[Propertalk] Proper 19 b

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

Now to revise .... 8 - )

A happy weekend to you all.

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                           THE 
SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PROVERBS 1:20-33                    	    	                                      	    	 
PROPER 19 B RCL
JAMES 3:1-12		                                                	               	 
16th SEPTEMBER, 2012
MARK 8:27-38	           					 
PSALM 19

	A passage from a book I’m reading just now struck me as I thought about 
the Scripture passages for this morning.

	“In June 1785 Thomas Clarkson was summoned to read his prize essay in 
the (Cambridge) University Senate House before a convocation of dons. He 
left with their acclaim ringing in his ears. And that might have been 
that. Known to the right people, Clarkson might well have climbed the 
ladder for which he had been destined, rung by rung all the way to a 
bishop’s seat. But riding along the old Ermine Street in Hertfordshire 
near the village of Wadesmill, just north of Ware, Clarkson had a 
roadside epiphany. Tormented by the sense that he had begun something he 
had no idea how to finish … he got off his horse. … He sat down 
disconsolate … He had become  … “the slave of the slaves.”  1

	It sounds just like the experience Paul had. He had a strong faith. He 
was clear in his mind about what he should do. He’d accepted 
responsibility in the way that James described in the opening sentence 
of this morning’s second reading. But then something happened. He, like 
Thomas Clarkson, was forced off his horse and had to contemplate what 
his life was about, who were the most important influences on his 
journey and what was being required of him.

	For Paul, for Thomas Clarkson some seventeen hundred and forty years 
later and, doubtless, many, many others, there was an encounter with 
Jesus which transformed their lives. It didn’t make things any easier at 
all, but they had no option but to respond, in one way or another and, I 
suspect, had they not responded by following Jesus, no matter what the 
risk, their lives would have been troubled in other ways.

	All of this presupposes something about Jesus, though. Paul, Thomas 
Clarkson, you and I would not have been, would not be the sort of people 
they were, we’d not be the sort of people we are, if Jesus had not first 
asked that question defined in this morning’s Gospel. And if Jesus had 
not insisted in getting a personal answer.

	But when Jesus asked the question, even when the disciples felt some 
sort of challenge that day, they still had to come up with a response. 
It was Peter, in his memorable statement, who probably started to talk 
before he even knew what he was saying. He probably didn’t know where 
the thought came from. Somehow, though, he WAS able to respond, to be a 
vessel for a word of truth or, as the first reading put it, Wisdom.

	The real trick that Peter managed that day, yet got wrong on so many 
other occasions, was to be completely open to the impossibly wonderful 
taking place right in front of him. As Jesus realised, it was an act of 
the Spirit working in and through the often clumsy disciple that 
released the Wisdom for which Jesus was waiting.

	It’s not easy being wise, being inspired, particularly in this day and 
age. There are so many things that can distract us, including our own 
sense of self-enlightenment which gets in the way of our being able to 
hear God moving around us.

I heard JoAnne Falletta talk about a while back. She was asked how to 
approach listening to the music to be performed at a concert later that 
day. Ordinarily we might imagine that listening to the music on the 
radio or on a CD before going to the concert would familiarise us with 
what we’d hear later. This DOES help. Yet exactly the opposite CAN often 
be more beneficial to a revelatory experience. Faletta, who’s the Music 
Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Virginia Symphony and the 
Ulster Orchestras, said, “Music is so available that we stop listening 
to it.” 2 What she was talking about is our tendency to think that we 
know something. We may say, “I’ve heard that symphony, I’ve heard that 
song, I’ve heard that passage of Scripture, I’ve heard that hymn before. 
I know it inside and out.” But, said Faletta, that can, quite often, 
lead to complacence. Instead, her recommendation is that you spend some 
time in quietness, simply listening to the sounds around you. Then, when 
the music DOES begin, you let it do the talking to you, you allow it to 
find that core within you who responds with such understanding that 
later, you can repeat what you heard, your soul having been suffused 
with Wisdom.

Of course, it’s not easy to be silent – especially for all the Peters of 
the world. We can be poor listeners to the point that Wisdom walks 
around and around us, not able to find a way to catch our attention, not 
able to discover what it is that God may wish us to do, or how to 
respond. Because yesterday’s answer, yesterday’s experience, even 
yesterday’s Wisdom may not match what must be heard, what must be said 
today. This is what makes life with God so exciting. This must have been 
what filled peter with such joy to be able to talk about Jesus’ 
ministry. But then he was right back into the self-enlightenment mode 
when he told Jesus that there was no way he’d let the newly proclaimed 
Messiah suffer or die.

