Returning and rest - 1 July 2011

In returning and rest will you be saved,
In quietness and trust will be your strength. [Isaiah 30:15]

This word “returning” cropped up last week when there was a comment about the simplicity of returning to the mantra when we realise we have become distracted. In fact “return” is the little Hebrew word “shub”, which turns out to be of very serious importance in the Bible. This little Hebrew verb means simply to go back to where you belong. It’s not a religious word -- it was simply part of the language. And it is exactly the meaning in Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son, when the son, destitute in the far country decides, “I will go back to my father...” In the Hebrew scriptures, not only persons but cities and nations can choose to return to where they should be.

It is the Hebrew verb to repent. Amazingly there are passages where we find even God can “repent” -- the same Hebrew word -- even God chooses to return to the relationship of love and mercy. Repentance is not primarily feeling sorry, ashamed, guilt-laden, gutted, or any such thing -- and we should not judge anyone’s repentance by those criteria. Repentance is going back, however you feel. So it is a little awesome to consider that, with all the activism and anxiety of the church, the meetings, the planning, the work that goes on, the kernel of it all may actually be not in that, but in returning and rest, quietness and trust.

I remember once talking with a Benedictine nun who had come to a retreat to recover from her many tasks including studying for a doctorate. She said, “You know, we really don’t have anything, do we. The mantra is all we have.” Not only do we return, but we return empty-handed. This is what the mantra signifies. We return with considerable relief. Contemplative people typically refer to what they call the poverty of the mantra. Blessed are you poor, said Jesus, yours is the kingdom of God.

Well, it is a lovely list of four words: returning and rest, quietness and trust. And all of it is counter to the normal rhythms of our lives. The mantra we say is a kind of song of return. And at other times, when we have to be far away from meditation, the mantra may come back into our consciousness as a steadying resonance, a reminder that all our busyness, however worthy, may not be our true self. The self God sees and knows and loves is better than that -- just as Jesus, while grateful of course for Martha’s care and work, said nevertheless that Mary had chosen the better way.