February 28, 2025 • 19 mins
It was Jesus' habit to pray. He had a rhythm of action and reflection. As Christians in a modern world, prioritizing our time to pray, reflect, and be in relationship with God isn't easy.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about time, drawing insights from Jesus' practices and Rabbi Abraham Heschel’s teachings. Are we merely consuming our time, or are we engaging with it in a meaningful way? They explore how embracing a mindful approach to daily routine can lead to transformative experiences. Listen in for the full conversation.
Read For Faith, the companion devotional.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bishop Wright (00:00):
It was Jesus' habit to pray.
He had this wonderful rhythm ofaction and reflection, you know
, and part of that practice, youknow, part of the way to live
in rebellion, to empire right,which wants to commodify
humanity, is to make sure thatyou use time right in
(00:20):
constructive ways which affirmhuman dignity.
A part of prayer is alsounderstanding that eternity is
in every moment.
Melissa (00:40):
Welcome to Four People with Bishop Rob Wright.
I'm Melissa Rau and this is aconversation inspired by For
Faith, a weekly devotion sentout every Friday.
You can find a link to thisweek's For Faith and a link to
subscribe in the episode'sdescription.
You called For devotion thisweek Time and it's loosely based
(01:04):
off of Luke 9, verses 28 to 36,but inspired by Abraham
Heschel's the Sabbath, a book.
Now, I haven't read this book,it's actually on my to read.
I've read about the book, but Ireally appreciate the fact that
you're bringing in somethingabout Sabbath based off of and
(01:26):
this is a fancy termtransfiguration is when Jesus
went up the mountain right, andso I don't know, man, this is
kind of a big leap for me, andyet it makes so much sense.
All right, so tell me where youlanded the plane with this.
Bishop Wright (01:43):
Well, let's see.
So I don't know if I can tellyou how I land the plane, but I
can tell you where we sort of weattempted to take off right.
So you know, Luke tells us thatJesus took his friends, his
executive committee, and theywent up the mountain to pray.
It was Jesus's habit to pray.
(02:03):
He had this wonderful rhythm ofaction and reflection.
There's a sermon right thereabout, you know, what is the
balance of life?
It's action and reflection.
What is the balance of health?
It's action and reflection.
And so this was Jesus's habit,this was his practice.
Practice, you know.
(02:29):
And part of that practice, youknow, part of the way to live in
rebellion, to empire right,which wants to commodify
humanity, is to make sure thatyou use time right in
constructive, you know, wayswhich affirm human dignity.
So prayer is not just going upsomewhere or to church or
walking the dog and, you know,sort of talking about your
(02:52):
wounds and your wants with God.
That's important to do, that'spart of prayer.
But a part of prayer is alsounderstanding that eternity is
in every moment, Right.
And so a mature life with Godis to become attuned to the God
who dwells in time and not justspace, Right.
(03:20):
So this is, this is these are.
These are really Heschel'sideas that I'm sort of
paraphrasing Now.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel was agreat friend of Dr King's.
He marched with Dr King, youknow.
When asked you know, why is aJew walking with Dr King?
You know, in these protests forhuman dignity, he said I'm
praying with my feet, you know.
And so he wrote this bookcalled the Sabbath, in 1951, and
(03:43):
it is as relevant, perhaps morerelevant now than ever, given
the fact of the way that modernpeople do time and we don't have
an expansive sense of time.
What's interesting is that wedwell in space with things quite
robustly.
We have been reduced toconsumers, not just people who
(04:05):
are consumers or exercise thatpractice of being consumers, but
who have been reduced toconsumers.
We are marketed to more thanany generation ever before.
And so Heschel, in 1951, andthen, echoing down the hallways
of time to us, say now, becareful.
Even Kendrick Lamar at the SuperBowl said turn off the TV.
(04:29):
I don't know.
You know, a lot of peopledidn't understand what he was
saying, and I am among them.
I didn't understand every wordthat the fellow said, but I did
hear him say that repeatedlyTurn off the TV.
I did hear him say thatrepeatedly.
Turn off the TV and I thinkthat is what Heschel would agree
(04:49):
is maybe a starting place toturn off the social media, to
turn off things for a certaintime, to develop that discipline
so that you can be in timedifferently.
