Spiritual Instructions

Many years ago, I told a friend that I wished scripture offered clear instructions, rather than parables. My friend gave me a poem by beat poet Kenneth Patchen and said, “this may help.” The poem is called, Instructions for Angels.

Instructions for Angels
by Kenneth Patchen

“Take the useful events
For your tall.
Red mouth.
Blue weather.
To hell with power and hate and war

The mouth of a pretty girl…
The weather in the highest soul…
Put the tips of your fingers
On a baby man;
Teach him to be beautiful.
To hell with power and hate and war

Tell God that we like
The rain, and snow, and flowers,
And trees, and all things gentle and clean
That have growth on the earth.
White winds.
Golden fields.
To hell with power and hate and war.”

The refrain, consigning harm to hell, was a thought that’s brought me hope and has comforted me—not just in the abstract but in real time watching violence unfold in faraway countries on the daily news, and in hours of reflection after hearing too many incidents of domestic violence and bias to count. 

It would take years to find strength in other images from the poem as well. 

A baby man. 

Rain. 

Snow. 

Flowers. 

Trees. 

All things gentle and clean that have growth on the earth...

I’ve been a sensitive poet type for as long as I can remember, but I’ve seldom imagined soft things to hold any real kind of strength.  

What is a golden field in the face of a gun? 

Yet, in recent years I find myself being drawn to tell God what I like, not just as an ethereal comfort; or a plaintive wail; but as a real tool in confronting evil...or at least a tool for creating less harm. 

I call teaching—a baby man to be beautiful—and talking to God—tell God what we like—tools, because like hammers and pliers by themselves they can’t do much; but when applied to a situation are immensely useful.

Prayer and teaching can repair, create, stop, or start any matter of things. Tools, which include wind and rain utilized for good, are part and parcel of living in the solution. 

I haven’t always been ready to live in a place of repair. I’ve spent many years pointing my fingers and fixing my mind on people, places, and things which need to change in order to bring about Justice and Peace. 

I’ve realized in the hard and loneliest of ways that they seldom do change...and my ability to influence things outside of myself is almost non-existent. 

What I do have the ability to influence and control however are my responses to events, my attitudes toward situations, and my interactions with others.

Living in the solution means rather than holding a protest sign, or shouting things to hell…

I can teach—a baby man, my son, or a baby woman, my daughter. I can admire. I can pray. I can love. 

I’m convinced that the songs, prayers, and moments of reflection are not merely feel good pauses in the collective din of days of busyness.

I’m convinced that they, like ancient drops of rain which formed lakes, which formed rivers, which carved canyons on the earth contribute to something bigger...and that in time, these prayers, pieces of literature, and times of pause will wear away: abusive power, hate, and wars...

These are the things that bring growth: Conversation. Shared meals. Appreciating beauty. They, and that which moves--wind, rain, the human heart—rather than stoppping connection and creation—power, hate and war; bids movement to become bigger and better. 

Is that what many of the parables of Jesus are about? Is it Jesus teaching---us to be beautiful—by telling us what is ugly, our focus on things keeps us from seeing one another—and ultimately ourselves

Maybe.

For you that hold scripture close. Read a parable over and over to yourself this week…and if scripture has become too quiet for you; turn up to beauty, the poetry, the people, the kindness of this earth.

Jesus says, herein lies in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.