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September 29, 2004
Original Blessing
ORIGINAL BLESSING
August 22, 2004
I have just returned from a two-week vacation in the Upper Peninsula. I drove north, crossed the Mackinaw Bridge and turned right. Then I followed the coastline around the U.P. I ate lunches sitting in parks looking at the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. I took boat rides through the Soo Locks and past the Painted Rocks. I walked nature paths and drove (very slowly) through the Seney Nature Preserve and the Presque Isle Park. It was sunny, then cloudy, sometimes rainy.
And it was incredibly beautiful. The Lakes were blue and turquoise and calm and stormy. The trees were tall and majestic, and short and wind-twisted. Some beaches were sand and some, near Copper Harbor, rocky. There were wildflowers everywhere; Queen Anne's Lace, Sunflowers, purple flowers and white, golden flowers and pink. Some were large and flaunted their petals, some small and shy.
I saw wild animals. In addition to the deer I told the children about, I saw a cougar! It loped across Route 26 in front of my car. I'm not sure of the difference between cougars and mountain cats. Let's just say this was the largest tan cat I ever saw that was not behind bars.
The experience reminded me again of how very beautiful this world is. It reminded me that we often stop seeing the beauty around us. It reminded me of why I could not ever believe the doctrine of original sin. The world is instead, an Original Blessing to humanity.
What would your life be like if you had grown up believing in your heart that you were blessed by Creation? What would your life be like if you had been taught from infancy that your body, and all its parts, was good and beautiful? What would our lives be like if the entire culture in which we lived believed that the world was a beautiful gift, that all creatures that lived in it were sacred, and that our task was to care for its treasures?
This is the vision that Matthew Fox brings to religion, specifically to Christianity. Fox was a Dominican priest when he wrote Original Blessing, and other books. You noted the past tense. His writings so challenged the Vatican that they censured him, and he was dismissed from the Dominican Order. He is now an Episcopal priest and founder of the University of Creation Spirituality in California. He was the keynote speaker at the Heartland District Annual Meeting last year.
I believe that Fox's teachings can inform we who are liberal religionists. We have a tradition of learning from nature. We affirm that we are part of the interdependent web of existence. We celebrate the beauty of the natural world, even as we recognize that we cannot control its winds, we cannot make rain fall in the desert, nor stop its descent when our basements are flooded. Let us hear what Fox has to say.
His aim, he says is to deconstruct the fall/redemption theology that has dominated Christianity for centuries, and reconstruct creation spirituality, which he says precedes Christianity, and can be found in the teachings of Jesus.
Fall/redemption spirituality is based on the doctrine of original sin. It is symbolized in Christianity by the fall of Adam (who stands for all men) into the sin of disobeying God. He, of course, blames Eve, who blames the serpent. In the Christian script, mankind was only saved from this sin by the grace of God, who sacrificed his only son, Jesus, that we sinful beings would have the opportunity but not the guarantee, to be saved from eternal torment.
For almost 2000 years this has been the founding myth of our culture. … It is a pretty depressing myth. Many of us have rejected it. Some of us do it by rejecting the whole idea of God. Some of us do it by saying that we are misunderstanding God, who really intends that all shall be saved. Some of us do it by re-framing the idea of divinity in different terms, perhaps feminine terms, or more inclusive, non-gender specific spiritual terms.
Fox rejects it also. He says that, rather than original sin, creation gifted us with original blessing. And he has resurrected esteemed mystical writers from antiquity who shared this idea of creation. He uses the work of the Jesus Seminar to claim that this was also Jesus' view of humankind's condition. I am not addressing the question of Jesus' view directly today, but I commend Original Blessing and other of Fox's books to those who wish to further explore that aspect of his work.
A caveat before I proceed: as I quote Fox today and work with his ideas I will be using the metaphor God. I encourage you to think of this word as a metaphor for that which you hold in your heart and mind as most valuable and meaningful in the Cosmos.
Fox says: "Since 'blessing' is the theological word for 'goodness,' original blessing is about original goodness. The forces of fear and pessimism so prevalent in society and religion need to be countered by an increased awareness of awe and goodness. This goodness is inherent in the beauty, wisdom, and wonder of creation." (Fox, Matthew, Original Blessing, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York, 2000, p. 7.)
This is the basic teaching of creation spirituality. Creation is Good. This does not mean that hurricanes, fire and earthquakes do not cause damage, nor that some people do not do evil. It does mean that basically, creation, which includes humankind, is good.
Fox believes, and has staked his life on this belief, that: "When creation becomes the starting point of spirituality once again, then hope will return also. We will see everything differently, including Divinity itself. This blessing awareness will motivate us to hopeful--and generous--actions. This issue at stake is nothing less than biophilia vs. necrophilia." (Ibid.)
That is, the issue is love of life or love of death. Do we embrace life and creation, or do we embrace death and despair? We need only look at contemporary events to grasp that this question is central to our lives, even to our survival. Fox says that it will not be easy to unlearn the lessons of the fall/redemption spirituality that has dominated our culture.
"It will," he says, "mean meditation and cleansing our perception in order to see the world differently. It will mean learning and celebrating the new creation story from science. It will also mean detoxing our souls of necrophilic tendencies derived from toxic religious teachings and ideologies." (Ibid.)
Fox understands that many religious traditions, both antique and contemporary, embrace a form of creation spirituality. It has a pre-Christian tradition, and a muted Christian tradition. And it exists in many aboriginal cultures. However, he calls for adapting these teachings in light of the teachings of science and the lessons learned through feminist and other liberation movements.
Fox gives us several reasons why he believes "the creation-centered tradition offers a new and needed paradigm for wisdom and human survival today. (Fox, p. 12.) First, he says, we face two critical crises--the ecological crises, which includes nuclear war, and the unemployment crisis. It is clear that the widespread adoption of creation spirituality would bring a change in how we view the earth and her gifts. If we truly regarded the earth as an original blessing, pollution would not be a problem. If we regarded humans as holding the spark of divinity within them, nuclear war would be unthinkable.
