Why do I help support Lyndale with my resources and talents? The question is a good one, especially since, as Jesus vividly points out, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Lk 12:34)
In response, I’d like to recite for us a poem that we read in our Pentecost Sunday worship service. From my perspective, the sentiment of this verse springs out beyond the Pentecost framework. Indeed, it bespeaks my ongoing experience of this, our, Lyndale & SpringHouse communities. And, perhaps, your experience, too.
When We Breath Together
This is the blessing
We cannot speak
By ourselves.
This is the blessing
We cannot summon
By our own devices,
Cannot shape
To our own purposes,
Cannot bend to our own will.
This is the blessing
that comes
when we leave behind
our aloneness,
when we gather
together,
when we turn toward one another.
This is the blessing
that blazes among us
when we speak
the words
strange to our ears,
when we finally listen
into the chaos,
when we breathe together
at last.
As poet Jan Richardson observes, there is a blessing that can be encountered only in the context of a faithful community. Together we may participate in the bestowal of this special blessing. On our own, none of us can ever come to know it.
I support Lyndale because together we can and do encounter this nameless experience of the holy— in sharing and wrestling with divergent perspectives in lectionary study or adult education, in preparing a meal at the Simpson Homeless shelter, in marching in solidarity for immigrant and worker justice, in supporting each other through troubling life experiences, and in listening for the holy together in the silence of worship. I support SpringHouse too, because the three congregations can and do encounter this nameless experience–not always, to be sure–but sometimes, and that is the breath that sustains me.
This is why I give.
.
Recent Comments