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By Father Martin Pommerenke & Lucy Williams
Trinity Church’s services this month are being offered by four different presiders: Reverends Jean Barrington (Lutheran), Bev Mar (Inter-faith), Sydney Morris (Unitarian), and Father Martin Pommerenke (Episcopal). Please join us to hear the word spoken from different faiths and minds. The following text is from Father Martin Pommerenke:
Sometimes in our own life experiences, we don’t know that something profound has happened to us in a moment until long after the fact. Other times we do know. Enraptured, entranced, and moved – we know.
I would offer that mystical experiences are times when our seeing is illuminated to manifest the divine that is present in everyday things. To see what everything really is: holy and infused with God’s presence. To see that all of creation is held within God and held together by God. Yet if we try to explain it with mere facts – explain the wonder – it doesn’t sound very impressive.
Perhaps think about it like this: let’s say that you tell a friend that you saw the very beauty of God last night. You saw Mount Baker aglow and eagles flying and the waves crashing! And they say, “Oh, yeah, well, some water blowing around … and some birds, some mountains. You can see that anywhere.”
“Yes!” you reply, “Yes, you can find the presence of God everywhere and in everything if you pay attention.”
So, yes – we can invite people into this illumination of presence. We tell stories, we write poems, we sing songs about these mystical experiences to help people see God made manifest in the everyday. In the ordinary. Even in water and light. So, what ordinary things of this world are illuminated for you? And how do you manifest God in the ordinary of things and people by illuminating them with the light of Christ that lives in you? How do you practice seeing the world with mystical eyes so that you can beckon others into light, into mystery, into God made manifest?
To this we bear witness: in Jesus, we see as one Christian hymn sings: God in flesh made manifest. In seeing him we see the things of this world named as wonderful. Literally – full of wonder. For in everything – in everyday things – is manifest the mystery of God. |
