January 20, 2013

Alison Morgan

Epiphany 2     John 2:1-11

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

Good Morning, I’m Alison and I have been invited to say something of my spiritual journey and something about what’s important to me about my faith.

One of the key things for me on my spiritual journey and about faith, what I think is important, is being open to God. That’s central for me. For me God is present now. Being open to God is about awareness during my day, and it’s something I work at.

From this open stance, I try to determine what is from God and what is from my own smaller self. It’s not always easy but some of the clues are that what is from God is expansive, creative, generous, compassionate and caring and what is from my own smaller self tends to be associated with fear, limiting, static and very often self-involved.

In being alert to that smaller egoic part of me, [because it doesn’t go away], I am able me to work at reducing the impact of my ego on the world, in the way I live and the way I am with other people.

In opening to God there comes from this deeper part of myself a desire to try to say yes to what seems right and to what’s loving in what I do and how I am, how I act; to say yes to what seems to be of God. And for me it’s not that precise; I can’t always see what’s right. Mostly it’s living in a place of not knowing for sure and being open to getting it wrong. In that state of being ‘open’ and stepping towards what’s right, sometimes I catch a glimpse of the divine in my day. What’s that you ask? That’s hard to articulate. The danger of trying to describe it is that I might limit it, but let me try. For me it’s a sort of sense of profound peace, of deep compassion, of real love.

So what about the Bible and Jesus then? For me the Bible stories point to God and Jesus to a way of living, and that’s not precise either. Today’s story of Jesus at the Wedding in Cana is full of all sorts of symbolism but the piece I want to focus on is a bit at the beginning because it points to some of what I think is important: listening to God in others, listening to God within myself and then trying to move forward on my own spiritual path.

In the story of the Wedding in Cana, Mary tells Jesus about a problem: They are running short of wine. Later Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus says. Jesus is a man to be listened to.

It seems to me this says something about the importance of listening to others, that sometimes they can see more than we can ourselves. I find friends often see things in me I don’t see myself. I think we are connected and when we are with others and listen to that depth inside us we see the God between and that’s a powerful thing I think.

Mary sees the potential in Jesus but he hesitates. John records Jesus responding to Mary with: What’s it got to do with me? It’s not my hour: one of the things about saying ‘it’s not my hour’ is that it points to Jesus listening to the Divine, what people in those days saw as a divine plan.

So it’s ok to pause, like Jesus did. To think more deeply about what the right and appropriate action is. The thing is to take what others are saying and then listen to my own those inner depths and look for the connection; I think that’s what counts, and try to see the way from there.

And then to take action. When Mary told Jesus that there was no more wine, Jesus had two options: he could do nothing or he could do something. We make choices in life whether to act, to move towards what seems right, or not. And really at that point Jesus could have just let the whole thing go. Done nothing.

When I relate this to my working life I try to determine the right thing to do for a living. It’s changed over the years and for a quite a while now I have worked on projects in the health sector, mostly project managing change. In my work I’ve tried to listen to others, be responsive to the need and to do what’s right. And in project work there is often some time between jobs and in these gaps I question, wondering: what’s the right thing to do next? I ask my friends and I look inward and then move on to the next thing on my path.

In one of my gaps between projects, I decided to train as a counsellor and practised this alongside my project work. More recently, after quite a bit of deep thinking and listening to that inner sense, (God within) and to others, it seemed that the next thing might be Chaplaincy work.

So last year I did the Clinical Pastoral Education training to test that idea of Chaplaincy. It’s essentially a practical training and I chose to be based at Selwyn Village: it’s a place in Pt Chev. where retired people live; some of whom need help and are in a rest home or hospital.

I was able to use my counselling skills to listen to people’s difficulties in growing old and their life stories; to hear their wisdom. In talking about what meant something to them, I think they saw something of the God within themselves and in each other. God’s love was there. And listening to my inner sense, it seemed right for me to be there.

So, the wedding at Cana: it shows that I should listen for the God connection in others and listen to the God within me. It shows me that I need to try and determine my own spiritual path and move in that direction, even when I don’t quite know where I’m going or where I might end up. And be open to God; look out for the glimpses of God in my life. Because God’s love is there. God’s love is here.