Universal Consciousness: Six Disclaimers and Some Emphatic Arm Waving
Wis. of Sol. 1:13-15, 2:23-24; Psalm 130; Psalm 30; Lamentations 3:23-33;
II Samuel 1:1, 17-27; I Corinthians 8:7-15; and Mark 5:21-43
Sermon delivered Sunday, June 28, 2009
by Christopher William Purdom
My first and standard disclaimer is of course that those of you who are here church shopping should come back again some other week, and those of you who are visiting from long distances are unfortunately missing a treat, because I am not Patricia (though those of you who are here most weeks may notice a strong similarity in message, if not content or theology, to some of Patricia’s recent sermons) and anything I say here is my own opinion and not that of Tabernacle, and that Tabernacle does not have a stated Theology or Christology so mine should not be taken as an endorsement or repudiation of anything normally said up here. On that note I invite you to participate in our tab.edu Progressive Christianity 201 Theology and Christology sessions coming up in September, when we will be discussing some of our wide variety of individual beliefs.
My second disclaimer for the morning is that today’s liturgy choices include II Samuel 1:1, 17-27, which speaks to Jonathan’s love for David surpassing that of any woman, and I Corinthians 8:7-15 which speaks to the possibility of breaking the rules (specifically dietary rules) on the basis of our understanding of the nature of God. There is a traditional pro-gay sermon based on these passages that one might reasonably anticipate hearing some variation on in a More Light/Open and Affirming church this morning. But as a religious gay rights activist for ten years and a charter steering committee of NGLTF’s National Religious Leadership Roundtable, I’ve personally heard and read that argument enough times to do it in my sleep, and I think you’d prefer me to be awake up here. So I will simply commend you to the LGBT resources page at tabunited.org instead.
My third disclaimer is that I am much more of a John and Last Temptation of Christ guy than a Mark guy, and I think I’ve related several times how I was converted to Christianity in a real fashion (beyond having been here my whole life) by a Hindu professor of Buddhism who felt that I needed to understand the Gospel of John to really be a Christian. Frankly I’ve often found Mark a little annoying (and just to make sure I wasn’t misremembering or mischaracterizing I read all of Mark this week, including the commentaries, from The Complete Gospels). But for some reason when I read the lectionary in anticipation of writing this sermon, some innate redeeming John-ness in this particular passage really leapt out at me. So just be warned if you are more of a synoptic, historical Jesus kind of person and are really attached to his portrayal in the Gospel of Mark you’re about to hear a very different take (and possibly one of the shortest and least logical sermons you have ever heard at Tabernacle, even for me)
My fourth disclaimer is that I probably identify way too much with Jesus in this passage. I don’t know what your work day is like, but I spend a very large chunk of my time being invited to meetings, asked questions by email, by people calling my desk and my blackberry, standing in line outside my office door, walking down the hall next to me as I go to the lunchroom, the restroom or the next meeting, because they are convinced that I have all the answers, or at least some key piece of the answer, and/or that my association with a project, my just being in the room or on the phone while their project is being discussed will somehow keep it from failing or fix all the problems and bring it back from the dead. So that experience may or may not be coloring my understanding to a degree that I am so far unable to articulate.
My fifth disclaimer (and in case you haven’t guessed we are steadily inching around the central theme of this sermon through this awkward device of disclaimers, so if I get to the end and you think I haven’t started the sermon yet you’re going to be very confused) is that I really don’t relate to the notion of a law-giving God who is completely separate from creation and yet manages to have a controlling personal relationship with every believing and possibly every non-believing human based largely on how well each individual human follows God’s rules and how contrite we are when we break them (some of you may remember my “angry poem” from the talent show). Which is, unfortunately, the subject of four of the lectionary choices for this morning. The Book of Wisdom passage is about how God made man imperishable in his own image and that it was the Devil’s envy that bought death into the world “as those who are his partners will discover. “ Psalm 30 (to paraphrase) is “Yahweh has forgiven and spared me, praise him forever.” Psalm 130: God is redeemer, forgiver, and dawn. And in Lamentations: Yahweh is good to those who trust him, forgives, redeems, and heals. Now that broadcast television’s gone digital, you can hear that message around the clock on all five versions of Channel 48, and you chose to come here this morning.
