One Bird Watching

...Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures....You are to be my witnesses to it all (Luke 24).

 

"You are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "and My servant whom I have chosen...

I have revealed and saved and proclaimed---You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "that I am God.  Yes, and from ancient days, I am he" (Is. 43:10-13).

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I used to hear sermons that urged us to "evangelize;" we were supposed to "spread the word" and "be witnesses" by our lives to the truth of the Gospel.  Frankly, whenever I heard these things, I always imagined myself standing on the corner of Canal Street in New Orleans, holding up a bible and saying, "The end is near."  Or being like a Jehovah's Witness, knocking on doors and asking if people believed that the world was coming to an end.  Neither of these images seemed to fit with my personality or inclinations.

 

Lately, however, I am slowly coming to realize that an eyewitness is one who "watches," who "sees" what is happening.  If I go to court to testify what I have seen, it means that I "watched" the scene unfold, that I was alert and awake and aware of what was happening at the time.  It does not mean that I caused anything to happen, or even that I was a participant, but only that I can testify to the truth of what I saw.

 

For three years (x365 days, more or less), Jesus' disciples "watched" Him at work.  They for the most part had little to do but to observe Jesus doing the wonderful things He did:  the blind see, the lame walk, the possessed have demons cast out, and the poor hear the Good News.  In fact, on the rare occasions that the disciples attempted to "do" something, they often failed miserably -- "Lord, why could we not cast out the demon?" they asked.  It was not until they had been anointed with the Holy Spirit that they were empowered to perform mighty works themselves in the Name of Jesus.

 

"Lord, open my eyes; I want to see," cried the blind man.  That was not a one-time event; He still opens blind eyes today to see what He is doing in our own lives and in the world around us.  There are many people -- many people -- today who still cannot see God at work in themselves or in others.  We all have need of the miracle of "seeing."  Jesus told Nicodemus, "Unless you are born again of water and the Holy Spirit, you cannot [even] see the kingdom of God."  The kingdom, the power and the Presence of God, is hidden, like yeast in the dough, and yet ever at work in the world around us.  But it takes opened eyes to be able to see it. 

 

Jesus told the disciples, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, "though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand" (Luke 8).  If we want to "see" what God is doing today, we need to go to Jesus, who opened both the eyes of the blind and the minds of the disciples to understand.  The prophet Isaiah said, "In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see" (29:18).

 

Someplace in Isaiah, I think, I once read a passage: Who will dedicate himself to be close to Me?  I remember when reading that verse that it struck my soul:  I wanted to be that person that would be "close to the Lord," to see what He was doing.  In another passage from Is. 21:

This is what the Lord says to me:

"Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees...

Let him be alert, fully alert."

And the lookout shouted,

"Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower:

every night I stay at my post."

 

The reason I first called this blog "One Bird Watching" was that I read an anonymous poem posted in New Harmony, Indiana, and it struck the same chord in my heart:

 

When no one listens

To the quiet trees,

When no one notices

The sun in the pool;

 

When no one feels

The first drop of rain,

Or sees the last star;

 

Or hails the first morning

Of a giant world

Where the peace begins

and rages end;

 

One bird sits still

Watching the work of God:

One turning leaf,

Two falling blossoms,

Ten circles upon the pond.

 

Faith is nothing more than our response to what we see and hear of the kingdom of God as it comes.  Jesus always said, "What I see My Father doing, that is what I do."  When we can finally begin to "see" and "hear" what God is doing among us, that is what we also can do, not because of our strength, but because we at last "know" what the Father does.  

 





"They Have No Wine"

Most of us know exactly where the center of the universe lies -- it is with us.  Yesterday, as I listened to Joyce Meyers on the radio, she was reciting the "hymn" of complaint that she used to sing on a daily basis:  Nobody wants to help me; I have to do everything; I clean it up and they mess it up.....on and on and on.  I suspect that every wife and mother has sung this song at least once or twice in our lifetimes.

Joyce's audience knew what was coming next, and they immediately began cheering for the "robot."  They had heard it before and they loved it.  Joyce said, laughing, "Don't you people ever get tired of hearing the same old stories?"  I wanted to shout over the radio: Not when they hit home this hard!  Anyway, I had never heard the "robot" story, so I was happy that she was repeating it.

Joyce said that every morning, she awoke with "ME" on her mind:  what she had to do that day, who was going to help her do it; how she was going to get them to help her, etc.  Then one morning, the Lord spoke to her:  Joyce, you remind me of a robot.  Every morning, the devil winds you up, and you go through the day saying, "What about me?  What about me?  What about me?"  (accompanied by robot voice and movements, of course.)

