by the Rev. Paul McLain
“Syncletia said, ‘The same thing cannot at once be seed and a full-grown bush. So, men with a worldly reputation cannot bear heavenly fruit.’”
My hobby in years past was acting in community theatre productions. I played everyone from Inspector Hubbard in Dial M for Murder to King Claudius in Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead. There was something exhilarating about putting on a different persona for a season of rehearsal and performances. Over time, I discovered that my truest performances were when I tapped into something deep inside myself that resonated with the person I was portraying. The irony was that, in order to put on the mask of my character, I had to take off my own mask.
Thousands of lives have been lost, and our social and economic lives have been turned upside down by a tiny, hidden microbe. We have learned the destructive power of something we cannot see. And this microbe has torn off the masks of our lives so that we now see that, what appeared to be a flourishing society on the outside, had a lot of uncovered trouble spots on the inside. Now we can see the inequality in our economic lives covered by the mask of prosperity, as well as the lack of real communication in our personal and social lives covered by the mask of busyness.
Like the desert mother Syncletia quoted above, Jesus reveals that the way to salvation and wholeness is not by trying to appear as a full-grown bush to the world. Instead, it is by finding the tiny, hidden mustard seed within us. It is to tap into the abiding presence of God deep inside us and give room for that presence to grow.
The French artist Edgar Degas loved painting, sketching, and sculpting scenes of dancers at rehearsals instead of performances. He found something deeper and more authentic about the unfinished time of “not yet.” He found hope in the act of rehearsing – the acknowledgment that, while we still have a long way to go, something new, creative, and exciting is being born inside us. Like the dancers, we have to let go, try out new moves, and even risk failure as we trust that God is watering and nourishing the seed of possibility within each of us.
What masks has this time of pandemic uncovered in our city of Memphis and in our nation and world? What masks have been uncovered in your own life and that of your family? Where are you finding the hidden seeds of authenticity and growth?
“Syncletia said, ‘The same thing cannot at once be seed and a full-grown bush. So, men with a worldly reputation cannot bear heavenly fruit.’”
My hobby in years past was acting in community theatre productions. I played everyone from Inspector Hubbard in Dial M for Murder to King Claudius in Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead. There was something exhilarating about putting on a different persona for a season of rehearsal and performances. Over time, I discovered that my truest performances were when I tapped into something deep inside myself that resonated with the person I was portraying. The irony was that, in order to put on the mask of my character, I had to take off my own mask.
Thousands of lives have been lost, and our social and economic lives have been turned upside down by a tiny, hidden microbe. We have learned the destructive power of something we cannot see. And this microbe has torn off the masks of our lives so that we now see that, what appeared to be a flourishing society on the outside, had a lot of uncovered trouble spots on the inside. Now we can see the inequality in our economic lives covered by the mask of prosperity, as well as the lack of real communication in our personal and social lives covered by the mask of busyness.
Like the desert mother Syncletia quoted above, Jesus reveals that the way to salvation and wholeness is not by trying to appear as a full-grown bush to the world. Instead, it is by finding the tiny, hidden mustard seed within us. It is to tap into the abiding presence of God deep inside us and give room for that presence to grow.
The French artist Edgar Degas loved painting, sketching, and sculpting scenes of dancers at rehearsals instead of performances. He found something deeper and more authentic about the unfinished time of “not yet.” He found hope in the act of rehearsing – the acknowledgment that, while we still have a long way to go, something new, creative, and exciting is being born inside us. Like the dancers, we have to let go, try out new moves, and even risk failure as we trust that God is watering and nourishing the seed of possibility within each of us.
What masks has this time of pandemic uncovered in our city of Memphis and in our nation and world? What masks have been uncovered in your own life and that of your family? Where are you finding the hidden seeds of authenticity and growth?
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