Friday, October 24, 2008

Hurry Sickness

Friday, October 24, 2008 -- Week of Proper 24

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 31 (morning) 35 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 11:2-20
Revelation 9:13-20
Luke 10:38-42

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

"My child, do not busy yourself with many matters; if you multiply activities, you will not be held blameless. If you pursue, you will not overtake, and by fleeing you will not escape. There are those who work and struggle and hurry, but are so much the more in want." (Sirach 11:10)

"Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.' But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:40-42)

"For fast-acting relief, try slowing down." (Lily Tomlin)

I've got a case of time-sickness, the disease of busyness. There are so many good things I want to do. I am a glutton. I cram more activities than the time can bare, like cramming more food than a stomach can bare. Like a tummy-ache, I get a busy-ache. Going to fast, I knock things over, skim the surface, miss an opportunity.

I remember a moment at a particularly anxious General Convention. The number of resolutions we needed to address had risen to an ominous place. We had limited debate to sound bytes and tried every parliamentary trick to speed up a slow, deliberative process. The urgency began to push the system. As the chair tried to accelerate the pace, there was a glitch. One procedure got in front of another, and the process ground to a confused halt. The chair stopped. Breathed. In a calm, deliberate voice he said, "When we go fast, we go slow." He breathed again, then completely changed his metabolism and began to return deliberately to each next step of untangling. It untangled, and we slowed to an effective, deliberative speed.

There are few things in our culture more contagious than hurry sickness. It seems drummed into us from childhood. I remember learning the unspoken rule of my first workplace. Look busy. We are plagued with busyness, swamped by demands, scattered by things that want our attention.

I see a connection between these themes from Sirach and Luke and the plagues of Revelation 9. Like the ghost of Christmas Future, Revelation shows the horrifying vision of destruction that is the by-product of the Greco-Roman culture (or any materialistic empire). He tells his readers to "repent of the work of their hands" and to "give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk." He might add to that list, "to-do lists." The Empire doesn't just plague us with violence and greed, it also infects us with hurry-up and speed.

There's a chapter called "The Unhurried Life" that tells about a man asking advice from a wise friend. "What do I need to do to be healthy?" The answer: "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life." "Okay, that's a good one," he wrote it down. "Now, what else?" Long pause. Nothing else. "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."

Contemplative Prayer or Centering Prayer helps unhook us from attachment to busyness. There's nothing you can do to hurry up 20-minutes of silence, except be still. A human being; not a human doing.

Lowell

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Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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

4 Comments:

At 8:23 AM, Blogger Lowell said...

The Psalms numbering is inconsistent from translation to translation (with some significant differences between traditional Roman Catholic and Protestant numbering).

So, Psalm 46:10 in the NRSV is the lovely "Be still..." passage. But in the Book of Common Prayer it is:

"It is he who makes war to cease in all the world; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire."

Now, in some sense, both verses work as a commentary on my reflection. In Centering Prayer, somewhere below the level of thought and feeling, God does heal the lifetime of scars and wounds that we carry with us. God overcomes the war within and breaks its instruments of destruction.

So, either numbering seems to work.

Lowell

 
At 8:53 AM, Blogger Undergroundpewster said...

Cool!

 
At 11:27 PM, Blogger Doug said...

Listening to your wrap up of this shows me how right I am always to listen through to the end, rather than shutting off the I-pod as soon as the reflection is over. I use it as a moment of reflection on the reflection before I turn over to music or NPR. Usually it is just that, just like watching the credits at the end of the movie. But occasionally, you get a treat (as in the credits of a Monty Python movie or this morning reflection) that you would have totally missed if you didn't get to the very end. Thanks for a great reflection and entertaining postlude!

 
At 7:40 AM, Blogger Lowell said...

And for me, to un-hurry for 20 minutes of Centering Prayer in the morning can change the way I enter the day.

 

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