God’s Goal and Great Desire – December 15, 2017

“God’s #1 goal is for you to know how much God loves you.”  That’s what Miss Anna (Livingston Adams) told our 5-10 year olds at Children’s Liturgy of the Word on Sunday.  It was part of the explanation and preparation for our “Two Minutes of Quiet” Advent Challenge.  Every Advent and Lent we ask the children to spend two minutes a day to “Meet God in The Silence.”  And every time we gather for Children’s Liturgy we practice.  We spread out in the chapel…some children on their backs, others on their tummies…some sitting on the floor “crisscross applesauce”…others remaining in their chairs…and some of the youngest, cuddle up with their moms and dads.  We turn the lights down.  We play instrumental music.  We invite them to be still, to imagine, to feel, to reflect.  To breathe.  To know how much God loves us.

But what about morality?  What about sin? What about “do unto others”? And “whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters”? What about dos and don’ts and right and wrong and “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots”?  Is it really enough to just know that we are loved?

It may not be enough, but it is definitely where we need to start.  Morality without love is, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “a resounding gong, a clanging cymbal…nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3

We must first rest in love.

Contemplatives and mystics teach us is that the prayer of quiet, the prayer of resting in God’s love for us, purifies us of our need for power and control and safety and security and esteem and affection.  It is that need, those grasping desires, that underlie our sinful behavior. 

Richard Rohr is quoted (in an Sojourners online interview on white privilege) as saying, “Some form of contemplative practice is the only way (apart from great love and great suffering) to rewire people’s minds and hearts.  It is the only form of prayer that dips into the unconscious and changes people at deep levels – where all the wounds, angers, and recognitions lie hidden.  Prayer that is too verbal, too social, too external, too heady never changes people at the level where they really need to change.  Only some form of prayer of quiet changes people for good and for others in any long term way. “

During the next few busy days and weeks as we celebrate the birth of Love Incarnate in Jesus, let us challenge ourselves to quiet.  Let us rest in God’s love for us.