Good to be here together this morning, sharing a process of Creation. There is something unique about every cycle, and yet it is always the same.
There is a pattern of creative forces at work: water, air, earth, and fire. I am not quite sure how much that tells us, but maybe it gives us a hint. And it is not just the water sitting there at the beginning. On the first day of Creation, biblically, it is said, “and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). The waters are there, but something is happening in the waters. At the beginning of things, we bring the waters and we tune in. Our waters are open and they become activated by the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God is love. I appreciate that the word love is being used in a political context. Texas Senator-elect James Talarico said this:
My faith teaches me to love my neighbor as myself. Not just my neighbor who looks like me, not just my neighbor who prays like me, not just my neighbor who votes like me…
I am not taking a political stance here this morning. I am simply acknowledging something spiritual being expressed in a political arena. And still, we are not claiming sainthood for anybody, just noticing and appreciating.
I appreciate the two dimensions of love in Talarico’s speech. Love the Lord thy God and then love thy neighbor as thyself. That does not work too well if you are not loving yourself.
When we think of that commandment to love your neighbor, sometimes we think that Jesus brought it into the world as part of a new covenant. Not true. It was there at the time of Moses.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Leviticus 19:18
The message to love your neighbor expresses a lineage of clarity. There is a lineage of spiritual corruption that is also showing itself in this day. It was not invented today — not this year, not last year, not this decade, nor this century. The lineage of spiritual corruption we see showing itself is ancient. And yet there is a lineage also of purity and beauty if we look for it. Then there is everything in between. In world culture, it is a dog’s breakfast. Elements of it may be enjoyable, and you can sort out the good parts. But it is still a mixed bag.
Somewhere along the line, I concluded that it is not a good thing to live your life out of a mixed bag. It is unreliable. We might enjoy parts of it. But somehow, we have to find a clarity and a purity to guide our life — something that speaks of an absolute Reality that we can embrace and know and live out of and bring into the world, something we can allow to inform our lives and our expression.
Human experience being what it is, somewhere along the line, we are liable to mess it up somehow, at least in our own eyes, and certainly in everybody else’s. And yet, what is the imperative? To touch back into what is reliable and dependable and clear. Certainly not the human nightmare, but the very source of life.
Jesus had a way of saying it. He said to the woman at the well that those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth. To me, this means that there is a vibration and a power and a feeling to Reality. And that Reality is available for us not only to honor or worship, but also to connect with and welcome into our own experience. There is a feeling. There is a vibe that shakes our soul. And in the process of Creation, we tune into that vibe, that Reality, that spirit and allow it to come through us and move the creative process. We allow the Spirit of God to move upon the face of our waters — upon the face of consciousness and therefore upon the face of the world in which we live.
Then there is that truth part. Not your truth, not my truth. The word references Reality, the source of things, and points to the fact that it is not only a feeling and a vibe, but it is a wisdom and an intelligence. It is a pattern. It is direction for human life. Guidance. And if we are to truly tap into what is pure and reliable and take advantage of the opportunity that we have to live our life out of that, the truth part is not to be ignored. We have to open ourselves to the truth that could manifest in our lives and express itself accurately through us. It is there for us not only as the feeling of it, but as the accuracy of it, the beauty of it. Truth is beauty.
We do not know beauty in our lives without knowing that truth that is available to express itself through us, to be embodied through us.
Stepping out the door this morning, I was reminded of how the natural world is constantly showing us the beauty of the origin of things. Yes, there are storms and natural disasters. But still, within it all, there is something pure that reminds us of Reality in the middle of the human nightmare.
I had a friend who was talking about the work that we are doing and especially the work of presenting something publicly. And this friend said that what we present has to be pure. But she did not really mean pure in the sense that I am using it here this morning, not pure Reality. She meant it should be devoid of spiritual imperative, as if what was needed was just some kind of remix of culture. We do not just need a new version of the dog’s breakfast. We need what is reliable, a pure Reality that we can tap into and rely upon.
