3rd Sunday of Creationtide 09/15/24
The Still Point
A Time of Meditation and Reflection
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Third Sunday of Creationtide (Proper XIX)
... At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance...
T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton
Peace on each one who comes in need;
Peace on each one who comes in joy.
Peace on each one who offers prayers;
Peace on each one who offers song.
Peace of the Maker, Peace of the Son,
Peace of the Spirit, the Triune One.
Opening Prayer
Praise to you, God, for all your work among us. Yours is the vigor in creation, yours is the impulse in our new discoveries. Make us adventurous, yet reverent and hopeful in all we do. Amen.
The Gospel Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Poem: “Ode to the Gain” by Matthew Nienow
gain — a bevel cut into plank ends in traditional lapstrake boat construction that allows otherwise lapped planks to lay flush at stem and transom.
There’s the paring chisel’s purpose
in the steamed cedar strake, its long warp
laid strong against the bench,
whose pocked surface is the book
of what has already been made,
or marred in learning’s wake — & clamped
now in the jaws one is
waiting for its match, for the chisel to elaborate
the pencil’s scribed hypothesis, under which
lies another path, & through a tilting eye
the curving bevel’s made, the chisel rolling
back tight scrolls of thinnest grain & what bright
sleeves begin to fleece the floor; there is a lack
given to the wood, some short song cut loose
from the lignin’s name, that a longer &
more buoyant melody be made.
Meditation
When I worked for the music ministry of Lakewood United Methodist Church, the pastor showed the congregation a short video one Lenten Sunday, a skit on YouTube called "God's Chisel". The skit's premise, that God forms us through our sometimes-painful array of experiences, has stuck with me ever since. A stone sculpture has to "lose" the stone around it in order to emerge. To be sure, the loss of life to which Jesus refers in this week's Gospel can sometimes be a literal one - it certainly was for him. And, I wonder if it's useful to think of "death" in other contexts - the "death" of expectation, agenda, attachment to outcome, ego. One indicator that we are about to experience one of these "deaths" is, we become anxious or afraid, and we seek to preserve the "life" of whatever we sense is about to "die". We respond to our fear by scrambling to shield our reputation, or to pressure others to align with our agenda, or to influence an outcome. We feel desperate to save whatever we are clinging to from "dying". The problem with chasing control in this way is that the chase never ends, and in the process, we become more and more disconnected from experiencing the true Source of life and abundance. Conversely, letting go of our attachment to control makes room for the Holy Spirit to move. Letting go opens us up to be co-creators with God. When we let go of our need for control, we starve fear of all its power over us. When we are willing to "take up the cross" of "death", a host of little daily deaths, and allow what is passing away to do so, we are free to experience the reality that God makes all things new. "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single grain. But if it dies, it bears plentiful fruit." -John 12:24. When we are willing to allow the Sculptor to "cut loose" the "short song" in us, as Nienow's poem says, we allow "a longer and more buoyant melody [to] be made."
Questions for Reflection
- What kinds of death have you experienced in the recent past? Name these deaths before God and make a space, here and now in this quiet moment, to grieve them.
- As you remember these deaths, when you think of those deaths that are existential and not literal, such as the death of a hoped-for outcome, what do you notice about how life has changed as a result of that death?
- Can you recall a time when the death of some aspect of your life created an aperture where the Spirit moved and God made a new thing? Name that new thing before God, and sit in its presence now.
Prayers
V. Heal your Creation, O God, and bless your offspring;
R. Guide and sustain your creatures, now and always.
V. Day by day your Creation blesses you;
R. We join our voices to praise your Name for ever.
V. O God, unite us with all Creation in harmony;
R. Have compassion on our failings, O God.
V. O God, show us your love and sustaining power;
R. For your creatures live and move only in you.
V. In you, O God, is our hope;
R. And your Creation shall never hope in vain.
Now to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or conceive, by the power which is at work among us, be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages. Amen.
Accept our thanks for all you have done, O God. Our hands were empty, and you filled them.
May Christ’s holy, healing, enabling Spirit be with us every step of the way, and be our guide as our road changes and turns, and the blessing of God our Creator, Redeemer and Giver of life be among us now and remain with us forever. Amen.
Reflections this month offered by: Kathleen Schmidt
