Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Sermon: Being v. Action
(This is my third retro-posting; it was written from Jan-May, 2006 and delivered at Berkeley Methodist United Church in May, 2006)
5/4/06
Being vs Action?
If you’re wondering what I’m doing up here today, I’m afraid I have to start with a confession. Here’s the story -- during service here sometimes my attention wanders away.
I know this has happened to you, so I’m sure you understand. In fact, since actually why I’m here today is because my mind wandered once, it’s fine with me if while I’m talking your brain walks around the block; be my guest.
Anyway, back in January Rev. Naomi was preaching about talking to God; she said something about not ever knowing if your getting through, how its not like a spiritual ATM where you walk up, put in your prayers, put in your good deeds and out comes God’s response. Whatever she said after that I lost, ‘cuz =fttt= I went off and thought, “wow, that’s the dilemma right there: is it prayer that connects me to the oneness at the core of the universe, is it getting into that proper frame of mind where I give it all up to the higher power? Or is it by doing the right thing, by loving my partner; loving my family; by helping my community and helping the world?”
I’m sorry, what you didn’t know about me until today is, that’s sometimes how I really think.
For fun I took a slew of theology classes in college because I have a fascination with these kinds of questions.
I’m going to use some terms that are actually distinct somewhat interchangeably today. I just talked about “prayer”; I’m also going to use “faith” and “being”. What I’m intending is that interior spiritual state that connects us to the divine.
I’m also going to talk about “action” or what used to be called “good works”, meaning the things that we actually DO to bring about a better life for others.
For example, in my own life, I maintain as best I can a loving relationship with my partner Lee, where her fulfillment, her happiness is my concern. Sometimes this is unconscious and easy; at other times a conscious struggle.
Like, being an artist, Lee’s the happiest she can be when she’s absorbed in drawing something.....but at the same time she’s drawing there are now piles of her half-read mail-order catalogs scattered all over the house.
Love comes the hardest when straightening up a mess,
but occasionally it’s there.
On another scale, I’m acutely aware that as an American citizen I have an obligation to tell my government that it needs to act with justice and fairness, to help those that our economic system leaves behind. Sometimes I express this message in writing, sometimes I need to carry a sign in the street. So whether it’s my life at home or my life in my community, these are “actions”.
Sometimes I ask, “are these ACTIONS the best way to make things right? is doing this thing (whatever it is) how I plug into the eternal?”
On the other hand, if I’m at the Lawrence Hall of Science on a clear spring morning, with the sun behind me, reflecting off the windows of the buildings below me and across the bay at the same time, a bank of fog hovering just outside the Golden Gate, I feel connected to it all.
Or when Rev. Naomi playing Jesus during our recent Last Supper play said “friends, this is my last night with you”, a tear came unbidden to my eye. For a moment, I felt like I was there, hearing Him say good-bye two thousand years ago. Is this inward part of me, my prayer, my being, how I connect to the divine?
(weighing gesture) action? being?
*****
hold onto that question. I’m going to come at it from another angle.
*****
My father was an engineer. At a young age I became aware of how practical and hands-on he was; complementing that, my mother was the family organizer, which she had to be in order to raise 9 children. Although deeply in love with each other and both highly religious, neither of them at that time were comfortable in talking about their emotional or spiritual lives; they just didn’t have any language then for that aspect of themselves. Instead I learned how to see a problem, imagine a solution, then break the solution down into discrete small steps, then take those steps. Very practical. It’s what I do each day during the week up at the University when I help the researchers and technicians up there build a stronger union. Esther Olson (point) who is playing piano for us today is a member of that union.
However at the same time, in a way that is still not as clear to me, I also developed a more inward, mystic side, a yearning for transcendence, to touch that deepest part of all that surrounds me at the place where somehow I knew it is all connected, to touch, for the lack of a better word, God.
I remember as a teenager hiking in a forest with my dad and he pointed out how all the trees were (gesture) stretching toward the sun, that that was their nature, that’s what they did. I still remember how that feeling of reaching for the light and reaching for the warmth; that I, too, had that desire, that need, to stretch.
A couple of years later in college I found my first faith community. I went to Santa Clara University, a Jesuit school, and in the dorms every night of the week we had an 11:00 pm religious service in a dorm lounge.
Kids came in their pajamas & brought their stuffed animals
It was totally different from regular church I was used to.
Up until then I was “supposed” to go to church and now I wanted to go.
It felt like we were all in the same place, sharing a common purpose. I was transformed by the experience.
Looking back, I’m sure the fact that everyone was the same age and largely from the same background had a lot to do with it, but the religious tradition I’d grown up with was now something I was consciously choosing, because for the first time I belonged to a community.
But this was also when I started to become aware that connecting to God was not just a warming of the heart, it was not just feeling good, it was also about doing the right thing, making the world a better place.
In their best moments, Jesuits have always been an activist, social-action organization, and those ideals were held out to us by them and many of us reached for those ideals.
