Standing Together – and Resting in God
/This Sunday we stand on a battlefield with Moses and his companions, and while I don’t condone the violence of this story, what touches me is the reason the Israelites are successful against their opponents. Whenever Moses raises his staff, the Israelites triumph, but when he lowers his arms, his opponents prevail. Moses must keep his arms up, but he grows tired and can’t sustain this posture, so his companions help him to bear the burden. Standing on either side of him, they help him to hold his staff high, and his people persevere.
What an image of leadership and companionship and community too. The people look to Moses to hold them steady, to guide them through this conflict. Moses is there for and with his people. He’s visible and transparent. Every time they’re afraid or discouraged or exhausted, they can look up and see him standing there with his arms raised and the staff of God hoisted high. But he’s not alone. He shows his vulnerability, his weakness even. He needs help, and his companions stand with him, supporting him and supporting the people.
Maybe I see it through this lens because I’ve had a very full autumn, and I feel like I’m carrying a lot, and my arms are tired. The thought of a couple of people standing with me and helping me to hold what I’m carrying sounds pretty nice. Also, I’ve had times when I’ve had extra energy or strength and had the opportunity to stand with someone struggling to carry something. That’s a very graced moment.
I feel like these days there is a lot of that world-weariness going around. I certainly feel it, and I hear that weariness in other people in conversations and social media. I see it on people’s faces and in their postures. We especially need each other right now. Finding someone with enough vigor to help us carry what we’re carrying may be hard to come by when so many of us feel so tired! However, my hope is that if we stand close enough together, our combined strength will continue to hold what we need to hold.
And then there’s prayer. I don’t know about you, but when I feel world-weary, I don’t always have the energy to pray well. And yet, spiritual practice is probably the thing that will be a balm to heal world-weariness. It’s a vicious cycle, isn’t it? If I keep running on the hamster wheel, I will never get rested, but there’s always the pressure to run on the hamster wheel, and sometimes I give in to the pressure to keep running instead of getting off the wheel and sitting in stillness.
As I look at our Gospel Reading, I think Jesus has something to say about prayer. I’ve often thought this was a weird story because it seems like Jesus is comparing God to a cold-hearted judge, and that doesn’t sound right. We’re told that this judge doesn’t care about God or people, but there’s a widow who comes over and over to pressure him to give a verdict against her adversary. Because of her persistence, he finally delivers justice to her. When I look at this now, I think Jesus is actually saying that God is not like this judge. He says, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of God’s chosen ones who call out day and night? Will God be slow to answer them?” The dishonest judge only responds because he’s bothered to the point of irritation, and he wants the annoying thing to go away. However, God is never bothered by us. God cares about us deeply, and so God is never slow to answer but always present.
God is not like this judge. It makes sense. However, what if I’m not like this widow? She has a tenacity that I respect and appreciate. She perseveres and pushes till she gets what she needs. What if I don’t have that in me right now? Because the thing is, at this moment, I don’t have the energy to push like this, even in my prayer. I want to be able to persist in bringing about the kingdom of God and advocating for the poor and vulnerable, but what if at this moment I can’t persist in that because I can’t persist in prayer? Asking for a friend, of course.
As I soul-search in this moment, recollecting everything I know and experience about God and trusting that however I come before God is not only acceptable in God‘s sight but welcome, I know it’s okay to be as I am. I don’t think God has the expectation that my prayer is a hamster wheel to run on. And if I don’t have the energy to be a squeaky wheel before God, that’s alright.
You know, there are as many ways to pray there are people, and the kind of prayer where we just simply sit before God in love and stillness and presence is a valid and helpful form of prayer. That’s the space I’m in now – sitting before God with no expectations and also receiving no expectations from God. In this contemplative space, I don’t need to hold my arms up at all. I can rest them. I can rest my whole self. I don’t need to carry anything. I don’t need to speak. I don’t need to think, but if thoughts come, I can let them.
Moses’s context is a battlefield, and maybe in this contentious climate of the United States (and maybe the world), that might feel like an apt metaphor. I don’t love the image of warfare, but there are issues and people worth fighting for – not with violence, of course, but with our advocacy and voices and marches and direct care. In order to do that, though, maybe you, like me, need to find a space to rest before God. At other times we stand together and carry what we need to carry and hold each other up, but for some moments, maybe we can lay down before God and rest. Our God, who doesn’t need to be pestered to listen, is here.
I’ll close with these beautifully reassuring words from our Psalm 121:
For Reflection:
What is the space that you find yourself in now? What are you carrying? Is there anyone carrying it with you?
Have you ever supported someone else as they carried heavy burdens? What was that like?
And maybe you could take some time to just be with God. Maybe to talk all this over with God, or maybe you simple sit and enjoy each other’s good company.
By Sister Leslie Keener, CDP
Leslie is the director of God Space, a community-building spirituality ministry in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. She’s a Sister of Divine Providence with a Masters in Ministry and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction and Retreats from Creighton University. She directs retreats, meets with people for spiritual direction, and serves as the vocation director for her community. She enjoys music, dancing, and spicy food.