Remembering Thin Places
Monday, November 16, 2009 -- Week of Proper 28, Year One
Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 1093
Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 992)
Psalms 89:1-18 (morning) 89:19-52 (evening)
1 Maccabees 3:1-24*
Revelation 20:7-15
Matthew 17:1-13 *found in the Apocrypha
One of the things we like to say about the Eucharist, is that it is a thin space, where the separation of time and space narrows. The eucharistic feast connects us with the Last Supper of Jesus and the eschatalogical banquet of heaven. The simple elements of bread and wine become our participation in the life of Christ. We are given the divine food that we may become the Body and Blood of Christ. Jesus is present in the sacrament and in the body assembled. Human life becomes transfigured into communion with God and union with earth. We see beneath the veil, the glory of the divine within the created order. Bread and wine become the means of Christ's presence. The gathered church becomes the empowered Body of Christ.
The story of the Transfiguration is a story of a thin place, high upon a mountain, when, for a moment, three disciples see more deeply into the divine realities. They see the deeper beauty and glory of their friend and rabbi, whose face shines like the sun and whose clothes become dazzling white. They see him in relationship with the patriarchs of the law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah). And they hear the words of divine blessing, spoken earlier at his baptism: "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"
For a moment they see more deeply. With intuitive insight they have a glimpse of the spiritual reality that is below the material reality.
The question for the disciples, and for us, is whether they will allow the memory of this deeper reality to be the center of their paradigm of reality. Soon they will see other, more threatening realities -- the conflicts, the arrest, suffering and death. Which vision will be more real for them?
The resurrection witnesses to the ultimate reality of the vision of transfiguration.
How do we hold on to the vision of our reality impenetrated by divine light? How do we remember our essential identity as God's beloved? How do we claim and reclaim the insights we have been given in the thin places when the eternal and beautiful have been so close?
Lowell
_____________________________________________
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
Lowell Grisham, Rector
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.
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.
Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas
posted by Lowell @ 7:54 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Lowell,
Such provoking questions. I shall attempt an answer, with the understanding that these are the mysteries that escape definition and answers.
Jacob wrestles with the angel and walks away with a limp. The place is re-named, marked for all to remember the encounter with the divine. Peter wants to stay on the mountain but cannot. It is not his place. Jesus leads them back into the valleys of life.
I see the only hinderence between eternal reality and temporal reality as the barriers we build between souls and worlds. They crumble when we are ready to see, in oftentimes subtle and genuine ways. One brings these grace filled moments to an un-thin person, place or time only by being present to their reality, while as witness to eternal reality. I am reminded of a very early morning on a hospital floor. There was a death on the floor and the nurses and aides were trying to comfort distraught family and take care of the body and calm the other patients. A priest walked onto the floor. It did not matter at that moment who he was. It did not matter if his sermon the Sunday before was excellent, or just fair. It did not really matter if he had said his prayers the evening before or not. Although I happened to know him as a Russian Orthodox priest, that did not matter either. What mattered was the presence of another reality (the collar and all the symbolism), in that moment in time. I was no longer anxious about how to care for the patients. We can only witness to the eternal reality with our presence.
In peace,
Janet
Thank you, Janet.
The awareness of the presence of the divine, the holy, the infinite can unite the created with the Creator, and bring a whole new perspective. And we are all called to be a holy priesthood, a nation of priests to serve our God.
Lowell
Post a Comment
<< Home