January 19, 2007 : Stillness: Surrounding, Sustaining, Strenghtening




…Into your hands I commend my spirit
(for you have redeemed me,
O Lord, O God of truth).


A foreshadowing of Passion Sunday as today Psalm 31 is appointed, and (in part) is recited by Christ from the cross as his last words according to this year’s Passion narrative, Luke.

A gracious death portrayed, and not that alone, to die as one had lived…in the hands of God, apparently without reservation. This is portrayed by Mark differently (in today’s Gospel): Jesus asleep in the stern on the storm-riddled sea, Peace, be still.

In July of 2001 the Quakers held a conference in the mountains of Virginia the theme of which was:

Stillness: Surrounding, Sustaining, Strengthening

Here Stillness was defined in the words of Thomas Kelly, that objective, dynamic Presence which enfolds us all, nourishes our souls, speaks glad unutterable comfort within us, and quickens in us depths that had before been slumbering. Somehow in the boat on the storm-riddled sea as well as on the cross Jesus had this stillness until death, was embraced by the objective, dynamic Presence.