When we entrust our entire lives and projects to the Lord, He begins to free us from the "What about me? syndrome.  Our gaze begins to shift to those around us, to what they need, to what we can do to supply their need.  A friend of mine told me that in her apartment complex is a military veteran who has been to Afghanistan several times.  He lives alone; she is a great cook, so she told him that since he served our country, she would feed him.  Now, he regularly knocks at her door, asking what she has on the menu.  What a great shift of focus from "me" to "you"!

Pope Francis is turning the church upside down by insisting that we look at the needs of the poor and disenfranchised, that we become an evangelical church, going out into the highways and byways.  He says we need to "smell like the sheep."  As we read his encyclical "The Joy of the Gospel," our study group keeps asking ourselves how we can be more help to the "poor," even though most of the ladies are members of the St. Vincent de Paul society which every Friday helps the poor with their needs -- paying the electric bill, putting food on the table, getting people to the doctor, etc.  Still, they know the poor need much more than they are able to give.

This morning, as I awoke, I remembered something that happened to me back in the 70's, when I was in charge of our Parish Renew -- I had to coordinate the activities of 12 committees all seeking renewal of our parish in various ways.  The work was constant and lonely, for the most part.  One or two people would come in to the office one day a week to help me, but most of the work was mine alone.  Of course, I sang the "What about me?" song frequently, as no one seemed to recognize "all the work I was doing."  Then, one day in the quiet of the office, when I was all alone, the Lord spoke to me as He had with Joyce:  Look around you; you want to be recognized by those you think important.  But all around you are people waiting to be recognized by YOU!.

That got my attention.  From then on, my gaze shifted dramatically; the next time someone came in to help me, I was no longer concerned about all the work that needed to get done and what they could do for me.  Instead, I began to focus on the person in front of me -- who she was, what she thought important, what she needed from me.  That moment changed my perspective entirely; I no longer cared whether anyone ( the pastor, for example) knew how much I was working or what I was doing.  I only cared about the people the Lord brought into my life. 

When Mary went to the wedding at Cana, she was not pre-occupied with her clothing, her appearance, or the impression she was making on others as the Mother of the new Rabbi.  She gazed intently at the host and hostess, the newly-wedded couple, and saw their embarrassment at having run out of wine.  In those days, in that culture, a wedding ceremony lasted for about a week, so a plentiful supply of wine was critical.  She went to Jesus; "They have no wine," she said.

I have come to realize that the "poor" are all around us in every one of our lives.  We do not have to venture out to the slums and the ghettos to find them.  We just have to be aware of the "little ones" in our lives who "have no wine."  Jesus said to the apostles, "You yourselves give them something to eat."  In their minds, they had nothing to give that would feed 5000 people, but they looked around and found 5 loaves and 2 fish.  They brought what they had to Jesus, who took and blessed it and made it be enough, just as He has blessed the 6 jars of water at the wedding. 

"They have no wine."  How many people in our lives are missing the essential joy of the Gospel?  How can we feed them?  What can we offer to slake their thirst?  It is no good trying to feed those who are not hungry, but it seems to me that all around us are the Poor, those who are hungry and thirsty for what we can give -- love, acceptance, companionship, recognition, hope.  "What about me?"  "You yourself give them something to eat."

The Word Became Flesh

The Word became flesh and made His home among us, and we saw His glory, such glory as befits the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth ...No one has ever seen God; God's only Son, he who is nearest to the Father's heart, He has made Him known (Jn. 1: 14 & 18).

 

God is love, and one who loves is born of God....but how were we to apprehend this truth, unless He would become flesh and dwell among us?  How were we to suspect that the Divine wanted to put His arms around us and comfort us, but that He would take on our flesh and our arms?

 

The poor, the sinful, the weak, the outcast, the leper, the one without hope in a darkened world --- how were we all to dare to believe that God could love us and not condemn us for what we had done and for what we had become?  He had to take on human flesh and "dwell among us" to make known the Father's heart toward us.

 

Nothing else would do but the warmth of an embrace.  For centuries, He had tried to approach mankind, but only a very few dared a relationship with Him -- the saints, the prophets, the humble.  The rest satisfied themselves by obeying the Law and by believing that external observance was sufficient -- that that was all God demanded of them.  But the prophets spurned the sacrifices; in God's Name, they spoke:  What need have I of your burnt offerings?  The cattle on a thousand hills are mine....your hearts are far from Me.

 

If He had not come in Person to gather the lost sheep -- the Samaritan woman with 5 husbands and a lover, the lame, the blind, the extremely poor and helpless, those on the fringes of respect---if He had not come Himself to wrap His arms around us in our weakness, we could not dare to believe that He had accepted us.  But to those who received Him, He gave the power to become [His own children].  Those who allowed themselves to be wrapped in Divine Love and comforted, He called His own.  Those who stood outside and would not allow themselves to be embraced remained on the outside.