The crisis of unemployment is worldwide. When this book was written, it was less critical in the United States than it is now, but we are beginning to learn what Third World citizens have lived with for many years.
It is the legions of unemployed young men who form the armies of fundamentalist Islam, just as they have formed armies of aggression throughout history.
Fox believes that, "When the human race wakes up to see that it has outgrown war, it will realize that to put our energies of people, knowledge, talent, and capital to work to feed, educate, heal, and house the human community would provide work and more than enough work for everyone."
Fox believes that the new learnings of science call for integration with creation spirituality. The deep space astronomers who scan the skies beyond our sight have discovered more about our cosmos than we could ever have imagined twenty-five years ago, or even ten years ago. Newtonian physics, which many of us learned in our youth, is no longer valid. Our understanding of the world has changed and calls for a new spiritual understanding also.
Creation spirituality can help foster a global ecumenism that reaches far beyond Christianity. It fosters an understanding of our interdependence that will make us more reluctant to draw arms against our brothers and sisters.
"Creation spirituality is a justice spirituality," says Fox. (Fox, p. 17.) He cites such mystics as Hildegard of Bingen and Meister Eckhardt, who have been ignored or mistranslated by fall/redemption theologians until rescued by feminist writers only recently. Justice and liberation are concerns of those who embrace the goodness of creation.
Fox acknowledges that creation-centered spirituality is feminist, but has been shunted aside for almost 3500 years. "Wisdom and Eros count more than know-ledge or control in such a spirituality," he says. And he adds, "Not only was the prepatriarchal period feminist, but the postpatriarchal period will be as well--provided patriarchy, in its deep pessimism leaves us a world to play on and work on and celebrate." (Fox, p. 18.)
Fox points out that with a doctrine of original sin, "one is old before one comes into the world." (Ibid.) Thus, hope is difficult to find. Pessimism and cynicism are marks of a society that embraces original sin. Creation spirituality brings hope to a world hungry for it. (Ibid.)
One of the functions of religion is to transform the world. Fox asks, "How is religion to be an agent of transformation if religion itself is not transformed?" (p. 19.) He continues, "We are victims of a cosmic loneliness and an anthropocentric isolation from creation that we bring upon ourselves. Reclaiming our original blessing and integrating it into our religions will bring transformation.
Part of that integration should include the products of the right brain, art, music and meditation. The heart and right brain need to be included, as well as left brain linear thinking. "For wisdom," says Fox, " does not proceed from either right or left brain, but from the happy marriage of the two, functioning well as equal partners in search of truth." (Fox, p. 24.)
Creation-centered spirituality is a solidly prophetic tradition, according to Fox. Reclaiming our pre-Christian celebration of the wonders of creation, including humanity, could do much to balance the fundamentalisms that threaten to destroy our culture, if not our world. The vision offered by creation-centered spirituality will do much to bring hope and renewal to human beings today. It is an adventurous journey, one that brings us into deep community with our fellow travelers. It promises to bring us a new and stronger life urge. (Fox, p. 25.)
For all these reasons, Matthew Fox celebrates and promotes creation-centered spirituality. It will bring, he says, nothing less than a "Copernican revolution in religion. Copernicus moved people from believing that Earth was the center around which the universe revolved to believing that Earth moved about the sun. In religion we have been operating under the model that humanity, and especially sinful humanity, was the center of the spiritual universe. This is not so. The universe itself, blessed and graced, is the proper center for spirituality. Original blessing is prior to any sin, original or less than original." (Fox, 26.)
With the rejection of Fall/Redemption theology, and its well-entrenched practices in Western Civilization, how do we move to Creation Spirituality? How can we re-shape the language and practices of religion to embrace a life-affirming theology? Fox offers four paths, which he explores in some depth. At this time I will give you only the basic ideas. If you wish further information, I encourage you to acquire his book, Original Blessing.
The first path is called Befriending Creation, the Via Positiva. This path affirms life and awareness and Eros. "The Via Positiva," says Fox, "represents a new power, in the sense that it has been forgotten; the power that pleasure is and wisdom is. …The Via Positiva is a way of tasting the beauties and cosmic depths of creation, which means us and everything else. Without this solid grounding in creation's powers we become bored, violent people. We become necrophiliacs in love with death and the powers and principalities of death. With the Via Positiva, all creation breaks out anew." (Fox, p. 34.)
Following the Via Positive is the Via Negativa, or Befriending Darkness, Letting Go and Letting Be. This path affirms that life contains pain, which can be experienced, and then let go. One need not wallow in the pain, but it must be acknowledged. "We learn," says Fox, "that we are cosmic beings not only in our joy and ecstasy but also in our pain and sorrow." The Via Positive and Via Negativa are deeply connected, and we cannot experience the one without the other. (Fox, p. 130.)
The third path Fox names Befriending Creativity, Befriending Our Divinity: the Via Creativa. One cannot create unless one experiences joy and rapture, and also pain and suffering. The wonders of creation inspired poets such as Mary Oliver. However, the depths she reaches would not be possible unless she had also experienced suffering. "Creativity," says Fox, "is a cosmic energy; it is the cosmos birthing itself. And creativity cannot happen where true nothingness is not allowed and where the fear of the dark dominates over a reverence for the dark and what can be birthed in the dark." (Fox, p. 176.)
And the fourth and last path is named Befriending New Creation: Compassion, Celebration, Erotic Justice, the Via Transformativa. The fourth path critiques the journeys of the first three. The aim of creation spirituality is compassion, so the Via Transformativa tests the products of creativity to meet the test of compassion and justice. Fox points out that "Our creativity in all instances is to be put to the use of compassion. When it is not, then racism and sexism, militarism and giant capitalism will co-opt the image of God in people and use creativity not to return blessing for blessing with but to curse and destroy. Much creativity, after all, went into Hitler's ovens for efficient human extermination at Auschwitz, and an immense amount of creativity and skill goes into building a Triton submarine today. This is creativity but it is not new creation." (Fox, 247.)
