Grace Lee Boggs’s question “What time is it on the clock of the world?” is one of those profound questions you hear once and don’t easily forget. Recently, I’ve been helped by other questions too: What is happening? Why is this happening? Where am I?
Four answers to that last question have helped me ground my spiritual journey: wilderness, community, empire, and creation. The wilderness bears witness to the precarity and resilience of life even under harsh, unfavorable conditions. My community of faith has changed quite a bit over the years, yet vital friendships remain key lifelines. The muck of empire and its complicated relations of power shapes my every day, whether I’m conscious of its tentacles or not. And no matter how stuck I get, the marvel and mystery of creation holds me and everything I know.
It so happens that the four gospels open in these very settings. Mark opens with a voice crying out in the wilderness. Matthew opens with a long list of names depicting the community of saints. Luke opens with numerous references to the empire of his day. John opens with a vision of the cosmos and all things created through the Word.