Right, I can catch up withmyself, I can catch up with God.
I can catch up with God, I canprocess adequately emotions.
And so when he's talking aboutthe Sabbath, his first point is
(05:10):
is that God dwells in time andin every moment there is
eternity.
Melissa (05:15):
Well, that's huge right there.
And when I think of time, youknow time is linear, yes, and
it's also cyclical, right.
One of the things that I loveabout the Episcopal Church is
how we honor a rhythm in ourliturgy, and one of the things
that we will honor is the seasonof Lent, and that's coming up
(05:40):
Bishop.
I think that's just next week.
Bishop Wright (05:43):
Yeah, it is Absolutely.
Melissa (05:44):
It's wild, and so I think one of the things that
strikes me about this passagespecifically is that I recently
read Bishop Marianne EdgarBuddy's book how we Learn to Be
Brave, and one of the thingsthat stood out to me was she was
talking about Jesus going upthe mountain in this verse, and
(06:07):
when Jesus comes down, he setshis face towards Jerusalem, in
that he knows that he is goingto die, and yet is resolved in
that to die, and yet is resolvedin that.
And so, bishop, when we talkabout prayer kind of being the
(06:33):
backbone, I think you saidaction and reflection, action
and reflection, you know, Ithink that's where we get our
resolve.
Bishop Wright (06:37):
No, that's exactly right, and that's
actually the last sentence ofthe meditation.
So, no, that's exactly right,and that's actually the last
sentence of the meditation.
So you know, at the moment ofprayer, jesus is up the mountain
.
You know he has just enougheternity in that moment for him
to face his destiny Right.
And so you know, what'sinteresting about action and
reflection is is that how willwe know what to action, how to
(07:00):
action?
Reflection is is that how willwe know what to action, how to
action, unless we base that onsome reflection?
And so logic dictates that ifthe reflection is better, then
the action might be better,right, or will be better, in
fact, right.
And so when we talk aboutleadership, this is what we talk
about getting up on the balconywith our organization so that
we can ask the hard questions ofmission and purpose what is our
(07:23):
why, what is our what, what isour how?
And so if we get up on thebalcony and Jesus is up on the
mountain, then we can takecounsel not only with the divine
, but with our best self.
It's amazing, when I was a veryyoung pastor, we had an evening
meeting a week.
It's.
It's amazing when I was a veryyoung pastor.
Um, you know, we had an eveningmeeting, a weekday evening
(07:46):
meeting, and I I observed thatpeople with all good intentions
were sort of racing in throughAtlanta traffic, uh, to be at
this meeting and to be punctual,et cetera, and and we were all
a bit crabby and cranky and thequality of the meeting left a
lot to be desired.
And what we did was we decidedthat at that same start time, as
(08:10):
people were rushing in, wewould have a meal, a meal would
be provided, and we got a chanceto get a meal together and to
be human before we launched intothe work.
And the quality of the meetingwent, it skyrocketed.
It was amazing.
(08:31):
People were there, people gotthere, so to speak.
I mean, their body had beenthere previously, but then
there's some better part perhapsof them that got there once.
We took care of a human need,which is to take a deep breath,
let the shoulders fall from theearlobes and get there with a
laugh and a smile and a prayerand a meal.
(08:54):
I think this is all Heschel issaying.
Heschel is saying that theheart of our existence as human
beings is time.
Time is the heart of ourexistence as human beings is
time.
Time is the heart of ourexistence and what sort of
begins to corrode life is whenwe fail to sense the grandeur of
what is eternal in time.
You talk about being refreshed.
(09:15):
It's having a glimpse of that,having access to that with some
regularity, a regular practicethat washes over us and it
begins to bring a clarity to us.
If I have any real big concernsabout young people these days,
it's about how they do time.
(09:36):
I wonder if they're everrefreshed by some of the things
I'm talking about, wonder ifthey're ever refreshed by some
of the things I'm talking about.
Now.
My hope is that they willcontinue to use nature and all
those sorts of things as ways tobe.
But as I sort of experience alot of young people the young
adults and even younger I'mworried about how they do time.
(10:00):
Heschel talks about season andthe rhythm of season, but we
have artificial seasons nowbecause whenever you have your
phone, that's a dictate of time,right?
How many characters can you geton?
