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<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Yet
fire can have other effects. It can purify, can remove dross from a mineral
ore, for instance. It can clear out over-bearing undergrowth and allow
vegetation to regenerate. And, as in the imagery from the Book of Acts, echoing
the burning bush before which Moses stood, it can bring us into a relationship
of intense understanding and love with God and our brothers and sisters. It can
light up the heart and mind, it can free our imaginations, so that we become
capable of doing tremendous things which we might have thought were beyond us.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>But
then, one image may not be enough, especially when we’re trying to grasp the
Presence, the Power, the Loving Compassion of God.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Of
Mechthild’s poem, a commentator wrote. “Isn’t that image wonderful? The words
themselves flow through us, like gentle music. That opening affirmation is so
lovely that it’s easy to miss (the) importance of the next few lines:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:2"> </span>Thus
we move in His world<br>
<span style="mso-tab-count:2"> </span>One in body and
soul,<br>
<span style="mso-tab-count:2"> </span>Though outwardly
separate in form.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Ivan
Granger wrote, “This statement could just as easily have come from the Zen
tradition. When we discover that total integration of self, when every aspect
of body and soul recognizes itself as a harmonious unity, the sense of the
effortful self disappears. Our actions and movement through the world flow without
friction. We normally take it for granted, the presence of a constant
resistance in every action. What is that resistance? It is the fingerprint of
the ego as it declares through each effort, “I am here! I did this! I!” It is a
declaration of separation. But instead, when we are overcome with love and
wholeness, the ego fades, no separation is seen, and we, in turn, flow.” <sup>4</sup></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>This
image, like that of fire too, I suppose, describes the way that the Holy Spirit
seems to know no boundaries but moves effortlessly through and within us,
cleansing, renewing and encouraging us. The soaring feeling that we get when we
discover an idea, for instance, or a person, something that seems “just right”
within us, something that carries us almost giddily through the day, making us
smile, filling us with the happiness of being alive and being loved – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THAT</u> </b>must have infused that
realtor in Hollywood.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>I
wish I knew her or his name. I’d love to meet that person, to see what Paulette
saw, to find my batteries recharged, my soul uplifted when there’s so much
that’s debilitating, and stressful, and unhelpful to our Christian pilgrimage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>But
then, what would I find in Hollywood that can’t be found here? I suspect I
hardly need to take two or three steps around me to find the Spirit infusing
someone, some creature, some inanimate object that glows with the Presence of
God. As the commentator on Mechthild’s poem remarked, it’s when the “I” is not
full of the “I”, but, instead, full of “Jesus” and the Gift of the Spirit; <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THAT’S</u></b> when each of us can begin
to soar, to go back to the image of Mechthild. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>THIS</u></b> is the sort of enthusiastic confidence, the
glorification which Jesus described and the apostles demonstrated. The realtor,
I’d bet, knew what she or he was doing, but had managed to set aside the need
to talk the loudest, or to gesticulate the most visibly, or to draw attention
to her or himself for the blessing of the self.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>That’s
hardly how blessing works! All blessing is an affirmation of God’s acceptance
of us, of God’s empowering us, so that we may then point toward Jesus and find
the courage to live as He lived.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>In
an interesting Op-Ed piece in the New York Times last week there’s discussion
of new research which “suggests hope is an essential element in escaping
poverty.”<sup> 5</sup></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>This
sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s something which talks about lifting us up
when poverty in all its shapes and forms presses down on us. When our spiritual
reserves seem to be at their lowest; when our emotional energy has been drained
by all sorts of demands; when our economic balance has been thrown to the wind
by one misfortune after another; when we feel that poverty has sunk its teeth
into us so deeply that we can’t even lift our heads, never mind our hearts,
hope may seem such a distant feature that we don’t consider it a possibility.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>This
is what the flight of the bird, the song of the dove, the searing of the fire
comes to address. The Living Spirit is God’s gift to help us address everything
which can distract us and immobilise us, which can prevent us from discovering
true happiness. The Spirit promised by Jesus enables us to be witnesses to
God’s love simply by the way we go about our daily duties – as I suggested last
week, from the breakfast table on.</span></p>
<p>-----------------------------------------</p><br> Robert P Morrison<br>St. Alban's Episcopal Church<br>PO Box 1556<br>Albany, OR 97321<br><br>541-921-1076</body></html>