We must be going for bonus points, because Mark and I went to church this morning, just 24 short hours after Christmas. And I'm glad we did. Not that there's anything wrong with Christmas Eve services. They are beautiful and lively and, because they are stacked one atop the other, they never run long.
But, between you and me, the biggie services (read, Christmas and Easter) also lack the intimacy of a post Christmas-Day service, where people either are especially devout, too cold to complete their morning walk, or, as was our case, hankering for something more basic than the frou-frou glam and glitter of a Christmas-Eve service.
After skimming the service's schedule, I knew we'd done the right thing when I saw the title of today's sermon--"After the Ecstacy, The Laundry." It's the title of a book written by a Buddhist Zen master who interviewed a hundred people, all of whom had experienced some significant spiritual event. He wondered what they did after that big moment. What he discovered was oddly comforting. They drank and quibbled, divorced and spoke poorly to their teenaged children. Essentially, they lived their very human, utterly imperfect lives.
I don't think it's schadenfreude to feel the quiet joy I felt upon hearing that a Zen master isn't always the nicest person. Mostly, I just like to know that I've got some company down here in the muddy recesses.
And, while I can't quite wrap my mind around a God sent to earth as a baby--and have no interest whatsoever in imagining the birth itself, thank you!--I am intrigued and comforted by the concept of leaving the limo at home. God could have come in a great rush of wings and fire, with 110 cornets close at hand. But, if the stories are to be believed, he came in the form of the most needy, helpless thing there is--a baby.
Apparently, God needs some tending to and that rather appeals to me. The need to be tended--and the willingness to tend to others--are no small potatoes. It takes confidence to hand over the reins, just as it takes confidence to grab them and start stearing.
If a tendency is what we lean towards, then my goal for 2011 is to lean towards the good, and to lean on others so that they might tend to me. I believe that, the more I am tended to, the more apt I will be to tend in return.
I am glad I went to the Ecstasy and Laundry service too. Kim had just the right message. Thank you for putting down in written form, the ideas that were tumbling around in my brain.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you there, Kris! And I am glad the sermon was what you needed, too.
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