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What is Grace? Bishop Ambrose from the 3rd century attempted to answer this for his people (we are not joking when we say human beings have been pursuing this question for a very long time). Bishop Ambrose wrote a sermon based on a verse from Genesis. “Let the waters produce living things, and living things were born.” (Gen 1.20). Ambrose preached to his people “Be like those fish! Imitate them!” Maybe Ambrose knew that the people would think “A fish? What can I learn from being a fish? Shouldn’t I want to be a lion? Yes, I want to be a lion. Top of the food chain is the place for me, not some little creature swimming aimlessly. Besides, I asked to explain Grace. Why are you talking to me about fish?” So Ambrose explained:
“The fish is in the sea and the fish is on the waves; she is in the sea and swims with the swell of the water. On the sea the storm rages, the winds scream out, but the fish swims; she is not swallowed up because she is used to swimming. To you, this world is the sea. Its currents uncertain, its waves deep, its storms fierce. And you must be this fish, that the waves of the world do not swallow you.”
Fish don’t drown. Fish don’t go under. Another great theologian says it like this: “ In the wild waters of the world the fish does not go under. It is in its element. Amid the unpredictable it swims in grace…..even when life seems to be flowing along calmly, its rhythms pleasingly supportive, currents of uncertainty ripple through my day. Waves of anxiety warn of some gathering storm amidst my relations or my obligations. The tempest may dissipate. Or it may blow in. It may be personal, it may be professional, it may be political. An undertow of chaos tugs at every moment. How I try to ignore, control, or flee that chaos. What if instead we learn to swim right through its swells? This fishy grace is not just for the calamitous storms, when the monsters of the deep make their appearance.
post created from my reflections from On The Mystery by Catherine Keller, pp 45-47
~Linda
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