February 20, 2010
St. Benedict’s, Los Osos CA
The Rev. Brian H. O. A. McHugh
Leviticus 19: 1-2,9-18; Ps 119: 33-40; 1 Corinthians 3: 10-11,16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48
At the risk of sounding defensive: as with all of my sermons, I am not telling anyone what to do or think or believe. My intent is to encourage thinking and discussion and meditation on the important issues of our Path in Life. That said …..
Jesus was not a Literalist. There was almost nothing that he said or taught that He expected anyone to take literally. He taught principally by way of Parables ….. and Parables are not rulebooks. They are carefully crafted stories which, if we are open to be taught, push us over mental or emotional or rational cliffs, to a place where we are forced beyond established patterns of thought or perception, with the hope that we will break into new dimensions of understanding, in head, heart, and “spirit”. Jesus never explained any of His parables; that’s the work of later editors.
So, let me begin by proposing this about the Gospel reading for today: Jesus is not telling us to do what He says literally. He is not telling us to allow ourselves to be abused; to get smacked on the cheek and invite another; to get sued and give the one suing you twice what is required; to do twice the work you’re paid for; to give to the beggar or lend while your family starves; to permit enemies to hurt or destroy you. To do this, to behave this way, would be to reject the ways of Justice and Love which undergird both the ethical path we hear this morning in Leviticus, and the full understanding of Jesus’ commandment to love profoundly as He loved.
Now, lest you think that I am watering down the Gospel Path in what many consider to be a typical Episcopalian way, let me assure you that I am not. Because here is the reality: Jesus is asking us to do far more than meet the literalist responses! Far more. He is asking us to open up our lives to a radical way of living, of understanding Life, ourselves, others, and the Mystery we call God. He is asking us to be transfigured, as He was in the mountaintop vision, into a New Being.
Now: a little caveat here. There have always been special people who did try to reach this level of transformation by following the literalist path. It can be said that Jesus was one of them, when He did things like refuse to allow His disciples to fight for Him, or to justify Himself to Pontius Pilate. After Him, most were monks or nuns or specially guided people. We all know about St. Francis stripping himself naked and living in poverty. And the Buddha leaving his royal palace and his riches (and even his wife and child – not something that in general would be applauded) for the life of a wandering sadhu. But I think these are special witnesses; and it is not their specific renunciations we are called to imitate, but the seeking of the inner light which motivated their Path.
Here’s a little story about the Buddha, to heighten the sense of how the Great Teachers lead us:
If a villainous bandit were to carve you limb from limb with a two-handled saw, even then the man that should give way to anger would not be obeying my teaching. Even then, be it your task to preserve your hearts unmoved, never to allow an ill word to pass your lips, but always to abide in compassion and good-will, with no hate in your hearts, enfolding in radiant thoughts of love the bandit (who tortures you), and proceeding thence to enfold the whole world in your radiant thoughts of love, - thoughts great and beyond measure, in which there is no hatred or trace of harm. Whew!
Jesus tends to be a little more stark. Yet Jesus does not expect us, when He urges us to “take up our cross”, to get literally crucified. He expects us to see how Life is embraced in it’s fullness by relinquishing one life to find a greater. It is in this context, by the way, that we are to understand the story of Abraham and the near-sacrifice of his son Isaac. No God of Love would ask us literally to kill a child – or for that matter pluck out an eye or cut off a foot. This is a story pointing us towards “extravagant” self-giving. Abraham is offering his whole being to God through his blood-son Isaac, who is a representation of himself. We are asked to do the same.
SO: what IS Jesus leading us? To radical Compassion; to a tender understanding of human nature; to a maturity of Being; to a move beyond our isolated Self to a Unity with God and Creation and each other, enemy or friend; this is where Jesus is leading us. (Joseph Campbell said that to love our enemy was the hardest saying in the Bible.) Jesus offers powerful words that push us beyond the walls we have erected – walls which lock us in diminished, dry, shriveled modes of Being Human. If once we should be infused by an inner experience of our Oneness with The Christ, with Divinity, with All Being, our minds would, to use a 60’s phrase, be “blown away”! We would be overwhelmed by such a sense of Liberation that we might think we have been “made a new person”. And indeed we would have.
Who would worry about “length of days” anymore? We would know only calm, intense daily living. Who would be afraid? We would never fear to do what is just and compassionate and loving simply because we preferred to live a long Life rather than a powerful Life. Who would not be generous in all ways, knowing that Life is enriched for us all by making sure that all are sustained by material and spiritual giving? Who would hold back with Love, when Love heals all suffering, for both Giver and Receiver? Is this not the great Teaching of the Resurrection? It has little to do with physical resurrection; it has to do with “dying” to the “little Self” and “rising” to the “Larger Self”. This is the meaning of Baptism. Every time we relinquish our separate Ego, we “die; and every time we awaken to our Unity with all things, we “rise to Life again”.
Lets not lose a grip on Reality and think that we shall suddenly “become as Christ”, become God. We are not meant to be “God”. But we are meant to be god-like in our Humanity, shaped and defined by Love and Compassion, Justice and Forgiveness, by Affection and utter Heart-ache with all our fellow human beings. Never are we meant to despise ourselves for our inability to live up to the call to Perfection. We are not meant to be Perfect in this Life; only Faithful. And there is always a path to renewal: self-knowledge and surrender.
“Do not resist the evildoer, says Jesus. Turn the other cheek, give your cloak, go the extra mile, give. Love your enemies and pray for them. Why? [because] All these instances of abuse provide occasions of awakening, perhaps - for the evildoer as well as the victim.” (1)
In other words: Every day the Path to Full Humanity, the experience of our Oneness with All Existence (or, to put it in Jungian terms, our participation in the Universal Unconscious; or in Christian terms, of loving each other as God loves us) will be offered to us. There are lots of ways we are “struck on the cheek” in Life. To “offer the other cheek” literally would be easy! The harder “offering the other cheek” is to ponder how we will respond in a way that will deepen and enrich our humanity. The same is true with “giving your cloak”, or “going the extra mile”, or “loving your enemies”. If we live in boxes built of our own fear or infantile natures, we will live limited lives. If, however, we risk to “take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea”, God meets us there and offers us a Life we couldn’t have imagined.
Here is a wonderful relevant passage from the Buddhist Evening Gatha:
Let me respectfully remind you:
Life and Death are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by, Opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive to
Awaken, Awaken, Awaken.
Take heed.
Do not squander your Life.
We remember Jesus’ words: “Those who would win their Life must lose it.” This is the Mystery Jesus calls us to “know” and live. To Awaken, to be transformed, even a little, is much harder than enduring insult or unfairness.
Leviticus 19: 1-2,9-18; Ps 119: 33-40; 1 Corinthians 3: 10-11,16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48
At the risk of sounding defensive: as with all of my sermons, I am not telling anyone what to do or think or believe. My intent is to encourage thinking and discussion and meditation on the important issues of our Path in Life. That said …..
Jesus was not a Literalist. There was almost nothing that he said or taught that He expected anyone to take literally. He taught principally by way of Parables ….. and Parables are not rulebooks. They are carefully crafted stories which, if we are open to be taught, push us over mental or emotional or rational cliffs, to a place where we are forced beyond established patterns of thought or perception, with the hope that we will break into new dimensions of understanding, in head, heart, and “spirit”. Jesus never explained any of His parables; that’s the work of later editors.
So, let me begin by proposing this about the Gospel reading for today: Jesus is not telling us to do what He says literally. He is not telling us to allow ourselves to be abused; to get smacked on the cheek and invite another; to get sued and give the one suing you twice what is required; to do twice the work you’re paid for; to give to the beggar or lend while your family starves; to permit enemies to hurt or destroy you. To do this, to behave this way, would be to reject the ways of Justice and Love which undergird both the ethical path we hear this morning in Leviticus, and the full understanding of Jesus’ commandment to love profoundly as He loved.
Now, lest you think that I am watering down the Gospel Path in what many consider to be a typical Episcopalian way, let me assure you that I am not. Because here is the reality: Jesus is asking us to do far more than meet the literalist responses! Far more. He is asking us to open up our lives to a radical way of living, of understanding Life, ourselves, others, and the Mystery we call God. He is asking us to be transfigured, as He was in the mountaintop vision, into a New Being.
Now: a little caveat here. There have always been special people who did try to reach this level of transformation by following the literalist path. It can be said that Jesus was one of them, when He did things like refuse to allow His disciples to fight for Him, or to justify Himself to Pontius Pilate. After Him, most were monks or nuns or specially guided people. We all know about St. Francis stripping himself naked and living in poverty. And the Buddha leaving his royal palace and his riches (and even his wife and child – not something that in general would be applauded) for the life of a wandering sadhu. But I think these are special witnesses; and it is not their specific renunciations we are called to imitate, but the seeking of the inner light which motivated their Path.
