Thursday, June 02, 2005
Daily Office, Year One, Proper 4, Thursday
Today's Readings:
Another day that doesn't seem to have an immediate theme to the readings, at least, non that jump out at me. Psalm 50 has the phrase "sacrifice of thanksgiving." I'll come back to that. Deuteronomy declares that judges and public officials must put Justice first above all else. Kings must live modestly and keep God's law. I could go on a long rant about the current group of people who have political power, but I wont. Paul teaches the Corinthians that generousity is good. Luke teaches that persistance is good, and we should not lose heart.
The phrase "sacrifice of thanksgiving" is something I've heard my entire life. I have probably never fully understood what it means, because I hear it so often, like a mantra, it looses meaning until that meaning is rediscovered. We need to talk about appropriate Christian Mantras (I'll come back to this). We must thank God for the blessings of this life. Our natural tendency, when getting some really good gift, is to run to all our friends and say "lookee at what I got!!!" We may not even be interested in sharing the gift, just showing it off. But to get away from that reaction and say 'thank you' to the giver and to God is a harder reaction to come across. We are taught to say 'please' and 'thank you'. These are the hallmarks of what we call a polite society, but it is really any good when it's just an automatic reaction? Take, for example, our habit of saying 'bless you' when anyone sneezes. Why do we say this? Because centuries ago people believed sneezes were caused by demonic possession. "Bless you" is a form of faith healing, and I for one don't believe in faith healing. We have doctors and medicine, and these too are gifts from God.
What does it mean to be truly thankful to other human beings and to God? We must practice, not for perfection, like athletes and musicians do, but for intention. We must focus ourselves on the moment, not thinking about what to do for dinner or to reminding ourselves to set the VCR. It's hard. It's not the American Way. In the United States we wear our hectic lives like a badge of honor. Even as I type, I'm eating a bland frozen dinner that I'm not really tasting, but I'm eating because I'm hungry and it's better than snacking on chips and cheese all day. So we need to build intentional practice into our lives. How? I don't know, try a mantra (see, I told you I'd get there).
Mantra's can act like white noise in our consciousness, preventing random thoughts from bullying us into distraction. Most people, when they think of the word, think of "Om" which is supposed to be the sound of the universe. We need Christian mantras. We have a few, we just don't think of them that way. The Roman Catholic rosary is a mantra, but it's a long one. I get lost even when using a form of the Anglican Rosary prayers. Let's keep them short. Psalm 51 has one: Open our lips, and our mouths shall proclaim your praise. Or how about a focusing mantra borrowed from Islam: There is no God but God. Make a list of your favorite Bible quotes, or from your favorite hymns, use them, see how your life changes and focuses on God. ¶ 12:48 PM
- Psalm 50
- Deut. 16:18-20, 17:14-20
- 2 Cor. 8:1-16
- Luke 18:1-8
Another day that doesn't seem to have an immediate theme to the readings, at least, non that jump out at me. Psalm 50 has the phrase "sacrifice of thanksgiving." I'll come back to that. Deuteronomy declares that judges and public officials must put Justice first above all else. Kings must live modestly and keep God's law. I could go on a long rant about the current group of people who have political power, but I wont. Paul teaches the Corinthians that generousity is good. Luke teaches that persistance is good, and we should not lose heart.
The phrase "sacrifice of thanksgiving" is something I've heard my entire life. I have probably never fully understood what it means, because I hear it so often, like a mantra, it looses meaning until that meaning is rediscovered. We need to talk about appropriate Christian Mantras (I'll come back to this). We must thank God for the blessings of this life. Our natural tendency, when getting some really good gift, is to run to all our friends and say "lookee at what I got!!!" We may not even be interested in sharing the gift, just showing it off. But to get away from that reaction and say 'thank you' to the giver and to God is a harder reaction to come across. We are taught to say 'please' and 'thank you'. These are the hallmarks of what we call a polite society, but it is really any good when it's just an automatic reaction? Take, for example, our habit of saying 'bless you' when anyone sneezes. Why do we say this? Because centuries ago people believed sneezes were caused by demonic possession. "Bless you" is a form of faith healing, and I for one don't believe in faith healing. We have doctors and medicine, and these too are gifts from God.
What does it mean to be truly thankful to other human beings and to God? We must practice, not for perfection, like athletes and musicians do, but for intention. We must focus ourselves on the moment, not thinking about what to do for dinner or to reminding ourselves to set the VCR. It's hard. It's not the American Way. In the United States we wear our hectic lives like a badge of honor. Even as I type, I'm eating a bland frozen dinner that I'm not really tasting, but I'm eating because I'm hungry and it's better than snacking on chips and cheese all day. So we need to build intentional practice into our lives. How? I don't know, try a mantra (see, I told you I'd get there).
Mantra's can act like white noise in our consciousness, preventing random thoughts from bullying us into distraction. Most people, when they think of the word, think of "Om" which is supposed to be the sound of the universe. We need Christian mantras. We have a few, we just don't think of them that way. The Roman Catholic rosary is a mantra, but it's a long one. I get lost even when using a form of the Anglican Rosary prayers. Let's keep them short. Psalm 51 has one: Open our lips, and our mouths shall proclaim your praise. Or how about a focusing mantra borrowed from Islam: There is no God but God. Make a list of your favorite Bible quotes, or from your favorite hymns, use them, see how your life changes and focuses on God. ¶ 12:48 PM