An X statement or a TikTok isjust a matter of seconds, et
(10:21):
cetera.
And I wonder if Heschel isn'tright and didn't he was sort of
saw this out in the distancethat that is the beginning of
decay of our better selves.
And so how we take charge ofthis and this is why I wrote
this just before we enter intothe season of Lent is perhaps in
Lent this season, on the way toEaster, perhaps in Lent this
season on the way to Easter,maybe the biggest tweak we can
(10:43):
make this Lent is to do maybe asocial media or a media fast.
Maybe we ought to giveourselves just one hour and to
say you know, I mean, thinkabout it, the average American
watches over five hours oftelevision, and I don't even
(11:04):
know.
And then, of course, those ofus who have Apple phones.
We get a report every Sundayletting us know how much screen
time we had Right, and what ifyou gave, what?
If you tithed, you know, orgave 50% of that screen time to
your own self, to your own self,hearing your own voice, hearing
(11:24):
the voice of the divine.
Melissa (11:50):
I don't know if you've heard of Cal Newport.
He wrote a book called DigitalMinimalism and it gave me hives.
Bishop Wright (11:57):
Oh, my God.
Melissa (11:58):
Let's back up.
You know to up when we talkabout young people and their
passion, which is what Itypically will associate with
youth.
I'm concerned about capacityand you used another C word
clarity and I feel like that'swhat Jesus was able to model is
(12:23):
the act of praying gave himcapacity to be able to get clear
what needed to be done or howhe needed to be.
And one of the things that Ilove, I'm training to be a
spiritual director and I'venoticed that instead of just
starting a meeting with prayerand then launching right into it
(12:45):
, I've been trying to evenmundane meetings.
I try to do either a poem or asmall snippet to get people
centered and grounded and reallyreflecting what matters most to
them before we get to all thedoing.
I don't know, bishop, I don'tknow how I think some folks
(13:10):
believe that if they take timeto pray, that they'll have less
time to do the things that quotereally matter.
Bishop Wright (13:18):
We're afraid of time, melissa.
We're afraid of time and we'reafraid of quiet, and I don't
know how many philosophers couldwe quote here who have
articulated the fact that we'reafraid to be alone with
ourselves.
There are things that we bear,there are contradictions that we
hold that we know that we havesuppressed.
(13:40):
Um.
There are addict, there are,there are rooms in our inner, in
our inner mansion, uh, that wehave locked and chained um
because they're too scary orthey would cost too much, uh, to
address Um, and that is one ofthe reasons why we have
(14:01):
engineered our lives, the way inwhich we've engineered them.
You know, jesus is the other Cwe could say letter C would be
companionship.
I mean, jesus goes up themountain to pray.
He brings human companionship,but they fail him.
They fall asleep right,probably too bored.
(14:24):
But then, in the moment ofprayer, in this glimpse of
eternity that he gets in hisquietness with himself, elijah
and Moses show up, and so thereis this, and this will sound a
bit mystical to some people, butthere is this cosmic
companionship that is ourinheritance.
(14:46):
We are not alone In the hardestparts of our life with God, we
are not alone.
There are men and women whohave traveled this road before
us.
We are not superior spiritualathletes, and neither were they.
They were people who wereattempting to live a life of
integrity and who made mistakesand got up and kept walking, and
(15:09):
we are numbered with them inprayer, in solitude, in eternity
.
That we get that glimpse we getin prayer, time collapses and
we are gathered up with thesaints who went before us.
In the Episcopal Church.
Our service does not climaxwith the sermon, and thank God
(15:31):
and I say that even as apreacher our service climaxes
with the Eucharist.
That's communion a fancy wordfor Thanksgiving with the
Eucharist.
That's communion, fancy wordfor Thanksgiving.
And what I love about that is isthat what we believe in that
moment, when we are doing asJesus told us to do, to break
(15:53):
the bread and to drink the wineand to share it liberally with
everybody, we believe that timecollapses.
We believe that heaven andearth are gathered together in
that moment and we believe thatour strength is not only doing
the ritual and not only beingtogether, but that even heaven
is attentive to that moment andpresent in that moment.
(16:14):
And so when we look at thistext in the ninth chapter of
Luke, in this moment of prayer.
This is what happens and it'sthis cosmic companionship that
gives Jesus.
