Michael has been preaching about the rock group U2. Today his sermon title was "It's a Beautiful Day Even When God Moves in Mysterious Ways." One of the ways that Christians deny the reality of Creation, is to search only for the positive and the happy (the "prosperity gospel"). They deny the "via negativa" (as Matthew Fox calls it), in the letting go, the pain, the suffering and silences that are a real part of the spiritual journey. All of the great mystics know about the via negativa, Meister Eckhart, John of the Cross (the Dark Night of the Soul), Madame Guyon, Julian of Norwich, just to name a few.
It is only when we enter the dark that we can perceive our true selves, and the reality of Creation. In it, we perceive what needs to change, what can change, and what will always stay the same, and must be accepted. Then when we are ready, we rise up out of the darkness into awe and hope and creativity and compassion with a new sense of direction and purpose. So, the dark is a gift--it's a beautiful day.
Beautiful Day
by U2
The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town
You're out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you're not moving anywhere
You thought you'd found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace
It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
You're on the road
But you've got no destination
You're in the mud
In the maze of her imagination
You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day
Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
It was a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Beautiful day
Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case
What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
What you don't have you don't need it now
Don't need it now
Was a beautiful day
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