It’s really difficult to avoid opening our mouths with putting our 
brains, better yet, putting our souls in gear. Yet try we must – for the 
reward is wonderful.

Mary Oliver, one of my favourite poets, wrote about this act of making 
ourselves open to Wisdom.
	Every day
	I see or hear
	something
	that more or less
	kills me
	with delight,
	that leaves me
	like a needle
	in the haystack
	of light.
	It was what I was born for -
	to look, to listen,
	to lose myself
	inside this soft world -
	to instruct myself
	over and over
	in joy,
	and acclamation. 3

	We’re invited to listen to Wisdom, to listen to our heart, and mind, 
and soul, sing within us as we come in contact with God. Then we may be 
able to put into words what may seem almost inexpressible.
	
	We’re invited to let God work within us to raise our imaginations, to 
allow ourselves to come to understand how God is fully present in Jesus, 
not just through the words of sacred writings, not just through the 
Bread and Wine over which we ask Wisdom to act in blessing. As 
important, as necessary as these are for our spiritual and physical 
lives, what is equally important is that God is just as present in the 
routine, even menial aspects of life – when we take out the garbage; 
when we wait for a stop light; when we’re at the back of a long queue in 
a grocery store; when we read the newspaper or watch TV.
	
	Mary Oliver continues her poem,
	Nor am I talking
	about the exceptional,
	the fearful, the dreadful,
	the very extravagant -
	but of the ordinary,
	the common, the very drab,
	the daily presentations.
	Oh, good scholar,
	I say to myself,
	how can you help
	but grow wise
	with such teachings
	as these -
	the untrimmable light
	of the world,
	the ocean's shine,
	the prayers that are made
	out of grass?

	Jesus, revealed as God’s anointed, assuming the role of the faithful, 
suffering servant, and set His face to go to Jerusalem, to offer us the 
best example imaginable of how we can get through all those chores, all 
those disappointments, all the nastiness that we encounter in our world.
	
	I have a good friend, a paediatrician, with whom I correspond, and who 
offers me good advice, which is gratefully received! I wonder, 
sometimes, how she deals with babies and young children, barely able to 
communicate, who can be laid so low by infections coursing through their 
bodies. Something enables her to do this, though. Actually I know what 
it is – it’s her faith, her understanding that God has called her to 
this ministry, her understanding that God will give her Wisdom each day 
to offer both hope and comfort. It’s her willingness to listen – to 
Wisdom’s counsel in her own life, and to Wisdom’s counsel through the 
lives of others around her. This gives her not just the strength, but 
the joy to minister.

	Somehow, we’re called to be so exposed to God opening our hearts, our 
minds, our hands, our voices, so exposed to Love around us, that we take 
God into our whole beings, so that we can face our trials and 
tribulations; so that we can learn to put self-concern behind us; so 
that we can allow ourselves to walk with Jesus where Jesus wants us to 
go.

JoAnn Falletta said, “Music is so available that we stop listening to 
it.” I wonder, does this say anything about our approach to the Bible? 
Do we need to be willing to be bowled over again and again by 
discovering God’s loving
Grace, and by discovering all those incredible people with whom God 
surrounds us as we wrestle with life.

	As you know, the fish was taken as an early symbol of Christianity. 
Listen to what Mary Oliver wrote in another poem. Think of yourself as 
Peter, or Andrew, or James, or John, or any of the Fishers who walked 
with Jesus and heard His question. Think of how Wisdom may coach us to 
answer, when Jesus asks us – on the street, or in the store, or at the 
next party. Listen, watch, and prepared to be filled with delight.

	The first fish
	I ever caught
	would not lie down
	quiet in the pail
	but flailed and sucked
	at the burning
	amazement of the air
	and died
	in the slow pouring off
	of rainbows. Later
	I opened his body and separated
	the flesh from the bones
	and ate him. Now the sea
	is in me: I am the fish, the fish
	glitters in me; we are
	risen, tangled together, certain to fall
	back to the sea. Out of pain,
	and pain, and more pain
	we feed this feverish plot, we are nourished
	by the mystery. 4

NOTES:

1	“Rough Crossings” by Simon Schama. HarperCollins, New York © 2006. 
Page 174

2	JoAnn Falletta, conductor of The Buffalo Philharmonic 
Orchestra/Virginia Symphony Orchestra/The Ulster Orchestra, on “CD 
Review”, BBC Radio 3, 1st September, 2012

3	“Mindful”, opening lines, by Mary Oliver, from “Why I wake early” 
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Wake-Early-Mary-Oliver/dp/0807068764

4	“The Fish” by Mary Oliver, from “American Primitive” 
http://www.amazon.com/American-Primitive-Mary-Oliver/dp/0316650048

Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)