“The sky does it simply, naturally
day by day by day.
The sun does it joyfully,
like someone in love,
like a runner on the starting line.
The sky, the sun,
they just can’t help themselves.
No loud voices, no grand speeches,
but everyone sees, and is happy for them.
Make us like that, Lord,
so that our faith is not in our words but in our lives,
not in what we say but in who we are,
passing on your love like an infectious laugh:
not worried, not threatening, just shining
like the sun, like a starry night,
like a lamp on a stand,
light for life-
your light for our lives.”
~ Kathy Galloway, the Iona Community

I was awakened quite early this morning, and quite literally, by the sun. It has been so overcast these last few days that, when I went to sleep last night, it never occurred to me to close the drapes that covered the windows of my hotel room. It also never occurred to me that those windows were facing east. While I am normally an early riser, this wake up call was more brilliant than I had anticipated. The bright sphere of the sun reminded me of a Georgia O’Keefe painting as it created an enormous yellow-orange circle with shoots of light forming a cross heading up, down, left and right.

Not long after being jarred awake by this powerful light, I read this poem/prayer in a book I had carried with me to the Minnesota Annual Conference. This gathering of United Methodists from around the state is a yearly event in which we come together to remember who we are as the vast diversity that can be this beloved church. Unlike some other denominations, we can paint a wider swath of theological perspectives and ways of seeing and articulating our faith. This has, as you might imagine,both gifts and challenges. Our yearly gathering brings out the fullness of this diversity. We can often rise to our best selves even in that diversity. And we can often fall far short of it. My prayer for this week is that we will be more of the former.

Knowing and being our true selves, which is what I believe Kathy Galloway is pointing toward, is difficult and often risky business. Our culture leans toward human conformity. Our churches have followed that lead. We have not only created creeds we ‘must’ say to fit in,to be a part, we have also fought wars and committed murder in this pursuit. Our schools create tests and curriculum to try to ‘normalize’ behavior and the product of our education. It can make the work of knowing oneself, of being true to any inner voice we hear that might rub against those norms, very difficult, even dangerous to follow.

How is it that we let the light of the Spirit shine through our lives? Certainly how that light shines through my life will be quite different than the way it does through my child’s or my neighbor’s or yours, don’t you think? And what of the person whose life has been laced with experiences so drastically foreign to my own life and yours, experiences that may have imprinted deep wounds we have never known? How could we possibly speak of our faith in similar ways? Holding gently the fullness of these faith experiences is, and should be,the holy work of any church.

In the end, this diversity is the gift of Creation and a Beloved Creator. I do not have to try to be the Sun or a star. Thank heavens! My life’s work, and yours, is to be the fullest expression of the image of God within each us. It will not mean blazing through windows to awaken people from sleep. But it will mean allowing the light of the Spirit to shine boldly through us in a myriad of diverse ways. It will often be messy and chaotic.

But if we are true to ourselves and the God within each of us, it will, I believe, create something beautiful.