I believe that gives Jesus thecourage he needs to do what he
needs to do, because now he'slooking at people who have gone
(16:35):
before him, who also werecourageous in their day, and he
takes strength from them.
Melissa (16:42):
Bishop, one of my favorite Howard Thurman poems is
Life Goes On.
Are you familiar with that one?
Bishop Wright (16:49):
Yeah.
Melissa (16:50):
It's my favorite, but it starts out with during these
turbulent times, and so I knowwe're talking about times, but
we're also this I mean, friends,if you're not familiar with the
poem, it's definitely worthlooking up.
But he talks really about someof the stuff that we're talking
about being able to recognizewhat actual evil is and what
evil exists to do the times thatwe're in.
(17:14):
You know he talks about beingturbulent back when.
Howard Thurman, what was thislike middle of the 19th century?
Bishop Wright (17:24):
Well, you're given such a good image here you
really are.
And Howard Thurman talked aboutturbulent times.
He also talked about thetraffic of our minds, and so
when I think about that ideaturbulent times I think about
you know, we have all thesebeautiful streams and rivers in
North Georgia and you know I'vejust taken up trout fishing as a
(17:48):
hobby, and what's interestingto me is standing out in that
fast moving water because thereare rocks and places, that sort
of push back against theturbulence.
Melissa (18:01):
They create these wonderful little pools, and the
pools are unusually more quiet,right and less turbulent than
all the water rushing aroundthem, and so I think this is
what prayer is yeah, and I'mgoing to say the end of the poem
says this to drink in thebeauty that is within reach, to
(18:22):
clothe one's life with simpledeeds of kindness, to keep alive
a sensitiveness to the movementof the spirit of God, in the
quietness of the human heart andin the workings of the human
mind.
This is, as always, theultimate answer to the great
deception that's fire there,right there, bishop that that's.
Bishop Wright (18:45):
That.
That is fire, that is fire,that is fire, and I I hope what
it is is a great invitation aswe head into lent, uh, or or, if
you're not a person whopractices Lent, a great
invitation to go to thatreliable source.
Right, that is calm andstrengthening, no matter what's
(19:11):
happening around us.
Melissa (19:14):
May it be so, bishop.
Thank you and thank you,listeners, for listening to For
People.
You can follow us on Instagramand Facebook at Bishop Rob
Wright.
Please subscribe, leave areview and we'll be back with
you next week.
It was Jesus' habit to pray.
He had this wonderful rhythm ofaction and reflection, you know
, and part of that practice, youknow, part of the way to live
in rebellion, to empire right,which wants to commodify
humanity, is to make sure thatyou use time right in
(00:20):
constructive ways which affirmhuman dignity.
A part of prayer is alsounderstanding that eternity is
in every moment.
Melissa (00:40):
Welcome to Four People with Bishop Rob Wright.
I'm Melissa Rau and this is aconversation inspired by For
Faith, a weekly devotion sentout every Friday.
You can find a link to thisweek's For Faith and a link to
subscribe in the episode'sdescription.
You called For devotion thisweek Time and it's loosely based
(01:04):
off of Luke 9, verses 28 to 36,but inspired by Abraham
Heschel's the Sabbath, a book.
Now, I haven't read this book,it's actually on my to read.
I've read about the book, but Ireally appreciate the fact that
you're bringing in somethingabout Sabbath based off of and
(01:26):
this is a fancy termtransfiguration is when Jesus
went up the mountain right, andso I don't know, man, this is
kind of a big leap for me, andyet it makes so much sense.
All right, so tell me where youlanded the plane with this.
Bishop Wright (01:43):
Well, let's see.
So I don't know if I can tellyou how I land the plane, but I
can tell you where we sort of weattempted to take off right.
So you know, Luke tells us thatJesus took his friends, his
executive committee, and theywent up the mountain to pray.
It was Jesus's habit to pray.
(02:03):
He had this wonderful rhythm ofaction and reflection.
There's a sermon right thereabout, you know, what is the
balance of life?
It's action and reflection.
What is the balance of health?
It's action and reflection.
And so this was Jesus's habit,this was his practice.
Practice, you know.
(02:29):
And part of that practice, youknow, part of the way to live in
rebellion, to empire right,which wants to commodify
humanity, is to make sure thatyou use time right in
constructive, you know, wayswhich affirm human dignity.
