Eternal God,
sometimes it feels like we have very little to hold on to. Sometimes it feels like there is so much to
think about we don’t know where to start.
Help us find our holy groundedness—that place inside and around us where
we find ourselves face to face with our own truth. Amen
Today’s sermon is really about
paradox. When you search for words with
similar meanings in the thesaurus (one of my favorite ways to expand my
understanding of words) you find yourself taken down a rather strange
path. Words like “inconsistency”,
“absurdity”, “irony”, “enigma”, and “impossibility” spring up. And, as if to trump all the others,
“illogicality” leads the pack. Ouch,
that hurts our little well-defended hearts.
Now, here’s the problem, while the word ‘paradox’ itself may not feel
consciously imbued with a spirit of negativity, all those words we use to
describe what a paradox really is are naturally thought of pejoratively—places
our, oh so logical minds dread to tread.
In my own theology, I, several years
ago, moved to a phrase that I felt more comfortable with—“sacred
contradictions”. Today, I want us to
think about how our ability to hold and even treasure those sacred contradictions—those
things that are puzzles if perceived only with the rational mind—can help us be
present to the “Mystery” (capital M) that takes our lives from mundane to
sacred holiness or wholeness. Why is
this worth my time and effort, you might ask?
The value in our ability to move from avoiding to holding to celebrating
these sacred contradictions is that the inability to do this is the one thing
that keeps us from being able to embrace the entire sacred world and to
understand the joy of the sentient world as well.
Let me give you an example—let’s say
that you are very angry at God or Life or the Universe or however you perceive
it—a loved one has been taken, a job lost, financial security is ripped out
from under you. At the same time, you
continue to live in the glorious world of nature with other loved ones or
friends. If your anger at God cannot be
held at the same time as your gratitude to the Universe for life itself, you
will force yourself to choose. I don’t
think I need to tell you which one will win out. But, if we can come to believe that both of
those feelings and realities live in us at once—that one does not necessarily
cancel the other one out, then we can begin to live life from a “wholeness”
perspective. And, it is only in a wholeness
perspective that true healing can occur.
Let me give you an historical
example since I have vowed to stay out of the political arena. In the Second World War we were drawn into
the war in the Pacific. Terrible things happened
in that war. But one of the most tragic,
other than the thousands who were killed or maimed by the dropping of nuclear
bombs, was the massive internment of Japanese immigrants on our west Coast. We, as a country, could not live with the
contradiction of fighting the Japanese army while being home to thousands of
Japanese immigrants. So we forced them
to live in captivity until the end of the war.
Had we been able to live with that contradiction, we would have had one
less blight on the soul of the United States of America and we would have been
one step closer to wholeness. The
inability to balance seemingly impossible realities causes us as individuals
and as countries to be less than whole in our humanity.
There is another arena where we have
great difficulty in balancing the contradictions which I believe to be
holy. And that is when we look at our
own growth as spiritual beings. We speak
often of Spiritual Formation in this church.
Let me say, up front, that I am not sure any of us truly understand all
that this seemingly simple phrase means.
Spirituality is, first and foremost, a gift. But it is a gift that does not come fully
developed. The process of development
itself is a gift. Our experiences, as we
allow ourselves to be present to them, are both individual and collective
gifts. We want to explore various
spiritual practices and we do; perhaps Lectio Divina with its quiet meditation
on sacred word, perhaps walking meditation where movement and quiet are
present, perhaps yoga or tai chi where discipline is combined with mental and
spiritual reflection. It is my
experience that the learning of new ways of expressing spirituality inevitably
leads to a desire for further exploration and experimentation. So, as much as our endings are gifts in
themselves, they inspire a deep yearning for more.
Our inability to hold on to
seemingly disparate beliefs stifles our willingness to become more and more
whole as led by the Spirit of Love. If,
and I know this is a big ‘if’—if we can allow ourselves to learn from other
spiritual traditions and place our fear in abeyance while we allow the spirit
of the Whole to show us the wisdom we can gain from exploring other traditions
we grow not only in our own tradition but, as humans sharing a common planet,
we learn how to be present in melded ways the whole of humanity can understand
at once. Let me give you an
example. When I was at the most
committed to yoga stage in my life, there was a relatively strong movement in
Evangelical Christianity for people to learn “Christian Yoga”. Now, think about that for a minute. What in the world is “Christian Yoga”? Yoga, centuries old, itself has many
traditions but is often subsumed under the one word ‘yoga’. Each of those traditions has its own
emphasis, some so subtle that, except for yoga experts, you can’t tell the
difference. The most common differences
have to do with the speed or conditions under which the positions are
practiced. What is shared is the belief
that these various positions along with the focused meditations unleash energy
that has been previously bottled up in the body. Yoga, of course, is a wonderful practice and
has been credited with having a positive effect on many medical
conditions.
Apparently, though I never sought
out a class, Christian Yoga consists of the same basic poses but the meditations
are focused on the teachings of Christ and on God. I wondered then and I wonder now, “why did
yoga need to be ‘Christianized”? Aha,
the ‘founders’ and I use the word loosely since it is difficult to see how one
can ‘found’ something that has been in existence for centuries, could not hold
the sacred contradiction of a professing Christian practicing an Eastern
spiritual practice. This is a silly
example, you may say, but, I assure you I did not make it up.
There is one thing we must not miss
here, so please listen. It is in the
moment of holding the two so-called opposing truths in our hands, rolling them
around, treasuring each for what it is—it is in that moment when power and
grace are generated. We must have those
moments and lots of them, if we are ever to have an impact on the world for
Good and an impact in our lives for Growth.
Life is about growing, becoming more and more of what God has created us
to be. Being accepted and truly loved by
God is a starting point—we spend our lives working out what it means to be
loved. It is in that working out that we
come to know the value of saving the world.
It is in that saving the world we learn to be whole.
I invite you to try a little
experiment. Think of something in your
life about which two things or thoughts appear to be true. I would like for you, if you are able, to
hold both of your hands out in front of you, palms up, at a comfortable
level. Now, in your right hand, mentally
place a picture or the words of something you believe in very much. Now, in your left hand, place the things or
thought that feels like it is in conflict.
Spend a moment going back and forth looking at your two hands. Ignore your neighbors, they are doing their
own thing. Now place your hands back to
back like this. Keeping your focus on
your hands and the thoughts in your hands, how does that feel. Awkward, uncomfortable, maybe even
painful. That is where many of us are
living right now. Now relax your hands
and put them back out in front of you. Place
your right hand down at your side—how does your left hand feel? Alone, perhaps. Bring your right hand back out in front. Gazing at your own hands for a moment, gently
place them in the position that describes how you would like for your hands to
interact. Perhaps, you will just hold
both hands together, perhaps you will lace your fingers together—it’s
completely up to you. Hold them there
for a moment—feel the warmth that rises from your hands—that warmth is
energy—energy that inspires you to change and energy that will heal the
world. Amen and amen.
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