
It was a cold afternoon on the Florida beach. The sun hid behind gray clouds. That was a good metaphor for our group of 40-plus UCC pastors, gathered for a worship service as part of our clergy retreat there two weeks ago. Faith is about recognizing holiness even when it can’t be seen. The harder part is staying focused on what isn’t readily visible.
Toward the end of that worship service, we each drew a star word in celebration of Epiphany. That’s a word written on a star-shaped piece of paper symbolizing the star in the East that the magi followed to the Christ child. What you draw at random is your word for the year ahead. The word I drew was ‘awareness.’ I wish it had been ‘focus.’ I pray for that almost every morning.
In the sermon last Sunday, I mentioned Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s homily preached on January 21st at Washington National Cathedral and how the viral clip of her “final plea” to the president, sitting on the front pew in that sanctuary, did not include her prophetic warning. “The culture of contempt that has become normalized in this country threatens to destroy us,” she preached.
Trying to put it as plainly as The Right Reverend Budde did in her message, I preached that our God is a God of mercy, and that contempt has no place in the city of God: “We are the body of Christ, called upon to build up that city by dismantling the culture of contempt that threatens the dignity and wellbeing of any one of us. How do we do that? By maintaining our focus; not losing sight of our calling, and not being distracted from the central teachings of our faith.”
To extend the metaphor from that chilly day on the beach, contempt is the thick cloud keeping holiness and all that is good hidden; blocked from our sight, but not absent. Focus is the spiritual discipline that enables us to pull all that is holy and good from behind the shroud of contempt, revealing the kin-dom of God for all to readily see. And all flesh seeing it together, as the prophet Isaiah says, will be compelled to live in harmonious accordance with it. This is our shared calling. Stay focused.
Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly. Look upon your neighbor, no matter who they are or where they come from, with compassion; and seek ways to serve your neighbor with words of kindness and acts of generosity. Practice forgiveness. Make peace. Extend hospitality. Share what is good. Do not grow weary in well-doing. These are the tenets of the faith we practice, exemplified by the Christ we follow. So long as we stay focused on them, not only will contempt have no power over us, but we will be empowered to shine forth everything we focus on. Focus yields vision, and vision establishes the kingdom of heaven, the kin-dom of beloved siblinghood, the city of God that our restless spirits yearn to reside in together.
My star word is ‘awareness,’ and of this I am aware: Focus is a spiritual discipline. May we all be about that crucial practice and uphold each other in living it out all year long.
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