The Infinite Ground of Your Deep Vibration
- davidwperk
- Dec 24, 2024
- 6 min read
Daily Office Devotional, Tuesday, December 24, 2024
The Week of the Fourth Sunday of Advent
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Christmas Eve
Key phrases for reflection from today’s epistle reading:
5Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 938)
Christmas EvePM Psalm 89:1-29Isa. 59:15b-21; Phil. 2:5-11
David’s Reflections
The Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, in Sonnet 13 of Sonnets to Orpheus wrote:
Be--and at the same time know the condition
of not-being, the infinite ground of your deep vibration,
that you may fully fulfill it this single time.*
What might be “the infinite ground of your deep vibration”? If you and I fully fulfilled that one single time, what would our lives look like?
In the year 2000, I was on an airliner flying to DC from Atlanta. The purpose of the journey was to attend an assessment workshop to determine whether I had the gifts to be a church planter. I was to be a reluctant participant. Feedback I had gotten from my bishop and from colleagues had pointed me in this direction, but I remained unwilling to accept that self-definition. I had always served as a church redeveloper and classroom teacher at the college and seminary levels and could not see myself as a church startup priest.
Not unlike Dr. Faustus, I had made a deal. Mine was not with the devil; rather, my deal was with God and my colleagues. If I had the gifts for church planting, I would consider that possibility. However, I remained convinced otherwise and was counting on a negative outcome at the assessment workshop to put an end to this entire discussion.
On the plane, an inner voice said, “Read Philippians!” “No,” I responded. “I have taught Philippians. I almost have it memorized.” Again, the voice, “Read Philippians!” Again, my answer, “No!” Again, the voice, “Read Philippians!” Reluctantly, I agreed. “OK, but this is going to be boring.” Because I had been a New Testament teacher for almost two decades, I had my Greek New Testament along with me. Out it came, and my eyes began the line-to-line journey.
I got through the first chapter without incident. “OK, Spirit, nothing is happening.” On to chapter 2. Through the first five verses, I was sailing along without hitting a bump. Why was I doing this? Then, my eyes hit a major speed bump and my progress came to a screeching halt. “Who, being in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped/snatched.” (My translation.) That word, harpagmos, something to grasp, hold on to, something to snatch or exploit, that word began flashing on the page.
(Note: The New Revised Standard Version, which we read in worship, mistranslated harpagmos here as “something to be exploited.” But, the new revision of that translation, released this year, corrected that by translating “something to be grasped.” You can see that translation at this link: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians 2&version=NRSVUE)
Suspended at 35,000 feet, the image hit me like sudden, strong turbulence, and my psyche shuddered. Jesus’ entire experience of becoming human, living, serving, and dying could be defined as a letting go, a detaching. He did not clutch at his identity as a member of the divine Trinity but willingly let it go to become one of us. Unlike Adam and Eve, who reached for divinity in the garden, Jesus let it go. In Rilke’s words, he was and yet knew the condition of not being, the infinite ground of his deep vibration and fulfilled it fully.
To what was I clinging? What was I refusing to let go? What was I grasping? The answer came—my self-definition, being in Atlanta near my children, my engagement to a dear friend (a relationship that was failing). Could I dare let go? Could I detach? If I did, where would it take me? Where did it take Jesus? He walked the path of true servanthood as a human being.
That day, in that moment, a process of detachment began that has shaped my life profoundly these last twenty-four years. I attended the workshop. The assessment determined that I had the gifts for church planting. After several more months of discernment, I accepted the call to church planting and let go of my previous self-definition. I ended the engagement. With my children’s encouragement, I accepted a call from the Diocese of Virginia and moved to Richmond, Virginia to plant a congregation. That ushered in eight of the most meaningful years of my life.
Please understand. None of this came about by my initiative or on the basis of my inner resources. Rather, the Christ within opened a door in my psyche and pulled me through it against my will. The Christ showed me how to let go, how to detach and Christ’s Spirit brought about what I could not, even once I embraced the possibility. Christ gifted me to live into the infinite ground of my deep vibration.
What is the infinite ground of your deep vibration? Christmas is about more than a lovable infant in a manger scene. Christmas is about letting go into God, about fulfilling the infinite ground of our deep vibration. To what are you clinging? That clinging has the odor of a lifeless, self determined journey. Dare you ask the Christ within to open that inner door and pull you through? That will only begin the experience of detachment, a challenge that will come repeatedly. The challenge of detaching will bring struggle repeatedly, struggle you will find agonizing, but the resulting detachment will usher you into ever-expanding freedom. You will be living into the infinite ground of your deep vibration.
*Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, trans. M. D. Herter Norton (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962), p. 95.
Collect of the Day, The fourth Sunday of Advent
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 212)
A Collect for Fridays
Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies' sake. Amen. (BCP, 123)
A Collect for Early Evening
Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)
A Collect for Mission
Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 816-817)
Daily Office Epistle Reading for Christmas Eve, Philippians 2:5-11
5Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
Comments