Sunday, January 30, 2011

Healing and Wholeness

For some time I have wanted to engage those meditating with the Prayer of the Lamb in exploring its intercessory aspect, to compare this spiritual practice with other ways people have prayed in intercession for others, and tie all this in with scripture and the process of faith realization. This last fall I started to offer a class on Intercession and Healing, but it turned out not to be the right time.

Now I’m back looking at this topic both as a class offering and for a very personal reason. On the last day of September I embarked on an unexpected and what has turned out to be a continuously unfolding adventure of sorts beginning with a routine mammogram. That scan led to a second mammogram that led to a needle biopsy that led to biopsy surgery. The breast cancer that was discovered was at a very early stage thankfully. And I am very grateful for the many blessings and advantages I enjoy – I have medical insurance, I have access to medical care, I can learn about what this is and all the ways in which it is treated, and I have a large network of friends and colleagues who are a tremendous resource of information, and emotional, practical and spiritual support. I am indeed blessed.

So while my personal time now and in the near future is taken up with a lot of attention given this condition, I feel even more strongly about the relevancy of meditation as intercession. With that comes questions concerning what we mean by healing, what the role of faith is in praying for others, what is faith, what is the source of faith, and what the connection is between healing and wholeness. These are questions that people of faith have been asking and exploring for centuries, and they are questions most all of us grapple with at one time or another during our lifetimes.

Usually attention goes first to medical intervention: symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, convalescence, recovery, prevention. The physical body deservedly and appropriately receives a great deal more attention than previously. But healing obviously involves more than the physical alone. The mind is so connected and integrated with the body that the process of healing is not a separate or isolated experience of the body alone. Whether illness or injury our emotions, memory, hopes and fears, desires and longings, frustrations and anxieties all respond to what is happening physically and also impact recovery and healing. And it is also well known that our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and life-style habits all have an influence positive or negative on the health of the body, indeed even to the point of contributing to the genesis of disease.

But it doesn’t stop there within the single individual. We also live in community and as a part of the environment. What contributes to well-being or to disease, pollution, environmental toxins and hazards goes far beyond the individual. There is a sense in which we can say that much of our various health problems are a result of simply being born into this environment and culture. This takes the issue of healing and wholeness to an inclusiveness that encompasses all that we know and can touch around us. Healing at this level then necessarily includes reconciliation and social healing, which is another way to say social justice – restoring wholeness for all members of the community.

When we pray the Prayer of the Lamb, Yeshua, Lamb of God, have mercy on us, offering it in the manner of meditation, we are accepting the inclusiveness of the scope of God’s mercy. This necessarily goes beyond my supposedly separate and individual self, my personal concerns and my own desires. If I receive mercy and healing, if in any way I come to greater wholeness as an integrated being, that integration is not solely within this skin. It is integration within the entire environment, in the whole field of life. It is no small matter. A single word can create life or destroy it. Our healing is not our own, and I will not come to full wholeness until we all are whole.

So meditation is a way of service that is inclusive and comprehensive more than it is individually focused. For those of us who meditate this then comes as a mandate of responsibility for participating through this faith practice in being healers for the world.

Keep meditating!

Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly

Monday, January 17, 2011

Sermon for the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan 1/16/2011

Baptism and the Baptismal Covenant

Ever since the ratification of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer
we have been engaging more intentionally
with the concept of a baptismal covenant.

This is much more than we ever did with the 1928 version
of the baptismal liturgy.
It was all there essentially in the old prayer book in the questions asked
of the baptismal candidates and their sponsors,
but it was not organized and elucidated so clearly
in a way that unpacked the concentrated meaning of the one question
in the older liturgy, which was simply:

“Wilt thou then obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments,
and walk in the same all the days of thy life?”

It’s been almost 40 years now during which the new wording
in the form of the 5 questions following the Apostles’ Creed
has been used,
and the congregations of the Episcopal Church have found them to be
practical,
a significant teaching tool,
and a guide for personally living out the faith.

But a covenant has two sides to it;
It is an agreement by two parties with mutual contributions and benefits.

We’re going to baptize a child today
promising to raise him in the faith
so that he will live out his part of the baptismal covenant.
But let’s look also at the other side of the covenant and God’s part,
what it is that God does that is directed towards us.

The first thing that might come to mind is the forgiveness of sins.
That’s good,
but it’s just the beginning.
Forgiveness of sins was what John the Baptist was emphasizing by his baptism,
AND he made quite a point
about how the baptism of Jesus was going to be a whole lot more.

