of devoted prayer later. We want answers and to be ready now. And yet, we are not ready. We are needful of decades of prayer. It mightn’t be our season yet. There may be roads we need to walk down first, and they may be hard roads.
And when we are ready, we may need to teach ungrateful dusty herberts for three long years, get called a heretic repeatedly, upset the religious establishment to such a degree that they want to stone us, get thrown out of every place we are asked to speak, leave riots starting in our wake, and become persona non grata everywhere but in the homes of the poor and in dens of vice, and on the beleaguered boats of fishermen.
And then would we be ready to be betrayed, abandoned, questioned, tried falsely, betrayed again by our own people shouting for Barabbas? Ready to have the powers that be wash their hands of us, be mocked, spat on, flogged, sentenced to death, and made to carry our own cross up a long and winding via dolorosa, until finally we are gruesomely, tortuously killed for doing nothing but speaking the truths of God? And Jesus waited thirty-three years for this agony. Are we ready to wait? Can we be patient through the trials? I have had to ask myself some hard questions about this lately as my health has worsened and my circumstances become tougher than I thought they could get.
And I have realised that it is not primarily the suffering that we are waiting for, nor even the ending of it, though of course there are also many good gifts and healings in this life. No, what Jesus was waiting for, and what we wait for, is what comes next. We are all waiting for heaven, for homecoming, for love. This is where we are all headed, if we want it, and what we endure in this waiting room is the suffering of not being in heaven, of being strangers in a strange land, of everything but the merest glimpses of love.
And the way we survive and overcome, as Jesus did, is by the knowing that everything breakable here can have love poured through the cracks. That all brokenness can begin heaven’s work, that all earthly tears begin the flow of heavenly rivers, one drop at a time. And so we learn to wait, like winter waits for the spring, seeds wait to grow, and like dams wait to burst, and we learn from listening to the master, “who is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 NIV).
“Celebrating the Goodness of God with All the Saints” was the theme for our 25th Annual Celtic Prayer Retreat this past weekend. We spent quite a lot of time thinking about the great cloud of witnesses which surrounds us, not just those who have gone before but also those who walk with us today: friends, pastors, authors, activists, and the like. These people have shaped our lives and nurtured us through both crises and celebrations.
Our closing worship on Sunday morning was focused again on this great cloud of witnesses, but with a twist. We began by looking at the Apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy:
I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:3-7 (NRSV)
For our first time of reflection we looked at how Paul acknowledges his faithful ancestors and then challenges Timothy to connect with his own, saying “The faith of your grandmother and mother now lives in you”. We then asked the question, “Who can you name in the circle of witnesses in your life?” taking time for each of us to quietly name and thank God for each one’s foundation of faith and ongoing witness in our lives.
With this foundation we then jumped back to Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes:
One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them.
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.
God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.
God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. Matthew 5:1-12 (NLT)
For this time of reflection I challenged us to go back through the Beatitudes, one by one, with those in our personal “cloud of witnesses” in mind, specifically asking “Who has been an example for me in each of these beatitudes?” We then thanked God for their faithful example, and asked God how we might be an example to others in this area.
This turned out to be a much more profound exercise than I had anticipated. For some of the Beatitudes there was a quick and obvious person or persons who came to mind. For other Beatitudes it was more of a struggle. Why is that? I wondered. How have the cloud of witnesses in my life shaped who I am and the Beatitudes I live into more fully… or ignore?
Our final reflection combined the two passages, asking:
- What would it look like in my life to “fan into flame” or “rekindle the gift of God” in the areas specifically mentioned by Jesus in the Beatitudes?
- What are 2-3 action steps I can begin this week to move closer to Jesus’ call in the Beatitudes and the entire Sermon on the Mount?
- How might this enhance my ability to more fully love God and Neighbor?
- Paul mentions to Timothy that “God doesn’t give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” How do my practices today shape my life so that I can be among that cloud of witnesses for those who come after me?
I had never thought of approaching these two passages quite like this before but as I prepared the Sunday worship service God prompted me to take another look, from the side, and see just how influential our cloud of witnesses truly is… and our place in that story for others.
What are your thoughts?
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Boundaries encircled By God Shelby Selvidge
by Christine Sine
We have just returned from our annual Celtic retreat on Camano Island a wonderful gathering of friends and associates from the U.S. and Canada. Over the next few days we will post reflections, litanies and meditation tool we hope you will find useful starting with this litany from our Saturday morning session. We hope that it will help you enter into the spirit of this weekend and the rich encounter with God that it brought to participants.
Opening Song
Welcoming litany
Circles were significant to the Celts. It was felt that a circle with no break was a symbol of eternal life, a complete whole affording no access to the devil. It was a symbol of unity, togetherness and purity.
