The Inner Landscape

Monday, October 30, 2006 -- -- Week of Proper 25

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 991
Psalm 41, 52 (morning) // 44 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus 19:4-17 (found in the Apocrypha; also called Sirach)
Revelation 11:1-14
Luke 11:14-26

Today we have some exploration of our interior landscape.

In delightful language Ben Sira warns against gossip. "Never repeat a conversation and you will lose nothing at all. ...Have you heard something? Let it die with you. Be brave, it will not make you burst! ...Like an arrow stuck in a person's thigh, so is gossip inside a fool." Ben Sira advises that you discreetly check it out. It may not be true. (On the net, go to snopes.com or urbanlegends.com before forwarding that tangy email.)

Luke (v. 24f) gives us another bit of spiritual wisdom. Sometimes when we have cleaned up our act, dispensed with a bad habit, changed a destructive behavior, unless we have found a way to replace healthily the gift that bad habit gave us, the temptation will return with what feels like even greater power. Our feeling of despair can be even deeper, for we thought we had won are and no better off.

Sometimes, the only way to read Revelation is as a spiritual metaphor. That helps today, it seems to me. The temple and the altar might be the true self of the person or the inner reality of God's people which is safe and protected even while the outer reality is threatened or suffering. The period of the time of evil and suffering is limited -- forty-two months = 1,260 days = three and 1/2 years, or half of seven. Seven is the complete number. So the period of evil is always incomplete, broken. Therefore, take heart when times are evil.

The two faithful witnesses could be seen as representatives of the people who God who are called king and priest, two olive trees. The are both conquered and victorious. Their witness as testimony is like fire from their mouth. Like the two great prophets Moses and Elijah, they have authority over sky, rain, water and plague. (We have similar powers over our interior landscape. When I decide to be dark and dry, bloody and plagued, I can behave that way.)

There is a beast from a bottomless pit within us. It can do such damage, that we appear destroyed. It can happen to us in our holiest places, "where also their Lord was crucified." But after a short period of evil (three and a half days) "the breath of life from God" can reenter us. We can ascend to our home which is our live in God's divine life. Our inward gift of the breath of life is our great testimony.

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR