Feb 27, 2010
St. Benedict’s, Los Osos CA
The Rev. Brian H. O. A. McHugh
[ Isaiah 49: 8-16A; Ps 131; 1 Corinthians 4: 1-5; Matthew 6: 24-34 ]
Here is an excerpt from a poem entitled “The Summer Day” by the American poet Mary Oliver:
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
……….
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
Don’t those six words just ring with poetic strength! “What is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” That is exactly the question that Jesus is addressing in the passage from Matthew this morning. I would guess, from now having known most of you for 3 years or so, that we all confront this question. I’ve heard many of you voice it in different ways, regardless of age or experience, and I do so myself quite often. Have I found out what Life is essentially about? And if I’ve gotten an inkling, then how am I living it or how do I plan to live it in all it’s potential fullness?
Jesus puts the choice(s) involved fairly starkly: “You cannot serve God and Wealth.” Jesus is not saying that we can’t make money, wear nice clothes, drink good wine, eat good food. He is asking what the foundation of our Life is, and will it support us in a Life that radiates with the joy and peace and aliveness of the radical Love that is God and, by inheritance, us. As we yet again pull the Divine Life-force into our beings in Word and Body and Blood, He is quietly asking, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / With your one wild and precious life?”
“God” and “Wealth” are both rich symbols. It’s a challenge to live the human life in our “dust of the earth” bodies which have been somehow magically animated by what the Bible calls the Breath of God. The Genesis Creation Myth addresses the challenge, in the story of the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It proposes that once the Human Race had it all, but we made God angry, and now we have to work hard by the sweat of our brow to eke out a living. Steinbeck powerfully portrayed it in the story of the 1930’s Dustbowl, set appropriately in a land East of Eden. It’s just as hard for most people here in the wealthiest nation on Earth, given the idea of the “American Dream”, to make ends meet ….. and it’s gotten a lot harder in the last fifty years.
By the way, I don’t buy the part about once having had it all. The storytellers knew that we have always had to work hard to keep body and soul together. They were looking to answer the question “Why”? The image of an Eden of plenty, with no suffering or pain, just highlights the reality most of us live with. At least they had the grace to put the responsibility where it belongs: on ourselves - which is at least a step forward from Adam and Eve blaming each other or the serpent.
“Where are you focused? Where are you anchored? Where do your energies go? How do you answer the question Who Am I? What defines you? - these are the questions that Jesus is always gently but firmly asking. Because they are critical to our peace and freedom and happiness. Early Christian and other Gnostics had some strange advice around these questions. “The Gnostic secret of being able to face death is simple. Don’t wait; die now! Plato describes the ‘true philosopher’ as someone who ‘makes dying his way of life’. Paul writes, ‘I die daily’. Valentinus teaches, ‘We choose to die so that we can annihilate death completely’. The Islamic Gnostic Abd al-Kader explains: ‘There are two types of death. One which is inevitable and common to all, and one which is voluntary and experienced by the few. It is the second death which Muhammad prescribed saying ‘Die before you die’. Those who die this voluntary death are resurrected.”
In his book “The Laughing Jesus”. Peter Gandy goes on to reflect, “When we identify exclusively with our physical body, we are consciously or unconsciously in a constant state of anxiety, because decay and death is what inevitably lies ahead for this walking-talking skin-bag. But when we wake up we realize we need not fear the death of the body any more than we need fear dying in a dream. The more lucid we become the less we fear death, which makes living a lot more enjoyable!”
And this is what Jesus confronts us with in the Gospel this morning, with His questions about worry over food, drink, clothes and a myriad other things He might have mentioned: power, prestige, ignorance, self-delusion, etc. None of these things guarantee Life. The only thing that guarantees Life and Immortality is, to use a specifically theological image, Surrender to the God of radical Love, and Self-giving. Jesus role-plays it for us, constantly surrendering His life to God and, when it became clear that physical death was inevitable, unconditionally accepting it. And, as Muhammad said, “Those who die this voluntary death are resurrected”. We see it in the Christ ….. and we are asked to imagine it for ourselves.
This is why Jesus says, “Do not worry, saying, `What will we eat?' or `What will we drink?' or `What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles [meaning those not awake to a destiny for their humanity] who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” And they are! But we may have to adjust our expectations! Expensive Edna Valley wines, designer clothes, and Filet Mignon may have to give way to Kohls and to farmers’ market fresh veggies and to Two Buck Chuck, or the more fancy stuff just now and then. But it won’t matter by then! We will have left our lonely isolation and become part of a human community of radical Love which rejoices our heart.
The Psalm for today says: “I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother's breast; my soul is quieted within me.”
Take heart my fellow travelers! Let us quiet our souls. We are walking a holy path, and it has the power to make us new beings. Let us not be afraid to abandon ourselves with faith and trust. We shall be clothed like the lilies of the field in array more splendid than Solomon in all his glory: the shining raiment of a person raised from Death to Life. As Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
The Rev. Brian H. O. A. McHugh
[ Isaiah 49: 8-16A; Ps 131; 1 Corinthians 4: 1-5; Matthew 6: 24-34 ]
Here is an excerpt from a poem entitled “The Summer Day” by the American poet Mary Oliver:
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
……….
