The
city of Austin, Texas boasts almost two hundred and thirty days of sunshine per
year. After moving there from a foggy mountain in Tennessee I remained grateful
for all the natural vitamin D that came my way until the day I moved here to Decatur.
Oddly though, the two week period of “winter” in Austin brought out a strange
quality in her residents. When the clouds rolled in or the temperatures dipped
down into the forties Austinites’ moods soured. One day as a barber explained
the locals’ inability to handle the cold she said something that I have now
heard elsewhere—even in Alabama. “If you don’t like the weather wait five
minutes and it will change.” The statement bemused me enough that it has
remained in my memory.
We
can joke about the weather. At almost all parish functions someone makes a
comment about the current state of the out of doors. “It’s awful humid” seems to
be the current refrain. Of course, when a cold front turns a summer’s day into
a mild one someone will point out just how pleasant it is. In the fall we will
remark on how blue the sky is. During winter we will complain about the cold.
Then in the spring when we get all four seasons in a few days we can say again,
“If you don’t like the weather wait five minutes and it will change.” Weather
quite often we want to change, but so much else in life we fight tooth and nail
to keep it just like it is. Fiddler on
the Roof will soon grace the stage here in Decatur and I cannot help but
hear those opening lyrics from “Tradition”.
So
what about those things that we hold so dear? Do they change or do they stay
the same? What about the Church? What about our Faith? What about our
Traditions? What about God?
There
is a prayer that I find myself praying quite often when I say Compline.
“Be
present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so
that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in
your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen” (Book of Common Prayer, 133). While I
steadily believe that God’s nature of creation, agape love, forgiveness, peace,
charity, self-sacrifice, redemption, reconciliation, etc. never changes; I do
believe though, that our understanding of God continues to shift and yes
(gasp!) even change!
We
did not always believe in the abundant divine community known as Father, Son,
and Spirit or Trinity. The Church took a long time to figure it out. We most
likely would not have ever gotten to this grand realization and this huge shift
in the way we relate to God without the saint whom we celebrate today.
Basil
the Great was once just a boy who studied classical philosophy in the 4th
Century. Had it not been for the faith of his sister Macrina and the death of
his beloved little brother he may never have been baptized. Though once he was at
age 28 his life certainly changed.
For
a time he helped to reorganize the anchorite order. They had been for a time a
very individualistic group of monastics, but he brought them together to create
communities of prayer and work. Later, he was ordained a priest at about the
height of the conflict between warring sides of Christianity. Basil became
Bishop of Caesarea by a narrow margin and set out to expand with other Orthodox
Christians the view that Father, Son, and Spirit are One in glory, majesty, and
unity. And, the language that the Church used in that day needed expansion,
such that all three persons of the Trinity were properly adored. Without his
tireless fighting we may not have ever understood the powerful mystery that is
our three-in-one God. Sadly though Basil died before this change could be
affirmed by the Second Ecumenical Council.
What
Basil teaches us in our lives might seem a little strange. This great one sought
a new way of seeing God. In each new age we must see afresh the face of God. We
are often tempted to just settle on how things have always been, but just like
the weather always changes God is eternally creating anew all things. Yes, as
strange as it sounds this very moment God abundantly creates the vast expanse
of interstellar space, even you and me.
As
God continues to create we are called to create with God. Our life is to be
part of the spreading of God’s way. We are to be like Basil and all those other
great ones who have helped to point the Church to both God’s eternal
changelessness and the every changing nature of God’s Creation at the same
time! Like the mystery of the Trinity we will not understand this always. Still
God beckons us to live in the relationship of the Trinity as we aim to make the
world God’s place and rest in God’s abiding love.
x
