Since Mike and I recently celebrated a wedding anniversary I have lately been in the frame of mind to reflect on marriage and relationships in general. If I have learned anything in the last twenty-seven years of being part of an established couple, I have witnessed the mystery of the whole being more than the sum of its parts.
A favorite poem of mine,one by John Ciardi, comes to mind:
Most Like an Arch This Marriage
Most like an arch- an entrance which upholds
and shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.
Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.
Most like an arch- two weaknesses that lean
into a strength. Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyanes become a term
naming fact that teaches fact to mean.
Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,
what's strong and separate falters. All I do
at piling stone on stone apart from you
is roofless around nothing. 'Till we kiss
I am no more than upright and unset.
It is by falling in and in we make
the all-bearing point, for one another's sake,
in faultless failing, raised by our own weight.
It seems to me this poem is about more than just a relationship between two people.
When I think about our life as a church, as a community, I realize how this so readily applies. We are so much less when we insist on standing on our own, and so much more when we lean together, sharing our concerns, our weaknesses, our doubts, our humanity.
It's only then that we become a structure that forms a doorway to something holy and beautiful. This is, I believe, is how God has planned it.
My hope for the transformation process at Aldersgate is that we all learn to "lean together", to share our strengthes, our burdens, our joys, our gifts, and all that we have to offer each other to become a community that is bringing the Kingdom of God to a world that so sorely needs it.
No comments:
Post a Comment