So prayer is not just going upsomewhere or to church or
walking the dog and, you know,sort of talking about your
(02:52):
wounds and your wants with God.
That's important to do, that'spart of prayer.
But a part of prayer is alsounderstanding that eternity is
in every moment, Right.
And so a mature life with Godis to become attuned to the God
who dwells in time and not justspace, Right.
(03:20):
So this is, this is these are.
These are really Heschel'sideas that I'm sort of
paraphrasing Now.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel was agreat friend of Dr King's.
He marched with Dr King, youknow.
When asked you know, why is aJew walking with Dr King?
You know, in these protests forhuman dignity, he said I'm
praying with my feet, you know.
And so he wrote this bookcalled the Sabbath, in 1951, and
(03:43):
it is as relevant, perhaps morerelevant now than ever, given
the fact of the way that modernpeople do time and we don't have
an expansive sense of time.
What's interesting is that wedwell in space with things quite
robustly.
We have been reduced toconsumers, not just people who
(04:05):
are consumers or exercise thatpractice of being consumers, but
who have been reduced toconsumers.
We are marketed to more thanany generation ever before.
And so Heschel, in 1951, andthen, echoing down the hallways
of time to us, say now, becareful.
Even Kendrick Lamar at the SuperBowl said turn off the TV.
(04:29):
I don't know.
You know, a lot of peopledidn't understand what he was
saying, and I am among them.
I didn't understand every wordthat the fellow said, but I did
hear him say that repeatedlyTurn off the TV.
I did hear him say thatrepeatedly.
Turn off the TV and I thinkthat is what Heschel would agree
(04:49):
is maybe a starting place toturn off the social media, to
turn off things for a certaintime, to develop that discipline
so that you can be in timedifferently.
Right, I can catch up withmyself, I can catch up with God.
I can catch up with God, I canprocess adequately emotions.
And so when he's talking aboutthe Sabbath, his first point is
(05:10):
is that God dwells in time andin every moment there is
eternity.
Melissa (05:15):
Well, that's huge right there.
And when I think of time, youknow time is linear, yes, and
it's also cyclical, right.
One of the things that I loveabout the Episcopal Church is
how we honor a rhythm in ourliturgy, and one of the things
that we will honor is the seasonof Lent, and that's coming up
(05:40):
Bishop.
I think that's just next week.
Bishop Wright (05:43):
Yeah, it is Absolutely.
Melissa (05:44):
It's wild, and so I think one of the things that
strikes me about this passagespecifically is that I recently
read Bishop Marianne EdgarBuddy's book how we Learn to Be
Brave, and one of the thingsthat stood out to me was she was
talking about Jesus going upthe mountain in this verse, and
(06:07):
when Jesus comes down, he setshis face towards Jerusalem, in
that he knows that he is goingto die, and yet is resolved in
that to die, and yet is resolvedin that.
And so, bishop, when we talkabout prayer kind of being the
(06:33):
backbone, I think you saidaction and reflection, action
and reflection, you know, Ithink that's where we get our
resolve.
Bishop Wright (06:37):
No, that's exactly right, and that's
actually the last sentence ofthe meditation.
So, no, that's exactly right,and that's actually the last
sentence of the meditation.
So you know, at the moment ofprayer, jesus is up the mountain
.
You know he has just enougheternity in that moment for him
to face his destiny Right.
And so you know, what'sinteresting about action and
reflection is is that how willwe know what to action, how to
(07:00):
action?
Reflection is is that how willwe know what to action, how to
action, unless we base that onsome reflection?
And so logic dictates that ifthe reflection is better, then
the action might be better,right, or will be better, in
fact, right.
And so when we talk aboutleadership, this is what we talk
about getting up on the balconywith our organization so that
we can ask the hard questions ofmission and purpose what is our
(07:23):
why, what is our what, what isour how?
And so if we get up on thebalcony and Jesus is up on the
mountain, then we can takecounsel not only with the divine
, but with our best self.
It's amazing, when I was a veryyoung pastor, we had an evening
meeting a week.
It's.
It's amazing when I was a veryyoung pastor.
