Rev. Laura Ruth Jarrett Preaches
We who were brought up in the church may be surprised by the thought that Christianity has spiritual practices like other religions we admire – like Buddhist and Judaism, to name two. Some of us thought the only practice of Christianity was the practice of belief. We were taught that the only way to be Christian was to believe.
Some of us have thought the stuff we were supposed to believe was crazy, ridiculous, hypocritical, evil! Trinity, virgin birth, died but resurrected, sins forgiven, a sacrifice of a son – what! These were offered as a set of facts or propositions, and our acceptance was supposed to happen instantly, magically. No!
I’m not even going to talk about stuff we couldn’t believe because our churches turned away the poor, the colored, the crazy, the queer, or because our churches taught that if you love Jesus, Jesus will help you get that Jaguar, that job, that distance from dirty.
Where I grew up, not believing was a big problem, and questioning that package of facts was dire. You were socially ostracized in this life and bound for hell in the next. Some of us turned ourselves inside out trying to believe, or else we found ourselves turning away from our home communities, we got the hell out.
Still, belief is important. Some folks have a gift for it, and some do not. For some, belief comes easily. For me, and maybe you, it doesn’t come instantly or at all.
Some of us have been and are inspired by Buddhism’s spiritual teachings, in my case, because Buddhism seemed to offer methods of spiritual practice, a way of coming to expanded knowledge and consciousness, a way of wrestling with belief. Sitting meditation may help us suffer less, may teach Buddha mind, truth mind. Practicing detachment keeps us from minding others’ business and keeps us focused on our own work. Practicing wishing all beings be well keeps us humble, wishing and working for wellness that includes community, the world, the universe.
I wonder, how did Jesus came to belief. Did he believe in God, or Judaism out of the shoot because, well, he was God? Did he believe in himself? But how did he learn how to marshall his energies, when to rest and retreat? When he was healing folks, how did he learn to let out the right amout of power so that folks were healed but not raptured or slain? How did he know when to raise someone from the dead (if we believe he did) and when to let folks lie moldering. How did he know or handle the fact that folks thought he was the Messiah? How do you learn how to do that, be the Messiah?
There is a body of legend, that says, during the years between his bar mitzvah at 12 in Jerusalem and taking up his “ministry” at about age 30 in the Galilee, he went to Persia, India and Asia, seeking the masters of spiritual practice.
In the novel Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Jesus, accompanied by his childhood pal Biff, goes first to the Wise Men from the East, Zoroastrians, to see if he can find out how to become the Messiah. The wise men helped him, then sent him on to consult and practice with Hindus, and Buddhists.
Our canonical scripture says nothing of this sort, and I don’t want to make too much of these stories, except to say that this novel is very funny and you should read it. But it’s interesting, isn’t it, to think about, that Jesus might have sought spiritual teachers to figure how use his spiritual gifts, how to live into his spiritual purpose?
Doesn't it make sense that we need spiritual teachers and practices to know how to channel our energies, to make some good disciplining choices to know how to use our spiritual gifts and live into who we are made to be?
So then, what would Christian practice be? What does Christianity have to offer that might help us expand our consciousness; deepen our awareness of what is truer than true, or that will at least help us through the night?
First I’d offer the idea that Jesus teaches ideas similar to Buddha. Buddhism, which precedes Christianity by 500 years, teaches living in the moment, worrying not about the past or the future. Jesus teaches that we should not worry about what we eat or drink. We should consider the lilies of the field. We should look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet God feeds them. The Buddhist practice is staying present and the Christian practice is staying present.
Here’s a list of only a few spiritual practices from Christian scripture. All these are from Jesus’ teaching or Jesus’ example.
• Pray
• Take care of children, don’t mistreat them.
• Come away and rest.
• Feed the hungry, clothe the naked.
• If someone mistreats you, doesn’t welcome you, shake the dust off your feet and leave.
• Take time to reflect, eat, and practice compassion, these from our today’s gospel reading.
• Don’t commit adultery.
• Don’t lie.
• Don’t throw your pearls before swine.
These may sound like commandments to you, but I want to ask you to think about this list as spiritual practices instead of commands.
Take for example, “don’t throw your pearls before swine,” one of my mom’s favorites. I think this means stop doing stupid stuff to make people like you, I mean me. I think it means, mind my dignity. When I’m unwell, I’d really rather have people like me, so I like to practice being well, practice honoring my dignity. When I do practice being well and being dignified, I often find myself centered, happy, with a wider vision that my tiny misery, such a relief, and a compassion for myself and for others, one of the ways I know I’m Christian.
Another practice that maybe you thought was a commandment: you shall not commit adultery. Not committing adultery is hard! It takes spiritual practice not to step out on your partner! Some of us prefer the thrill of indiscretion to the centered, patient, kind, sometimes painful, sometimes dull, working out of relationship, or the careful dissolution of relationship that no longer works. What we learn from relationships, we learn about ourselves and about our relationship with God. So, practice fidelity in relationships, a kind of fidelity you and your partner work out. It takes practice.
Take time to reflect, what - while Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice are on the radio? But what if we did reflect on our behavior or our love, and we made choices about how to do it different or the same tomorrow, or next time, think of the trouble or the love we’d save.
Don’t lie. Figuring out how to tell the truth takes a lot of practice, telling truth not as a weapon, but as a means of being in relationship – letting your yes be yes and your no be no. Hard, work! Not a thing done perfectly, or instantly. It takes a lot of practicing. Once we stop being attached to telling what we wish were true, we can become free. This is what Jesus teaches, the truth will set us free.
Our church asks us to practice these: come to services, participate in communion, pray, take retreats, learn what’s in your bible and what it means to you in this generation, be in covenant with each other, the earth, and with those who seek God.
So how do we find practices that are our own? Choosing a practice that is connected to our sense of our authenticity, and engaging in the activities that fill us with joy, or contentment, a certainty of right action or spiritual solidity, activities that we are so committed to that we practice for hours and hours, becoming expert, these are the practices that are right for us.
Here are some spiritual practices that you have told me about this last week. Some of us play drums, learn Arabic, play violin, feed the hungry every Monday and once a month on Wednesday and Thursday, plan and lead services on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, and tonight for the first time, on Sunday night. Read, write, spend time with friends, paint, sculpt, sing, oh sing, play the organ, the piano. Care for children, read the 23rd Psalm, lead Bible study, take kind care of our bodies and others’ bodies and psyches, walk in nature, put things in our pockets that remind us to pray. If you love to cook and grow a garden, this is what you should do.
Here’s why. When we practice, we find our rest in God. When we practice, our consciousness is expanded, we fall in love with God, we fall in love with humanity, we find that we are right-sized and we like that. We find serenity, a peace that passes all understanding.
But also spiritual practice leads us into belief, belief that little by little, or maybe very quickly, causes us to understand truths too large to be contained by our puny, valiant, striving, resilient, market saturated spirits, truths that attempt to be explained by the metaphor of Trinity, or virgin birth, life that does not end. Here is a spiritual practice. Try not to limit the work of God. Try not to make the vast mystery of God small. Try not to get tripped up by other people’s metaphors. Have patience and let God be revealed to you, allow yourselves to be opened. This is my prayer for you.