We can find references to that pure Reality. They are somewhat uncommon in our culture, but they are there. We can find people who remind us of that pure Reality as James Talarico did. He invoked that Reality. And we are not here to declare him a saint or to adulate him as a person, although I appreciate it when a human being expresses what is true. It is the truth that such a person expresses that is reliably a North Star for anybody.
I have my Bible with me this morning, which I do not usually bring. And it is a mix of all kinds of human stories and people getting into all kinds of trouble. There is corruption portrayed. So, you might say that the stories of the Bible are a dog’s breakfast. You have Jezebel, Pharaoh, Goliath, Pilate, and all the rest. But within it, there is something pure and beautiful. There is spiritual imperative.
I was speaking last week about that word, corruption, which James Talarico used in his victory speech. I was saying how something was corrupted in an ancient paradise we speak of as the Motherland. This is not a recent invention of culture. Something happened in ancient times that we can attempt to perceive. I referenced the story of Job, which portrays that ancient corruption that persists to this day.
Job is a story of that ancient error in consciousness that showed itself. That error began the nightmare and then people lived in that nightmare. I referenced how that nightmare spread around the world in ancient times. It spread to ancient cultures at the dawn of history — to Egypt, Africa, Greece, and other ancient cultures. And then those who are looking at things historically go back and get infatuated with elements of ancient culture that, in many cases, lost track of Reality and created the nightmare.
At the same time, there was something pure. The story of Job tells of the ancient error. But it is also a story of nobility, wisdom, and hope. If anybody thinks about the story of Job these days — and not too many people do, I imagine — they think about the boils and all the difficulties. But if you knew the world was suffering from a nightmare, what more hopeful story would you tell the world than the story of Job? Because, in the end, he saw it through and Reality prevailed in his experience.
While there were those who were telling stories of the nightmare, Job was a story of human victory, born from the fact that a human being knew Reality and did not deviate from the Reality he knew. And that brought victory in the outer. But the spiritual victory was not first of all in the outer. The spiritual victory was in the inner, as it is for any person.
The Bible contains stories of a mix of all kinds of things. There is a story of the Hebrew people and the nation of Israel, a story of the Jewish people, and then a story of the beginnings of Christianity and, most significantly, the story of Jesus. And there is a story of corruption. It is not hard to find. But there are also teachings such as the teaching of Job that come from ancient, ancient times, which reference a pure Reality. I want to read from Isaiah, because that is one of those teachings. It is some of the most beautiful poetry in the whole world.
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.
Isaiah 55:6
What could that mean? If the Lord is a reference to the Creator, and a reference to Reality, when is Reality not nearby? And why do you have to call upon it now? Is Reality going away tomorrow?
What I believe is being said by the author is this: Reality is immediately accessible because I am here. You can find it because you can be in touch with it, in resonance with me, because I am in touch with it. The Presence of the Lord is here because I am knowing it.
What else could it mean? And think of the passion behind someone who would speak such a thing. Is that what we say in our world? Seek Reality while it is near. Seek it while you can get in touch with it easily. Feel it through me.
I am not the Pope here, as if you have no other way to get in touch with Reality or God except through me. None of us is the Pope, but we can be here as a touchstone so that somebody can get in touch with the Reality which is far beyond the nightmare that they may be living in. You can touch Reality as long as I am here.
A little later, the author says this:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8, 9
This is clearly about human thinking. Is it thinking in the nightmare, trying to solve the nightmare? Perhaps trying to solve all the things that are happening in a person’s consciousness and at the level of human culture? That is the usual human thinking. Or is it thinking that is open to the creative impulse that comes from Reality? Is it the truth? Is it the impulse of beauty that is stimulating our thoughts so that we can conceive of the beautiful? How do you leave the nightmare if you cannot conceive of the beautiful? We have to think the thoughts of the beautiful, and then express what is truly beautiful, which is the truth that remains unexpressed until we give it voice.
Either way, imagination can be involved. Imagination can be entirely of human invention. It can be the evil imagination of the nightmare. Or it can be the kind of imagination that lets the thoughts of the universe — the thoughts of beauty — be born through human consciousness.
Those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth. Then we think the thoughts of Reality.