God of Light and wonder, lead us to recognize your gifts in
everything we see. Your Light shines and
we rise to meet its beauty. Lead us to
see the Source of Sacred Love of which Jesus spoke. Lead us to see you. Amen
We hear the poetry in James’
description of God’s gifts to the world.
“The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Source
of Light”. Imagine yourselves—you might find it
easier to close your eyes—at the bottom of a very beautiful medium-sized
waterfall. Don’t start with Niagara
Falls—that would be so overwhelming that we wouldn’t be able to describe it or
take it in. I, for one, am going to Bish
Bash Falls in Western Massachusetts, just across the border from New York. The water comes from two, maybe three
directions at the top and feeds into the stream that crashes down through the
falls. It’s one of those tall falls, so
the water falls a long way, reaching the bottom pool of water with enough force
that the spray rises up many feet into the air.
It is one of my sacred places—“thin places”, the Celts call them—where I
have experienced God in a special way.
The Celtic designation makes sense as they talk about places where those
things that separate us from God are thin; and, if you are paying attention,
you can glimpse the special beauty of God as the barriers that keep us from
feeling the fullness of God are thinned out.
So,
you go to your waterfalls, or stream, if you don’t have one and gaze upon the
water flowing either over the falls or down the stream. The sun is so bright that little stars of
light dance upon the surface of the water.
At times, the spray makes lopsided rainbows just above the mist. Perhaps, the sun goes beyond some clouds,
giving your eyes a chance to rest from the brightness and prepare you for the
next ray of sunshine bringing you up to a new sense of the lightness and
brightness of the scene before you. And,
now, listen to James’ poetic description of God in the world again. “The
gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Source of Light”. As you stand at the foot of your
waterfall, begin to name the gifts of God that are cascading in front of
you. What is your response? I find myself drawing closer and closer until
I am close enough to feel the mist upon my skin. And, as I allow myself to look through the
thin place that separates me from God, I find my tears mixing with the mist on
my face as I begin in a new and deeper way to let the gifts of God permeate my
very being. As the scene fades from my
mind’s eye, I wrap my arms around this sense of closeness to God and return to
this place with you.
I
hope that you were able to get into that visualization. I won’t call it a fantasy, because it is so
very real—available to us at any time, perhaps more so when we are in one of
our thin or sacred places, but, available to us at other times as well. As we mature in our ability to spend time
with God and build up our tolerance to receiving the immensity of God’s grace,
we can have these experiences as often as we choose to allow God—the Source of
Love—to be present to us.
What are these
gifts that God gives to each of us? God
gives to each of us the gifts that we recognize, acknowledge and claim. These gifts may be, and probably are
different for each person. In other
words, I believe that all of God’s gifts are available to all of us at any
time, but only those that have meaning for us materialize for us at any given
time. As a very simple example, if I am
in such a low place as to be unable to appreciate the beauty of a particular
garden, it does not mean that the garden is not beautiful, but it is not a gift
to me at that time. We are not in
control of the gifts; we are only in control of whether or not we choose at any
given moment to receive them. I may
stand at the foot of my waterfall where the rivers of light plunge over the
rocks and see nothing but water and rocks.
My, oh my, what a loss that would be.
Let’s talk
just for a moment about what it is that blocks us from receiving those gifts
that make up the rivers of life in James’ letter. Those things which serve as ‘blockers’ in our
lives fall into three categories: fear,
arrogance, and unbelief.
First, fear. I think that most of us are terrified to
fully immerse ourselves in those rivers of light. We are frightened by the prospect that God,
the Source of all light, has plans for us far beyond what we have yet to
experience. We are afraid to be more
than we already are. This is why James refers
to it as light. This is why Jesus says,
“I am the light of the world!” We are
called to shine, not just in the darkness but in the already light of day. Bear with me for a moment if you will. We are comfortable or at least more
comfortable showing the way out of darkness.
When it’s dark, the world needs the light to see its way out. What about when it is already light and God
is calling us to be more than just a light out of darkness? This is when the real fear sets in—the fear
that we are set to become more, do more, experience more, and feel more than we
can currently comprehend. Jesus alludes
to this throughout the Gospels as he talks about being one with the Source of
Light. He and God are one. As Jesus leads us further and further into
uncharted territory, we become more and more one with God. God, however, does not leave us to deal with
our fear alone. Love, perfect love, is
the antidote for fear that tells us we are not worthy or capable. When we allow ourselves to believe that God loves
us unconditionally, we become risk-takers.
We risk being more to the world than we think we are. When God’s love fills us and overflows onto
the world, we risk not only failing in our work in the world but, also,
succeeding.
As for arrogance: I thought about calling this category ‘pride’
but decided that pride didn’t quite cover it.
It is not just a matter of feeling proud, puffed up, that we are
handling life on our own. It’s more
about the belief that not only do we not need any help from people or God, it
also includes the notion that it is all right to be so self-focused, dare I
say, self-centered, that we can reject whatever it is that God has for us that
would enable us to be more of a blessing to the world than we currently assume
ourselves to be—I’ll wait a moment for the humor to sink in. Now, if we can get ourselves and our focus on
ourselves out of the way, we can clear the way for God to use us for a greater
good. We arrogantly assume that we are
all we want to be and fail to contemplate that God may have other plans or that
the world needs for us to allow God to make us more. The antidote for arrogance is undeniably
gratitude. As we allow our gratitude to
literally push out our arrogance we come to see ourselves as both one with God
and created by God. Jesus tells the
Pharisees that they cannot understand that when they have seen him they have,
indeed, seen God. Unlike the Pharisees,
we know that Jesus and God were one; and, while we struggle to believe that we,
too, are one with God, we are called into an interconnected relationship that
cannot help but fill us with gratitude.
And, when we allow it to, that same gratitude sends arrogance, the
belief that we are alone in all of this, packing.
Finally, there is unbelief. That doesn’t take much explanation. It does not imply that we do not believe in
the waterfall; that would be kind of dumb.
What it implies is that we do not believe God telling us that there is
more. We do not believe that God is
pouring out gifts of life at the speed of light and that we are meant to
receive those gifts in order to live fuller, more whole, lives. And that a gift is truly and that the spirit
of God, the Source of light and life itself longs for us to rest in the belief
that God has no greater desire than for us to accept the gifts beyond
comprehension. For unbelief, God sends us courage. Courage, one of God’s most precious gifts,
enables us to allow God to fill our hearts to overflowing with comprehension
that these gifts belong to us. Courage
says, “‘here I am, send me’, fill me, use me”.
As we allow ourselves to be drawn
more and more into those rivers of light our lives will reflect for all to see
the myriad reflections of God’s great mystery and love. This is my prayer for all of us. We stand at the foot of the waterfall, lifting
our hands to reach toward the water itself, feeling the mist of the spirit, the
energy of the river and the love of God.
Amen and amen and Namaste.
No comments:
Post a Comment