Trinity
13 2015 Lerwick
For
a while now we have had the phrase “If you want to know yourself, talk to God
he knows on some of our pew shelves. Some of you may well have thought about
these words. Today we come to the same idea in our reading from James, thought
he suggests looking to God rather than talking to him as the means of self
disclosure.
In
the poem “the elixir” which we more commonly know as the hymn “Teach me my God
and King” George Herbert also explores the idea that living alongside God
actually changes us for the better. This is his own elixir, a magical or
medicinal potion which we take to change us.
In
the poem there is the verse which does not appear in the hymn:
Not rudely, as a beast,
To run into an action;
But still to make Thee prepossest,
And give it his perfection.
This
suggests to me a similar notion as I spoke about last week namely that In our
own “human” strength we are only part of what God created us to be, and to be
fully possessed by God, we live fully as God meant us to be.
Looking
on a mirror maybe described as vanity. People often do this to see how gorgeous
they are, how ready they are to be seen by others, or how successful their make
up or outfit looks. In other words “How suitable we may look”.
But
George Herbert wonderfully uses the reflective qualities found on glass (as in
a mirror) as the example of a barrier between us and God, for the one who looks
on glass may only see the self as in a
reflection, but to look beyond it to God is completion. In other words we can
be distracted by our own reflection that we fail to see beyond it and through
it.
For
Herbert the servant who sweeps the room looking in all the nooks and crannies
for God is the one who is to enjoy the elixir of life. Not that this is to come
easily.
Moses
exhorts the people of Israel to give heed to the statutes and ordinances of God
and not to change them or to waver from them. God was not one to be bargained
with, his promise was rock solid, he was sure.
On
the other hand we are fickle, we like to change our minds, we like to have
everything. (Syncretism again) we like to think we improve ourselves and we
have a tendency to feel pleased with ourselves (vanity) when we achieve this by
our own hard effort. We even bargain with ourselves and reward or even punish
ourselves for doing good. (well mostly reward it needs to be said!)
If
we say that God is unchanging then it is because he does not need to be wasting
his time worrying about himself. God is wholly and completely available to us,
he is wholly present to us, God is not insecure about himself like we are about
ourselves.
It
is we who pass our own insecurity on to God not God changing what he feels
about us. God loves us… period… God so loves us that he sent his son… not to
condemn us but to heal us..to make us strong in him.
James
encourages us to imitate God in knowing what we are like. We know all too well
that we may need to change, but to begin to do this we need to know ourselves
fully…. Even as we are fully known… (?)
I
don’t know about you, but I keep realising how superficially I know even my own
self. I frequently miss the obvious causes and signs of stress, and then wonder
why I get into the fix I find myself in. I am headstrong….
It
is when I am able to reflect on God that things begin to be able to feel more
in the right place.
Looking
beyond the reflection of myself to the unchanging Love and being of God, helps
me move on a little.
Bit
by bit looking on God actually changes who we are, and gradually it may not
take the same amount of effort to live life-changing and loving lives.
In
this we become doers and not just hearers of the Word.
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