The Christian church has been wrestling with this question of “being” versus “action” for centuries now. Martin Luther ignited the Reformation initially over the debate of having a direct faith-connection to God, which he advocated, or focussing on so-called “good works”, which had in his view had slipped into meaningless rituals, like the number of prayers one said every day. When this theological debate became entwined with the politics of the time, wars actually ensued. It seems fantastic today to imagine killing people over something like this, but it’s true.
It shows the power that spiritual questions can sometimes take. I heard recently on NPR a capsule version of the sometimes intensive rivalry within Islam of the Sunni tradition and the Shia tradition. Some of the differences seemed to me as an outsider somewhat trivial, like which relative of Muhammad was his true spiritual heir (son-in-law, cousin)??
But another difference between the traditions was more familiar to my own Christian heritage: the question of who could be an imam, or spiritual leader; can it be anyone inspired by God (Sunni), or can it only be a direct male descendant of Muhammad (Shia)?
Christianity continues to be split over whether our own ministers can be female or not, celibate or not, gay or not, and we’ve gotten rather intense with those who don’t agree with our beliefs.
It’s not only Christianity that struggles with the question of “being” and “action”. I’ve learned over the years that Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism all contain this tension in one form or another. In an interfaith peace group I belonged to for awhile I met self-described “socially engaged” Buddhists. Based on my exposure, I’ve tended to equate Buddhism with a focus more on meditation and inward thought, but here were people going into prisons to help the prisoners inside. I recognized the struggle these faith-filled people were engaged in, bringing their meditation insights into the rough real world.
That brings me around to how I deal personally with the question of “being” or “action”.
I’ve been puzzled as to why I’ve enjoyed my experience in the choir so much. When Marsh Tekawa pestered me into joining the choir a few years ago, I told him I’d never sung outside the shower before. He laughed and said, “that’s okay, what the men lacked in quality we made up in volume” -- =hmm= I’m sure that’s why so many of you sit in the back.
I’ll tell you, as my choir-mates know, our singing doesn’t just happen. We all have to work hard. We’re always repeating certain phrases, even individual notes, until it sounds right. It takes discipline, focus, professional leadership (point), all the elements of successful “action”.
But there’s also something just completely mystic when all of our different voices come together into one harmonic sound. I feel it in my throat I feel it in my chest, and I feel it in my soul. It’s the barest hint of the eternal -- and in this context, it’s “prayer”, it’s “being”.
So what is it, being or action? Of course, it’s both at the same time. The transcendental arises from the action, the action arises from the transcendental.
Both are contained within the other. You can’t pray if you’re not working for justice. You can’t act if you aren’t singing.
Okay, it’s time to stop, Bring your mind back. I’m finished. If your thoughts went anywhere interesting, come tell me about it later. I’ll be over in the social hall having refreshments.
Now let’s get back to our songs!
5/4/06
Being vs Action?
If you’re wondering what I’m doing up here today, I’m afraid I have to start with a confession. Here’s the story -- during service here sometimes my attention wanders away.
I know this has happened to you, so I’m sure you understand. In fact, since actually why I’m here today is because my mind wandered once, it’s fine with me if while I’m talking your brain walks around the block; be my guest.
Anyway, back in January Rev. Naomi was preaching about talking to God; she said something about not ever knowing if your getting through, how its not like a spiritual ATM where you walk up, put in your prayers, put in your good deeds and out comes God’s response. Whatever she said after that I lost, ‘cuz =fttt= I went off and thought, “wow, that’s the dilemma right there: is it prayer that connects me to the oneness at the core of the universe, is it getting into that proper frame of mind where I give it all up to the higher power? Or is it by doing the right thing, by loving my partner; loving my family; by helping my community and helping the world?”
I’m sorry, what you didn’t know about me until today is, that’s sometimes how I really think.
For fun I took a slew of theology classes in college because I have a fascination with these kinds of questions.
I’m going to use some terms that are actually distinct somewhat interchangeably today. I just talked about “prayer”; I’m also going to use “faith” and “being”. What I’m intending is that interior spiritual state that connects us to the divine.
I’m also going to talk about “action” or what used to be called “good works”, meaning the things that we actually DO to bring about a better life for others.
For example, in my own life, I maintain as best I can a loving relationship with my partner Lee, where her fulfillment, her happiness is my concern. Sometimes this is unconscious and easy; at other times a conscious struggle.
Like, being an artist, Lee’s the happiest she can be when she’s absorbed in drawing something.....but at the same time she’s drawing there are now piles of her half-read mail-order catalogs scattered all over the house.
Love comes the hardest when straightening up a mess,
but occasionally it’s there.
On another scale, I’m acutely aware that as an American citizen I have an obligation to tell my government that it needs to act with justice and fairness, to help those that our economic system leaves behind. Sometimes I express this message in writing, sometimes I need to carry a sign in the street. So whether it’s my life at home or my life in my community, these are “actions”.
Sometimes I ask, “are these ACTIONS the best way to make things right? is doing this thing (whatever it is) how I plug into the eternal?”
On the other hand, if I’m at the Lawrence Hall of Science on a clear spring morning, with the sun behind me, reflecting off the windows of the buildings below me and across the bay at the same time, a bank of fog hovering just outside the Golden Gate, I feel connected to it all.
