An Act of Living

Psalm 103 begins with a well known encouragement to prayer and praise, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” As I sat reflecting on this psalm during my Lenten prayer time, I was struck by that simple phrase – all that is within me – and couldn’t help but wonder if I have ever praised God in such an inclusive and exuberant manner. In fact, I can’t help but wonder if I know what the phrase means.

It might be understood to suggest giving it all I’ve got, or as so many are fond of saying, giving it 110%, whatever that means. In this case, such praise would involve an exuberance of emotion: singing with the loudest voice, generating the most energy and intensity, or even losing myself in the moment. To be honest, I find it hard to imagine that such all inclusive praise refers to the form, style, and manner of worship. At least I hope it doesn’t, because the praise to which I am drawn is not so much an act of worship as an act of living.

I have a sense that abandoning myself to God’s praise at its heart means honoring God in the way I live my life …all of my life. This begins with the clay vessel God has molded; my body. The flesh, to use Biblical language, is often thought of as incidental at best or evil at worst. Either it has no bearing on things spiritual, or it is a detriment to the spiritual life that must be overcome. But we are not living souls waiting to escape the earthen shells in which they have been imprisoned. Rather, we are living beings – body, mind, and soul molded as one – and as Barbara Brown Taylor has said, matter matters to God. More times than not, God is present to us through the physical – through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch – and not despite it.

So if I really want to bless God with all that is within me, I should begin by reverencing my own body, which God cared enough to create, and the bodies of others as well. God cares for my health, and I should honor God by caring for the health of others as well as my own. God cares for my hunger, and I should honor God by caring for the hunger of others as well as my own. God cares for my personal well being, and I should honor God by caring for the personal well being of others as well as my own.

There are, of course, other aspects of blessing God with all that is within me; but if I can learn to honor and attend to life in the flesh, and attune myself to the presence of God in and through it; that might be a good start.

Gaudete

When I was a child I had the reputation among family & friends of always being first to the tree at the break of dawn on Christmas morning.  It didn’t matter if I slept furthest from the bedroom door; at the first sound of stirring I was up – walking over beds, brothers, and anything else in my path – to see what awaited me under the tree.  At some point, as every child knows, there’s been enough waiting, and it’s time to get on with it! 

 

I feel that way now.  We are mid way through Advent, and despite making efforts to minimize my participation in the frenzy of the season, my time and energy have been leveraged, and I want nothing more than to leap ahead to Christmas.  But that would be a mistake. Precisely because I have been leveraged, I have loads of spiritual preparation to do before I’m ready to welcome the Christ child in a meaningful way.  I need time to pray, time to meditate, time to let the light of Christmas search out, illumine, and challenge the dark corners of my spirit. 

 

This, it occurs to me, is where Gaudete Sunday can help.  Gaudete, that traditional Sunday on which we focus on joy, pull out all the stops, and anticipate the angels’ chorus and the shepherds’ heart song.  Perhaps a pause in the frantic schedule to anticipate the joy of Christmas can inspire and empower me – and you – to take the time to prepare for Christmas.  It would certainly be worth the effort.  So I offer a prayer for Gaudete Sunday:

 

Like children on Christmas Eve we find it hard to contain our excitement; the anticipation of joyful things to come!  We peer around the corner of Advent to spy out what awaits us at the end of night; no mere babe wrapped in mother’s arms, but the very Light of day to enlighten our spirits and guide us on our way.  So on this day of Gaudete – joy upon joy – we adore you O God, Emmanuel.  Amen.

 

 

 

Grace & Gratitude

For some people, Thanksgiving is merely a place holder, the last obligatory holiday observance before Christmas.  Get it out of the way and it’s smooth sailing.  Do you feel this way?  I used to, because I loved Christmas so much I couldn’t wait to get started, and I knew I couldn’t really rev it up until after Thanksgiving.  In addition, I’ve never been much on civil religion, and Thanksgiving has long been called the principal holy day of American civil religion.  Don’t get me wrong; I’m grateful to be an American, and am appreciative of the bounty with which we have been blessed.  But I’m not sure civil religion – which in my estimation is a pale imitation of full bodied faith – is grateful for anything.  It seems to take many things for granted, and to spend much of its time expounding the virtues of the country rather than the God who watches over it.  It spends far too much time pointing out the worthiness of our country vis-à-vis all others, and claiming God’s sanction for its actions, however far they may stray from a path God might recognize.  As Abraham Lincoln might express it, civil religion seeks to make sure God is on its side, rather than making sure it is on God’s side. 

 

However that may be, I’ve changed my attitude toward Thanksgiving over the years, primarily because I’ve been able to relate it to my Christian faith in a satisfactory way.  And that link has to do with the relationship between grace and gratitude. 

 

They’re related, you know, grace and gratitude.  As words they are derived from the same root, and are equally close theologically as well.  According to Eugene Boring & Fred Craddock, for example, “…there can be no awareness of grace without gratitude,” and, “No gratitude without an awareness of grace.”  If this is true, the gratitude of Thanksgiving and the grace of Christmas are also linked; and if we want to taste the boundless grace that God offers us at Advent and Christmas, perhaps we should pause to express our gratitude. 

 

Gratitude for what? you ask.  Gratitude springs from awareness of having been gifted; of being on the receiving end of something good.  A gratitude inspired by God’s grace, therefore, will recognize that all we have, all we are, are the gifts of grace.  Each and every day is a gift to be cherished and lived fully; and as every child knows, gifts are to be shared with others.  So as we gather with family and friends on Thanksgiving, let’s take the time to thank God, and to share the gracious bounty God has provided.  In short, let’s be civil to everyone.