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
Don’t those six words just ring with poetic strength! “What is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” That is exactly the question that Jesus is addressing in the passage from Matthew this morning. I would guess, from now having known most of you for 3 years or so, that we all confront this question. I’ve heard many of you voice it in different ways, regardless of age or experience, and I do so myself quite often. Have I found out what Life is essentially about? And if I’ve gotten an inkling, then how am I living it or how do I plan to live it in all it’s potential fullness?
Jesus puts the choice(s) involved fairly starkly: “You cannot serve God and Wealth.” Jesus is not saying that we can’t make money, wear nice clothes, drink good wine, eat good food. He is asking what the foundation of our Life is, and will it support us in a Life that radiates with the joy and peace and aliveness of the radical Love that is God and, by inheritance, us. As we yet again pull the Divine Life-force into our beings in Word and Body and Blood, He is quietly asking, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / With your one wild and precious life?”
“God” and “Wealth” are both rich symbols. It’s a challenge to live the human life in our “dust of the earth” bodies which have been somehow magically animated by what the Bible calls the Breath of God. The Genesis Creation Myth addresses the challenge, in the story of the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It proposes that once the Human Race had it all, but we made God angry, and now we have to work hard by the sweat of our brow to eke out a living. Steinbeck powerfully portrayed it in the story of the 1930’s Dustbowl, set appropriately in a land East of Eden. It’s just as hard for most people here in the wealthiest nation on Earth, given the idea of the “American Dream”, to make ends meet ….. and it’s gotten a lot harder in the last fifty years.
By the way, I don’t buy the part about once having had it all. The storytellers knew that we have always had to work hard to keep body and soul together. They were looking to answer the question “Why”? The image of an Eden of plenty, with no suffering or pain, just highlights the reality most of us live with. At least they had the grace to put the responsibility where it belongs: on ourselves - which is at least a step forward from Adam and Eve blaming each other or the serpent.
“Where are you focused? Where are you anchored? Where do your energies go? How do you answer the question Who Am I? What defines you? - these are the questions that Jesus is always gently but firmly asking. Because they are critical to our peace and freedom and happiness. Early Christian and other Gnostics had some strange advice around these questions. “The Gnostic secret of being able to face death is simple. Don’t wait; die now! Plato describes the ‘true philosopher’ as someone who ‘makes dying his way of life’. Paul writes, ‘I die daily’. Valentinus teaches, ‘We choose to die so that we can annihilate death completely’. The Islamic Gnostic Abd al-Kader explains: ‘There are two types of death. One which is inevitable and common to all, and one which is voluntary and experienced by the few. It is the second death which Muhammad prescribed saying ‘Die before you die’. Those who die this voluntary death are resurrected.”
In his book “The Laughing Jesus”. Peter Gandy goes on to reflect, “When we identify exclusively with our physical body, we are consciously or unconsciously in a constant state of anxiety, because decay and death is what inevitably lies ahead for this walking-talking skin-bag. But when we wake up we realize we need not fear the death of the body any more than we need fear dying in a dream. The more lucid we become the less we fear death, which makes living a lot more enjoyable!”
And this is what Jesus confronts us with in the Gospel this morning, with His questions about worry over food, drink, clothes and a myriad other things He might have mentioned: power, prestige, ignorance, self-delusion, etc. None of these things guarantee Life. The only thing that guarantees Life and Immortality is, to use a specifically theological image, Surrender to the God of radical Love, and Self-giving. Jesus role-plays it for us, constantly surrendering His life to God and, when it became clear that physical death was inevitable, unconditionally accepting it. And, as Muhammad said, “Those who die this voluntary death are resurrected”. We see it in the Christ ….. and we are asked to imagine it for ourselves.
This is why Jesus says, “Do not worry, saying, `What will we eat?' or `What will we drink?' or `What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles [meaning those not awake to a destiny for their humanity] who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” And they are! But we may have to adjust our expectations! Expensive Edna Valley wines, designer clothes, and Filet Mignon may have to give way to Kohls and to farmers’ market fresh veggies and to Two Buck Chuck, or the more fancy stuff just now and then. But it won’t matter by then! We will have left our lonely isolation and become part of a human community of radical Love which rejoices our heart.
The Psalm for today says: “I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother's breast; my soul is quieted within me.”
Take heart my fellow travelers! Let us quiet our souls. We are walking a holy path, and it has the power to make us new beings. Let us not be afraid to abandon ourselves with faith and trust. We shall be clothed like the lilies of the field in array more splendid than Solomon in all his glory: the shining raiment of a person raised from Death to Life. As Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
[1] Peter Gandy, “The Laughing Jesus”, location 2641 in the Kindle edition
[1] ibid
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