A Gift This Day

I was at the National Arts Centre for the Saturday matinée of Happy Days, a play written by Samuel Beckett. It was an interesting play: essentially a monologue, it began with the main character Winnie being submerged up to her waist in a huge mound of sand (scorched earth, rather) - the entire stage was covered with piles of the earth. She went about her day, painfully optimistic about everything regardless how pathetic it all seemed to the audience. Repeatedly ignored by her husband, who mostly appeared to us as a gruff voice, she went about her daily activities with much effort whilst turning back and around from the spot where she was confined - trying to see her husband. The sand was a metaphor for the rut she could not extricate herself from - life weighing her down and caging her in.

By the start of Act II, Winnie was submerged up to her neck in the mound of sand (don't ask me what they did during the intermission!), and what we saw looked like a talking head lying on the beach (quite gross). In the climax, as her incessant self-chatter caused her husband to go over the edge, he ran out from the back of the mound, clumsily clawed his way up the earth, and attempted to reach for a pistol that was near Winnie's head, to shoot her. He slipped and failed, but Winnie, ever the optimist, chose to believe he had wanted to touch her face.

It was sadly funny, but it was also a serious reminder: we must be careful about what we surround ourselves with, or we risk being buried in and by pressures and expectations. Today's message in church presented the same motif by asking a simple question: how are we walking?

Rev. Murray observed that often, when we think about walking in humility, we consider it to be a lowliness of mind, a sense of unworthiness due to imperfection. But the word 'humility' comes from the root word Humus, so perhaps a better description of 'humility' is 'rootedness' or 'being down to earth'. For the Christian, walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8) means being comfortable in God's presence - knowing who He is and who we are. We are intentional about how we live each day. Our faith is a critical part of our decision making process - we live out our deepest convictions about who we are as children of God by the choices we make. In big or small activities, we allow the light of grace to shine through us.

I have thus far understood "living by faith" to mean not knowing for sure, yet believing for certain. Today's message made me realise that it also refers to how I live out my convictions and beliefs - my daily practices, as it were. Rev. Murray shared the story of how a group of Christian Education specialists discussed if there were alternative ways to teach the Christian faith. This led them to talk about daily Christian practices common across denominations, and this description:

"Christian practices are not activities we do to make something spiritual happen in our lives. Nor are they duties we undertake to be obedient to God. Rather, they are patterns of communal action, that create openings in our lives where the grace, mercy and presence of God may be made known to us. They are places where the power of God is experienced. In the end, these are not ultimately our practices, but forms of participation in the practice of God." - Craig Dykstra

In the end the group settled on these practices which have the power to shape our lives and give meaning to our faith: worship; bible study; prayer; honouring the body; hospitality; household economics; saying yes and no; keeping the Sabbath; giving our testimony of faith; discernment; building up our communities; forgiveness; healing; dying well; and singing our faith. When we do them intentionally in the context of our faith, these are practices where we can meet God. Each of them carries a deep meaning which reveals something about the character of God.

A renewed focus on being intentional about the daily practice of faith - "living by faith" - gets us out of our heads, and reconnected with our bodies, souls and hearts. The Christian faith is not a doctrine that we are asked to simply agree with and adhere by; it is a new life we are invited to live every day, a gift offered to us this day.

(Celebrating September birthday babies in DCUC's Woodside Hall this morning)