From the Via Transformativa, the spiritual traveler revisits the Via Positiva, for the journey is a spiral journey in which one goes forward even as one circles among the four paths.
For many of us creation spirituality is a new term; but part of its practices have been with us for many years. At least since Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau opened our eyes to the wonders of the cosmos we have celebrated the joys of creation. We hold within our ranks people who call themselves pagan, and base their spirituality in the natural world. Recent theologians have explored panentheism, the theology that says that creation is sacred, AND there is something larger we may not be able to name. And process theologians affirm that life and divinity are part of a continuing stream of development.
However, I think we can learn from the four paths Fox names. I think we are loathe to affirm that the Via Negativa is also necessary to embrace. It is far less comfortable for most of us than the Via Positiva. And the remaining two paths, the Via Creativa and Via Transformativa are also deserving of study.
I celebrate the emergence in our time of a spirituality that is creation centered, especially one that comes from the single most established religion in Western Civilization--the Roman Catholic Church. It was so threatening to them they found it necessary to expel its author. However, his ideas continue to educate and inform. I hope many more people will embrace them.
Creation Spirituality is a source of hope in a world wracked by war. It is a source of hope for those who suffer hunger and disease. It is a source of hope for those of us who, while blessed by good fortune, feel compassion for those who suffer.
Creation is good. The world is good. Humanity is good. We have been gifted with Original Blessing.
Amen.
Blessed Be.
Shalom.
Saalat.
Posted by nanak at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)
Transcendent Mystery and Wonder
TRANSCENDENT MYSTERY AND WONDER
September 19, 2004
The purposes and principles to which we turn for understanding and guidance are the covenant between the member congregations and the Unitarian Universalist Association. We often explore the meaning of the seven principles. However, the six sources do not receive as much attention.
This sermon is third in a series exploring the six sources. It is the first source listed and it speaks to us of direct experience. We are a community that honors each person's direct experience with life in its widest sense.
This first source also honors the mystic's experience in all cultures. Mystics seek a direct experience with the divine, or with something larger than themselves. The famous poet, Rumi, founded the Sufi sect known as the Whirling Dervishes. They sought union with Allah through their whirling dance.
Many of we rational liberal religionists seek union with the divine through experiencing nature. We gaze upon the wide waters of Lake Michigan, or examine the intricate construction of an iris or dahlia and we sense ourselves connected to a larger whole. Others find a similar union while meditating or praying.
Transcending mystery and wonder--present all around us, and often unseen.
"The living tradition we share draws from many sources: Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and sustain life……" (Purposes and Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association)
These are the words in our covenant that express our recognition that one of the sources of religious truth comes from a direct experience of connection to some-thing larger than ourselves. This somewhat mystical experience may not be one of your own personal sources, but it is one that other liberal religionists claim.
We liberal religionists have always honored the truth found by each person as they search for the meaning that informs their life. Direct experience is critical in that search. If your life experience refutes the claim of truth preached by a certain religion, you will be uncomfortable in that faith community. If your religious home negates the truth of your life experience, it does not serve you well. We acknowledge that each person's life experience is important.
In our reading this morning Mary Oliver uses her experience of walking "down to the ponds and through the pinewoods" to point us toward a consideration of death and resurrection. She tells us that "Mushrooms, even, have a brief hour/before the slug creeps to the feast."
When Oliver walks in the woods she does more than just view the landscape. She sees, and she sees below the surface of the wonders of life. She is open to the forces that create and sustain life. And she crafts her words to challenge her readers to look beyond the wonder of the world to the mystery of how it came to be, and how it continues. (Oliver, Mary, Why I Wake Early, Beacon Press, Boston, 2004, p. 66.)
She is amazed at the variety of life forms--"How many, how many, how many/ make up a world." And then she thinks of the unity of all things, "One cup, in which everything is swirled/back to the color of the sea and the sky." Here she touches on the mystery and wonder that is part of every deep relationship. We can sense this mystery in our relationships with other humans, but it is also present in our relationships with other animals, if we but open ourselves to them. This is also true of our relationship to the plant kingdom in which we live, and upon which we all ultimately depend. Transcendence requires relationship, for it means being a part of something larger than oneself. (Ibid.)
The "transcending mystery and wonder" in our first source goes unnamed. We will talk more about the mystics of antiquity who sought and achieved a relationship with the divine personage they worshipped later. Let us here note that the source does not name such a personage. Many of the religious liberals who come to our congregations experience transcendence in the natural world, as does Mary Oliver. We will explore this idea more fully later.
The language of our Purposes and Principles also affirms that this experience of transcending mystery and wonder is affirmed in all cultures. Often our instinctive reaction when faced with a claim of all or every is one of great caution. "Wait a minute," we often say. "All cultures? Surely there is one that does not fit this description?" I tried to think of an example and failed. If you think of a specific culture that does not experience mystery and wonder, please let me know.
I think it is a universal. Different tribes and clans and societies and religions name that experience in different ways. However all those of which I have read have this sense of wonder and mystery.
And we are told this sense leads to a renewal of the spirit. Don't we need that? Don't we need a way, a system, an experience that feeds our deepest being? We are engaged in living on a beautiful planet that has many problems. We must provide for our material survival, and we strive for something deeper. We struggle for justice, we want to be compassionate, we must teach our children, and we want to make a positive difference in our lives. We grow weary with our work, and we need renewal.
This last week I heard the phrase, "It's a beautiful day!" more times than I can count. Even yesterday, a Saturday in September, when it might have been gray and cloudy, even rainy, we had a beautiful day.
