The Landmarks of God Present Among Us

Dear Friend,

The poem “Not Waving But Drowning” by Stevie Smith is a chilling 12-line meditation and the fact that I came across it while praying over this Sunday’s Gospel seems like more than a coincidence. It begins like this:

“Nobody heard him, the dead man,

But still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought

And not waving but drowning…”

This week Luke presents us with the story of the Good Samaritan and we see a priest and a Levite go by on “the opposite side” of the place where a wounded (dying?) man lay moaning. Luke also gives us the story of the rich man and Lazarus - another dying man ignored - which we will proclaim at the end of September (Lk. 16:19-31). Stevie Smith, an Anglican, likely knew both texts. 

In the first reading Moses speaks of a law that is “something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts…”. So near that we miss it? The law embodied by Jesus Christ?

Robert Frost sounds a similar theme in his poem “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep”: 

“The people along the sand

All turn and look one way.

They turn their back on the land.

They look at the sea all day.”

In his Letter to the Colossians, Paul writes of the incarnate Christ - “the image of the invisible God”. Positioned as the second reading, Paul’s words pose a question: is the “first born of all creation” the last one we want to recognize in creation? That would be the suffering Christ, radiant from the cross over the altar in the Mission church each time we gather for eucharist.  Let our ears and eyes be open to the landmarks of God present among us!

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan