day 4 / discerning bodies
Wednesday, December 1, 2021
BCP Readings: Psalms 119:1-24, 12, 13, 14 | Amos 3:12—4:5 | II Peter 3:1-10 | Matthew 21:23-32
When Christians talk about discernment, they often treat it like a process that has little to do with their bodies. Private prayer, thought, and retreat from everyday activities are the practices that they associate with discerning what to do and how to live as people of faith. The working assumption that can creep into these practices is that the body has to be cordoned off from the mind or soul in order for a person to connect with God and figure out how God may be calling them. Otherwise, emotions, sensations, and other embodied experiences may cloud their judgment.
Spiritual discernment does not happen, however, without the body. No one can pray or think or go on a retreat without collaborating with their body, nor are these the only practices for discerning God’s presence and work in a person’s life. Eating, walking, holding hands with a loved one, gathering with a community, researching, building, crying, and laughing can all be sources of wisdom and places to come face-to-face with God. If discernment is about responding to a word that God has for you, the whole embodied you, why would you not include as many parts of your embodied life as possible in the process?
In the current social, political, economic, and ecological moment of our world, a moment rife with inequity and injustice, we need people engaged in full-bodied discernment. When injustice attempts to guise itself as goodness and truth is engulfed by power and money, discerning bodies are more important than ever. We need flesh that is paying attention to God and bearing witness to the word God has for all flesh. We need bodies that speak the psalmist’s prayer, “Give light to my eyes” (Ps. 13:3, NRSV), and do not stop with the eyes only but keep praying, “Give light to my nose . . . my mouth . . . my shoulders . . . my stomach . . . my feet.” We need bodies who want to perceive the world as God perceives it, like Amos and other ancient prophets exhorted people to do, so that our bodies can discern how to work with God to make things right.
How might you invite your body into your discernment this Advent?
Notes
Image of “Road” is by Mars Plex on the Unsplash website
