Working Wonders

There are two central claims made in the passage from Wisdom. God did not make death. God made us for incorruption. Volumes have been written in theological argument about them. Do we agree? Most of us come to our own conclusion. We frame for ourselves a working hypothesis.

When the news reported that Steve Jobs would be back at his desk soon, after a liver transplant, they showed a clip from an earlier commencement address at Stanford, after his first bout with life-threatening disease. In it he said that death was nature’s change agent. And St. Francis referred to Sister Death, implying that death is an integral part of life and the life cycle. So what are we to do with the claim that God did not make death? Placing the passage back in context helps.

Tempest and Whirlwind

For about a decade, our family sailed a 38’ cruiser on San Francisco Bay. The boat was responsive for its type. The bay is rated as one of the most challenging, as bay sailing goes. There were times when we would have our children and their friends out there, when the wind and waves would suddenly change. At those times I’d wonder about my judgment, while working hard to be a responsible first mate, in order to get us safely back to the marina. I remember once being overtaken by dense fog, and realizing that we were in the middle of a shipping lane. I remember waking suddenly in the middle of the night to realize that our anchor had lost its hold and that we were being pulled out on the tide. I remember a man overboard in an instant, his face receding fast in the swells. We got him back aboard, but it put a damper on the outing. And that was just inside the bay.

Finding Beauty in a Broken World, Parish Retreat 2009

After 9-11, Utah author and environmental advocate, Terry Tempest Williams stood facing the ocean in Maine, desperate for ‘one, wild word’ to help her ‘retrieve the poetry’ she had lost.

And the word the sea rolled back to me was “m o s a i c.”

In her book, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, the word ‘mosaic’ takes her on an inspiring and thought provoking journey from the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, Italy, through Bryce Canyon, Utah, observing endangered prairie dogs, to a Rwandan Survivors’ Village, where with Barefoot Artist Lily Weh, she helps create a memorial to the victims of the genocide.

This was a wonderful book to take with us on our annual Parish Retreat up at Bishops’ Ranch, Healdsburg. Over fifty of us (ages 6 months to over 90!), explored the idea of mosaics, both naturally occurring and humanly created, both real and metaphorical. We discussed the idea of broken pieces and how they can be reassembled (a conversation that had to be quite loud in order to ride over the happy sounds of the children working with Lego in the center of the circle!). More Parish Retreat photos!

“Everything is waiting for you”

We stand so often at the threshold of presence: real, authentic presence. And here is our invitation to enter.  Here are the flames that dance above our heads.  Here is the breath of the wind blowing on our faces. And here is the conversation: the conversation that needs no translation.  The conversation with our life, with the truth of whom we really are and all that surrounds us, is waiting for us to join in.  We can decide it’s all too hard, and return to our stories and our lists.  Or we can dare in this season of fire and wind to rise up, like Lazarus, and walk towards the light.