Down from the Mountain

And now to return to regular life, after some time away on the mountain. We had great fellowship, great worship, great mountain views, great creative time. In so many ways, it is hard to return.

And yet, as Transfiguration Sunday reminds us (and other times from the life of Jesus and other spiritual greats), we can't stay on the mountain forever. We can retreat periodically, but we must return with our renewed selves to repair the world. There's plenty of repair work to do.

We are resurrection people who eat the Easter food of the Eucharist. That's the take-away message from the retreat. We are creative people with all sorts of tools for the repair work of Kingdom living. That repair work is joyful. No need for sadness as we come back to sea level.

So why do I feel a bit of sadness?

I have a sense of what those early evangelists must have felt after their periodic reunions: it will be so long before I see these friends again. It was so nice to be with people who understand me in ways the larger world will not. It was so nice to be in a group with critical mass. It was so good to be in a space that was so conducive to those spiritual practices that nourish us. It is so hard to be back in the outposts of empire, those spaces of abandonment.

Ah, well. Time speeds along, and in no time, I'll be back to retreat time again.