Thursday, October 18, 2012

Today’s text

Mark 10:35-37

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favor.' He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking.

Reflection

Adele came to me last night. She showed up sometime after 3 p.m. amid my sleeplessness with a message, “It’s all in Love’s hands. All of it.”

She was a great spirit among us, a great light that has gone out.

At the age of 96, her irrepressible spirit was taken from us two weeks ago. She is gone, except she’s not really gone. She has gone into that Great Light that shines from Eternity for all eternity into the darkness of our little lives.

So she’s ever here, in that radiance that warms and lights our way until we join her in the Loving Mystery for whom no words will do.

But her words came in an anxious night when the fevers of life and the press of deadlines kept sleep at bay. Her words were simple, “It’s all in Love’s hands.”

Hearing, my anxieties slowly began to release their grip. The endless loop running through my head-- unfinished tasks and unkept promises--slowed and finally fell silent, until I too, rested in the Love’s hands, and sleep returned.

And I knew: I rest in Love’s hands, as does all that kept me awake in the night.

Somehow, my obsessive spirit heard and was convinced there was no need to enumerate all that must be done this day. The fevered agitation over failing and falling short departed into the darkness. It is gone.

But Adele’s words remain, “It’s all in Love’s hands. All of it.”

And I know who Love is, Holy One, so now in the still dark of early fall morning I trust and rest, at peace once more, thankful for your messenger.

She reminds me again to trust and believe, even as she spoke to so many from the black narthex chair she always occupied following worship. Her words, as now, laced with faith in the unfailing love you are.

So her light has not passed from us at all. She has joined the great fullness of your light that comes to us in the night and the day, illuming our anxious hearts with the truth our souls need to know, lest our demons overtake us, stealing away the peace of Christ.

I know why Jesus disciples secretly asked to sit one at his right hand and the other at his left in glory. They were as anxious and insecure as me when the night demons torment my heart.

The disciples knew they could not secure their life by their own work and effort. Sooner or later, we know that is not enough. We know that we are no enough.

We feel our finitude, our limits, our humanity, our fragility, and we need to hear a voice in the night telling us the truth.

“It’s all in Love’s hands. All of it.”

So come to us all Adele, and tell us the truth our hearts need to hear.

And thanks … for your nighttime visit.

Pr. David L. Miller