Celtic crosses are unique in that they incorporated the circle at their heart. Some have suggested that this circle depicts the wreath given to military heroes in Rome showing Christ’s victory over the forces of evil. Others see it as a halo representing the holiness of the one who died there…. The circle was a pagan sign depicting the sun or the earth, the natural world. By superimposing the sign on the cross, the Celts expressed their view that the revelation of God comes to us through the natural world and in the person of Jesus Christ. We need both to get the full picture, so the two are bound together with the circle at the intersection of the natural and the spiritual realms. (Rodney Newman 70)
It is for these reasons that we have chosen the circle as the symbol of our day together. We come to create a circle of unity, togetherness and wholeness with God’s creation and with all the peoples of our world past, present and future. We come to celebrate God’s wholeness and all who have and continue to move towards its completion.
As we start let us close our eyes and imagine the circle of God’s presence surrounding the creation in which we stand. Extend the forefinger of your right hand and draw an imaginary circle around this place. Imagine Christ standing at the centre his arms outstretched as on the Cross, binding together the elements of the natural world into a sacred circle of wholeness.
let us pray:
God our creator, maker of all life,
mender of all the broken pieces of the universe.
You reveal yourself through your beautiful creation all around.
In the person of Jesus Christ,
you bind it together into a circle of wholeness.
Through him you place the gospel
at the centre of this sacred circle.
All things are held together by him,
and in him all creation finds its true purpose.
Amen
Close your eyes again and use your forefinger to draw a second imaginary circle within the circle of creation. This time extend it around the people who are gathered here, then imagine it embracing your family and friends, your neighbors and strangers, in fact all God’s people past, present and future. Once again imagine Christ at the center arms outstretched binding together the people your circle surrounds.
Today we stand in the circle of God’s presence
United with those who have gone before.
We stand with Christ and the disciples who led the way.
Peter, James, John, Matthew, Thomas, Mary, Martha, Phoebe,
We stand in the company of the Celtic saints
whose words and wanderings inspire us,
Columba, Brigit, Patrick, Hilda, Brendan, Beatrice, Kevin,
We stand with our friends and family who have gone before us,
And hold hands with those whose names are known to God alone.
Together we celebrate the forming of a sacred circle of healing and wholeness
that embraces all humanity and all creation.
Instructions for Preparing the Altar
Decorating the altar
Now it is time to prepare an altar for our worship. November 2nd is Looking for Circles day but we want to celebrate it today. Circles are everywhere. The shape of this gathering place, the round seeds in blackberries, the spiral patterns in leaves or a special rock, wheels of cars, bubbles in the bathroom, and of course the mysterious crop circles are a few examples.
So as we go out let us gather items to place on the altar that speak of God’s wholeness, As we do consider the questions: Where do we feel surrounded by the circle of God’s love? Who stands with us in the circle? How is God’s creation bound with us within that circle?
Song
Sending prayer
Circle us lamb of God
abide within our hearts.
Circle us word of God
speak through our lips.
Circle us dove of God
grant peace along our pathway.
Circle us with your witnesses.
Circle us with your wholeness.
Circle us with your love.
Let’s Take Time to Listen: – An Introduction to Lectio Divina
God’s promise of wholeness and the completion of the healing both of creation and of all humankind is hidden within all our hearts. We rejoice with those who have borne witness to this dream of wholeness throughout the centuries, living their lives to bring healing, freedom and abundance to the oppressed, the hurting and the abandoned.
We think particularly of the Celtic saints who stand in the circle with us. They had a powerful sense of the unity of the whole created order and believed that God is always at work making all things whole. We celebrate their legacy and continue to be inspired by their wonderful example.
We stand with Patrick who did not turn his back on those who had enslaved him and as a result brought gospel freedom to Ireland. We celebrate with Columba who as a young man fought violence with violence, and must have struggled with his own need for repentance and inner restoration. His sacred calling as a monk taught him the power of peace and reconciliation, the spirit of which still impacts our lives today. We remember the generous spirit of Brigit whose radical hospitality fed thousands and whose example inspired the Celtic commitment to hospitality. And we sit with Kevin who like so many of the Celtic saints believed all creation was inspired by God and infused with the glory of God.
We stand in the circle too with those for whom the celebration of wholeness is still little more than a dream. We think of the witnesses today whose voices are raised to remind us of the violence, pain and injustice that still permeates our world. We stand with those who have suffered violence, oppression and pain. We remember those who fight against the destruction of creation and the extinction of species.
God today we stand in the circle of wholeness you are creating.
We are surrounded by a cloud,
Faithful witnesses who have gone before.
Those who have loved where we would have hated.
Those who have healed where we would have hurt.
Those who have spoken out when we remained silent.
God may we walk in their footsteps,
Learning courage from their sacrifice,
Gaining strength from their faithfulness.
Help us learn to give so that others may receive.
Teach us to love so that others may be set free.
Encourage us to die to self so that others might live.
God may we join that cloud of faithful witnesses,
Treading paths of loving obedience,
Leaving footprints for others to walk in.
God may we too lead kingdom lives, and walk into your ways.
Amen.
Come into God’s presence and listen for God’s wisdom in the silence of your heart as we read through the scripture and apply the practice of Lectio Divina to it. Ask God what you can do to help complete the circle of wholeness and healing God is working towards. Listen, not just to the response of your own spirit and its need for wholeness, but also for the pain that has created the violence and destructiveness within our world. Are there ways in which our actions or inactions have contributed to the lack of healing and prevented God from completing the circle of wholeness? Listen to the witnesses around us and to the song of creation crying out for completion and wholeness.
