It happened a few weeks after we accepted the call to First Congregational Church Nantucket. One warm, sunny afternoon after we moved to Nantucket, Debra and I went out to Miacomet Beach. We walked a bit, then sat on the beach for a long while with the sea stretching before us. We drank in the beauty. The deep blue of the distant waters. Breakers rolling in. Bright teal-blue waves cresting, falling, cascading onto the shore. Sea gulls floating on the wind, then sweeping across the water.
There on the beach it was as if time were suspended. The beauty of the present moment seemed all that really mattered. The poet T. S. Eliot has a wonderful phrase to describe that kind of moment. In his Four Quartets Eliot speaks of “the still point of the turning world.” He says, “At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is….”
Eliot is speaking of the present moment. What’s important, he says, is to live in the present moment — “the still point of the turning world.” “There the dance is,” he says. There is life that can be celebrated.
I believe that being attentive to the present moment is a way we can experience the peace of God. In a world that is “turning” — constantly changing, fragile, uncertain — it is possible to experience God’s presence.
As I sat on the beach on Nantucket that day, I thought about how fragile our lives and world are. Beyond the news of the world that makes the headlines, there is also what goes on in our personal lives from day to day. There are the battles we wage within ourselves — struggles with loneliness, boredom, insecurity, fear. There are struggles that happen in our relationships. For some, there are concerns with health or aging. Life is fragile and precarious, isn’t it? Where is “the still point in a turning world”?
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Jesus spoke those words to his disciples as he was about to leave them. Jesus offers the gift of peace to us as well. This is an inner peace, a tranquility of soul that is not dependent on external circumstances. This peace is the assurance of God’s presence in our lives.
How do you experience the “still point” of God’s peace and presence? We don’t have to go to the beach, the woods, up the highest mountain, or to the most beautiful place in the world to experience God’s peace. It can happen anywhere, anytime. Jesus says, “My peace I give to you.”
So take some time to sit, be still, and listen to the still point of the turning world.
Grace and peace,
Rev. Gary