“God has called you by name and made you his own” – words from the Confirmation Service in the Church of England, prayed over each candidate in turn. Words adapted from Isaiah 43.1…
But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
This Tuesday morning I was at my monthly poetry group. Each of us takes it in turn to share a poem that we have written and worked on, but needs some further crafting. The poet reads the poem, the person on their left reads it again, then the group critiques it while the poet remains silent and listens. Eventually they may come in to respond and ask for particular feedback. I’ve found it incredibly helpful in refining my own writing and critiquing skills.
At this meeting, one of us shared a poem with the line ‘the trees have seen many October 25ths.’ I haven’t remembered it exactly, but close enough for illustrative purposes. Many in the group thought the date was ambiguous and awkward to say. It didn’t flow poetically. I wondered about cutting it down to ‘many Octobers’. The poet agreed it was difficult and needed reworking somehow, but it was important to her and the poem to be specific with the date as a container of meaning.
That specificity, that particularity, is what God had in mind when God created, formed, redeemed, called and still calls each of us by name.
When Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and says, “the shepherd of the sheep…calls his own sheep by name and leads them out,” he does not mean (I think) that the shepherd is calling the sheep by any sort of group-think name – Pharisees, scribes, disciples. But calling them one by one, name by name as they each by each in their own way meander chaotically and rush higgledy-piggledy through the gate.
Hey! now! Come hoy now! Whither do you wander?
Up, down, near or far, here, there or yonder?
Sharp-ears, Wise-nose, Swish-tail and Bumpkin,
White-socks my little lad, and old Fatty Lumpkin!
…called Tom Bombadil to the hobbits’ frightened ponies.
God has called me by name and made me his own. Whither do I wander? Who else has the words of eternal life? Who else knows my true name? Who else would I follow?
-oOo-
Lectio Divina, or divine reading, is an ancient and tried-and-tested form of praying with the Bible. Slow reading, chewing it over, offering those reflections to God, and then simply resting in God’s presence. The weekly Lectio group I run is currently working its way through John’s Gospel, and I am aiming here to turn my reflections into the sort of coherent form that might be helpful.