+ Hildegard, 1098-1179 A.D.
During this weekend of (extra) ordinary time in the summer month of August, I get to preach on Hebrews 12:1-2 with Emmaus City Church and Avery Street Church. The title of the message is "Let Us Run (Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus)" focused and how the "Us" includes the great cloud of witnesses who are the communion of saints, alive with Jesus and cheering us on in the midst of the celebrations and sufferings of life.
Preparation for this weekend has invited me again to soak in stories of people throughout the past millenia who have followed Jesus, using Our Church Speaks: An Illustrated Devotional of Saints from Every Era and Place as a prominent resource. As these dear sisters and brothers throughout time and space sought to reflect the humility and holiness of Christ, so do we get to as well with wonder about how God uses childlike faith to counter evil again and again: |
"O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. You have set Your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger." + Psalm 8:1-2
Some of the saints from the great cloud of witnesses that have helped me remember the great story we are living in the most in the past year are:
And, of course, I continue to remember the story of Henry Scougal, a young priest who was a friend whose kind words written to another changed the world. This post features an excerpt from Our Church Speaks focused on another saint who has helped me fix my eyes on Jesus again and again (who even had an exceptional spirit named after her in Massachusetts).
Hildegard Abbess of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen was a prolific figure, active throughout her long life as an influential church leader: theologian, mystic, visionary, poet, composer, and scientist.
Since a very young age, Hildegard had been receiving divine visions from heaven. (Then) at the age of forty-two, she received a vision in which God unveiled understanding and wisdom about creation and the spiritual life. "The heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming. The vision instructed Hildegard to begin writing down what God had told her over the course of her life.
Hildegard began writing down all that had been revealed to her over a lifetime of visions. Her writings were exclusive and covered a wide range of subjects, including botany, medicine, theology, and music. Her musical compositions are considered one of the origins of Western classical music. Hildegard believed that making music brought one closer to God. "Words symbolize the humanity of the Son of God," Hildegard wrote, "but music symbolizes His divinity." Hildegard collected her musical compositions into a large compendium, which she called the Symphonic Harmony of Celestial Revelations.
Hildegard is also considered the founder of scientific natural history. Her writings on medicine were widely respected, and many journeyed to seek her healing skills in using plants and herbs. She taught that because all of creation was made by God, all plants and animals had unique purposes and uses for humankind. She believed that scientific study was a critical component of the Church's holistic life.
Scripture
"When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth." + Psalm 8:3-9
Meditation: Everyday Majesty
When one of my daughters was barely a year old, she heard rain falling outside. It seemed a strange, unusual sound to her. She crawled to a window, pulled herself up, and peered out at the wondrous mystery: water was falling from the sky. She turned her head toward my wife and gestured toward the window with wide eyes that seemed to say, "Mama, can you believe what is happening out there?" My wife walked over and knelt beside her; cheek to cheek, they stayed for several moments, looking and wondering together ... My wife explained to our child, "We need water to live, and it just falls right out of the sky onto us. It's quite amazing."
We are surrounded by the glory and majesty of the natural world, but many of us have become so accustomed to it that we not longer notice it.
Hildegard was blessed with vision. She not only had eyes to see the spiritual visions that God gave her, but also eyes to see the natural world for the glorious, majestic wonder that it is. When people encountered Hildegard, they began to see the world through her eyes. Her vision opened other people's eyes to the majesty of God in the created order.
Prayer
Almighty God, who inspired Your servant Hildegard of Bingen as she looked to You and who blessed her work with abundant fruit: Your loving hand has given us all that we possess. Grant us grace that we may honor You with our substance, and, remembering the account which we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of Your bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
pgs. 156-158
The Celebrity & The Saint
The celebrity demands, "Look at me!" The saint whispers, "Look at God."
The celebrity says, "Try to be like me, but you'll never be like me." The saint says, "Why would anyone want to be like me? Who has God made you?"
The celebrity is ever ascending, climbing the tower of Babel to the double-platinum throne. The saint is ever descending, saying, "Please have my seat, I insist."
The celebrity offers you everything you want but can never have. The saint offers you the thing you fear but will redeem your soul.
The celebrity is a Ferrari screaming down the highway with music blaring. The saint is the freshwater creek beside the highway that almost nobody ever notices and is nearly impossible to hear over the roar of traffic. Yet the water murmurs as it wanders over stones and around oak roots. It is not silent.
+ Ben Lansing & D.J. Marotta,
Our Church Speaks
Bonus Witness:
Bonus Prayer:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank You for welcoming us into the whirlwind of Your holy love. As Your family, may we become holy saints
who stand out in this time and place.
The times when saints shine
the most are times of darkness.
Like the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, may we shine with glimpses of Jesus’ Light,
which darkness cannot overcome. And as part of Jesus’ Church, our hope rests Your Kingdom coming. The time has come. The Kingdom of heaven is near. We turn to You and believe the good news that You will make us whole and holy. This is the hope we have been born again to, and this is what saints have embodied
as our sisters and brothers across time,
ethnicities, Christian traditions,
nationalities, and more.
As we step into this next season,
our prayer is that we will shine
all the more with the holy light
of Christ in us and through us.
And we pray that we
“being rooted and firmly established in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the length and width,
height and depth of God’s love.”
After all, “the Father has enabled us
to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and
transferred us into the Kingdom
of the Son He loves.” Amen.
Many blessings of peace and presence,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
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