My sixth disclaimer is that The Samuel and Corinthian passages are different, but still, for me, problematic. We like to concentrate on the David/Jonathan relationship in Samuel but in that same block of text David kills the messenger who killed Saul supposedly because Saul asked him to, and there are questions of ethnic vs. national loyalty and which side God is really on. And while the Corinthians is cited as an example of grace over law, it’s still rooted in how we understand the law, and how the law relates to our understanding of God, and this essential notion that people are easily confused and if they are exposed to more nuanced interpretations might end up damned for eternity [Now you’ve been warned by Paul].
Which brings me finally to the contrasting calmness and the serenity, the tuned in-ness of Jesus in the passage from Mark, which follows last week’s calming of the storm, but is otherwise very different from the ranting, chiding, authoritative, argumentative, wildly inconsistent portrayal of Jesus in most of this Gospel. I have an urge to do this chill motion while I’m reading it. Jesus is an island of calm embodying the Universal Christ Consciousness. You know if you just touch his garment you’re going to be healed because the wholeness is palpable around him. He knows the little girl is just asleep when all the confused not quite consciousness-connected folks around him are convinced she’s dead. He doesn’t let that throw him any more than the storm did, instead he just convinces them by waking her up, and what’s his major concern? Making sure she gets something to eat. There’s nothing about the Law, or forgiveness, or salvation, no divisions between people. This is horizontal Christianity. God in the connection. God in the love and care between people. This is the Jesus I want to be when I grow up. [Give me a break, spiritually I’m not quite 5 yet].
You see I believe that we all have in us our own piece of the Universal Consciousness. Some of us are more naturally tuned in to it than others but more to the point, most of us don’t want to be tuned in. I know I spent thirty-six years resisting it . and then that Christmas Eve in 2004 after Patricia convinced me I was OK I walked in here and felt it. We can all work on tuning in to the wavelength of the Consciousness around us, being the calm, the healing wholeness, the example for those around us, freely enabling the God Love and not getting all hung up on whether it’s the right love, or the right food (please note that Jesus’ instruction to give the girl something to eat is not qualified), or whether we’re following the right rules, or whether we’re confusing people, or whether God’s on our side. Because there is no side.
We impose all this order and structure and definition based on a model of individuals working together toward a common good while maintaining our boundaries. And then the groups we form develop their own theories about how things work and are supposed to work, and then the groups end up in conflict about whose God is better or whether there’s just the one God playing favorites, and we end up with passages like those in Samuel, Psalms and Lamentations, and with Protestants fighting Catholics, Shiites fighting Sunnis, Hindus against Moslems, Moslems against Jews, Christians killing Jews, burning Witches, physically assaulting and legally discriminating against people who undermine our religious beliefs about sex and gender, writing letters to the editor about whether there can be such a thing as a reverend lesbian. There are not too many churches where we would feel comfortable talking about our own belief systems, or even admitting that we had them, and it’s not even completely clear to me yet how comfortable we are about it here. It’s much safer being anonymous individuals going along with whatever the group claims to believe, or if that’s not possible, assuming everyone else believes some same different thing and separating ourselves as outsiders.
Because it’s a scary thing being a real part of the Whole. It scares the heck out of me. For one thing most of the people you meet are not connecting, not wanting to connect, looking out for their individual need and maybe enforcing society’s rules if they’re favored or breaking them if they’re not. You have to deal with those people every day. I know you need your shield. You need to hide anything that might be used against you, but that’s a really bad cycle, because then, you know, if it’s hidden, it’s more powerful. But if you’re out there just letting everybody know what’s in your head all the time and accepting with love everything that’s in everybody else’s head, you’re living free. And sure, all that open communication of what’s in your head can make people angry if it doesn’t meet their expectations or breaks their rules. I think Jesus (and Gandhi and Martin Luther King) proved that pretty well, but that’s what taking up the cross is all about, right?
Plus this isn’t a theory, it’s a practice, and therefore something you can live, and not have to argue about. Jesus doesn’t even respond to the disciples incredulity over his question about who touched his clothes, he just responds lovingly to the woman who touched him, and when people laugh at him for claiming the girl is asleep he simply wakes her up. When your existence is proof of concept, eventually, other people will come around to your way of existing, or they don’t. But even if they don’t, you will have known the joy of living freely.
So live in the Universal Consciousness, be one with it, let it be part of you, and let you be part of it. Because you are part of it and it is part of you. Stop fighting it. Feel the love. Share the love. Chill. Peace out. Make sure you get something to eat.
© 2009 by Christopher William Purdom