 

Peter's words are telling:  Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.  But God in Christ did not depart from Peter; He came even closer because of Peter's confession -- Jesus said that He had prayed for Peter that He not be sifted as wheat, and He said, When you have been strengthened, turn and strengthen your brothers.

 

Having received the comfort and strength ourselves, we too must do what He did--we must become the arms of the God who loves the outcast.  Our flesh must express the love of God for those the world does not love.  We cannot be afraid to love and to love freely.  If we have received the "power to become children of God," we must act as He acts and love those He loves.

 

No one is excluded from the love of the Father, given to us in the Son made flesh.  He stands at the door and knocks; who would be so cold as to refuse to open and allow Him to come in and make His home with us?

 



On Fast-Food Religion

I have to admit that every now and then, I love a good juicy hamburger, especially the one served by Logan's Roadhouse, the one made from three different kinds of meat.  But even when I was working, with only an hour for lunch, I could not exist on a steady diet of fast food.  Most of the time, I brought lunch from home and went to City Park, where I leisurely ate lunch while gazing at the moss-draped oak trees surrounding me.  I thought about my day, my classes, my life in an atmosphere of serene beauty while I ate.  Often, I would read something that inspired me and fortified me for the rest of the day, or I would even take a short nap and awake refreshed.

What a different experience my lunch hour was when I hurried into a fast-food restaurant, stood in line, ordered a hamburger, and then ate it at a formica table surrounded by noise!  It was even worse if the establishment insisted on playing its version of "music" over loudspeakers.   I returned to class or to the office having eaten, but not having been nourished at the cellular level.

I think all of us, sooner or later, crave nourishment at a deep level, both in the realm of food and in our spiritual lives.  Last night, I talked to a woman who, in her words, "...cannot find peace where I live.  Sometimes, I just have to come here and sit in church for awhile; it's the only place I can find peace."

In our culture, our lives are not built for peace; they are designed only to "get things done," and that philosophy extends to our eating.  Fast food places are popular for a reason -- they help us to eat as quickly and efficiently (cheaply) as possible.  But they do not really satisfy our need for deep physical nourishment and renewal. 

Unfortunately, for most people, their religion or "church" has become a fast-food experience.  Once a week, they "show up," "grab a cheap bite to eat," (it costs little or nothing) and then they are on their way to their real lives, where things are really taking place.  There is no slow digestion of spiritual truth; there is no encounter with the Living God, a close Friend Who desires to share the table with us; there is no gazing at the beauty around us, a slow "digestion" of the signs that God is with us and for us.  There is no nourishment for the week to come and no relaxation in the Presence of Peace.  There is no renewal of spirit. 

Even the doctrines and teaching of some churches have been reduced to "fast food."  My former secretary belonged to an Evangelical Church that had "saved her" from a life of sin.  She was starving spiritually when someone first brought her to that church, and just like a juicy Logan's Roadhouse hamburger, the church "fed' her hunger in a very appetizing way.  But she had been with the church for years and years, and she found herself growing tired of hamburgers; she had grown beyond the starvation stage and was craving deep spiritual nourishment.  She told me that she loved her church (as did I), because it was so good at picking people up out of the gutter, brushing off the mud clinging to their souls, and setting them on a path of dignity and self-respect.  She would never leave her church for that reason.  But she needed solid nourishment now for the depths to which she had grown.  Her church offered no avenues for reflection and deep spiritual truth.  The message of salvation remained the same from year to year, feeding the newcomers walking through the doors, but starving those who needed real "soul food."

When she tried to talk to people in her church about deeper things, they backed away from her.  To them, her image was that of a solid Christian woman, a well-respected elder in the church.  She could not confess to them, though she tried, what Jesus said of the church at Laodicea:  ...though you do not realize it, you are a pitiful wretch, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3).  As we grow spiritually, we become even more aware that we are not "rich, well-fed, and sleek."  In fact, we become even more hungry for the deep spiritual nourishment that comes only through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  We crave the deeper things of the Spirit of God, the things that can no longer be given to us by a Sunday sermon.  We crave deep spiritual Presence and Refreshment.

When I returned to my students after an hour or more in the park, looking at the trees, or reading something that fed my soul, I was a different person from the one who had rushed over to Burger King for a quick bite.  I carried with me the peace that passes all understanding, the joy that comes from knowing real food, and the love that had been given to me to pass on to others.  In the same way, my secretary and I would often bare our souls to one another without regard for the differing doctrines and teachings of our churches.  We would laugh together, weep together, pray together -- and together find the deep satisfaction that comes from "sharing a table" with one who loves and understands us whether we live up to our doctrines or whether we do not. 

I think our hearts yearn to hear the Good News that God has accepted us in all our humanity, and that He yearns to feed us with the Bread of Life.  Like the pelican, He wants to open His heart to feed His little ones with His own blood --- but we are too busy satisfying our hunger with fast food that lasts for only a moment or an hour. 

