Midweek Faith Lift
March 3, 2024
“You Are the Face of God”
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
February 13, 2024
"Jack pines are not lumber trees and they won't win many beauty contests either. But to me this valiant old tree, solitary on its own rocky point, is as beautiful as a living thing can be. In the calligraphy of its shape against the sky is written strength of character and perseverance, survival of wind, drought, cold, heat, and disease. In its silence it speaks of wholeness and integrity that comes from being what you are." - Douglas Wood, author, musician, naturalist
Our affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Corinthians 4:17-18
Affirmative Prayer for Today: Divine, sweet spirit, open my eyes to see the Face of God where I might not look. Open my heart to embrace the Face of God when it shows up in integrity and wholeness. Open my mind to choose to be the Face of God when outer appearances seem so permanent and distressing, to see that which is eternal. Amen.
For the past three Sundays, you have been on a wonderful journey with Su Podraza-Nagle to explore and experience all the nuances of the energy of love. I have read the Faith Lift messages and it has truly been a wonderful journey. Love as acceptance, appreciation and gratitude from her first talk truly spoke to me. Each one of these aspects of love are wonderful, easy and enjoyable…..until they aren’t, right? But persisting in a love consciousness is the key and that is not easy from our human perspective, it really isn’t.
Pairing love with wisdom also spoke to me as a path to follow when my impulses and fears might push/pull me in a direction that is not for my highest good! I have learned from this past 18 days on vacation that I am far less compelled to overeat chocolate when I am rested and relaxed! Good to know, right? The real challenge for me is how to stay in that relaxed and mindful consciousness when I am NOT on vacation and when I am quarantined with Covid! Su’s last talk with the hearts changing hands brought it right home to each one of us, didn’t it? No matter what the circumstances about love, we are the constant in our particular experiences with love, that’s for sure. Hence, it is our own thoughts, beliefs and feelings that we deal with, especially when they get in the way.
As I contemplated this talk before I left on vacation, the words of Karen Drucker’s song, “You are the Face of God” popped into my awareness as I meditated. And that is the path I followed, except to say “You are the Face of Love,” which is essentially the same thing. Except to say that Heather did such a great talk with that title that I did shift to “You are the Face of God.” The quotation that Su used at the end of her third talk was wonderful and it is worth repeating now. It was Rev. Caleb J. Lines who said, “Imagine how it would change our theology if we didn’t look up to heaven for God, but saw God in the face of our neighbors.” What a different start point that would give us for sure!
So what is it like to hold that idea, that in each face you see, you see the face of God? Well, it requires much more from us in the way of emotional maturity and acceptance in order to see beyond appearances. It requires us to cultivate the capacity to be present to all that is there, not just what we like but also what ticks us off. It is like that opening prayer/poem today “A Place at the Table.” When we choose to see the face of love, then it all has a place at the table, the grief, the anger, the impatience, the fear, the ego…and joy. We accept all of it because that is a part of all of us. When we love ourselves no matter what, then we can love others, no matter what.
It is a high bar, but it is what we are called to do. Love is a challenging call and if it were easy, we would do it more readily and more boldly. There is a poem shared by Richard Rohr in his February 9, 2024 blog “No Time For Anything But Love” that was written by Meister Eckhart:
Do you want to know
what goes on in the core of the Trinity?
I will tell you.
In the core of the Trinity
the Father laughs
and gives birth to the Son.
The Son laughs back at the Father
and gives birth to the Spirit.
The whole Trinity laughs
and gives birth to us.
This is a wonderful description of the creative process that has birthed all of us and the Universe in which we live. It is an ongoing creative process that never withholds life or love from us. The energy of God-Love is always available and always seeking full expression in and as us. This creative process is the essence of life and the essence of love, always seeking something new in us. As Richard Rohr continues:
The Trinity has tremendous practical, pastoral, and political implications. We don’t have time for anything less than loving! Fear will never build a “new creation” (Galatians 6:15); threat is an entirely bankrupt and false storyline. The lowest level of motivation is guilt, shame, reward, and punishment; it has not moved us anywhere close to a civilization of love.
Our personal challenge is to discern how to give birth to love when there are so many competing emotions and responses present. How do we create the energy field that is the “Holy Trinity” that supports Love. The three points of Acceptance, Appreciation and Gratitude form the points of the container. The first two points of acceptance and appreciation ask us to allow the imperfection and clumsiness of all. When they/we don’t say it just right, or we are petty and self-absorbed, we accept that and recognize how it can and has damaged our relationships with each other. When one of us has the presence of mind and heart to say to the other, “Yeah, I did say that, and it was really unhelpful and hurtful. I am sorry. I feel really dumb about that! Can we have a do-over?” That is a moment of love in action, powerful action.
In reality, it sometimes takes time for that to happen, to be at a place where you can say that kind of thing to someone else. And deep acceptance of each other when it does happen results in healing, laughter and joy. And that gives birth to incredible gratitude. Now, this is not theoretical, this is real-a lived reality for Todd and me. We just spent 18 days together with multiple opportunities to practice the skills of listening and responding and letting things be as they are. It was a lot of radical acceptance of one another along with deep appreciation of each other, because he’s no saint……and neither am I!!! And we did laugh a lot, a whole lot and truly enjoyed each other at a whole new level.
In our clumsy, human attempts to love, we do frequently take two steps forward and one step back, again and again. Perhaps we are like that Jack Pine tree in the opening story, beautiful in a way that it takes particular eyes to see and appreciate. We do not always show our “best face”, our highest and best selves, especially to those closest to us. Our hope and prayer is that they will see our Jack Pine side and love us anyway. And as we read about Meister Eckhart’s version of the Trinity, that is what God is always doing, loving us no matter what and patiently waiting for us to see that we are the face of love, no matter how we look or how we have messed up or how poorly we have navigated the difficult passages of our life.
We show up, we mess up, we feel shame, we tell it to those who have earned the right to hear it and we begin again, and again and again, learning as we go, cultivating acceptance, appreciation and wonder. I leave you today with another wonderful poem by Rich Orloff.
As I Approach You with Wonder
by Rich Orloff
We are gifts we give each other,
You and I
Fragile even if appearing sturdy
Delicate
But stronger than we have convinced ourselves we are
I have been with others
Who are reluctant to reveal more than a sliver
Even in intimate situations
I have also been the person
Reluctant to reveal myself
Or to delve into the mystery
Of who I might be
Beyond the identity I cling to
So I do not take your gift for granted
I know it is unique
Beautiful to behold
And somewhat damaged by time
And if at times I vanish behind a wall
This is not disrespect
Just caution
I’ve had my gift exchanged for rhinestones
Or treated as if it had an expiration date
As we work up the courage
To unveil the beauty of our weirdness
As we mix our majesty with our vulnerability
Let us release ourselves from the known
So we can embrace each other’s soul
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb