By
Rev. Scott E. Taylor
His Candidating
Sermon
May
While spoon-feeding
him with one hand
she holds his hand with her other hand,
or rather lets it rest on top of his,
which is permanently clenched shut.
When he turns his head away, she reaches
around and puts in the spoonful blind.
He will not accept the next morsel
until he has completely chewed this one.
His bright squint tells her he finds
the shrimp she has just put in delicious.
She strokes his head very slowly, as if
to cheer up each hair sticking up
from its root in his stricken brain.
Standing behind him, she presses
her cheek to his, kisses his jowl,
and his eyes seem to stop seeing
and do nothing but emit light.
Could heaven be a time, after we are dead,
of remembering the knowledge
flesh had from flesh? The flesh
of his face is hard, perhaps
from years spent facing down others
until they fell back, and harder
from years of being himself faced down
and falling back, and harder still
from all the while frowning
and beaming and worrying and shouting
and probably letting go in rages.
His face softens into a kind
of quizzical wince, as if one
of the other animals were working at
getting the knack of the human smile.
When picking up a cookie he uses
Both thumb tips to grip it
and push it against an index finger
to secure it so that he can lift it.
She takes him to the bathroom,
and when they come out, she is facing him,
walking backwards in front of him
holding his hands, pulling him
when he stops, reminding him to step
when he forgets and starts to pitch forward.
She is leading her old father into the future
as far as they can go, and she is walking
him back into his childhood, where she stood
in bare feet on the toes of his shoes
and they fox trotted on this same rug.
I watch them closely: she could be teaching him
the last steps that one day she may teach me.
At this moment, he glints and shines,
as if it will be only a small dislocation
for him to pass from this paradise into the next.
I once heard someone
say that gays are going to have to learn to love themselves if they are going
to survive...and I know that some people say that you have to love yourself
before you can love someone else...But I think it is the other way around -- I learned
to love myself only because someone else finally loved me. Seeing myself whole
in another's eyes...was what gave me the courage to face the secrets ...and
gather together all the hidden pieces of my life. This was something I simply
could not have done on my own. I give thanks every day for the people in my
life that brought me back from the dead.
**
** **
SERMON
Speaking on the topic of autobiographical
writing, Alice Walker, the wonderful writer and poet, has said that there are
only three scenes from her childhood which she can remember vividly and in
detail.
The earliest scene
The second scene that Alice Walker remembers
is an Easter Sunday three years later. She is six, almost seven now and is
wearing a bright green dress and brand new patent leather shoes.
Commenting on these first two scenes and
preparing us for the third,
Standing gunless on
top of their garage,
"This comment of the doctor's terrified
me,"
Her life literally changed overnight. After
the accident not only her grades but her confidence dropped dramatically. Kids
fell into their normal pattern of teasing her because of her difference, and
she seemed to lose that special place as her daddy's favorite. "I consider
the day of the accident the last time that my father chose me," she says,
"and I suffered and raged inside because of this. Almost every night after
that for a very long time, I would abuse my eye. I would rant and rave at it,
in front of the mirror. I would plead with it to clear up before morning. I
would tell it I hate it and despise it. And I wouldn't pray for sight. I would
pray for beauty...I wanted more than anything to somehow stop feeling like I
was broken."
At the end of her essay,
Rebecca's favorite television
program was called "The Big Blue Marble." It began with a picture of
the earth as it appears from the moon. After the show, as I was putting Rebecca
down for a nap, she suddenly focused on my eye. Something inside me cringed and
got ready to protect itself. All children are cruel about physical differences,
and the fact that they don't always mean to be cruel doesn't always seem to
matter. I assumed my Rebecca would be the same. Rebecca then studied my face
intently. She even held my face maternally between her dimpled little hands.
And then, looking every bit as serious and lawyer-like as her father, she said
- as if it may just possibly have slipped my attention - "Mommy, there's a
world in your eye." And then gently, but with great interest she said,
"Mommy, where did you get that world in your eye?"
I have a friend who says that God speaks
through human voices and wipes our tears through human hands. God enters the
world, he says, through each and every one of us. Now, whether we are a theist
like my friend or a non-theist like me, all of us, I think, recognize that
there is something to this. Certain moments of human contact and connection are
so moving and powerful that it indeed feels as though something transcendent is
breaking through. In other words, when we are open to it, we learn pretty
quickly that there is nothing commonplace about kindness and love. To witness,
give or receive such acts of human tenderness is indeed to be in the presence
of that which is holy. It is even, in a sense, to help the holy - even God if
you will - come into being.
And yet it's puzzling, because when you turn
to the explicit theological faith statements we human beings construct, or look
at the spiritual practices we pursue, this affirmation of divinity arising from
human tenderness is not always easily found. Over the last few weeks, I've read
numerous books and articles that explore the latest spiritual trends in our
culture. The results are jarring-at least to me. The most jarring was what one
author said about kindness. Kindness, he said, is no longer "sexy
enough" to capture the attention of today's spiritual imagination. Having
tried or watched their parents try to achieve world peace and fail, folks now
seem to have set their eyes on a new prize: personal internal spiritual
fireworks. Doing God's work is out; feeling, mingling and merging with God's
presence is in. Now this doesn't mean that that
kindness and loving relationships are no longer important to the new modern
spiritual mentality. It's just that kindness and loving relationships with
others are no longer seen as part of what it means to pursue God.
The statistics help demonstrate this.
