{"id":2789,"date":"2013-10-05T03:17:18","date_gmt":"2013-10-05T07:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/?p=2789"},"modified":"2013-10-05T03:17:18","modified_gmt":"2013-10-05T07:17:18","slug":"how-does-the-creature-say-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/how-does-the-creature-say-thanks\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does the Creature Say Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Sparrow\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

God of the sparrow<\/em><\/p>\n

God of the whale<\/em><\/p>\n

God of the swirling stars<\/em><\/p>\n

How does the creature say Awe<\/em><\/p>\n

How does the creature say Praise<\/em><\/p>\n

God of the rainbow<\/em><\/p>\n

God of the cross<\/em><\/p>\n

God of the empty grave<\/em><\/p>\n

How does the creature say Grace<\/em><\/p>\n

How does the creature say Thanks<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Jaroslav Vajda\u2019s hymn, from which these words come, is\u00a0loved for\u00a0its inclusion of the creatures of earth and heaven in the spiritual life we humans share.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And he raises in these verses\u00a0the question Jesus raised: when, and why, do we say Thanks<\/em>?\u00a0 What is the grace that is in us, or is absent from us, when mercy touches us?<\/p>\n

Luke tells the story of ten lepers who\u00a0beseech Jesus for mercy, mercy<\/em>, keeping their distance, as by law they must.\u00a0 They are objects of fear and loathing.\u00a0 Not just their health, but their homes, their lives, friends, work, family, are gone because of this sickness that has grasped them.\"St<\/p>\n

Jesus says, Go and show yourselves to\u00a0a priest<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0(Who has the power to pronounce them clean.)\u00a0 They walk on.\u00a0 As they walk, they realize they are healed.\u00a0 One turns back to give praise and say thanks.\u00a0 The others keep on going.<\/p>\n

Jesus asks the question:\u00a0 why do nine rush away without giving thanks, and why is this foreigner the only one who does?<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0And, to that one who came back, he says:\u00a0 Your faith has made you well.<\/em><\/p>\n

So Jesus makes a distinction between being healed and being well.\u00a0 And between being healed and having faith.\u00a0 He also distinguishes between this foreigner, who is outside the church<\/em>,\u00a0and the nine who are\u00a0of the faith<\/em>.\u00a0 And perhaps the answer to his question can be found within these distinctions.<\/p>\n

The curse of leprosy has made the ten a community, joined in suffering and misfortune.\u00a0 They need one another.\u00a0 And because of their misfortune they\u00a0have\u00a0no others.\u00a0 Their prayer is a single voice with many echoes.\u00a0 Mercy!\u00a0 <\/em>But healing will divide them, for it means different things to them.\u00a0 The mercy they long for is not just the restoration of their flesh, but restoration of their lives.\u00a0 They long to go home.\u00a0 And the steps that will take them there include the pronouncement of the priest that they are clean.\u00a0 Their joy is unreal without that.\u00a0 And so they rush onward, running away from their prayer to the next desired thing.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0joy will alwa\"Pentecostys elude them, for they only believe their healing when others believe it, they seek its confirmation\u00a0from others, and so they will be forever subject to the joy-snatching\u00a0comments Anne Lamott calls \u2018drive-by shootings of the mouth\u2019:\u00a0 Hey, aren\u2019t you the guy who had leprosy<\/em>?<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll be held at arms\u2019 length by some, maybe even by some in the family.\u00a0 Recovering alcoholics, clean addicts, ex-cons, the disabled, all know about this kind of life.\u00a0 You can go home, but belonging at home is something else, when in someone else\u2019s opinion you are still unclean, still unacceptable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And that seems to be where Jesus brought wellness in.\u00a0\u00a0Giving thanks\u00a0is the beginning, because thanks is an act of accepting yourself as the be-gifted, the be-loved.<\/p>\n