Or when Rev. Naomi playing Jesus during our recent Last Supper play said “friends, this is my last night with you”, a tear came unbidden to my eye. For a moment, I felt like I was there, hearing Him say good-bye two thousand years ago. Is this inward part of me, my prayer, my being, how I connect to the divine?
(weighing gesture) action? being?
*****
hold onto that question. I’m going to come at it from another angle.
*****
My father was an engineer. At a young age I became aware of how practical and hands-on he was; complementing that, my mother was the family organizer, which she had to be in order to raise 9 children. Although deeply in love with each other and both highly religious, neither of them at that time were comfortable in talking about their emotional or spiritual lives; they just didn’t have any language then for that aspect of themselves. Instead I learned how to see a problem, imagine a solution, then break the solution down into discrete small steps, then take those steps. Very practical. It’s what I do each day during the week up at the University when I help the researchers and technicians up there build a stronger union. Esther Olson (point) who is playing piano for us today is a member of that union.
However at the same time, in a way that is still not as clear to me, I also developed a more inward, mystic side, a yearning for transcendence, to touch that deepest part of all that surrounds me at the place where somehow I knew it is all connected, to touch, for the lack of a better word, God.
I remember as a teenager hiking in a forest with my dad and he pointed out how all the trees were (gesture) stretching toward the sun, that that was their nature, that’s what they did. I still remember how that feeling of reaching for the light and reaching for the warmth; that I, too, had that desire, that need, to stretch.
A couple of years later in college I found my first faith community. I went to Santa Clara University, a Jesuit school, and in the dorms every night of the week we had an 11:00 pm religious service in a dorm lounge.
Kids came in their pajamas & brought their stuffed animals
It was totally different from regular church I was used to.
Up until then I was “supposed” to go to church and now I wanted to go.
It felt like we were all in the same place, sharing a common purpose. I was transformed by the experience.
Looking back, I’m sure the fact that everyone was the same age and largely from the same background had a lot to do with it, but the religious tradition I’d grown up with was now something I was consciously choosing, because for the first time I belonged to a community.
But this was also when I started to become aware that connecting to God was not just a warming of the heart, it was not just feeling good, it was also about doing the right thing, making the world a better place.
In their best moments, Jesuits have always been an activist, social-action organization, and those ideals were held out to us by them and many of us reached for those ideals.
The Christian church has been wrestling with this question of “being” versus “action” for centuries now. Martin Luther ignited the Reformation initially over the debate of having a direct faith-connection to God, which he advocated, or focussing on so-called “good works”, which had in his view had slipped into meaningless rituals, like the number of prayers one said every day. When this theological debate became entwined with the politics of the time, wars actually ensued. It seems fantastic today to imagine killing people over something like this, but it’s true.
It shows the power that spiritual questions can sometimes take. I heard recently on NPR a capsule version of the sometimes intensive rivalry within Islam of the Sunni tradition and the Shia tradition. Some of the differences seemed to me as an outsider somewhat trivial, like which relative of Muhammad was his true spiritual heir (son-in-law, cousin)??
But another difference between the traditions was more familiar to my own Christian heritage: the question of who could be an imam, or spiritual leader; can it be anyone inspired by God (Sunni), or can it only be a direct male descendant of Muhammad (Shia)?
Christianity continues to be split over whether our own ministers can be female or not, celibate or not, gay or not, and we’ve gotten rather intense with those who don’t agree with our beliefs.
It’s not only Christianity that struggles with the question of “being” and “action”. I’ve learned over the years that Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism all contain this tension in one form or another. In an interfaith peace group I belonged to for awhile I met self-described “socially engaged” Buddhists. Based on my exposure, I’ve tended to equate Buddhism with a focus more on meditation and inward thought, but here were people going into prisons to help the prisoners inside. I recognized the struggle these faith-filled people were engaged in, bringing their meditation insights into the rough real world.
That brings me around to how I deal personally with the question of “being” or “action”.
I’ve been puzzled as to why I’ve enjoyed my experience in the choir so much. When Marsh Tekawa pestered me into joining the choir a few years ago, I told him I’d never sung outside the shower before. He laughed and said, “that’s okay, what the men lacked in quality we made up in volume” -- =hmm= I’m sure that’s why so many of you sit in the back.
I’ll tell you, as my choir-mates know, our singing doesn’t just happen. We all have to work hard. We’re always repeating certain phrases, even individual notes, until it sounds right. It takes discipline, focus, professional leadership (point), all the elements of successful “action”.
But there’s also something just completely mystic when all of our different voices come together into one harmonic sound. I feel it in my throat I feel it in my chest, and I feel it in my soul. It’s the barest hint of the eternal -- and in this context, it’s “prayer”, it’s “being”.
So what is it, being or action? Of course, it’s both at the same time. The transcendental arises from the action, the action arises from the transcendental.
Both are contained within the other. You can’t pray if you’re not working for justice. You can’t act if you aren’t singing.
Okay, it’s time to stop, Bring your mind back. I’m finished. If your thoughts went anywhere interesting, come tell me about it later. I’ll be over in the social hall having refreshments.
Now let’s get back to our songs!
# posted by Mike Friedrich @ 5:36 PM 