According to one study about how people pursue God, interpersonal
relationships, ranging from feeding the homeless to holding your newborn child
to caring for your ailing parents, were mentioned by only 6% of the sample. The
remaining 94% - and the sample included religious people of all types-the
remaining 94% said that for them, a felt connection with the sacred comes only
through solitary spiritual practices such as prayer, silent retreats, spiritual
journaling, chants and meditative practice. "Apparently, it no longer
takes a village to raise a spiritual person," one author said in her
conclusion. "Finding God is quickly becoming a solo act that takes place
not through the world of human interaction but through a private search of
one's own heart."
When I first heard that phrase - a church of
one - it didn't really strike me one way or the other. But the more I've
thought about it, the sadder it seems to me. And while I see nothing
intrinsically problematic with this modern turn toward solitary spiritual
practices and looking inward for God, I'm not sure all the reasons behind this
shift are to be celebrated. A church of one seems like an awfully lonely place
even if you do get to hang out with the divine all day. For me, at least, I
wouldn't choose that route to the holy - that is, unless I'd been really let
down by or scared off by the relationships around me and "churches of many
people."
A phrase from my favorite psychological and
sociological thinker, Steven Mitchell, keeps running through my head.
"Depression," he says, "is not the greatest ailment of our modern
times; loneliness is." Relationships in modern society are often just
plain complicated and hard, he says. Overwork, losing work, moving because of
work, worry about losing work, over-scheduled kids, isolated parents, abandoned
grandparents, overwhelming bills, rushed meals, missed meals, missed sleep -
it's all just too much. Connection is a long-shot under such circumstances,
Mitchell argues. Modern life has people running so fast, worrying about so many
things and moving so often that when people do finally intersect, it usually
takes the form of a crash rather than a connection-a crash in which we don't
share our pain and worry with each other, but instead dump our pain and worry
on each other, leaving messes between us that are sometimes so big and complicated
that it's often easier to give up and retreat to shallow, polite and thin
relationships rather than try to clean up the mess and meaningfully connect.
And yet, shallowness and loneliness don't suit any of us-especially with our
being so full of wounds and worries. So what are we to do? Well it seems to me
that compared to these messy human relationships we just walked away from, the
option of being able to connect directly to a personal God waiting inside us is
incredibly appealing.
I don't want to create misunderstanding here.
Please hear this loud and clear: I'm not putting down the path of personal,
solitary, spiritual disciplines. The picture I am trying to paint is NOT that
of a bunch of people pursuing problematic or false spiritual paths, but of a
bunch of people-including us at times, I'm sure-mistakenly turning their backs
on a flawed and fragile, but fundamentally life-saving path. It's not that I
don't think the divine can be found inside of us; it's just that I don't want
us or anyone else to stop believing that the divine can also be found
in-between us.
The great existentialist Jean Paul Sartre
became famous for declaring that "people are hell." It seems to me
that the spiritual endeavor - or at least the liberal spiritual endeavor -
involves not arguing against that fact, but acknowledging it and then going on
to be able to say "but they are also heaven!" Sure, human
relationships are fragile, flawed and easily messed up. They are complicated,
confusing, and often the cause of significant hurt. Sure, sometimes they seem
just too darn hard. But somehow in the midst of all that messiness, beauty,
transformation, wholeness and holiness arise-arise, I believe, in a way that is
just not possible in isolation.
This is why I think Alice Walker's story is
so profound and important. She is not in any way denying that we have within us
sacred sources of transformation and wholeness. Instead, she is simply asking
us to never forget that to the degree that individuals do have the ability to
tap into those sacred sources of strength and healing, it is most often an
ability that is deeply indebted to the love and kindness received from others.
In other words,
“I once heard someone say
that gays are going to have to learn to love themselves if they are going to
survive...and I know that some people say that you have to love yourself before
you can love someone else...But I think that [we need to begin to realize] that
it is the other way around - I learned to love myself only because someone else
finally loved me. Seeing myself whole in another's eyes...was what gave me the
courage to face the secrets...and gather together all the hidden pieces of my
life. This was something I simply could not have done on my own. I give thanks
every day for the people in my life that brought me back from the dead. “
At first blush, I suppose it may seem odd to
end a sermon on God with a quote that talks only about people. But of course,
that is my point. Along with Alice
Walker's story, I believe that connecting with the divine is never really
separate from the effort to connect with people. For it is
precisely our stumbling attempts at tenderness with each other that enable us
to notice and trust the sacred source waiting inside.
And so with that, I'm thinking the best
question to leave us with this morning is not, "Do you believe there
exists a divine power willing and able to save us?" but instead, "Are
you willing and able to save and be saved by others?"
What are the human relationships you need to
return to, reinvest faith and trust and effort in? The father
that disappointed you? The spouse that lately seems
somewhere else? The friend you don't understand anymore? The son that seems so full of resentment? The co-worker you
just can't bring yourself to trust? Messy as they are, is there a way for you
to halt your retreat, risk a return, and keep yourself open to the possibility
that from these flawed and fragile connections, divinity can arise?
And not just what relationships do you need
to open yourself to, but what relationships do you need to give yourself to?
Where have you been holding back, out of resentment, or jealousy, or a refusal
to forgive? Where are you currently the one preventing the holy from entering
the world?
It is an awesome, frightening and marvelous
thing: We, friends, have the ability to help the holy enter this world. Let us
Begin!
Amen.
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