Thank you notes are such perfunctory cultural acts, nice to get, even nice to write,\u00a0but more often ritual than blessing.\u00a0\u00a0Years ago my little niece, then eight, wrote after Christmas, with her habitual enthusiasm, \u201cThank you for the candles, we really<\/span> needed them.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 She underlined really twice, and put stars over it.\u00a0 She made me laugh, and so I kept her note around, but then, when she died suddenly a few months later, I read it over and over in tears, and ever since it has\u00a0held her voice, her\u00a0child\u2019s spirit of joy, her infectious enthusiasm for the possibilities in gifts given.\u00a0 I give thanks for the words that keep her alive in my heart.<\/p>\n

\"sparrows\"<\/a>Communities of shared loss:\u00a0 parents who have lost a child; recovering addicts; cancer survivors;\u00a0Parkinson\u2019s sufferers; refugees: like the ten lepers, share a single prayer.\u00a0 Those who belong to them are forever changed by\u00a0these communities.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The memory of misery, its taste, feel, sorrow and grief, are ever part of those who heal, part of the survivors who love them, too.\u00a0 In the community of misery, they are home, even if not healed.<\/p>\n

The one healed leper who could never belong in\u00a0Israel because of being foreign, knew this.\u00a0\u00a0He understood that\u00a0his home was now with the man who understood his misery\u00a0in grace,\u00a0who heard his prayer.\u00a0 The unkindness of\u00a0the world\u00a0cannot touch him, for he is not seeking a return to life before leprosy.\u00a0 He is walking forward into the unknown world of wellness, where what is foreign is no longer of importance, nor is what has been unclean, nor are there distinctions between the spirits of the living and the dead.<\/p>\n

\"Places<\/a>There is an old movie,\u00a0Places in the\u00a0Heart<\/em><\/strong>, a tale of depression era life in the\u00a0American south.\u00a0 Murders, lynchings, and betrayals occur in it, and the bond between a white woman and a black man save\u00a0a family.\u00a0\u00a0But they are eventually torn apart by racial\u00a0bigots.\u00a0 The final scene takes place in a small country church, where communion\u00a0is being\u00a0passed among the pews.\u00a0 The dead are there,\u00a0sharing pews and bread and wine with the living, shooter and shot, betrayer and betrayed, husband and cuckold, bigot and black man.\u00a0\u00a0 It is\u00a0a sacrament of surpassing joy.\u00a0 A thanks-giving to remember.\u00a0 An amazing grace.<\/p>\n

\"St.<\/a>Saint Francis of Assisi, whose Feast was celebrated by the blessing of animals in many churches\u00a0last week, understood himself as one who had received mercy, and because of it, become unable to distinguish himself from those who lived in misery.\u00a0 His prayer, which has been on the lips of millions, asks for these mercies:<\/p>\n

w<\/em>here there is hatred, let me sow love;<\/i><\/p>\n

where there is injury, pardon;<\/i><\/p>\n

where there is error, truth;<\/i><\/p>\n

where there is doubt, faith;<\/i><\/p>\n

where there is despair, hope;<\/i><\/p>\n

where there is darkness, light;<\/i><\/p>\n

and where there is sadness, joy.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Such are the works of faith, and they make the world well.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

Illustrations:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Sparrow<\/strong>. \u00a0Sole image on Google is the TAT Forum, Spiritual Foundation site, tatfoundation.org, where it is used without attribution.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 St. Francis and the Birds<\/strong><\/em>. Clip Art, used by Scott Breslin on his blog, scottbreslin.org<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Beaten Man<\/strong>.\u00a0 <\/em>Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam, Netherlands Unknown artist.\u00a01537 \u00a0Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands. Image from Wikipedia page for Centraal Museum.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0The Grieving Sparrow.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 Google Images.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Places in the Heart.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Freeze frame image.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 St. Francis Preaches to the Birds <\/strong><\/em>clip art, unidentifiable except for its presence on a small number of blogs.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God of the sparrow God of the whale God of the swirling stars How does the creature say Awe How does the creature say Praise God of the rainbow God of the cross God of the empty grave How does the creature say Grace How does the creature say Thanks Jaroslav Vajda\u2019s hymn, from which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2483,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bites"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Does the Creature Say Thanks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"God of the sparrow God of the whale God of the swirling stars How does the creature say Awe How does the creature say Praise God of the rainbow God of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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