going through the motions
a ritual
make a big show
act like..but don't mean it
just use me
take this to heart...
In a quiet morning waiting time for a passage in Mark 7 to speak to me, these were the words that grabbed my attention. So I waited for the Spirit to show me more, to give some kind of thread or body to these words and bring them together into something I had never seen or heard before. The Message has titled this passage as The Source of Your Pollution and Jesus is talking to the scholars and the people who "knew everything". Once more my attention is tweaked because Jesus is again using the illustration of the ritual around a meal time! Of course that fact has me stopping, eyes wide open and taking a second, third and forth look. As a culinary minister (thanks again Wes for giving a Kingdom definition to my art!) anything to do with food and coming to the table has my attention.
So the following are the thoughts that left a trail along my path that morning:
"Going through the motions" was how they saw this ritual of preparing to eat but in this particular exchange it was all about pointing out the mistakes of others. Coming to the table is to be with grace, extravagant, abundant, scented grace so that we find the "holy ritual" of dining one of beauty. What does a critical spirit do to the heart? What does it do to the digestive system? It does affect both.In some ways ritual at a meal time brings a certain kind of honour to the occasion. The celebration of breaking bread with another, whoever it is that has come to your table, is a gift. The practice of the meal table being a place of honour, and the food holding the taste and textures and flavours of the celebration allows this moment, these participants to have come together mind, body and soul and be nurtured. Embodied prayer could be a piece of the ritual of mealtime.
Perhaps my most significant question in this passage was "how does fast food affect the heart?" If we are only "going through the motions" of living how does that affect the heart? I firmly believe these two are very connected because fast food has eliminated the ritual of sitting together, of lingering conversation and of truly tasting and enjoying your meal (conversation allows you to eat slower which aids the digestive process). Fast food is full of the worst kind of fat that clogs the arteries of your heart - "going through the motions" is void of the both the joy and pain of living and shuts down the heart. Neither of these have me in a place of being obedient to Jesus instruction to love myself as I love my neighbour.
I have been very busy lately and there is the danger of "going through the motions" just to accomplish everything. And perhaps that is why the Spirit spoke to me about how it affects the heart - life is not a "Mc D" experience to me but when I run hard somehow it can slip into that place. I love life to be the lingering coffee at an outdoor cafe where I watch my "neighbour" and learn about loving them. Living is where you sit by the window on a stormy night and savour hot soup and cradle a warm cup of tea in your hands. Ritual, grace filled holy ritual, is sitting at the table and hearing the stories of those who God-cidence placed there with me. A healthy heart comes when my mind, body and soul are connected and communicating and in motion together, dancing together.
And so an invitation from a friend to a retreat for the next few days is also an invitation from the Spirit to linger and wait with those words take this to heart. When I return I look forward to inviting some friends to my table this weekend.