Um, you know, we had an eveningmeeting, a weekday evening
(07:46):
meeting, and I I observed thatpeople with all good intentions
were sort of racing in throughAtlanta traffic, uh, to be at
this meeting and to be punctual,et cetera, and and we were all
a bit crabby and cranky and thequality of the meeting left a
lot to be desired.
And what we did was we decidedthat at that same start time, as
(08:10):
people were rushing in, wewould have a meal, a meal would
be provided, and we got a chanceto get a meal together and to
be human before we launched intothe work.
And the quality of the meetingwent, it skyrocketed.
It was amazing.
(08:31):
People were there, people gotthere, so to speak.
I mean, their body had beenthere previously, but then
there's some better part perhapsof them that got there once.
We took care of a human need,which is to take a deep breath,
let the shoulders fall from theearlobes and get there with a
laugh and a smile and a prayerand a meal.
(08:54):
I think this is all Heschel issaying.
Heschel is saying that theheart of our existence as human
beings is time.
Time is the heart of ourexistence as human beings is
time.
Time is the heart of ourexistence and what sort of
begins to corrode life is whenwe fail to sense the grandeur of
what is eternal in time.
You talk about being refreshed.
(09:15):
It's having a glimpse of that,having access to that with some
regularity, a regular practicethat washes over us and it
begins to bring a clarity to us.
If I have any real big concernsabout young people these days,
it's about how they do time.
(09:36):
I wonder if they're everrefreshed by some of the things
I'm talking about, wonder ifthey're ever refreshed by some
of the things I'm talking about.
Now.
My hope is that they willcontinue to use nature and all
those sorts of things as ways tobe.
But as I sort of experience alot of young people the young
adults and even younger I'mworried about how they do time.
(10:00):
Heschel talks about season andthe rhythm of season, but we
have artificial seasons nowbecause whenever you have your
phone, that's a dictate of time,right?
How many characters can you geton?
An X statement or a TikTok isjust a matter of seconds, et
(10:21):
cetera.
And I wonder if Heschel isn'tright and didn't he was sort of
saw this out in the distancethat that is the beginning of
decay of our better selves.
And so how we take charge ofthis and this is why I wrote
this just before we enter intothe season of Lent is perhaps in
Lent this season, on the way toEaster, perhaps in Lent this
season on the way to Easter,maybe the biggest tweak we can
(10:43):
make this Lent is to do maybe asocial media or a media fast.
Maybe we ought to giveourselves just one hour and to
say you know, I mean, thinkabout it, the average American
watches over five hours oftelevision, and I don't even
(11:04):
know.
And then, of course, those ofus who have Apple phones.
We get a report every Sundayletting us know how much screen
time we had Right, and what ifyou gave, what?
If you tithed, you know, orgave 50% of that screen time to
your own self, to your own self,hearing your own voice, hearing
(11:24):
the voice of the divine.
Melissa (11:50):
I don't know if you've heard of Cal Newport.
He wrote a book called DigitalMinimalism and it gave me hives.
Bishop Wright (11:57):
Oh, my God.
Melissa (11:58):
Let's back up.
You know to up when we talkabout young people and their
passion, which is what Itypically will associate with
youth.
I'm concerned about capacityand you used another C word
clarity and I feel like that'swhat Jesus was able to model is
(12:23):
the act of praying gave himcapacity to be able to get clear
what needed to be done or howhe needed to be.
And one of the things that Ilove, I'm training to be a
spiritual director and I'venoticed that instead of just
starting a meeting with prayerand then launching right into it
(12:45):
, I've been trying to evenmundane meetings.
I try to do either a poem or asmall snippet to get people
centered and grounded and reallyreflecting what matters most to
them before we get to all thedoing.
I don't know, bishop, I don'tknow how I think some folks
(13:10):
believe that if they take timeto pray, that they'll have less
time to do the things that quotereally matter.
Bishop Wright (13:18):
We're afraid of time, melissa.
We're afraid of time and we'reafraid of quiet, and I don't
know how many philosophers couldwe quote here who have
articulated the fact that we'reafraid to be alone with
ourselves.
There are things that we bear,there are contradictions that we
hold that we know that we havesuppressed.
(13:40):
Um.
