‘Alleluia’
4/10/2018
I Was Thinking…
I continue to find inspiration from Joan Chittister’s book The Rule of Benedict, A Spirituality for the 21st Century. I offer these words of hers to you.
“Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, ‘The earth laughs in flowers.’ Benedict of Nursia wrote, say ‘Alleluia’ always, no matter the time of day, no matter the season of life… ‘We are Easter people’, Augustine wrote, ‘and Alleluia is our cry.’
The use of ‘Alleluia’ dates back to the earliest of liturgical formularies, both Jewish and Christian, as an endless chant of joy. In the Christian community it was an expression of praise and a foretaste of eternal gladness…life in all its long nights and weary days is something to be praised, death is the rivet of joy, there is no end to the positive. Even life in hot fields and drab offices and small houses is somehow one long happy thought when God is at the center, and blessings, however rare, however scant, are blessed.” (P.118)
Isn’t it easier said than done to put ‘God at the center of everything’? I find that to be a daily (sometimes an hourly) challenge. I often wonder “What would it really look like to put God at the center of everything?” I think it is often quickly dismissed because it is viewed as an impossible task to ‘put God at the center of everything’. But is it impossible?
If I view placing ‘God at the center of everything’ as impossible then there is a part of me that ‘gives up’ and moves on into my own way of thinking and living. However, if I believe as John Wesley, our fore-parent believed that I am moving on toward perfection in love then I am encouraged to keep leaning into the possibility that God can be at the center of everything.
Life is a journey. Soul matters affect life matters and they too are a journey. In this Easter season, I am striving to ‘put God at the center of everything’. I will falter along the way. I will then lean into the grace of God’s forgiveness and continue onward.
I often say to the clergy of this great Atlanta-Marietta District that our task in this honored Kingdom work is to ‘strive for excellence’. If we strive for it, we will obtain a closer proximity to it than if we chose to simply settle for less.
I agree with Augustine… “We are Easter people and ‘Alleluia’ is our cry.”
Always Thinking…
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