Sherry Sterling

Dear friends,

Have you heard reference made to the calisthenics of our worship services in the Episcopal church?

The service is full of invitations to stand up, sit down, kneel, make the sign of the cross, turn towards the cross as it’s carried up or down the aisle, cross forehead and lips and heart before the reading of the Gospel. There are lots of chances for movement and engagement.

And there are lots of opportunities for engagement of the senses, too!

Scents of incense and prayer books and hymnals; tastes of wine and wafer; sounds of choir, organ, and the spoken Word; touch of bench, books, and others’ hands; sights of vestments, ritual, and through our window to God’s beautiful creation beyond the altar. A full engagement of our senses invites us to deepen our experience of worship.

Today’s Psalm 34 reminds us to Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him (verse 8).

Isn’t that linking interesting?

An invitation to use our senses to know that God is good through our own direct experience, is followed by a reminder that taking refuge in God brings blessing.

Refuge is a sense of shelter and safety from danger or trouble. When I’m feeling unsafe, I’m all in my head about future dangers. Anxiety alarms are sounding in my mind. And I’m no longer in the present moment.

Connecting to my experience through my senses—of seeing, tasting, hearing, touching, smelling—brings me back to this very moment, and out of my anxious thoughts of the future.

This Psalm repeatedly reminds us to seek God when feeling fearful, and we’ll be saved from our troubles. I take that to mean that troubles don’t necessarily go away, but we’re not as bothered by the “What might happen,” because we’re back in the “Right now, I’m basically safe and okay.”

Taste and See. Stay right here. Practicing presence, in God’s presence. Our worship services invite us to do this, again and again.

Peace and love,

—Sherry