Because it was, we could go outside and enjoy the surroundings. Because it was, we could go down to the lake and watch and listen to the waves. We could transplant perennials and dream of next year's enhanced garden. We could picnic and play sports and watch the squirrels gather the innumerable acorns that drop from the many oak trees that dot our neighborhoods. We could connect with the natural world in a very direct way.
It restores our spirits to do such things. It is more than just getting exercise or cleaning up the yard. It is more than just playing or watching a good game of soccer. It connects us to something larger than ourselves. It is more difficult to find this connection in front of a television set or a computer screen. "It's a beautiful day," we say. And our spirits are renewed.
This mystery and wonder that we experience also moves us to an openness to the forces that create and sustain life. Again, these forces are not named. For some they will be encapsulated in the word God. For others, that word is not meaningful. For some, evolution is the answer. For others it is inadequate. It does not matter to what we give credit for the cosmos in which we live. What does matter is to be open to the power of the forces that create and sustain life.
I wish I knew more about astrophysics. It seems to me that every time I read National Geographic another new planet or star has been discovered. And, because of Einstein's theory of relativity, which I do NOT understand, the farther away the body located in the cosmos, the farther back in time the event observed happened. Now, we have cosmic scientists speculating that they may be observing events that happened less than a second after the Big Bang. I find this awe-inspiring. I find it filled with mystery. And I find it filled with power. I can only experience it second-hand, through pictures and words, but it is an experience of mystery and wonder.
One of the scientists who studies the far reaches of the universe is quoted as saying, "The universe is not only queerer than we thought, it is queerer than any one could have imagined!" I hope I live long enough to see further results of such exciting work.
We looked at the particulars of the first source and explored their meaning. Now, I want to turn to some examples of people who have found meaning in direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder.
This source has its roots in the transcendentalist movement of the middle 19th Century, whose great leader was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Although many other members of the New England Renaissance were critical to its contributions, Emerson was its primary spokesperson.
One of our responsive readings in our hymnbook contains the essence of his theory of The Oversoul. "As there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so there is no bar or wall in the soul where we, the effect, cease, and God, the cause begins," he says. And, "Let us learn the revelation of all nature and thought, that the Highest dwells within us, that the sources of nature are in our own minds."
These are words that deeply challenged the orthodox religion of the 19th Century, AND the nascent Unitarian churches of that era. Emerson was saying not only that everyone could directly experience God, (which is the only language for The Divine that was available to him) but also that God is within us all! "The Highest dwells within us," he says. Each of us has this divine essence. And, "the sources of nature are in our own minds."
The movement became known as Transcendentalism because Emerson held that each person could transcend, or go beyond the limits of their own skin. Each person could experience nature or the divine in a way that drew them into relationship. He said, "There is a deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is accessible to us. Every moment when the individual feels invaded by it is memorable."
It is Emerson's work that laid the groundwork for later study that developed into process theology. He believed that nature was an avenue to the divine, AND that there was a "deep power in which we exist." Process thought says that this "deep power" is that which creates good, and is often named God. However, since humans participate in creating good, they are part of the divine. Process theology attempts to unite the work of scientists and mystics and is proving satisfactory to many people.
The mystics of many faiths provide the most dramatic examples of transcending mystery and wonder being affirmed in all cultures. I will give you two examples, from the Islamic and Christian faiths.
I mentioned the first earlier--Rumi the Sufi poet who has been embraced by many western people. His biography is fascinating, his poetry beautiful and often challenging. The Sufis are the mystics of Islam. Although Sunni Islam does not encourage monasteries, Sufis often lived in such enclaves.
Rumi founded the Mevlevi dervishes, whom we know as the Whirling Dervishes. Coleman Barks is the great contemporary translator of Rumi. In the introduction to his poem, "The Turn" Barks explains its origin.
The story goes that he (Rumi) was walking in the goldsmithing section of Konya when he heard a beautiful music in their hammering. He began turning in harmony with it, an ecstatic dance of surrender and yet with great centered discipline. He arrived at a place where ego dissolves and a resonance with universal soul comes in. Dervish literally means "doorway." When what is communicated moves from presence to presence, darshan occurs, with language inside the seeing. When the gravitational pull gets even stronger, the two become one turning that is molecular and galactic and a spiritual remembering of the presence at the center of the universe. (Barks, Coleman, The Essential Rumi, Harper/SanFrancisco, 1995, p. 113)
Thus, the dance of the Whirling Dervishes brought them into a transcendent relationship with mystery and wonder, which they name Allah. Here is a selection of Rumi's poem series, "The Turn."
Inside water, a waterwheel turns.
A star circulates with the moon.
We live in the night ocean wondering,
What are these lights?
***
You have said what you are.
I am what I am.
Your actions in my head,
my head here in my hands
with something circling inside.
I have no name
for what circles
so perfectly.
***
A secret turning in us
makes the universe turn.
Head unaware of feet,
and feet head. Neither cares.
They keep turning.
***
Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move.
Walk to the well.
Turn as the earth and the moon turn,
circling what they love.
Whatever circles comes from the center.
***
Now, before we dismiss this turning meditation as something so totally outside our experience as to be irrelevant, let us examine some aspects of our lives. I wonder how different the effect of repetitive turning is from the effect of run-ning that we know as "runners high." I have not experienced either, so I am only speculating. Or, how is the effect different from sitting zazen, fairly com-mon in our culture today. The method is entirely different--incessant, repetitive motion, opposed to interminable non-motion. However, the practice of both includes controlling the body and freeing the mind in order to achieve a connection with a Higher Power.
However we answer these questions, Rumi gives us an example from a very different culture and faith of transcendence.
Let us now look at an example from the Christian tradition, but closer in Rumi's time than our own. Teresa of Avila was a nun from an upper class family in Italy who experienced visions of Jesus in great detail. Her superiors in the Catholic hierarchy tested her by telling her the visions were "from the devil," and discouraged her from extensive meditation. However she persisted, and with the help of her family founded an order centered on meditation.
