Tuesday, December 22, 2015

 Isaiah 53: 1-6

The controversy over the reading from Isaiah is one of perspective. Jewish scholars relate the speech of the “Suffering Servant” to the Nation of Israel, while Christian scholars hear the premonition of a suffering Christ. The beauty of scripture is that despite the factual context and timeline of the voices, they reveal and speak to core issues of humanity. The teaching moment comes when we identify the core issue and then ask ourselves can I relate to this from experience, is it relevant in our current culture or our global ethic? Undoubtedly, disenfranchisement, oppression, and suffering remain perennial human issues, timeless in their impact on many each day of their lives. One common thread of these issues is boundaries; walls of fear, hatred, and ignorance erected in one heart against another, in one culture against another, in one country against another. The boundaries once erected then need to be defended; the result is suffering on both sides.

Sufi mystic Rumi once wrote, “Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” This vast field of possibility, a meeting place of peace, begins in your heart then expands ever wider with each relationship you are willing to participate in on equal ground. We can all meet on that vast field, with hearts committed to openness, until our world becomes a place of an ever-expanding consciousness of peace. It all starts with you.

Kathryn Tulip