Relax

26May
They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’...‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

-Mark 10:26-31


What does “salvation” mean for us today? If our contemporary worldview isn’t driven by medieval era concerns of afterlife realms divided between heaven and hell…from what do we need to be saved, and why does being a Christian matter to it?


In his remarkable new book, Catching Hope, The Hidden Spiritual Wisdom of Fishing, Episcopal priest Pete Nunnally (a former Diocese of Louisiana staff member) writes that “...we are in need of saving not from our true selves, but from the evil of shame that tells us we are bad, that everything is our fault. I know I need saving from that. Jesus recognized this too.” 


What if being saved means to know and to relax into the reality of our full and forgiving interconnectedness with God, each other, and all of reality? There have been moments in my life which I have been graced to profoundly experience myself as a member of a living body - in which all of creation across time is felt as “houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields.” Could this be a glimpse of salvation from loneliness, false ego needs, depression? 


Father Pete writes, “A person cannot simply be a spiritual being in isolation. We need ancient texts, a historical community, and the remembrance of it, to know what to look for, and to be able to discern what is real…. Spiritual truth resides in community but belonging to a spiritual community of deep and ancient wisdom doesn’t inoculate us from wandering off or just ignoring the wisdom available to us.” He concludes the book with a beautiful image that reassures me that God is the “Divine Fisher” doing the work of salvation of which we are ultimately incapable. “We may be fishing for a deeper connection to God, but every day, within each breath, the Divine Wild is fishing for us… I imagine Jesus telling the story of catching me to the disciples around the fire. ‘I was out there all day. I kept switching baits, moving around the water. I could see something out there, but it wouldn’t bite. Just when I was about to pack up, I felt a tug on the line and brought in this beautiful, miraculous fish!’” What does salvation mean to you? What image remembers you to faith in it which you can call on at times of wandering or ignoring? 


Musical Reflection - Water Music, Suite No. 1 in F Major, HWV 348: V. Air


Divine Fisher, we swim in your waters as “brothers and sisters, mothers and children.” Whatever the truth of your salvation means, we thank you for never giving up on us even when we wander or ignore. Help us to remember, and to live as community remembrances to others. Amen.

Salvation

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