On Knowing and Not Knowing

The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"  He replied, "To you it has been granted to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but not to them. For those who have (hold) will be given more, till they have enough and to spare; and those who have not (hold not) will forfeit even what they have.  This is why I speak to them in parables; for they look without seeing, and listen without hearing or understanding.  The prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled in them: "You may listen and listen, but you will never understand; you may look and look, but you will never see.  For this people's mind has become dull; they have stopped their ears and shut their eyes.  Otherwise, their eyes might see, their ears hear, and their minds understand, and then they might turn to me, and I would heal them" (Matt. 13:10 ff).

 

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Certain truths can be known only if we are sufficiently emptied, sufficiently ready, sufficiently confused, or sufficiently destabilized (Richard Rohr:  Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p. 126).

 

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As a teacher, I always want to make things as clear as I can, as easy to access as possible.  I want to explain the hidden meanings of things, to have the light of understanding come on in my students.  Jesus did not even try to explain His mysteries.  He put them out there and allowed the multitude to not understand, to walk away shaking their heads.  How hungry He must have been to pour out into their hearts the sacred truths that could change their lives and give them peace!  But all He could do was to point them in the direction they needed to go; He could not make them go there.

 

The problem with "church" is that it wants to give people the conclusions it has come to over a long period of spiritual discernment and faithful prayer.  And the church does this because that is what people want.  From the time of Mt. Sinai when the people told Moses, "You listen to YHWH and you tell us what He says; we are too afraid to face Him ourselves!" most people really don't want to go through the long process of facing God.  And yet, when they are told what God says, their immediate reaction is "Who died and made you king?"  "Who are you to know and to say what God says?"  This was the Israelite reaction to Moses in the desert, and it is the same reaction of the church family today.  They want the "short formula" for obeying God; they do not want the journey to His heart and mind.

 

If our churches could teach people and "honest and humble process for learning and listening for themselves -- i.e. prayer" (Rohr, p. 120), they might come to wisdom in a calm and peaceful way.  When the church tries to force conclusions without teaching people how to come to those conclusions themselves, there will always and inevitably be a pushback against "authority."

 

St. Paul said, quoting Deuteronomy, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (Romans 10:8).  This is not to destroy the written word or tradition by any means, but rather to achieve a balance between the "Inner Knower," accessed by prayer, and the "Outer Knower," Scripture and Tradition, or Church Teaching.

 

When Jesus taught in parables, or when He spoke plainly-- "Unless you eat my Body and drink My Blood, you will not have life within you"-- the disciples understood the words He spoke as little as anyone else.  But they went to Him, who "alone had the words of everlasting life," asking for understanding.  The Truth was in Him and was/is Him.  We access it -- understand it, see it, hear it -- only through conversation with Him.

 

For those who know how to see, we live in a sacramental world -- every bush flaming with the glory of God, in the words of one of the English poets.  The bush is not God, but it reveals God; it is a sign of the power and presence of God.  How many cannot go beyond the sign to the presence?  We need the "signs" of Scripture and Tradition, the teachings of the church, but if we cannot see into them for ourselves, and thus go beyond them to the presence of God, we are as blind as the Pharisees whom Jesus addressed in the words of Isaiah.

 

The reason I eventually stopped debating religious truth via the Internet was a hard-learned lesson:  Communication experts tell us that meaning is more than 2/3rds communicated by context and nonverbal messages.  If we see or hear about words without knowing how, when, where, by whom, and with what inflection or emphasis they were said or written, we are about 100% sure to misinterpret what was said.  This is one reason gossip is so dangerous; it almost inevitably communicates the wrong message, even if it gets the quotation right!

 

Paul says, "We must not teach in the way philosophy is taught, but in the way the Spirit teaches us:  We must teach spiritual things spiritually" (I Cor. 2:13).  And how do we teach spiritually?  That is the most difficult question of all for a teacher, who naturally wants her students to understand "the deep things of God."

 

In the same passage quoted above, Paul says that only the Spirit of God probes the deep things of God, and only the Spirit of God can give us "the mind of Christ."  So as a teacher, I must encourage and push my students toward the Holy Spirit, Who alone reveals Jesus Christ to the human heart.  He is the Wisdom of God made flesh -- and He dwells among us even to this day, though we see Him not.

 

God took on flesh to walk with us through our days, on the journey through the desert, to point out on the path the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.  He is waiting to pull back the veil which hides the sight of God from human/natural seeing, and to patiently come to us disguised as our life.  He was made flesh and dwells among us!  Today, He is here, in the events of the day, in the people we meet, in the conversations we have -- if only we know how to see, how to hear, and how to understand!