Busy, Busy, Busy

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 15th Chapter

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Jesus asks us to abide.  Some of us seem to recognize it and even envy it when we see it, but most of us, I think... if we’re honest... fear it.  We fear “abiding” because it requires making a frighteningly, deep and intimate connection with God and other people and so, to avoid that kind of a connection we keep ourselves busy, worrying and working on anything and everything else... the money, the bills, the future, the past and anything but the present.  So, could it be that we busy ourselves so much as Christians, not because busyness is faithful, but because somehow we hope our busyness will keep God and others at a safe distance?  Connecting so deeply and intimately is frightening... after all.  If we slow down and God or others really abide with us... they might get to know the real, naked, broken, dark, lonely and fearful... me!  

Kelly and I went to New York for our anniversary.  Walking through the streets, people, of course, were everywhere... physically close, bumping together, weaving in and out... physically close, but still distant.  Headphones, talking on the phone, walking with that, you’re-in-the-city-so-you-don’t-make-eye-contact stare and so on the surface it looked like a sea of people, but the sea, at first, seemed only six inches deep.   

Then we saw a little girl with a polka dot dress.  Her clear, gel sandals slapped on the cement sidewalk with each step.  With one hand she held her mother’s finger and with the other, a half-eaten sidewalk vendor’s hot dog.  She reminded me of a photographer's project called “Humans of New York.”  He takes pictures of people, but more importantly... he takes TIME.  He connects past the headphones, past the safety stare, past the fear-fueled bustle and rush... and he ABIDES.  He listens deeply and intimately to a piece of their humanity normally stored somewhere securely deep inside.  He abides and in that connection, it is so incredibly clear and obvious that he experiences the profound joy God created us all to experience when we genuinely connect with another and with God.  Then he shares his picture, the story and his joy with others, so in a way, every post becomes a sermon proclaiming, “you know, you can have this too!”   

Walking behind that little girl and remembering his “Humans of New York” project I was reminded again of a deep truth.  All of us... all the people walking those streets... all the people walking our streets... all the people from St. Mark’s and Prince of Peace... saints and sinners... all of us... the truth is that we’re all ALREADY connected.  We’re ALL, ALREADY abiding with one another.  We’ve BEEN connected... deeply, intimately and permanently through God’s love... a love stronger than death, shown so clearly that first Easter Sunday.  We share everything already... the same earth, air, hopes and dreams... the same uncertainties and fears... the same tragic brokenness and resurrection wholeness.  What we lack is not a deep and intimate connection with one another... what we lack is the AWARENESS that we are ALREADY DEEPLY AND INTIMATELY CONNECTED to EVERYONE!  And the same is true of our connection with God.  Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest and mystic, says, “We cannot ATTAIN the presence of God, because we’re already totally IN the presence of God.  What’s absent is AWARENESS.”

I think we run around this life, frantically trying to hide our true and authentic... honest and broken... genuine and beautifully imperfect selves from each other and from God, somehow thinking that if we just keep busy enough, God and everyone else will only be able see the surface... only see our polished Sunday morning selves and will somehow never catch on to who we really are.  Maybe, if we don’t sit still too long... neither God nor anyone else will see the real person we are deathly afraid to show.  If we stay busy... if we never stop to ABIDE, then neither God nor anyone else will ever find out the real and honest... me.  

If you are trying to hide your authentic self from God or others (and I think most of us are whether we admit it or not) I have what may be an uncomfortable truth for you.   No matter how busy you stay... No matter how you try to avoid abiding with God... God is already deeply and intimately abiding with you.  We do not choose... God has chosen us!  God knows you and has known you deeply and intimately and completely from before you were even born, up to today and on into the fullness of your future.  God knows your hopes and dreams, your moments of deepest shame and your moments of highest joy.  God has always, fully and deeply known all your brightest days as well as the horrors of your darkest nights.  God has always been and always will be abiding with you deeply and intimately and God has LOVED YOU, completely and intimately, THROUGH it all... and always will!  When we choose, out of fear, NOT to abide... we don’t stop God from knowing us... we only stop experiencing the complete JOY that comes with God knowing us.

Don’t do that!  Let go of the fear and let in the JOY!  It’s there in the presence of God, the love of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.  It has been with you forever... since before you were a twinkle in your mother’s eye and it will be with you and at work in you and through you forever!  Let it in!  (Let it in, he says... like it’s that easy.)  I know... it’s not that easy... I know.  It will unfortunately (I hate this part too) take some practice.  Letting joy in will take some practice, and we practice becoming aware of Christ’s love abiding in us by loving the people around us... not with a sentimental love, but with a love that drives us to do what is in the other’s best interest.  It will take practice, and we practice also by bearing fruit… by making a difference in people’s lives by living our lives with gratitude, compassion and generosity.  It will take practice, and we practice experiencing the JOY of God's abiding presence when we abide with other people… when we invest real, significant pieces of TIME and really LISTEN... not listen just to get your come-back ready, but instead to genuinely HEAR and KNOW the other and GROW in the connections you already have with each other!  

You are fully known by God already... the good, the bad and the ugly.  There is nothing left to hide, and no busyness busy enough to hide it, even if there was.  God knows it all... and LOVES YOU… loves YOU... no matter what.  As the angels always say, “Fear NOT,” there is nothing left to hide, there is nothing left to loose, but one more moment without the complete JOY that is right there waiting for you to breathe it in!  Let us love one another, bear fruit with one another… ABIDE with one another and practice with one another receiving the complete JOY that comes when we grow in the awareness of how deeply connected we are with one another and how deeply Christ’s love already abides in us.  Amen.