In baptism we then say
that we are being made a member of the household of faith.
Sure – but it’s more than just becoming an official member of the church.

The Apostle Paul says we are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection.
In the waters of baptism
we are spiritually plunged into the heart of the mystery of our salvation
- the death and resurrection of Jesus –
and how in our identification with Jesus
his actions have an all encompassing effect
and we are engulfed by
the reconciling, healing and liberating power and love of God.

Totally new life we are given, and we are made a new creation,
set free from all sorts of conditions
that would hold us down and have deadly consequences for us.
Salvation addresses more than sin;
this includes addressing our addictions,
our delusion and spiritual blindness,
our relationship with everyone else and the whole of creation
and wherever in our lives there is less than wholeness.

Look at the Gospel lesson for today – Jesus’ own baptism.
What happens?
It’s not the baptism that John was carrying out on those who came to him
– a ritual washing clean from sin.
Jesus stands up in the water and the heavens open
and the Spirit descends like a dove and rests upon him.

The heavens open
and Jesus becomes the connecting point between heaven and earth.

He is the link, the ladder, like Jacob’s ladder
between our earth-bound thoughts and desires
and the revelation of God.

If what Paul said is true,
that we are baptized into Christ and into his Name
- and this has been a core teaching of the Church for the last 2,000 years -
then we can take upon ourselves
the revelation that came from God at the baptism of Jesus:
the words, “This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”

His baptism is our baptism.
His identity is our identity.
His Name is our Name.

Indeed in the rite of baptism, in the baptismal liturgy
when we present the candidates we give their first and middle names,
but not the last name, the family name,
because instead it is implicit, covertly understood
that the new family name is “Christian,”
a name we all share, those of us here who are also baptized:
Christian – little Christ.

God looks at each of us in our baptized state and says,
“This is my Son, my Daughter, beloved to me, my heart’s delight.
How can I be anything other than delighted in you.”

So the Baptismal Covenant has two side,
and it is a covenant initiated from God’s side:
“You are my beloved child.”
And we respond by expressing our faith and pledging ourselves
to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers
to persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin,
repent and return to the Lord
to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ
to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves
and to strive for justice and peace among all people,
and respect the dignity of every human being.

We say these words along with baptismal candidates and their sponsors
as a way to embed within ourselves again and again
these basic and essential elements of Christian living
until we become conscious of them daily in whatever we are doing.

And this is one of those Sundays
that even if we didn’t have a baptism,
we would still renew our own baptismal covenant

because – always remember this –
God looks at each of us and says:
“This is my Son, my Daughter, beloved to me.
How can I be anything other than delighted in you.”

Receive the salvation abundantly offered
and live in the continuous New Creation of life in Christ.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Sermon for the Feast of the Epiphany

When I was in India,
I spent some time at a famous Christian ashram, Shantivanam.
I met there a man who had been a student of Dom Bede Griffiths,
well known for his insightful books about Christ in India.

Br. John Martin Sahajananda was himself
a profound theologian and excellent teacher.
I learned much by attending his daily satsungs.

I want to share with you this morning
some new and insightful thoughts from him
about the old and familiar story
of the visit of the wise men to the Virgin and Holy Child.

First I need to say something about what we mean by wise men
about being wise and about wisdom.
There is a significant difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Knowledge is an accumulation of learning,
it is stored in memory and is brought up out of the past.
Knowledge is lived out in the mind.

Wisdom is a creative process lived in the present,
responsive, adaptive and relevant to the moment.
Wisdom can use knowledge, but it doesn’t work the other way around.

Wisdom is like a flowing river,
knowledge is like a bucket of water separated from the living river.
Wisdom is quality, knowledge is quantity.
Wisdom cannot be seen with the naked eye but can be perceived by the heart.
Wisdom is as light as a feather or as invisible as the wind,
but knowledge is heavy with the accumulation of years.
Wisdom gives life to dead knowledge.
It is like pouring the bucket of water back into the river again.

To acquire knowledge one needs money and time,
but wisdom is given freely.
Wisdom can satisfy our desire for truth far beyond what knowledge can do.

So we have the story of some wise men from the East
coming to see a child and his mother.
Is this just a quaint story in our sacred texts?
Or does it hold some wisdom of spiritual depth for us?
What is the eternal truth embedded in this story
that might be revealed to eyes that see and ears that hear?
What is the meaning of this “living parable”
of the Virgin, the Child and the wise men?
- a meaning and wisdom available for our own lives –

Br. John Martin described it thus:
“Mary represents the virgin mind,
and the child Jesus represents the eternal wisdom born from God.
The child is the symbol of the creative life.
The birth of wisdom is a great joy for those who are waiting for it
and who want to place themselves under its guidance.
…The wise men were seekers of God and seekers of truth.

