The belly of the beast

As our sermon series has been focusing on leaning into Jesus during loss, grief, deep sadness and depression, I was reminded of some of Richard Rohr's words, from Everything Belongs :

"I think Jesus' primary metaphor for the mystery of transformation is the sign of Jonah (Mt 16:4,12:39ff, Luke 11:29). In Luke's Gospel passage in which Jesus tells us 'It is an evil and adulterous generation that wants a sign' (Luke 11:49), he then says the only sign he will give us is the sign of Jonah. As a good Jew, Jesus knew the graphic story of Jonah the prophet, who was running from God and was used by God almost in spite of himself. Jonah was swallowed by the whale and taken where he would rather not go. This was Jesus' metaphor for death and rebirth. Think of all the other signs, apparitions and oracles that religion looks for and seeks and even tries to create. But Jesus says it is an evil and adulterous generation that looks for these things. That's a pretty hard saying. He says instead we must go inside the belly of the whale for awhile. Then and only then will we be spit out upon a new shore and understand our call. That's the only pattern Jesus promises us...

We seldom go freely into the belly of the beast. Unless we face a major disaster like the death of a friend or spouse or loss of a marriage or job, we usually will not go there. As a culture, we have to be taught the language of descent. That is the great language of religion. It teaches us to enter willingly, trustingly into the dark periods of life. These dark periods are good teachers. Religious energy is in the dark questions, seldom in the answers. Answers are the way out, but that is not what we are there for. But when we look at the questions, we look for the opening to transformation. Fixing something doesn't usually transform us. We try to change events in order to avoid changing ourselves.We use learn to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions and some days without meaning. That is the path, the perilous dark path of true prayer."

May you help us, Lord, to practice this downward way, as we hold tight to you and listen for whispers of your Spirit.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation