HOLY HYPHENS
Hebrew: Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’Olam, Sh’hecheyanu,
V’Kiyemanu, V’Higianu LaZman HaZeh.
Pronunciation: bah-rooch ah-tah ah-doh-noye eh-loh-hay-noo meh-lehch hah-ohlahm, sheh-cheh-hee-yah-noo veh-kee-yah-mah-noo veh-hee-gee-ah-noo lahzmahn hah-zeh.
Translation: Praised are You, the Eternal One our God, Ruler of the Cosmos, who
has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this moment.
Barukh atah Adonai, Elohheinu, melekh haolam
Shehakol, mhi’yeh bidvaro
Blessed are You Lord God Kng of the Universe
Who made all things exist through Your word
There are moments in life which are so clarifying, so discrete, and so mystical in
the midst of chaos or confusion as to permit the perception of the presence of
God and to evoke wonder love and praise. Like Jacob awakening to the realization
of the presence of God after some kind of wrestling encounter, we too might
have such experiences, often unexpected, often making ordinary time and
place…extraordinary.
And sometimes I wonder whether it is more difficult to “know” these moments,
to recognize Christ in our lives if we have not cultivated our right relationship with
God and with creation. This morning’s Gospel has caused me to reflect on how we
might practice the experience of God and align ourselves, our souls and our
bodies, with that which is holy and divine.
Several years ago my family, composed of about 18 of us, sat around the table at
Thanksgiving also welcoming my aunt whose children and grandchildren were
elsewhere.
The rest of us had dutifully and willingly expressed our gratitude from our seated
positions at the Thanksgiving table as we went one by one around the table.
When it came time for the last member of the family to make an offering of
thanks, my aunt, a tall woman of great stature, as though cast as Secretary of
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State in a drama opposite Sean Connery …quietly and gracefully stood, paused,
looked each one of us in the eye and said: May the Lord Bless us and Keep us
My immediate resistance or confusion to such a dramatically different offering
was quickly transformed to wonder at the power of this gesture enhanced by her
genuineness, her conviction. I am also sure it was assisted by the surprise factor,
by the fact that my aunt was not a churchy woman, not one to talk about God,
and here she was offering what has always been for me a blessing of comfort and
comforting…a blessing which by its very utterance expresses a confidence in
gratitude for grace received. For my matriarchal aunt to utter it felt like thanks
and commandment.
More importantly it felt like an anointing of holy oil.
This story has become a memory of how I first came to begin to understand the
connection between blessing and thanks. Gratitude and grace. And I confess it,
like today’s reading, is a story of how life offers these moments, these hyphens if
you will, which connect us to that which is holy. In fact it causes me to wonder
how we might live into our role as holy hyphens, connectors between God and
creation.
As Jesus comes to us today in the Gospel it is on Holy Monday. He is in that space
and time between triumphant entry and brutal crucifixion and betrayal. And like
taking a deep magnificent breath he responds to one of the final, and clarifying
questions, turning a tense moment into a messianic opportunity. The question of
the lawyer, and the response by Jesus, comes after a holy pause and silence. And
as though the breath of the Holy Spirit whooshed in… Jesus creatively and
radically offers us the most important commandment: which is really two
commandments made one by his subversion, conversion, merging and smashing
of expectations. He links the Shema of Deuteronomy with the tenet from Leviticus
as if to say: it is practically impossible to reduce God and life with God in whom
we live and move and have our being to a rule or commandment but if you insist,
it is this….
This subversion and conversion of texts becomes more than mere commandment
or obligation when linked with Jesus’ complex yet clear revelation of his
identity…he is the Messiah, more than the Son of David…Commandment
becomes blessing, of God and our neighbor, because living this way, praising God
and loving our fellow creatures, IS GOD…IT IS DIVINE!! Thus sayeth the anointed
one!
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When I hear this prayer, which has come to be known as the Great
Commandment, I am not only struck by its breadth and depth but by its
encapsulation of the ineffable and the mysterious. Life, worship and service flow
from this position, this stance, this orientation. Some fall on their knees, some lift
their hearts, All are offered this way of life as a blessing which blesses, which
restores, which enlivens, which comforts, which strengthens.
Just what is this thing called blessing. I think Jesus would say it is God and life
itself. It is the space in which we move and live and have our being. We bless and
we are blessed. We give and we receive. AND it takes practice
I personally have come to think of blessing God and others as not only the center
of my faith and the formative process whereby I grow into my life in Christ, but
also as a single fluid gesture. While some drop to their knees and kiss the ground
to embody a prayer of gratitude and blessing, others open themselves in a
gesture of surrender and awe which in turn becomes the gesture of love flowing
to one’s neighbors. (ENACT)
What is also significant to me is that this gesture is innate, instinctive. (TELL
STORY OF DIXON AT FIRST BDAY) yet over time our culture often adds heavy
layers of self consciousness and decorum which push our arms down until we are
closed
However, medical research has shown that the orans position frees us and relaxes
us thus enhancing health, physical and emotional and spiritual.
What happens when we bless God, ourselves and our neighbors?
We hold life more gently We allow the Holy Spirit in
We breathe….in God’s love and grace…out love of others…(repeat)
We surrender, like Mary, let it be unto me
We re- orient, like Moses
We become like Paul exhorts us to be in the letter to the Thessalonians: sharing
our selves, our souls and bodies because we care so deeply
We hear the words of our collect more deeply and increase in our gifts because
we love what is commanded
We are transformed and reoriented toward the great call to love which
encompasses generosity of time of talent of treasure or gift
We allow this holy oil of blessing to touch us and in turn to pass it on to others.
I invite you to practice blessing. I invite you to do so on your knees, in your bodily
stance, most especially in your hearts. I invite you to imagine looking into
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another’s eyes and seeing the gesture of love enacted in the space between you. I
invite you to think about the strangest of blessings as you walk through life, in the
woods, at a traffic light, in your living room.
I am wondering what might happen if there were a moment when we all
stretched simultaneously for God and our neighbor. I wonder if we might become
the Body of Christ, stretching to be good stewards. Stretching to be good
disciples, stretching to be hospitable and pastoral and compassionate. I wonder if
we might know differently, see differently,
I wonder in the words of Rumi: if we might
Let the beauty we love be what we do
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground
To which I might add: And hundreds of ways to reach and touch the stars.
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