“When Mary, the virgin par excellence gave birth to the wisdom par excellence,
the star appeared in the sky.
…The star appeared in the East
and it is in the East that the new day is born, where new life begins.
The wise men who came from the East represent a mind
in which ignorance has come to an end
and in which the light of truth has appeared.

…[In other words] the fulfillment of knowledge is to be at the service of wisdom,
to be a vehicle of wisdom.”

“Wisdom,” Br. John Martin said, “is seeing the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.”
So when the wise men saw the star in the sky and it led them to a child,
their minds were not limited by their knowledge and expectations,
and they could readily respond with joy and drop to their knees
and worship this child –
who was not the great ruler they might have expected,
but a baby fresh to this world,
not yet conditioned by knowledge from the world he had been born into.
“Wisdom is seeing the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.”

Here is an eternal truth revealed to us in this story. Again Br. John Martin:
“The star appears and disappears.
When one leaves the security of the mind and knowledge,
the star appears and guides.
But when one falls back onto the mind the star disappears.
To encounter the star, to encounter wisdom, and to be led by it,
is an experience of great joy.
There are moments in one’s life when the star appears clearly,
at other times it disappears, for instance when doubts enter our minds,
but then again it appears to cast out all these doubts.
To be led by a star is an adventure.”

So the star leads the wise men to the Child and they fall on their knees before him
and they give him and his mother gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
They offer everything they have accumulated during their search for truth.
Br. John Martin says that
“…this is a beautiful representation of the culmination
of the search of the human mind,
which not only falls at the feet of wisdom
but also offers all its possessions to wisdom to be used by wisdom.

“The mind can accumulate material, sensual and spiritual treasure.
Gold represents material riches,
myrrh [an expensive perfume] represents sensual riches
and incense represents spiritual riches.
Nothing is rejected, everything is placed at the service of wisdom,
and everything is consecrated,
everything has found its proper and rightful place.”

Now there is another actor in the story, one we shouldn’t ignore – Herod.

Br. John Martin says:
“There are two kinds of seekers –
the person who wants to find error and to kill,
[horrendously present to us in the news right now]
and the person who, with a pure heart and mind,
is searching for the truth to worship it, as did the wise men.
…Herod represents established power structures,
the mind that clings to power, that finds security in power
and wants to continue that power from generation to generation.
…This kind of mind does not hesitate to use violence to protect itself
and to ensure the continuation of its position and power.
This kind of mind reduces truth to a system of knowledge to be protected.
It sees itself as the guardian of the structure,
and, always fearful, suspicious and defensive, seeks to protect the status quo.”

Herod was afraid of the child and acted quickly,
getting the information he needed so that he could make his plan
for nullifying the threat the child was bringing to his power and security.

“A mind that is closed in on itself,” Br. John Martin said,
“[is a mind that] is dead,
it is a mind that has defined the truth and which refuses life and wisdom.
But it is not possible to kill wisdom
just as a dead person cannot kill a living person.
Herod was already dead
because he had structured the truth and put it into the tomb of knowledge.

“…The wise men were the opposite of Herod…
They had nothing to defend, nothing to propagate,
and all they did is to prostrate themselves at the feet of wisdom
and to offer everything they had as a gift
to [the One who is] the Gift that they had received,
so everything became a gift.”

So the Virgin, the Holy Child
and the Wise Men at the feet of the child offering their gifts
present to us a wonderful symbol of spiritual truth for our everyday lives.
One last quotation:
“The old is at the service of the new,
the past is at the service of the present.
Knowledge is at the service of wisdom.
…Usually it is the old who lead the child,
the past that guides the present,
and knowledge tries to define wisdom…
But here the roles are reversed.”

The old is at the service of the new,
the past is at the service of the present.
Knowledge is at the service of wisdom.

So as we reflect on our own lives in relation to all this,
where in our lives do we see clearly
the difference between wisdom and knowledge?
Where do we stick with what we know
in order to stay secure?
Where does the wisdom that can be seen by the heart
lead us beyond the status quo into the adventure of seeking the truth?

Are we more like the wise men?
or like Herod?
At any time each of us can be a wise person or a Herod.
Yet even a Herod can yet become a wise person.

A newborn child leads the old and the wise,
and in him eternity, truth, and life is manifested:
Emmanuel – God with us.