She wrote of her experiences and explored their impact on the spiritual life. The website of the Province of the Teresian Carmel in Austria gives this review of her last book, The Interior Castle.
The Interior Castle is the principal source of mature Teresian thought on the spiritual life in its integrity. Chief emphasis is laid on the life of prayer, but other elements … are also treated. The interior castle is the soul, in the center of which dwells the Trinity. Growth in prayer enables the individual to enter into deeper intimacy with God--signified by a progressive journey through the apartments (or mansions) of the castle from the outermost to the luminous center. When a man (sic) has attained union with God in the degree permitted to him (sic) in this world, he (sic) is "at the center" of himself; (sic) in other words, he (sic) has integrity as a child of God and as a human being. Each of the apartments of the castle is distinguished by a different stage in the evolution of prayer, with its consequent effects upon every other phase of the life of the individual.
This page is maintained by the Province of the Teresian Carmel in Austria, Europe (webmaster@karmel.at).
Teresa's route to transcendence was prayer. This was the traditional understanding of how one obtains union with the divine in Christianity. Many Christian churches still counsel that this is the only way to achieve transcendence, be-cause they can only conceive of a transcendent relationship with the Christian God. Our language reflects this narrow understanding.
However, mystery and wonder abound! They await us every time we walk out the door and gaze into the night sky. Or they are present when we light a candle, read a poem and meditate. Or any of the myriad ways in which we feel connected to an entity larger than our individual selves.
Let us think of some everyday experiences of transcendence, of connection to mystery and wonder. When we join in singing, blending our voices to "Find a Stillness," or in a shout of joy such as "Over My Head" we become part of a larger group, we transcend our oneness. The same is true of chanting and dancing. Giving oneself to music frees one to be open and renews the spirit.
Perhaps the deepest experience of transcendence available to humans is found in expressing erotic love. The physical and spiritual union of two committed lovers is an illustration of transcendence through relationship. The two become one, and as they do, reach even further beyond into the mystery and wonder of being.
And, one can feel union with the natural world in many ways. It happened to me at the zoo. I was escorting my children through the large cat exhibit. There were three children in the middle grades. Zoos were just moving to housing their exhibits in natural habitats, which I thought was a great improvement. In one such habitat there was an extended family of cheetahs. I always admired these large cats for their beauty and grace. In one fairly accessible corner lay a cheetah mother, enduring the lively hungry presence of twin cubs. As I paused by the tableau she gave a great sigh, turned her head and looked directly at me. At once I felt a connection. My world of children met her world of cubs and recognized a relationship. "Bless you, honey," I thought. "I know exactly how you feel." She chirped a small cat chirp in reply.
Such small but significant moments are available to all of us. I certainly have no proof that the lovely cheetah actually felt a connection to me, but I shall always think that she did. I'm not at all convinced that Luna the redwood saved from a sawmill by Julia Butterfield felt a relationship or gratitude. However, I am not willing to say that it is impossible. Some relationships may be only one way. Nevertheless they may be sources of everyday transcendence.
Deeper experiences of transcendence are also available. One that is claimed by many Christians is a relationship with Jesus. I'm sure that some of you have had an earnest Christian asking you if you have a relationship with Jesus. I'm sure that this experience of transcendence is life-changing for many Christians. I am in no way discounting such an experience. I am saying that experiencing mystery and wonder is not limited to a Christian context.
Some of you remember Fred Campbell, who preached here a few times. Fred is a sailor who keeps his boat in Muskegon. He kindly invites me to share an afternoon on Lake Michigan occasionally. On one such afternoon he told me his theory of how Emerson came to experience and develop his ideas on transcendence.
Emerson's first beloved wife, Ellen, died of tuberculosis when they had been married only two years. He was deeply grieved, and started a long process of withdrawal from Unitarian ministry. He suffered from depression and his family decided a European trip, the Grand Tour, would be helpful. Shortly before his boat departed, and approximately two years after Ellen's death, he went to the mausoleum in which she was interred. He opened the vault, opened the lid of the coffin, and gazed upon the once-beautiful face of his beloved. He never spoke of what he saw there to anyone.
He left America then on the only transportation available for such a trip, a sailing ship. He traveled alone for the month it took to cross the Atlantic. He had little to do but pace the deck, gaze upon the infinite waves and into the infinite sky.
While in Europe he met and mingled with the great minds of the continent. He saw the remains of great civilizations, the great art work in the great museums. He returned to the United States about nine months later, taking ship once more.
And he started writing. The great essays, Nature, Self Reliance, and so forth poured from his pen. Fred thinks, and I agree that Emerson experienced transcendence on his ocean voyages. He was exposed to ideas he had not met before. He met infinity in a way not possible before.
I do not think we all have to suffer great losses to experience transcending mystery and wonder. However, I do think that being unafraid of mystery, of being willing to admit wonder can inform our faith. It can be a source of strength and wisdom not available in other ways.
Practice transcendence. It is good to feel connected to others, and the larger world. It is good to be open to the forces of creation. It is good to help sustain the world.
Amen.
Blessed Be.
Shalom.
Saalat.
Posted by nanak at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
Face to Face with God
FACE TO FACE WITH GOD
September 26, 2004
Modern Judaism retains the traditional rituals of the Torah. However, the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 of the Common Era. The Hebrews scattered away from the center of their worship. Most modern Jews live in the Diaspora.
Therefor the practice of Judaism had to change. Rabbinical Judaism emerged from the shards of the temple. However, the story of the ancient practice is still with us. One facet of the story is the scapegoat.
In the original ritual, the high priest brought three animals, a bull, and two goats as a special offering. First, the bull was sacrificed to rid the temple of any de-filement caused by the misdeeds of the priest and his family. Second, one of the goats was chosen by lot, and then sacrificed to rid the temple of the defilement caused by the misdeeds of the Israelites. And third, the second goat was sent away, not slain, to cleanse the people themselves of their misdeeds.