Here’s a little story about the Buddha, to heighten the sense of how the Great Teachers lead us:
If a villainous bandit were to carve you limb from limb with a two-handled saw, even then the man that should give way to anger would not be obeying my teaching. Even then, be it your task to preserve your hearts unmoved, never to allow an ill word to pass your lips, but always to abide in compassion and good-will, with no hate in your hearts, enfolding in radiant thoughts of love the bandit (who tortures you), and proceeding thence to enfold the whole world in your radiant thoughts of love, - thoughts great and beyond measure, in which there is no hatred or trace of harm. Whew!
Jesus tends to be a little more stark. Yet Jesus does not expect us, when He urges us to “take up our cross”, to get literally crucified. He expects us to see how Life is embraced in it’s fullness by relinquishing one life to find a greater. It is in this context, by the way, that we are to understand the story of Abraham and the near-sacrifice of his son Isaac. No God of Love would ask us literally to kill a child – or for that matter pluck out an eye or cut off a foot. This is a story pointing us towards “extravagant” self-giving. Abraham is offering his whole being to God through his blood-son Isaac, who is a representation of himself. We are asked to do the same.
SO: what IS Jesus leading us? To radical Compassion; to a tender understanding of human nature; to a maturity of Being; to a move beyond our isolated Self to a Unity with God and Creation and each other, enemy or friend; this is where Jesus is leading us. (Joseph Campbell said that to love our enemy was the hardest saying in the Bible.) Jesus offers powerful words that push us beyond the walls we have erected – walls which lock us in diminished, dry, shriveled modes of Being Human. If once we should be infused by an inner experience of our Oneness with The Christ, with Divinity, with All Being, our minds would, to use a 60’s phrase, be “blown away”! We would be overwhelmed by such a sense of Liberation that we might think we have been “made a new person”. And indeed we would have.
Who would worry about “length of days” anymore? We would know only calm, intense daily living. Who would be afraid? We would never fear to do what is just and compassionate and loving simply because we preferred to live a long Life rather than a powerful Life. Who would not be generous in all ways, knowing that Life is enriched for us all by making sure that all are sustained by material and spiritual giving? Who would hold back with Love, when Love heals all suffering, for both Giver and Receiver? Is this not the great Teaching of the Resurrection? It has little to do with physical resurrection; it has to do with “dying” to the “little Self” and “rising” to the “Larger Self”. This is the meaning of Baptism. Every time we relinquish our separate Ego, we “die; and every time we awaken to our Unity with all things, we “rise to Life again”.
Lets not lose a grip on Reality and think that we shall suddenly “become as Christ”, become God. We are not meant to be “God”. But we are meant to be god-like in our Humanity, shaped and defined by Love and Compassion, Justice and Forgiveness, by Affection and utter Heart-ache with all our fellow human beings. Never are we meant to despise ourselves for our inability to live up to the call to Perfection. We are not meant to be Perfect in this Life; only Faithful. And there is always a path to renewal: self-knowledge and surrender.
“Do not resist the evildoer, says Jesus. Turn the other cheek, give your cloak, go the extra mile, give. Love your enemies and pray for them. Why? [because] All these instances of abuse provide occasions of awakening, perhaps - for the evildoer as well as the victim.” (1)
In other words: Every day the Path to Full Humanity, the experience of our Oneness with All Existence (or, to put it in Jungian terms, our participation in the Universal Unconscious; or in Christian terms, of loving each other as God loves us) will be offered to us. There are lots of ways we are “struck on the cheek” in Life. To “offer the other cheek” literally would be easy! The harder “offering the other cheek” is to ponder how we will respond in a way that will deepen and enrich our humanity. The same is true with “giving your cloak”, or “going the extra mile”, or “loving your enemies”. If we live in boxes built of our own fear or infantile natures, we will live limited lives. If, however, we risk to “take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea”, God meets us there and offers us a Life we couldn’t have imagined.
Here is a wonderful relevant passage from the Buddhist Evening Gatha:
Let me respectfully remind you:
Life and Death are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by, Opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive to
Awaken, Awaken, Awaken.
Take heed.
Do not squander your Life.
We remember Jesus’ words: “Those who would win their Life must lose it.” This is the Mystery Jesus calls us to “know” and live. To Awaken, to be transformed, even a little, is much harder than enduring insult or unfairness.
1 comment:
Thank you Brian for reminding us of RADICAL COMPASSION...for living lives everyday and night of choices we make..and do not make...that leads us to a life of Light...
joel
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