Go Deeper

“Go deeper”, said my friend’s spiritual director when her life was falling apart and no obvious way forward could be seen. And that seems to be the theme of this week’s very hard texts! (Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. Proper 22 (27) Lamentations 1:1-6 and 3:19-26; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; and Luke17:5-10.)

Please feel free to read what I wrote three years ago on these texts.

A spirit of power, love and self discipline

Many years ago a friend was describing a desperately sad and stuck period of her life when everything she thought was a given had been taken away from her. She did not know how she was going to get through much less make a new life. Her spiritual director, knowing her to be a person on a long term journey said to my friend: “Go deeper.” And somehow that advise helped my friend gird her loins, summon her guardian angels, take a deep breath and go deeper into the pain, the task, the journey – rather than trying to ease the pain, avoid the work and give up on her life. It is a story I have often reflected upon for myself. Maybe there is something in this little story for us all at this time.

The two portions of Lamentations, side by side, remind us that it is necessary and even holy, to cry out and name our pain, fear, and confusion! It is part of deep true faith that we need not pretend to be more confident or advanced than we are. Rather it is in giving lament, going deep into the pain and fear, that we find or recover our hope by remembering how faithful and sustaining the divine has been in the past! This is often true in individual moments of pain and suffering but is also important as a people! The chosen people of God still had reason to lament and mourn the troubles of the day and of their own people.

Lamenting is important, not only for the relief of self expression, but because in lamenting to God we are engaging with the One most able to comfort, encourage, and rekindle the gift in us. In lamenting together we break down the myth of isolation and lessen our suffering and increase the bonds that can build us up again and remind us of the strength and gifts we have when combined. And lamenting together reminds us that what we are suffering is not normal or to be tolerated but to be resisted and restored from!

And in similar fashion the rather “harsh” response of Jesus to the disciple’s plea to “Increase our faith” can be heard as a challenge to go deeper into the heart of the work of being a follower, a servant, a companion on the way of Jesus. On this occasion Jesus does not offer consolation or gentle words of encouragement but very provocative and direct words of ‘you know what you should be doing so go do your work and find your satisfaction in knowing you are doing what you are here to do’!

Now context is everything! The disciples asked for more faith in response to the teaching about not stumbling and forgiving others, suggesting that this was such a challenging expectation that they could not do that without a good deal more faith than they already felt they had! And the very verse afterward (17:11) starts “On the way to Jerusalem ...” The showdown is coming closer and Jesus seems to be getting desperately concerned the disciples are not up to the challenge ahead so he seems to be ‘pulling all the stops out’ and giving very direct instructions. In the light of the events that await the disciples the teaching of Jesus is not so much harsh as urgent and intended to strengthen them and prepare them for a time when he will not be by their side in this physical sense.

So what does “going deeper” mean in our various circumstances? I think lament is part of our wisdom and strength – to gather as people of God and lament the state of our creation; the politics of division and diversion; the fear of one another and difference; the cruel inequity of the fruits of creation for all of God’s beloveds; and the personal losses and struggles that are common to many. To lament, especially together, does mean going deeper into what hurts and saddens us but in a way that takes us into the presence of the One who heals and restores and binds us together so that we are not isolated and unseen.

And many of us who feel weighed down and disheartened at this time are very mature people of faith and ‘know’ what is required - even if wearied at the mere thought of more prayer, protest and putting our bodies on the line! The stern words of Jesus can be heard as those of the coach who has ultimate confidence in our ability to play through what is hard or the midwife who knows that the hardest time is transition from the first stage of labour to the hard work of birthing. So let us be encouraged and challenged, heartened and rekindled, gathered together for the work of the people of God.

Even so, come Lord Jesus the Christ, come gather us up and help us go deeper, higher, more purposefully forward in the name of the God of hope and love. 

This is my work based on all that I have heard, read and experienced. I am indebted to the wisdom of others.