Expansive Thinking

Monday, August 18, 2008 -- Week of Proper 15
William Porcher DuBose, Priest, 1918

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 106:1-18 (morning) 106:19-48 (evening)
Judges 17:1-13
Acts 7:44 - 8:1
John 5:9-29

It is so easy for us to get stuck. When we know something, something wonderful and powerful, we tend to grasp it in our eagerness, and get stuck. One definition of a heresy is to take part of the truth and beat the rest of the truth to death with it.

In our story from Acts, Stephen re-tells the story of Israel. He reminds them of God's goodness and grace toward them, but he also reminds them of Israel's stubbornness and failures. His listeners are happy to hear that Israel is God's chosen people, but resent the focus on Israel's failures. They love the temple where they have met God for centuries, but they resent Stephen's implied slight to that holy place when he reminds them that God is everywhere and made everything. When Stephen accuses them of killing Jesus just like they have always killed the prophets, and when Stephen says he can see Jesus standing at the right hand of God, it is too much. They stone him for blasphemy. Paul is among them as a leader, approving the violent death.

In our gospel story Jesus has healed a man. But he has done so on the sabbath, the day of rest. When the authorities chide him for his violation of the sabbath, he takes liberties, calling God "My Father," and saying that, like his father, Jesus is working also. That is too much for them. They seek to kill him.

We make things so small. We know a little about God and God's ways and we decide, that's that. We have our comfortable theologies and places, and punish those whose vision soars beyond a comfortable horizon.

In his reflection on today's feast honoring William Porcher DuBose, Sam Portaro writes this:

We are reductionists by habit; we whittle away at the many demands thrown at us, attempting to break them into manageable bits. Breadth of scholarship is sacrificed for narrow specialization, breadth of thought is sacrificed for narrow literalism, breadth of affection is sacrificed for narrow privatism, breadth of tolerance is sacrificed for narrow judgmentalism -- all with the excuse that this narrowness is the necessity of our limitations. But there is a difference between narrowness and focus; narrowness confines us to a single path, while focus regards breadth itself as a prerequisite to intense attention to the particular.

The Incarnation offers an antidote to this painful and life-threatening constriction; it reveals the tremendous expanse of the human frame. When we say that God became incarnate in Jesus we are acknowledging that human substance, human life and being, is capable of containing and sustaining the vast complexities of God. As DuBose reminds us, Jesus is not just the image of God -- not a mere pencil drawing or poetic metaphor; Jesus is the wholeness of God in human frame.

There is a liberating word in that presumption. To those of us who feel we simply cannot take in one more thing, cannot deal with one more idea, cannot possibly entertain one more request or sustain one more relationship, the Incarnation assures us otherwise. Our fears that we shall disintegrate or explode if we let one more conflicting element into the mix of our crazy lives is put to rest in the reminder that human flesh was sufficient to hold the enormousness of God.

(from Brightest and Best)

It's all bigger than we can imagine -- including ourselves.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
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


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas