Earlier this year I picked up Mary Oliver’s collection of poems, Devotions. It contains her self-selected greatest hits from a career that extended from 1963 to 2015. Each morning, before the rush of breakfast and fixing school lunches, I sit in our living room with a mug of coffee and read a poem.
Oliver’s most well-known phrase is, “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work” from the poem “Yes! No!” Here it is in context:
How important is it to walk along, not in haste but slowly,
looking at everything and calling out…
…Imagination is better
than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work.
My guess is Oliver had more than poets in mind when she wrote those words. What Oliver was doing throughout her career was simply showing us what she saw, rarely venturing beyond her own backyard.
Because she walked, “not in haste but slowly,” she learned to see more than most of us do.
The poem I read this morning was called, “In Blackwater Woods.” It starts, “Look, the trees/ are turning….”
I paused over the opening word, “Look.” It is an imperative, a command. Look. It is also an invitation. Come with me and see. This is the heart of all her poems.
Scripture, too, is filled with the word, “Look.” Traditionally, “Behold.” Come and see.
“Behold” has lost fashion in most new translations. The NRSV and NIV have all but removed it completely compared to over 1200 uses in the old King James. I think it is worth holding on to.
Here are just a few samples.
- Genesis 1:31 – And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
- Luke 2:10 – And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
- Revelation 21:5 – And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
From Genesis to Revelation, God’s world and God’s works are full of wonders to behold. Look!
As a pastor, I believe one of my primary duties is to learn to pay attention. I hope I sit with Scripture long enough each week to hear what God has for us. I am also called to pay attention to the lives of our membership and community. This only happens by learning to see them.
I visited Judith shortly upon arriving at a new call. She had a knee replaced and wasn’t able to leave her house for several months. We had a delightful conversation about how she and her husband ended up in our town thirty years ago, and how her grandkids had come over to help her decorate for Christmas. I mentioned we had started a Sunday school class every other week and had two kids coming regularly now (it had been years since they had children). She responded, “Wonderful, that is an answer to prayer.” Two kids felt insignificant to me; Judith had eyes to see God at work.
I read a passage of Scripture and prayed before leaving. As I got up, Judith looked me in the eyes and said, “that is the first time someone from the church has prayed for me in this house.”
A few weeks earlier, our congregation had pulled off a significant community event that took months to organize. I wrote short thank you notes to the team leaders. The following Sunday, Sharon stopped me in the hallway and grabbed my arm and said, “thank you for the card, that is the first time anyone from the church has thanked me for this.”
Here were two simple interactions. I was new and hadn’t become “too busy” to visit or write cards. Based on the echoes of Judith’s and Sharon’s responses, it became clear that perhaps my first step there was to help the congregation remember how to love each other well.
Early in ministry I had plenty of vision but I didn’t always see. I was fluent in the jargon of the missional church and gospel-centered, reformed theology. I had answers and arguments for lots of things. But they were rarely what the congregation was looking for, or needed. As Zack Eswine quips, we were trained to do “large things in famous ways as fast as we could for the glory of God.” But ministry is slow, personal, repetitive. Haste is the enemy of truly seeing.
Oliver is correct, paying attention is “our endless and proper work.” But the work doesn’t end there, we then have the privilege to point and invite others to see as well.
Behold, God is at work through the prayers in Judith’s living room. Behold, God is working wonders in a Sunday school class of two. Behold, the water thrushes and the sycamore trees in your backyard also declare the glory of God.
Behold.
10 Responses
Well done Doug,
Everyone needs to feel that they have an important contribution to the whole. It is usually not the program or the theology that holds people, rather the sense of belonging. Within a society that proudly excludes and isolates , a place of belonging is essential. Thanks for this insight.
Attention. A huge issue. I just listened to an Ezra Klein interview with Congressman Auchinloss about attention being the most valuable new commodity in our economy, that online and on-screen we “pay” attention about four hours a day and platforms like Facebook, Google, and X track our attention and manipulate our attention to sell our attention. The attention of our children is being captured and monetized. They can’t help but “Look!” and what they behold is controlled–by about seven controllers, including China, who hold their attention. It is a spiritual and political struggle to keep them free to behold in true joy and shalom.
Slowing down and paying attention are decidedly countercultural activities that require intention and discipline and encouragement and a willingness to practice.
Devoting time to Mary Oliver’s Devotions would be a great start and has rich potential for manifold rewards.
I repeatedly tell my grandchildren, “The world is a much bigger place than the twelve inches between the end of your nose and your device.”
I appreciate the quote from Mary Oliver “to pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” I’ve taught Creative Writing for thirty-some years and lead frequent fiction writing workshops, and I tell my students that a writer is “a person who pays attention.” As you point out, however, this is relevant advice for everyone .
Doug,
The content of the gospel according to John can be found in the phrase, first spoken by Jesus in Chapter one: “Come and see.” It’s all about coming to see and know our Lord. But at the end it is Mary/Martha who say to Jesus: “Come and see” (where Lazarus was laid). We come to Jesus because he came to us.
Behold = Slow down, look, and see. Excellent.
I would second your desire to hold on to the word “behold.” The King James Version of Isaiah 40:10 reads, “Behold your God,” but many of the newer translations (except for the ESV) say, “Here is your God.” But that has about the same unremarkable tone as a motel employee saying, “Here is your room key.” But the word “behold” conveys more of a sense of “look at this unbelievably awesome reality.”
I agree with both of you.
Thanks for this reminder a la Mary Oliver to pay attention, in the chaos of living through these dark times, to what matters truly – the voice of the Spirit, the cries of the people, the impact of love, the wonder of creation.