Hi, I’m Phil LaBelle, Bishop of the Diocese of Olympia, the Episcopal Church in Western Washington.

The opening words of the Torah from the Book of Genesis tell us that in the beginning, when God created, the Earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. For generations, these words weren’t given much thought. But then in the 16th century, a Jewish mystic named Isaac Luria began pondering the beginning of it all, and especially what happened before the beginning of it all. You see, Luria believed that before the creation of the world, only God existed and God was omnipresent. In other words, Luria believed that God was everything everywhere, all at once. And so Luria wrestled with the opening words of Genesis by asking if God is all in all, how can there be things which are not God? How can God create the world out of nothing if there is no nothing? If God was omnipresent, then darkness and a formless void could not also exist.

Luria then did something unique. He took the concept long held within Judaism that God could contract and constrict the divine presence of God’s self into the Ark of the Covenant, an idea brought to life in the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” And he took that idea and then turned it inside out. He argued that if God could shrink God’s awe-inducing glory into a single spot, then God could also withdraw from a point within God’s very being. God could make room by giving up a region within God’s self, a mystical primordial space to form a type of womb into which God could then call forth the entirety of the cosmos. He called this sacrificial emptying of this space into which God could create zimzum. God making space in God’s very being, God emptying out of an area within God’s self in order to create something other than God, and to be in relationship with us and with the entirety of the cosmos.

Ever since I first heard of this concept in the writings of 20th-century German theologian, Jürgen Moltmann, I wondered what sort of implications that it might have for us. We are made in the image of God, you and I, those into whose nostrils God has breathed. And I wondered if, as those image bearers, that we too are called to embrace zimzum, to make space in our overly filled lives to be in relationship with God and to others and the natural worlds because we live in a very anti-zimzum culture. We jam up our calendars, often experiencing a harried existence, running from one appointment to another, barely have time to answer emails in our inbox before grabbing a quick dinner, and then rushing out to an evening event. Nearly every inch of our lives is at full capacity, and most days we go to bed spent with only more of the same on the horizon.

Into this frenetic lifestyle of ours, Jesus invites us to follow Him. He bids us to slow down and to make space and intentionally choose a different way. He invites us to embrace zimzum and to be his disciples. This zimzum discipleship can be life-changing for us. We can fully become the people that God has created us to be, but only if we make space in our lives and cultivate those practices that can nurture our souls, practices that can lead us to a Christ-centered life.

So I’m inviting you to join me on this journey of zimzum discipleship. But know that this isn’t just a quick fix, something that you can check off if you just do three simple steps. The way of becoming a disciple of Jesus is, as Eugene Peterson puts it, “a long obedience in the same direction.” It takes intentionality. Beginning in May, we’ll be releasing a video every other month and having some supporting materials to help you on this road. There will be 18 in all, three years of faithfully being an apprentice of Jesus, and that timeframe is deliberate as the earliest Christians use that length of time to prepare new converts for baptism, helping them truly to become followers of the Risen One.

But here’s the thing, friends, this work is best done in community. I’ve realized in my own life that when I try to carve out space for the faith life that I’m yearning for, that I’ll often run out of gas before too long and then go back to old habits. It works better when I’ve got a companion on the way. So I’m inviting you to do this work in small groups. On our diocesan website, you’ll find some basics on forming small groups of maybe five to 10 fellow pilgrims on this way. And I encourage you to do so in your congregation, perhaps a preexisting group like a vestry or another committee, or maybe it’ll be a completely new group together. You can find out more information online.

And finally, I’d like to invite you to engage in our first spiritual practice. Any who are gardeners know that when you plant, say carrot seeds, that you may get too many shoots pushing through the dirt. It’s exciting to see all of that growth, but experienced folks know that you’ve got to do some thinning out if they’re gonna grow, that if you don’t tend to the seedlings and pull some of them out, none of them will flourish. What might you need to thin out in your busy life in order to make space for this new endeavor? It all might be good. All of those carrot seedlings certainly are, but you only have so much room in your calendar. If you keep it all, nothing will really thrive.

So I hope you’ll join me on this journey toward a zimzum discipleship and that through it find practices for a Christ-centered life.

Until next time, may God’s spirit lead you and guide you.