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Connecting with the Deeper — for your sake
We all need a sign once in a while. Something, some signal, that our voice is being heard, that we are seen by the Great Other — God, the Universe, the Ground of Being, Source, and Ultimate Reality. How ever we conceive of the Higher Power, we need a moment of recognition now and then. Perhaps connection.
Our Western, overly rationalized culture likes to think of itself as logical and scientific. But we’ve lost something in what philosophers call the “disenchantment of the world.” Our society has lost a sense of the “magical.” But we, as individuals, mostly have not. Just look around at your friends and notice how many carry lucky tokens, wear crystals, read their horoscopes or check the stars. How many actually read Tarot, or engage in earth-related rituals, burning sage, or dabbling in Wicca.
I say none of this as a bad thing. I think it demonstrates that we humans are still mystical. And, in my view, this is the great weakness in the Western church. The church is full of bad theology, yes, and has a long history of abuse. But most people simply find it cold, lifeless, out of touch with anything supernatural. And we need that. We still long to connect with the deeper side of our reality.
This Sunday’s lectionary reading includes a Gospel portion where Jesus is predicting his death. It’s a sober moment where he surrenders to the will of God — to that moment of not resisting what is coming. And a voice from heaven comes to reaffirm him. The people around him hear the sound and thought it was thunder or some thought the voice of an angel. And Jesus comments, “this voice has come for your sake, not mine.”
Because we all experience and recognize the Divine in our own ways. A heavenly voice to one may be thunder to another. Or the voice of an angel to another.
God is still speaking. God is still whispering those affirming words — “you are loved. You are mine. I am yours” — to any and all who have ears to hear. And God is speaking “for our sake.” For our benefit. For our reassurance. And, ultimately to remind us that we are all still connected and important.
The great Catholic theologian Karl Rahner famously said that Christians will either be mystics or they won’t be Christian at all. May we reconnect with the mystical, enchanted voice of God that continues to speak.
Have a peaceful — and connected — Sunday.
ref: John 12:27-30
Photo by Cristian Palmer on Unsplash, cc.