| And they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:20  To suggest that we might end prayers with, “Here I am” as opposed to, “Amen,” is ludicrous. Some might say, “But that’s the way we’ve always done it!” Or ask, “What’s wrong with saying, ‘Amen?’” There is nothing wrong with, “Amen.” There is nothing terrible about tradition as long as our past patterns don’t keep us out of our present moments. Consider this deep theological question, “Have you ever wondered why the most popular time for Church worship is 11:00?” There is no commandment in scripture where God commands, “Thou shalt worship me at 11:00.” The time was set to meet the schedule of dairy farmers so they could milk the cows in the morning, go to church, and then return to the farm for the evening milking. The 11:00 worship schedule is set and followed religiously still in order to meet the scheduling needs of the dairy cow. According to Alan Watts, “The great symbols of our culture are the rocket and the bulldozer.” Each is a conqueror of space. Since we cannot go too much farther in outer space in our era, and there is little land left to explore below the stars and above the oceans, we turn back to time. We try to conquer time by transforming time into another space which we refer to as the calendar and the ‘to-do list and fill every minute with as much ‘stuff’ every day making our schedules as tightly packed as our closets and our attics. To encounter God, we are called out to a place beyond our understandings of both time and space. Here is my version of an ancient story I heard from Alan Watts, Once there was a fisherman. He cast his net into the water. After fishing for a while, he held up his net and looked through the squares and into the horizon. Off in the distance, he saw the mountain. He had been there when he was younger but found the mountain too difficult to climb. Now that he was older, there was something comforting about looking through his net at the mountain in the distance. What he could not climb, he reduced to what he could count and measure The mountain was six spaces across and four high. He took his net with him. Through the spaces, he measured and compared his hut to other huts. That night he had a disagreement with his son, he held up the net to see how many squares tall his son was. Others adopted his way of measuring and made similar grids putting space on parchment and then paper. Even time was transformed to space as days were given formal boundaries on calendars. Moments gave way to minutes and lives transformed to lists. In the midst of this objectifying of time and space walked a rabbi. He approached the shore and some fishermen casting their nets into the sea. “Follow me,” he called. They did. He had one initial requirement. They had to leave their nets behind. What are your nets? Spaces you use to gain control of your life unaware they can become barriers to the call of God. The Moment and other books by David W. Jones are available for free at Macland Presbyterian or for a small fee on Amazon. amazon.com/author/dwjones Previous Moment Practices can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/welcometothemomentCopyright © 2020 Macland Presbyterian Church, All rights reserved. News from Macland Presbyterian Church Our mailing address is: Macland Presbyterian Church3615 Macland RoadPowder Springs, GA 30127 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. |
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