|
Scripture
1The Living One spoke to Abram: Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. 2I will bless you and make your descendants a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. 3I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will curse anyone who curses you. Everyone on the earth will be blessed because of you [or, by you all peoples of the earth will bless themselves]. (Genesis 12, Author’s Translation)
Commentary
I have been much encouraged by Genesis 12.1ff. This passage is my favorite to preach. Partly, this is because my life has been one of setting out, again and again, to a new place. I came up in a settled, sedentary community. Persons were, generally, born in the area and remained there until death. My father, for example, has lived in four different houses in his life. All four are within an area of one-and-a-half miles. My life, since leaving home in 1979, has been a journey and, at times, a wandering.
Now, here I go, again, June 28, 2005, it appears, to another unknown place. This week I go to visit new places and new faces and see the house I hope to make a home. I am enthused; I have concern. Such wandering and journeying both allures me by the adventure and intimidates me by the uncertainties.
I think most of us, when we move, are most concerned about making new connections in relationships. We might wonder how persons will respond to us. Especially, as an intellectual, progressive, and mystical pastor (which, frankly, does not fit in many churches, it seems), I wonder how persons will respond to me.
|
|
I am encouraged, not just now but repeatedly in my life, by the words “the land that I will show you.” Indeed, I once was so drawn to the adventure of moving and facing the unknown that I had to stay somewhere longer than I wanted, partly to learn how to deal more maturely with the familiar place, rather than moving on, soon, to the unfamiliar place.
We move on in different ways, and geographical is only one of them. Moving on and to the unknown can entail a change in a relationship or vocation, a promotion at work, or an addition of a new child to the family. Moving on can mean a marriage or a divorce; moving on can mean loss of a spouse who moves on to the Other Side. Moving on to the unknown can mean suddenly getting a sizeable increase in money or having to learn to live with much less money.
Internally, spiritual practice moves us on. Today, I enthusiastically went into meditation. During meditation, after a restful and peaceful meditation hour the day prior, today the meditation moved me on to an edge that was frightening. I was able to be wakeful to what was happening, breathe deeply, for I almost went into a panic, pray, and realize I needed to face that edge. I did. After maybe forty minutes, I settled down and enjoyed some peacefulness. I had moved on into an area that was very threatening; I was wondering in an area I had run from before. This was not a bad place, but the place was a place outside the boundary of familiarity. Today, I stayed there, trusting that blessing awaited me. Now, I look foward, through Grace, to extending more into that unfamiliar place.
Zen Teacher, John Daido Loori, in Riding the Ox Home: Stages on the Path of Enlightenment, speaks of a “movement toward the edge of practice,” which is followed by “pulling back.” Loori describes this as a “cyclic venture towards the unknown and a retreat back to the safe.” Loori observes that this place of safety is an “increasingly unsatisfying place of familiar patterns.”
Continued... |