However, as the ritual developed, another critical element was added. At each stage, the high priest made confession to God. First he confessed the misdeeds of his family. Then he confessed the misdeeds of his priestly tribe, the Levites. And third, he confessed the sins of the people. As he did so, he laid his hands upon the head of the goat, and transferred their sins into the goat. Then the goat was chased out and away from the city--literally taking the misdeeds out and away from the people.
There was one other element of the ritual that was critical. This is the only time the people of Israel spoke aloud the name of their God. At all other times they used Adonai, or the Lord, to refer to God. On this day, when they were face to face with God, they spoke his name aloud. The pronunciation was never written and closely guarded. We no longer know the name of God.
Like all ritual, Yom Kippur is highly symbolic. And, like all Jewish ritual, it is deeply embedded in the life cycle of the year. Only ten days earlier Rosh Hash-anah, which marks the beginning of the year, was celebrated. The Days of Awe, which lead up to Yom Kippur, have their own special prayers. And following the High Holy Days Sukkoth, the harvest festival comes quickly.
Many religions have a similar day--a day when the god of the faith is petitioned for forgiveness, when sacrifices are made, and celebration follows. People can become deeply burdened by their misdeeds. People can become angry when wrongly treated. A ritual allows a method to release the anger, and lighten the load.
For religious liberals, the language surrounding such rituals can be troublesome. So, let us look at the language and see if we can deconstruct it so that the ritual may be helpful to us.
Let us take the really big one first--God. For the ancient Israelites God was a very real presence in their lives. God had led them out of Egypt, God had led them to the land of Israel, flowing with milk and honey. God had given them the greatest gift of all--the Torah. God had given them instructions on how to build a temple, and the rituals that should be conducted there.
Few religious liberals claim a god of this type. Many religious liberals do not claim a god at all. Those who do so often envision a force rather than a person-age, or a mystical presence rather than a lawgiver. However, most religious liberals acknowledge something larger than the self. That may be the larger community of humankind, or the even larger community of all living beings, or the even larger community of all that exists in the ever expanding universe.
For purposes of discussion and economy of language I ask that you allow the word God to substitute for that which you claim as your transcendent community. Thus, when we say face to face with God, please imagine the larger community with which you relate.
Now, the next big challenging word--confession. How many of you are ex-Catholics? Those who are have a lot of overlapping, confusing memories of confession. Going to confession was the price one paid for the privilege of participating in Holy Communion. Protestant faiths often practice unison con-fessions. A unison confession allows one to judiciously select which portion one will not say, or mumble, or say with one's fingers crossed. It is a little safer.
We liberal religionists don't practice confession. So, we avoid the embarrass-ment of speaking to the priest, or the mental gyrations in selecting which portion of the unison confession we will say. … However, we are not perfect. I hope this does not disillusion anyone. Let me repeat--we are not perfect. We make mis-takes. Not very many, of course, but still--a few.
I remember waking in the morning and facing getting my three children off to school. The youngest, Richard, was hyperactive, and hated school. This was the day I had PMS. I would vow, before my feet ever hit the floor, that I would not yell at Richard before he left for school. I never made it. Not once under those circumstances.
Now, I was a young mother who read all the latest literature, and I knew that yell-ing at your children was not a good thing to do. For years I beat myself up about that. I wish there had been a method, a ritual in which I could participate in order to seek and be granted forgiveness.
I'd be happy to confess--I am a baaaad mother--if the burden of guilt could have been lifted from my shoulders. I think confession can be good for the soul.
Forgiveness is the next big religious word. From who or what do we ask for-giveness? This is the dilemma we, who are sophisticated religious liberals, ask ourselves. The first answer is, of course, from the person we have wronged.
But that is also tough. It takes a lot of courage to face the person you have wronged and ask forgiveness. And, if the wrong was a great one, it takes a lot of strength to grant forgiveness to the wrongdoer. This is not easy stuff!
However, there are other wrongs we humans do that are not directed against a specific person, but rather against what we shall call God. Let me suggest that those who pollute the water, the air, and the land itself fit in this category. Let me suggest that it is far easier to throw that little flashlight battery in the nearest wastebasket than put it aside and later hunt up the nearest safe disposal site. If you want a picture perfect lawn it is easier to use fertilizers than it is to develop an organic lawn, even though the fertilizers eventually end up in Muskegon Lake.
Thus, if we repent of our misdeed and cease our polluting actions, from whom do we ask forgiveness? I suggest we ask it of what we are today calling God.
The ancient Israelites had a process they followed during the Days of Awe that preceded Yom Kippur. It was a process of forgiveness. First, they remembered their misdeeds. They examined their lives during the last year, and they called to mind the mistakes they made. Perhaps someone repeated an item of gossip that was damaging. Perhaps someone cheated another. Perhaps there was a fight.
After remembering, the obligation was to repent. This just means one felt sorry for their misdeed. We do that all the time. After loosing a stream of invective at the idiot who just cut in front of the car, with no signal, we're usually sorry. We're sorry we lost our temper and we're sorry any passengers witnessed our question-able behavior. We repent of our action.
And, it's fairly easy to ask forgiveness of our passengers. It probably would be unwise to chase after the idiot who is now eight cars away after cutting in front of other drivers just to ask forgiveness for calling him names he never heard. So, we have followed the process. If we then vow to ourselves, "and I'm really going to try to control my language better in the future," we can probably mark this particular misdeed off our list.
However, let us say there is a bigger problem. Let us say that the misdeed actually hurt someone. Let us say that you had repeated some gossip that was untrue, and the person you told had some power over the victim of your impul-sive behavior. Let us say that your action resulted in your victim failing to get a job he or she was seeking.