Jeff Johnson leading worship
Song
CHRIST HAS WALKED THIS PATH Jeff Johnson
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:1-13 (NLT)
Scripture reading is followed by personal time for reflection. Make sure you do not rush through this process but allow ample time for God to speak to each individual.
Reflection Time
Monasteries were often built with a circle of crosses surrounding them declaring that the space within was sacred and different – dedicated to God and claimed as a place where God met people who were offered sanctuary and hospitality. Our prayer is that this property too will become known as a place of healing, hospitality and wholeness. May God give us the wisdom to build and the discernment to form the type of community that can have the same influence that the Celtic saints did.
Let us go out for a second time of reflection and contemplation, with our eyes open to God’s desire for healing and wholeness. You might like to walk around the new circle prayer trail which encompasses the central circle of our property. Use the cross in your program as a template and journal page. Draw in it and color it as you walk. Around the circle write the names of those who celebrate with you in the circle of wholeness and healing. Add the names of those for whom the celebration still seems a distant dream. Reflect on what you have written and write down what God brings to your mind.
Sharing
Christ circles us going before, behind, below, above, at our side and also inside. In this place where we join the circle of friends, are surrounded by the circle of nature, and accompanied by the circle of those who have gone before let us celebrate the completion of this.
Celtic cross Mender of all – Kirsten Foot
Draw your circle Lord,
around us like a cloak.
Circle us,
with life and love and laughter.
Circle us,
with light and joy and presence.
Circle us,
with smiles and hugs and friendship.
Draw your circle Lord,
Let it radiate light where there has been darkness.
Let it birth joy where there has been despair.
Let it preserve life where there has been death.
Draw your circle Lord,
over all the creatures of your world.
Let it bring wholeness and peace and unity.
Closing Song
by Lynn Domina
I have been thinking about Jesus the teacher. He instructs many people, friends and enemies, the naïve and the sly, those hoping for grace and those hoping to outwit him. But as a good teacher once described a classroom, “There’s more teaching than learning going on here.”
We hear Jesus when he unrolls the scroll in the synagogue and reads from Isaiah, proclaiming good news. When he is finished, he rolls the scroll up, sits down, and says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” His immediate listeners are first amazed and then angry—Jesus is nothing if not scandalous. We hear him telling stories, parables that seldom quite make sense. His immediate listeners (who are often his disciples) frequently misunderstand, interpreting his words literally rather than figuratively. They’re hearing the words, it seems, but they’re not comprehending the meaning.
So how do we understand Jesus? We hear his words and we observe his actions as they are described for us in scripture, but when Jesus repeatedly urges, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” he’s not talking simply about our physical capacity, though ears and eyes and hands and feet make for good metaphors throughout the gospel. Whether our physical senses are acute or dulled, understanding requires so much more than just perking up when sound waves strike our eardrums.
Understanding takes a lifetime of meditation with an open heart, thinking about what the stories in scripture might have meant then and what they might mean now, discerning how the lessons we each need to learn are revealed in our own lives. I’ve been thinking for years now about the story of the woman bent over in Luke 13: 10-17. When the story opens, Jesus is teaching on the sabbath. He sees the woman, interrupts his lesson, and heals her. Immediately, he’s criticized for performing work on the sabbath. His response is sensible—in emergencies, we’re permitted to work on the sabbath.
I have known women bent over, and we’ve probably all seen one or two. I have seen women bent at the waist, walking with canes, faces toward the ground, and I’ve tried to imagine what that feels like. I imagine the discomfort of looking up, the strain on your neck as you try to have a normal conversation with just about anyone. How uncomfortable it would be to try look toward the vast sky, the clouds, the moon, the stars. How painful it would feel when a child on a high swing calls, “Look at me, Grandma!”
I wonder whether there’s more to Luke’s story of Jesus. Isn’t healing the work of God just as much as praying is? I wonder whether healing isn’t a necessary component of Jesus’ sabbath teaching, different from the drudgery of much human work—scrubbing pots, tilling fields, counting up the cash of a day’s receipts. There’s the work of God, and there’s employment, the work we do to keep ourselves out of destitution, yes, but also to maintain our status, to acquire so many things that have so little to do with God. If we are each made in God’s image—the woman bent over, the disciples, the Pharisees—how does our work resemble God’s work?
The word “liturgy” is frequently defined as “the work of the people,” in the sense that the people participate rather than simply observe, but from what I’ve read recently, it might more accurately be translated as “work for the people,” work that benefits others. So curing the woman bent over is as liturgical as reading from scripture. It’s as liturgical as singing “Be Thou My Vision” or consecrating bread and wine or turning to one’s neighbor and saying, “Peace be with you.” It makes sense, then, that Jesus would stop preaching in order to heal. Both acts are works of and for the people.
Hearing Jesus, hearing deeply, with our entire beings, we understand that God’s work is our work, that permitting ourselves to heal and to be healed are acts of worship.
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