Tag Archives: longing

A Place for My Life to Happen…

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The Holy One spoke to me through a TV commercial  a couple of days ago.  It caught my attention such that I searched for it on the internet. You can find it posted just before this one.  The pitch was for an online house search outfit.  I won’t give away the story but what caught my attention was the punch line: “You are not looking for a house — you are looking for a place for your life to happen.”

Durham Cathedral, County Durham, Great Britain

Durham Cathedral, County Durham, Great Britain

Commercials always have a “hook” that catches us in deep places.  That industry works hard finding ways to arouse the two motivations of all human affairs:  fear and desire.  Once the commercial has us then we are offered a way to safety or satiation.  The quality of the offer is everything from the sublime to the sinister.  For whatever is for sale a market can be found and precisely targeted.  Greater care is taken in the sale of toilet paper than is considered for the spreading of the Gospel!   The words of Jesus come to mind, “The children of this world in this their generation are wiser than the children of light.”

Now back to my basic notion.  Looking for a house is about shelter, while looking for a place for your life to happen is about soul. I am no good as a realtor but matters of the soul are my work.  What I know from soul work is that there is a certain loneliness that just goes with being a human being.  We are solitary in a body.  Regardless of how much we might hope for we can never get closer to anyone than body to body.  We long for relationship that is permanent, dependable and rich. But deep commitment does not guarantee we will not finally be alone.  Many relationships founder because they are not designed to carry the weight and intensity  of our deepest needs.  We need from each other what can only to found in God.  A collect from the Prayer Book resonates:

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.(1)

What I seek is  the place where  my life can happen in  the company of  Christians who seek the same.  We call it the Body of Christ.  

I will explore these notions in the weeks ahead.

(1) The Collect for Proper 20 of Year C.  – September 21, 2013

Our God Makes Leaders Out Of Cowards And Elders Of The Deceitful

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Recently I found a new title on Dove Booksellers, “Forsaken Firstborn” a study of how God seems to choose the “wrong” one rather than the one that should be the heir. We find this pattern in the Old Testament. God chooses Isaac over Ishmael. Jacob is chosen over Esau, his twin, even thought he is a stinker. Judah is chosen over his older brothers to be the father of the principal tribe of Israel. Joseph is chosen over his older brothers to be the one to deliver his family even though his brothers reject him. Jacob then blesses the younger of Joseph’s sons to be the chosen son.

Jacob Blessing his Grandsons - C V Vos

Jacob Blessing his Grandsons – C V Vos

As an oldest son I hope that senior birth order is not always the source of perdition and divine rejection. However this does seem to point to the spontaneous, creative and even, if I may say, playful nature of God who makes leaders out of cowards and elders of the deceitful. It gives me hope. Then a thought seized me that I had never thought before. Jesus, the first born, the beloved, was abandoned on the cross. Here the divine pattern is played out in a cosmic way. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” is the cry not just of Jesus but also of all the forsaken firstborn.

We are the descendents of Adam the firstborn yea even the forsaken firstborn alienated by sin. Jesus became for the forsaken firstborn. If that were the end of the story it would be a tragedy. But it is not the end of the tale. Jesus is not the forsaken firstborn he is the firstborn of those that sleep. His resurrection is for the forsaken firstborns and all those who have wasted their inheritance (and we all have) in the far country. The good news is that like Jacob the heel grabber who was reconciled with his forsaken older brother Esau, we too are reconciled by the death of Jesus who died as the forsaken firstborn, risen from the dead that we too might not be forsaken but have not only life in the age to come but life and that life full in this present time. Praise be to God who gives us the victory.