I sat down
On a hillside
To think about God - - -
A worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
A single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside
this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hope
It will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.
Mary Oliver, the contemporary poet who wrote this marvelous reassuring
poem, titled it "Song of the Builders". Do you know how you strain to
find the right word or phrase sometimes? How something is so beautiful or
so moving or so enraging that we say, "words fail me"? I think poets and
pastors, if they are really good, find those words for us and that's what
make them loved. They seem to be talking to our very souls. Their words,
their stories hold our attention from beginning to end and as we silently
listen, we say, yes, yes, that's how it is. We say, how did you know? We
say laughingly, have you been following me around? You captured my
thoughts, my confused, jumbled, mixed-up thoughts and put them in order
and gave them their meaning. I am so grateful, we say to ourselves. I
have to read this again or I have to listen to this pastor again. The
poets' words and the pastors' words can be so compelling that we learn
what it is to focus, focus on the writer or speaker solely. No
multi-tasking, no folding laundry, no quiet list-making, just stillness as
we absorb these words of ours, our very own, if we but had the skill to
put them together. Our ears quiver in attention. Our hands fold and stay
there. We are graciously, blessedly intent.
It is so hard to lose a beloved pastor. The mind says I understand, and
we do. The heart says but no, not yet please. We need more of you and
your words. And this grief of loss is heavy and dark. The mind says
please let me go to bed and curl up and be wordless for a while. The
heart says no, no, honor her wishes, honor our Lord's wishes, to continue,
to embrace "different", to change. We can do this. We are well-schooled,
we know we are God's children, God's disciples, God's people. We know
that God is everlasting, God is present forever, God expects us, as Ms.
Oliver says, to go on in our inexplicable ways building the universe.
May it be so for each of us.
Amen.
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