You didn't mean to cause this response. You had no real ill intention toward the person. It was just some careless words, but they made a big difference. And it might be that your victim does not even know what you did.
But you can't forget. That first step, remembering, doesn't take very long. It's always there, in the back of your mind. It is not difficult to remember; you just wish you could forget.
You will not really be free of this burden until you confess to your victim, express your sorrow and ask forgiveness. It won't be easy and it won't be painless. How-ever, it needs to be done.
It may be that your victim will not grant forgiveness the first time you ask. The rabbis taught that one must ask three times, and that all reasonable people should grant forgiveness at the third request. If not, you have done all you can do, and can approach God on Yom Kippur with a clear conscience. You have done all you can to keep in right relationship with the other humans around you.
However, you must also be in right relationship with God. Asking and granting forgiveness among your community members is one way to do that. But there is your direct relationship with God.
If you have damaged your relationship with God, either through inattention to God's requirements for worship, or damaging God's creation, you must ask forgiveness through prayer on Yom Kippur. If done with a sincere heart, God grants forgiveness.
Most of Yom Kippur is spent in prayer. It begins the night before when adult worshippers begin their fast, and it continues through the afternoon of the holi-day. There is a prayer used in some congregations at the evening service before Yom Kippur. It was written by Rebbe Levi Yitzchak.
Lord of the World, I stand before You and before my neighbors--pardoning, forgiving, struggling to be open to all who have hurt and angered me. Be this hurt of body or soul, of honor or property, whether they were forced to hurt me or did so willingly, whether by accident or intent, whether by word or deed--I forgive them because we are human. May no one feel guilty on my account. I am ready to take upon myself the commandment, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Waskow, Arthur, Seasons of Our Joy, Beacon Press, Boston, 1982, p. 39)
You may be saying to yourself, "This is all very interesting, Nana', but what does it mean to me? I am not an ancient Hebrew, nor am I a modern Jew. Why should I even be interested in methods of forgiveness?"
The current issue of Newsweek magazine (Sept. 27, 2004) has an article named Forgive and Let Live. Basically the authors say we should forgive because it is good for us. One of their contributors quoted Confucius, who said, "If you devote your life to seeking revenge, first dig two graves."
Recent research by the foundation A Campaign for Forgiveness Research found:
"…that forgiveness works in at least two ways. One is by reducing the stress of the state of unforgiveness, a potent mixture of bitterness, anger, hostility, hatred, resentment and fear (of being hurt or humiliated again.) These have specific physiologic consequences--such as increased blood pressure and hormonal changes--linked to cardiovascular disease, immune suppression and, possibly, impaired neurological function and memory. …
The other benefit of forgiveness is more subtle; it relates to research show-ing that people with strong social networks--of friends, neighbors and fam-ily--tend to be healthier than loners. Someone who nurses grudges and keeps track of every slight is obviously going to shed some relationships over the course of a lifetime. Forgiveness, says Charlotte vanOyen Witvliet, a researcher at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, should be incorporated into one's personality, a way of life, not merely a response to specific in-sults. (Newsweek September 27, 2004, "Forgive and Let Live," Jordana Lewis and Jerry Adler, p. 52.)
Our mental and emotional health has specific consequences on our physical health. We damage our bodies and shorten our lives when we carry around the burden of unforgiveness. However, forgiving is a complex process. Everett Worthington, executive director of the foundation, A Campaign for Forgiveness, distinguishes between "what he calls 'decisional forgiveness'--a commitment to reconcile with the perpetrator--from the more significant 'emotional forgiveness,' an internal state of acceptance. Forgiveness does not require that we forgo justice, or to make up to people we have every right to despise." (Ibid.)
I struggled with the idea of forgiveness for a very long time. My daughter was murdered, my husband killed in a vehicular homicide car crash. How could I possibly forgive the perpetrators of these crimes? It was not okay that either was dead.
Then I came to understand forgiveness in a different way, what I would now call the "emotional forgiveness" of which Mr. Worthington speaks. I came to an in-ternal state of acceptance. I did not forgo justice nor stop despising the people who killed my loved ones. But I stopped allowing them to control my life. I did not dig the two graves that seeking revenge would have required. I was able to proceed with my life, changed, but not focused exclusively on pain.
I speculate that forgiveness is not only good for the individual, but also good for society at large. When large numbers of people carry burdens of anger and stress, they contribute to the anxiety already present in our society. One incident of road rage can contribute to other such incidents. The angry person who kicks a dog on the way out the door leaves behind a dog that may well bite someone. Anger taken out on a child teaches the child that adults have the power to hurt children. This sets up a pattern that may be replicated in the future.
If we forgive people the small misdeeds they do, we may build a society that contains less stress and anxiety. And large sins may also be forgiven. In South Africa the Truth and Justice Reconciliation Committee is experimenting with a model that follows the process set forth by the ancient Hebrews. Instead of seeking imprisonment for all those people who struggled and fought and mur-dered and tortured in the days of apartheid, the process seeks reconciliation. People are invited to confess their part in the crimes of the era, to repent of their misdeeds, and to ask forgiveness. The forgiveness is granted.
I believe the God of the ancient Hebrews would be pleased. I believe that this model can be extended. Next Saturday we will be hosting a seminar called "No Future Without Forgiveness" in which this model is used to examine a possible future for Israel.
I invite you to participate in the seminar. Registration and sign up sheets are available in the Social Hall.
Wouldn't it be a fine irony if the system envisioned and practiced millennia ago by the ancient Hebrews was returned to Israel through South Africa? Wouldn't it be a grand development to use the practices of Yom Kippur to help bring peace to the tortured land of our spiritual fathers and mothers?
However, let us not forget that peace starts with the individual. Let us each re-member the process of forgiveness, taught by the ancient rabbis and confirmed by modern psychology. Let us remember the deeds we performed that brought pain and distress to others. Let us repent of our misdeeds and seek forgiveness. Let us grant forgiveness when it is sought. Let us go forth cleared of our burdens of guilt and unforgiveness. Let us celebrate our meeting with God, face to face.
