As we move through the years of our lives we quite naturally do a certain amount of “finding” ourselves so to speak. I am finding personally that the “finding” of “myself” has less and less to do with what is “out there.” There seems to be more things “in here.” I don’t mean by “out there” necessarily the world itself and “other” people. The “out there” that I am speaking about is more of an approach to life that involves a pursuit of that which “strokes,” increases, and validates my ego. It’s a relationship of me striving to bring everything about me into servitude. What serves me best! Oh the other hand, the “in here” does not reflect an inward self-seeking project so much so as an approach to life that sees deeper… into everyone and everything, which simultaneously means seeing deeper into my true self. This has everything to do with GOD!
Part of this “out there”-ness that we engage in from an ego-stance is the “foreigner,” the different one, the different thing, the different place – anything or anyone at all that we don’t immediately “get” or understand, and unfortunately tend to reject, cast aside, consider unimportant, and sometimes vilify and kill! We “gather in” all the familiarity in our lives, and tend to “scatter” everything and everyone that is not familiar. Isaiah (IS 56: 1-3A, 6-8) seems to be hinting to this far-reaching inclusivity when he tells us….
“For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel: Others will I gather to him besides those already gathered.”
“Others will I gather to him (sic) besides those already gathered,” says the Lord God. This is the “never enough”-ness that is not the empty longing of an insatiable ego, but rather the ever-reaching inclusivity that gathers and gathers in more and more – an abundance of inclusivity that is truly extra-ordinary! And the more that we participate in this gathering, the closer we are to God, because God is precisely this LOVING GATHERING of ALL!.
What if God really is already that close to us? If God is relationship in its most authentic capacity, i.e., an infinite “gathering” of everything and everyone that seems to be too different or diverse to bring into communion, then our closeness to God is right in front of us and all around us all the time. We can encounter God amidst the “out there”-ness that seems to permeate our world, by participating in this “gathering” that goes far beyond just “those already gathered.”
We mistakenly think that if we include someone else, then something is “lessened” or taken away from us. This is an infringement complex that we mentally buy into. We fail to realize that God’s abundance is one which, as the great Hindu Scriptures, the Upanishads, tell us…”From abundance he [sic] took abundance, and abundance still remains.” It’s a gathering abundance that carries everyone and everything along. Nothing is lessened, no one is deprived. Abundance remains in the gathering and in fact becomes even more abundant.
This is like the yeast in the dough from the familiar parable in the Scriptures. We fail to realize that we really do “leaven” each other by authentically relating to each other. But this leaven is not just for one, but for all. It spreads throughout the entire dough. It cannot be contained in only one part. This is how the “gathering in” grows everyone, without making one more important than another.
Jesus seems to be saying this very thing in the Gospel (JN 5:33-36)…
“John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John’s…
these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.”
Jesus is not undermining John the Baptist and the important role that he plays in the “kingdom of God,” so much as making sure that we don’ t miss the big picture. The mission of Jesus was intimately tied to God, Who “sent” Jesus. The “works” of “gathering that Jesus is doing in his life, death and resurrection, are precisely the work of God’s Love in all of our lives. Jesus is gathering us into this mission of being “sent.” One person cannot gather alone. We are sent together to gather!
As we move through Advent, and draw closer to Christmas, I am mindful of the diversity in the Nativity “gathering” – a simple stable, hay, animals, the disenfranchised shepherds, the magnificent wisdom seekers, a poor family, and a birth. May we begin to see more clearly how abundance grows in such simple gatherings and that God is Love gathering us All in!
Peace
Thomas
“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the earth.” – RUMI