Tuesday Sermon: Building Awareness

          "You must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds."  All three of our readings here today emphasize that your awareness of reality must be beyond the immediate, beyond the modern conveniences and relationships that feed our egos.  Christ speaks of the reality and unity of God.  Paul calls us to recognize the presence of Christ in all people we meet, the need to exercise wisdom and discernment that all we have been provided comes from God.  Our idols or our daily bread do not come from some devising of our own mind – which makes it less than ourselves, and thus much less than Divine.  To elevate a human creation to a state of worship is an insult to God, and, as Christ emphasizes, if we are divided, we will fall.

          So how do we build that awareness, and remember to lessen the impact our created things have on our lives? 

          The Celts have a tradition of living life being aware of their blessings.  As with all things Celtic, most things are done fairly rhythmically in threes, and at the same time are fairly similar to the parallelism found in the Hebrew poetry of the Psalms.  Each line is related in some way, contracting an idea from the world view to the city, or from the family to the individual; or continuing an idea in such a way that it builds on the parallel lines.  The Trinity is a common concept found in Celtic triads, along with matching things to the natural order of the world created by God. 

          An example of a Celtic blessing would be:

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep peace of the shining stars to you.

Deep peace of the Son of peace to you.

                                      Traditional Irish Blessing

          Christine Paintner writes in her book The Soul's Slow Ripening:

"Everything the Celts did was carried out with a reverence and sense of blessing.  Blessing is really acknowledging the gifts and graces already present and entering into partnership with the divine.  All the mundane activities of the day become opportunities to witness grace at work.  Blessing is a way of life, and prayers are written to honor the sacred rhythms of the earth and to celebrate the ordinary tasks of the day."

          So for one day this week, I challenge you to pause before each and every task you undertake.  Find the holy aspect in what you're about to do, and take the time to acknowledge the presence of the blessing and grace you receive in doing it.  So for example, a mundane task that we have to do is washing dishes.  Here we have the blessings of running water, soap, dishes on which to eat or prepare food, the opportunity to care for those we love by keeping things clean – and in my own case, the opportunity to play in water.  So, God created water, Christ taught us about love, and the Holy Spirit guides our hands and joyful thoughts to be aware of the grace and blessing present in washing the dishes.  So for just one day, try being aware of God's blessings, of the importance of not just the reality we've been ignoring, but the unity we share with every other person on earth.  The blessings we each have may be different, but building that awareness is a great first step in making unity a reality.