There are addict, there are,there are rooms in our inner, in
our inner mansion, uh, that wehave locked and chained um
because they're too scary orthey would cost too much, uh, to
address Um, and that is one ofthe reasons why we have
(14:01):
engineered our lives, the way inwhich we've engineered them.
You know, jesus is the other Cwe could say letter C would be
companionship.
I mean, jesus goes up themountain to pray.
He brings human companionship,but they fail him.
They fall asleep right,probably too bored.
(14:24):
But then, in the moment ofprayer, in this glimpse of
eternity that he gets in hisquietness with himself, elijah
and Moses show up, and so thereis this, and this will sound a
bit mystical to some people, butthere is this cosmic
companionship that is ourinheritance.
(14:46):
We are not alone In the hardestparts of our life with God, we
are not alone.
There are men and women whohave traveled this road before
us.
We are not superior spiritualathletes, and neither were they.
They were people who wereattempting to live a life of
integrity and who made mistakesand got up and kept walking, and
(15:09):
we are numbered with them inprayer, in solitude, in eternity
.
That we get that glimpse we getin prayer, time collapses and
we are gathered up with thesaints who went before us.
In the Episcopal Church.
Our service does not climaxwith the sermon, and thank God
(15:31):
and I say that even as apreacher our service climaxes
with the Eucharist.
That's communion a fancy wordfor Thanksgiving with the
Eucharist.
That's communion, fancy wordfor Thanksgiving.
And what I love about that is isthat what we believe in that
moment, when we are doing asJesus told us to do, to break
(15:53):
the bread and to drink the wineand to share it liberally with
everybody, we believe that timecollapses.
We believe that heaven andearth are gathered together in
that moment and we believe thatour strength is not only doing
the ritual and not only beingtogether, but that even heaven
is attentive to that moment andpresent in that moment.
(16:14):
And so when we look at thistext in the ninth chapter of
Luke, in this moment of prayer.
This is what happens and it'sthis cosmic companionship that
gives Jesus.
I believe that gives Jesus thecourage he needs to do what he
needs to do, because now he'slooking at people who have gone
(16:35):
before him, who also werecourageous in their day, and he
takes strength from them.
Melissa (16:42):
Bishop, one of my favorite Howard Thurman poems is
Life Goes On.
Are you familiar with that one?
Bishop Wright (16:49):
Yeah.
Melissa (16:50):
It's my favorite, but it starts out with during these
turbulent times, and so I knowwe're talking about times, but
we're also this I mean, friends,if you're not familiar with the
poem, it's definitely worthlooking up.
But he talks really about someof the stuff that we're talking
about being able to recognizewhat actual evil is and what
evil exists to do the times thatwe're in.
(17:14):
You know he talks about beingturbulent back when.
Howard Thurman, what was thislike middle of the 19th century?
Bishop Wright (17:24):
Well, you're given such a good image here you
really are.
And Howard Thurman talked aboutturbulent times.
He also talked about thetraffic of our minds, and so
when I think about that ideaturbulent times I think about
you know, we have all thesebeautiful streams and rivers in
North Georgia and you know I'vejust taken up trout fishing as a
(17:48):
hobby, and what's interestingto me is standing out in that
fast moving water because thereare rocks and places, that sort
of push back against theturbulence.
Melissa (18:01):
They create these wonderful little pools, and the
pools are unusually more quiet,right and less turbulent than
all the water rushing aroundthem, and so I think this is
what prayer is yeah, and I'mgoing to say the end of the poem
says this to drink in thebeauty that is within reach, to
(18:22):
clothe one's life with simpledeeds of kindness, to keep alive
a sensitiveness to the movementof the spirit of God, in the
quietness of the human heart andin the workings of the human
mind.
This is, as always, theultimate answer to the great
deception that's fire there,right there, bishop that that's.
Bishop Wright (18:45):
That.
That is fire, that is fire,that is fire, and I I hope what
it is is a great invitation aswe head into lent, uh, or or, if
you're not a person whopractices Lent, a great
invitation to go to thatreliable source.
Right, that is calm andstrengthening, no matter what's
(19:11):
happening around us.
Melissa (19:14):
May it be so, bishop.
Thank you and thank you,listeners, for listening to For
People.
You can follow us on Instagramand Facebook at Bishop Rob
Wright.
Please subscribe, leave areview and we'll be back with
you next week.
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