Closer Than You Think

In times gone by and still in parts of the Church with historical influence from the United Kingdom, tomorrow is remembered and celebrated not only as Lent 4 but also Refreshment and Mothering Sunday. This is a time set aside in many congregations in the middle of Lent for Refreshment with such things as Simnel Cake. It is also a day when those attributes of our God seen through the way Jesus lived, through the Church, through Jesus’ mother Mary and in each one of us are remembered and celebrated. The attributes are of care and nurture and love which ideally, we find in our mothers. Hence, we reflect on Mother Church, Mary the mother of Jesus and our own mothers.

 

I was reminded the other day that we can seek and find our God in many places and in many ways. Psalm 23 or the Shepherds Psalm explores some of this. When reflecting on all these things I am reminded that people who are so enamoured of an incarnate God like me, tend to look for God, and search God out in ordinary places. People are so mystified and tantalised by this God that they hunger to see, this God in their own lives, to be able to have God participate — however paltry or faltering— so that they too can participate in God’s ongoing history of salvation, of bringing his people back into relationship.

We want the Eternal Word— that is, Jesus Christ— to be spoken in our words and take shape in our metaphors. Which is also, if you think about it, just as it should be for a people who not only believe in the incarnation but practice the sacraments. Ordinary things of this world, turned toward extraordinary purpose. That’s what we say of the bread and of the cup. Ordinary things, that’s what we say over the water poured into the baptismal font. Ordinary things which we believe are turned toward an extraordinary purpose. Used by God to extraordinary purpose. Ordinary things used by God to extraordinary purpose.

Ordinary things like an ordinary kid with an ordinary task on an ordinary Bethlehem hillside, who said, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Like an ordinary mom or dad who, pacing the hall through the night with a teething infant, realises “the Lord is my parent.” Like a surgeon excising mutating cells with a scalpel who sees it clear as day, “The Lord is my physician.” Each of us, ordinary in our own ways, with ordinary work, ordinary lives for the most part. Yet also, if we have the eyes to see it, a lot like that shepherd boy all those years ago, we, too, might craft words and shape metaphors for understanding that God is— at least in this small way— a lot like us.

So, if we reflect the attributes of our God, we reflect God’s likeness to us humans at our best then what are we to do with that? At its very best, witnessing to God’s great love for creation and us, we as the Church will serve as an example of nurturing, loving service for the wider society. But as we all know this idealised concept of church as the perfect example of nurture is far from the truth. We fail because we find it unpalatable to let go of our conviction that we hold the monopoly over truth.

So, at this middle point in Lent as we take stock of our relationship to God and to each other on this Refreshment and Mothering Sunday, as we undertake the daunting, yet privileged task of nurturing, nourishing and mothering the next generation, where do we turn for advice? Well, there’s always the Internet, or the endless shelves of magazines and books claiming to have the answer. However, in our heart of hearts though, we know that there is no one right answer.

We are called to seek insight for our exercising of relationship and nurture in our God. We are made to seek insight into the character and person of God. Sometimes that insight might be closer than we think. Closer than our next breath, our next word, our next action.