November 23, 7:00pm (Kevin Westling)
Let me tell you this: that turbulence and those seeming dark forces can in fact turn out to be harbingers of light. “Go warn the children of God, tell them of the terrible speed of mercy.” I love that line. Ironically, mercy comes upon the crest of tension, forcefully upon the waves of turbulence, even within the innards of internal woe and conflict.
Download
Full Text
“Let in the fear,
Let in the pain,
Let in the trees that toss and groan,
Let in the north tonight.
Let in the nameless formless power
that beats upon my door.
Let in the ice, let in the snow,
the banshee howling on the moor,
the bracken-bush on the bleak hillside
let in the dead tonight.”
What a great rushing poem that that is,
perfect for the season of turbulence
in autumn-turn-winter
we have now entered.
But stop and think about it:
there is a natural turbulence
in the rhythm of the soul…
a violence of movement within,
a straining of tension,
a tumult of the soul’s Tectonic Plates smashing into one another…shuddering life above the surface and rending it asunder from below.
Like the violence of ocean waves slapping dunes,
or the violence of wind howling against the night,
or the violence of an asteroid decimating a forest,
or the violence of torrential rain
or the tempest of tornados…
What we see in the world around us
are the markings of the world within us.
Some people love to watch storms,
some love to chase them,
some hide under the covers.
Few people that I know of,
court the storms within
or smile at their advent.
Just the opposite:
we strain,
we struggle,
and we grimace in order to keep a lid on inner
turbulence, inward storms, internal strife.
The turbulence within us is the most frightening of all.
Especially the boiling of the Spirit inside
as God troubles the waters of the soul.
Let me tell you this:
that turbulence and those seeming dark forces
can in fact turn out to be harbingers of light.
“Go warn the children of God,
tell them of the terrible speed of mercy.”
I love that line.
Ironically,
mercy comes upon the crest of tension,
forcefully upon the waves of turbulence,
even within the innards of internal woe and conflict.
Please note,
I am not saying that God’s mercy arrives because
of the turbulence,
or that God is the cause of terror and tension within.
I am only saying that God’s mercy arrives
at those very moments
when events are speeding out of our control,
and all that we have dreaded seems
as if it is coming to pass.
I know this is a strange theme for Trinity@7,
we normally accentuate peace
and we allow that peace to well up and heal us.
But tonight I want to acknowledge
the presence
and importance
of spiritual turbulence
and the role it plays in keeping us healthy and whole.
You see all organisms,
whether individuals or communities,
seek equilibrium.
When something throws us off balance
we try to right ourselves.
When the immune system
senses the presence of an alien or toxic substance,
it responds by seeking to expel it.
Every organism seeks to maintain equilibrium
but it is the tensions
and struggles
and turbulence
that alert us to the presence of possible dangers.
If somehow
we could remain in a constant state of equilibrium,
always at peace and centered,
we would get lulled into unconsciousness
and we never see it coming –
that danger with our name on it.
See what I mean?
When we go wading into the waters of turbulence what we encounter
are the missing pieces of wisdom we needed
in order to take the next steps
to reach our next horizon.
For example, an alcoholic
who finally reaches the proverbial “Bottom”
is the one who
somehow gets buoyed up for air
and begins recovery.
Pity the poor bastards who have no one
and nothing in their lives
to up the price of drunkenness
and create enough turbulence to invite sobriety.
But that is true for every single one of us,
who has any kind of deeply personal
or spiritual problem –
which is all of us.
Think about a persistent problem of yours –
one that is life-long
and perhaps debilitating.
If you are like me,
then the closest you have ever come
to understanding your problem,
and the nearest thing you have experienced to
healing your problem,
probably came just after
it was the worst it had ever been.
That is because we are driven toward equilibrium,
we desperately want balance and peace,
and we do everything we can
to keep our problems at bay,
and to keep from feeling bad or hurting…
We even go to great lengths
to avoid being seen as havomg problems
or for people to even know we are hurting.
But what if,
and I realize it is a big if…
what if instead
we were to explore the tensions,
and enter into the conflicts
and probe the pain?
We might in fact discover
what it is we need to know
in order to save ourselves!
If we did that,
we might even encounter the speed of mercy.
So, in fact,
seeking calm and peacefulness
before its time,
can be exactly the wrong thing to do.
The seasons of the soul
include times of turbulence
and it is healthier and wiser
to enter that turbulence than it is to avoid or deny it.
God’s mercy does arrive with speed
in the midst of conflict and turbulence…
once we have allowed ourselves to enter it
and discover the wisdom it bears.
So…tonight…
I invite us to light a candle
as an invitation to
“Let in the fire,
let in the power,
let in the evading might.
Let in the wound,
let in the pain
let in your child tonight.”
There is wisdom and healing
waiting for us in the turbulence of our lives,
and the speed of God’s mercy
is awesome to behold.
Let it in tonight.
