Epiphany 5, Year B
February 5, 2006
Christ Church, Covington
“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a
deserted place, and there he prayed’” (Mk 1:35).
An overheard cell phone conversation (where you only hear half of what’s said),
maybe at the check-out at the supermarket, maybe at soccer practice, maybe in
the carpool line: “I’d love to do that, but I’m really over-extended”; “Things
are crazy right now; we’re over-stretched”; “Yeah, yeah, I’m busy, busy, busy”.
The cell phone has been a gold mine for observers of human behavior, since folks
forget that everybody else can hear what they’re saying; also, of course, a
curse, since there are plenty of things that we really don’t want to hear about.
“Over-extended”; “over-stretched”; “busy”, “busy”, “busy”: we don’t need to hear
about the other person, because we have enough of that ourselves.
Note the metaphor. The human being as a Gumbie character of sorts: stretched
out, pulled apart, covering way too much ground. My generation used to talk
about being “strung out”, which is a kindred metaphor; defined somewhere on the
Worldwide Web as “emotionally stressed, in mental turmoil”. I think “strung out”
takes us to another level, but (post-Katrina) that’s probably warranted. The
“strung out” character is not just over-stretched, but beginning to fragment.
Pieces are being left behind, scattered no doubt between the soccer field, the
car pool line, and a dozen other spots as well
The pagan philosophers had a word themselves for this phenomenon: distention.
The self is distended in time, caught up in events, “stretched beyond normal
dimensions” as a modern definition puts it. We are distracted and inattentive,
scattered here and there, and in need of being gathered. We have multiple
commitments which fragment us, but we are called to unity and integrity. So
Augustine, who knew the pagan tradition well, could say centuries ago, “You
[God] gathered me together from the state of disintegration in which I had been
fruitlessly divided” (Conf. II.1). For him, Christ was the one who gathers us
when we are scattered, stretched, distended; the one who collects us, centers
us, and returns us to ourselves.
“Centered”: that is what Jesus is about in our Gospel today, when he goes apart
from the ceaseless activity around him. “Centered”, gathered, recollected. He’s
doing more than “taking a breather”; he is turning to God in prayer. In a world
which stretches us beyond normal dimensions, he seeks the center and heart of
who he is.
You might think of our gathering today as an opportunity to do exactly the same
thing. We are distended, distracted, and in danger of disintegration (at times
we feel this acutely), but we collect and gather ourselves and seek the center.
We’re here not to add “Church” to the myriad locations and tasks that scatter
us, but to return to the heart. We’re seeking the center, that place within us
where God is. If not here, where else?
So, three prescriptions for us, as we cope with our distended selves, scattered
here and there between Mandeville and the CBD; school and church and dance
lessons and soccer practice and doctor appointments and, and, and… Here’s the
prescription: in a world of distention, the world the pagan philosophers and
Christian theologians and our Lord Jesus Christ knew, we need to pay attention
to what God is doing in those hearts of ours. Has your heart been moved lately?
Please don’t say no, because that’s a bad sign. Doubtless, your heart has been
moved, and that movement is a sign in the center of who we are that God is at
work. Then, along with attention, there is intention: making decisions that
express who you are at the center, so that what is happening in your life
expresses what God is doing in your heart. And finally, direction: moving out
from the center into the world that is all around you, with purpose that answers
the call of God. That’s what Jesus does, after all, in our Gospel today: “Let us
go on to the neighboring towns… for that is what I came out to do” (Mk. 1:38).
Attention, intention, and direction: return to the heart, to the center.
John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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