Amen.
Blessed Be.
Shalom.
Saalat.
Posted by nanak at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)
Worship Committee October Meeting
The worship committee will meet October 13th at HUUUC. Time of the meeting is 5:30. All members and freinds interested in the worship aspect of HUUC are welcome.
Posted by harboruu at 07:23 AM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2004
September Worship Committee Report
Worship Committee Report
9.9.04
At the Worship Committee meeting on 8 September 3 items of note were discussed.
1. The curtains in the sanctuary are down. We are going to try worship services sans curtains until at least 1 January 2005.
If we get concerns from folks who are having a hard time seeing we can then revisit this. We fell this is an appropriate
move aesthetically. If people are going to have a hard time with sun it most likely will be during the fall and winter when
we have low suns.
2. As part of our 50th anniversary celebration we want congregation members and friends to help out with our sermon series on the
7 principles. The 7 sermons will then be put into book form with short introduction as a sample of the thoughts and beliefs
of our congregation in our 50th year. The 2nd, 5th, 6th and 7th principles are still seeking sponsors. These include such
juicy possibilities as the environment and the democratic process. See a committee member to secure a principle to speak on and a date
to do so! P.S. Our 50th anniversary kick off is Sunday October 10th with Nana speaking.
3. Our 2nd Vesper Service of 2004 will be Friday September 17th at the Mcgraft Park Band Shell. We'll have a pot luck picnic at
6:30 PM, with the service beginning at 7:30 PM. I'll be be providing corn to grill, there'll be music and an opportunity for
members and friends to participate in a fall/harvest poetry reading.
P.S. This committee is still seeking more members. Not a better way to have a positive impact on HUUC than helping with worship
services.
Ike Stephenson, Chair
Posted by harboruu at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
What is HUUC's Mission
Mission of Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation? Sept-18
This gathering will take place at HUUC in the social hall on Saturday, September 18th at 9:30 AM. The process is in depth and will require a commitment of several hours and refreshments will be provided. If you have an interest in the future goals of HUUC, please plan to attend this very important experience.
Posted by harboruu at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)
Good communication… sometimes it isn’t all that easy
Cathy Kaufman, Board President of HUUC
Remember the old childhood game of telephone? The first child in line whispers a sentence to the second person, who repeats it to the next in line, etc. until it has been translated through the line to the very last child on the end. Inevitably, the sentence has been converted to something vaguely similar to the original sentence. So, “I have a pretty red apple”, has been turned into something like, “I crave a witty bed table”.
We have so many forms of communication at our disposal in the twenty-first century. Only twenty years ago, very few people had access to email or a cell phone and the answering machine was a fairly new concept. Now, just a couple decades later, many of us would be lost without these conveniences to keep in touch with our friends, family and work. With all these new forms of communication at our disposal, you would think that we would be wonderful communicators! NOT!
I would be lost without email. It is my favorite way to correspond. I can zip out an email message to one or to twenty people in less than a minute, which by telephone would take me an hour or more to do. I find that since it is so quick and easy, I am more open in emails than I am on the phone. Emails aren’t as personal because you are not speaking directly to the person. I make myself reread each before sending it to see if it portrays what I had intended. If it comes across a little too harsh, I change the wording.
Like so many people, I lead a very busy life. So I may be doing one thing, while thinking about something else. This can sometimes cause miscommunication in what my husband refers to as my “tone”. I will say something to him and he will respond with anger in his voice so I respond back with anger now in my voice, and after arguing a few minutes, I say, “why are we yelling at each other?” To which he responds, “well you started it”, “I did not, you did, I only said….”Yes, he says, but you said it using an angry tone”. I hadn’t even been aware I used a “tone”. I was thinking about something else totally unrelated that was causing the “angry tone” in my voice. This occurs frequently in our house. Perhaps we should just email each other.
Since becoming the Board President, I have a lot of people who come directly to me with concerns, ideas and hearsay. It is interesting when several people approach me about the same topic but with totally different versions of it. Like the story of the blind men feeling different parts of the elephant, each person comes away from an experience with a different view of the same situation. In a Unitarian Universalist context, there could be hundreds of different viewpoints!
As a democratic institution, everyone should feel free to state their opinions, except when they may cause harm to HUUC or to others. It is here that the line gets fuzzy.
Let’s go back to the story of the elephant. Let’s say one HUUC committee is the blind man feeling the tail of the elephant and another committee is feeling his trunk and there are some members feeling his legs. Whose interpretation of the elephant is correct? They all are, only none of them are seeing the entire picture, only the part that is within their reach. In the same way, when several people approach me with different suggestions to solve one problem, I conclude pretty quickly that I can’t possibly please them all, nor is it my job to do so.
In order for clear communication to work, a democratic system needs followed. I do my best to justify the question of complaint on the spot if I am aware of the details and have an answer; otherwise I direct the person to the correct committee or person who can help them. For example, if a suggestion for a change in policy is made, the correct procedure would be to relate it in writing for the board, either in person to a board member or place it in the President’s in/out box in the office space in the social hall. The board will address the suggestion at the next board meeting and make a decision based on the mission and goals of the church among other considerations. I would also suggest that if you have a question about board or committee work, you ask a member to get you the meeting minutes. This is information that is available to all.
As President, I feel it is my job to help all the blind men see the entire elephant. The board has recently created a way to do just that. On September 18, all members are invited to attend a Mission/Vision writing session, once written, these statements of HUUC will be presented to all committee chairs, staff and board members at a quarterly informational sharing time named CommUnity (Committee + Unity) meetings. It is my hope that these meetings will generate better communication between the HUUC leadership and make our organization stronger.
Sometimes you need to put aside all the newest gadgets and just sit together and communicate person to person!
Posted by harboruu at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)