Awareness: Renewing Day by Day
“Awareness: Renewing Day by Day”
Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year B June 10, 2018
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 Mark 3:20-35
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Out in the countryside beyond the city limit, I’ve noticed newer homes going up that don’t quite fit in to the historic, rural culture of chicken coops, cow pastures, gardens, horses, junked out cars, and ailing barns. One property in particular goes through great lengths to maintain a suburban lawnscape, manicured through an obsession of inputs such as fertilizer, weed killers, time, energy, fuel, equipment, labor, and money. Once, sometimes twice a week, a team of landscapers descend with edge trimmers, a push mower, and ride around lawn mowers of different varieties, each attacking part of the yard in a combined effort toward the perfect lawn. The latest compulsion finalizes these touches by pushing any remaining debris not vacuumed by the grass catchers out to the edges of the property line by using two backpack mounted blowers. After blow drying this haircut, a very distinct boundary is observed between what is planned, planted, and protected, and that which is beyond the fence. I once saw some stray goats wander onto this lawnscape, only to have the property owner throw rocks at them. He called the sheriff to deal with his neighbor after a heated argument.
The lawn is immaculate, but aside from looks that appeal to a certain value system, it has nothing to show for itself. What some people find as an attractive landscape hides the fact that it’s based on systems that are unbalanced, it’s not-sustainable for generations to come, it alienates neighbors, and it’s out of touch with the natural systems that surround it, such as a nearby pond that used to have frogs.
Through other measurements or value systems, this suburban lawnscape is basically sterile, producing no food, requiring far more inputs than any benefits derived from it, and the current outputs are viewed as waste, hauled to the landfill because they have no purpose on the property inside the fence. Plus, the owners are only rarely outside to enjoy it, as they are usually at work to make money so they can pay to maintain their lifestyle. In Western culture, as the family farm has given way to suburbia, this scene is repeated over and over again, countless times.
This is, of course, a metaphor for awareness. A tremendous effort goes into shaping life in certain ways, and any attempt to change our perceptions is met with resistance and defensiveness. This is called a dualistic, ego-centric mindset. Most people seem stuck in this, and even Christians are satisfied living unconscious lives, without waking up to enlightenment.
The ego likes it that way because the predictable status quo is protective and helps us feel a sense of security. But in reality our lives are diminished, like the limits of our private property. Anything that is beyond our understanding or control, is pushed beyond our ego-centric boundaries, and we miss out because much of life lies beyond our understanding or control. But it feels better, at least at superficial levels, because if it’s beyond our fence, we can label it and judge it as bad or threatening. Life becomes a series of arguments to defend the turf we identify with, because our sense of self is wrapped up in our identification with certain things in certain ways. We latch on to doctrines and dogmas to help bolster our positions. We use the past as proof of how and why our identity has been shaped, but this nurtures our pain and inspires stronger fences. We look to the future with fear, worry, and angst because certainty dangles like a piñata in our mind and at any moment could get hit and come apart. Our manicured lives can come unraveled.
What we define as truth, what we base our values on, sometimes cracks; or we find that things that once worked don’t work like before, and our ego-maintained-fence gets a hole in it. Most of the time, we fix the hole and go on with life as usual. But thankfully, sometimes, what seems chaotic or threatening, is actually an opportunity in disguise; an invitation to remove the fence entirely, to find our center beyond the limits of the ego, grounded far more deeply than we can even imagine; to make discoveries that expand truth, opening a new Way of living that has nothing to defend and becomes welcoming of neighbors, and even our enemies are seen as extensions of our own life as unity is experienced and becomes more than a nice theory or idea.
Awareness is a key step in entering the larger world of inner transformation. But what is awareness? What do we mean by aware? How do we know if we are aware? What are the feedbacks that tells us?
The Gospel of Mark 3:20-35, along with 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 help us explore the wisdom of awareness and a process of renewal, day by day. Cynthia Bourgeault also helps us approach these texts from a contemplative stance to see things we likely wouldn’t otherwise notice. She invites us to explore Jesus from the wisdom tradition. Her book, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind – A New Perspective on Christ and His Message, talks about how “the indivisible reality of love is the only True Self.”
As we try to make sense of our experience and the world, as we venture beyond the fence, to find our True Self in Christ, the Path of love teaches us the art of letting go. But before we can release our thoughts, before we can let go of our desire to control and feel secure, we need to become aware. We need to notice that built into us is a “Noticer” that perceives the depths of life from the heart.
Jesus is in a house that is so crowded they can’t even eat. Perhaps this is because to eat around the very low table, you lay on the floor with your legs out behind you, leaning your head in, toward the center. If the house is crowded, you can’t lay on the floor or you’ll get stepped on as the crowd pushes in, then people would trip and fall on you; so you need to stand up, which means you can’t eat. Or maybe they can’t eat because as Jews they are not allowed to share meals with Gentiles, and perhaps the crowd from town is mixed. Maybe it’s the religious law that is preventing the meal. We don’t know why they couldn’t eat, but it certainly shows a bit of chaos, and adds to the dynamic nature of this scene: there is a lot going on that is unsettling to life’s normal assumptions, understandings, or expectations. There are dimensions of interior and exterior, of divisions and of unity.
The fact that Mark writes that Jesus’ family tries to restrain him because people are saying that “he has gone out of his mind” is exactly the point. Jesus is out of his mind. He is entering heart territory, what he is doing cannot be grasped only through the intellect or any rational, predictable system. Something spiritually significant is taking place. Because people don’t understand, they assume the worst and label it evil, saying “He has Beelzebul,” and accuse him of healing through demonic powers. Jesus doesn’t react, but he responds by telling parables, using stories of the defense of private property as a metaphor for our need to re-train our ego. For the True Self to emerge, we need to notice the corruption of the false self, and have a desire to awaken.
Becoming aware is so spiritually significant that Jesus seems angry that the scribes are so blinded, accusing him of doing evil rather than seeing God at work through Him. As Suzanne Guthrie puts it,
“Mark characterizes sin against the Holy Spirit as looking at the good - Jesus healing, for example - and seeing evil. To refuse to see the good implies some deep moral corruption, a purposeful willing to reject new life, to reject that ‘sigh too deep for words’ coming to our aid. That person wills himself against repentance […,] disables himself by a willfully hardened heart.” (http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper5b.html)
Jesus recognizes the scribes don’t have a desire to awaken.
To be aware means you are waking up, noticing within an inner life that finds its source in the love, grace, and peace of God that is beyond understanding. You know you’re aware when you recognize your limitations, often through pain, and invite God to the work of inner transformation. You give God a blank check to remove the fence, and to discover that the boundaries we create are illusions to begin with. Awareness brings desire for God to change your life, filling your heart with an abundance that overflows. The feedback that tells you enlightenment is at work involves sometimes dramatic changes, but oftentimes very subtle aspects of approaching life from a different angle. It includes the desire for spiritual disciplines such as Centering Prayer, mindfulness training, and inner healing. Once you realize radical oneness with everything, and that you are not the center of this universe, or any other universe, you notice that you become more open, and you want to become more open. Like a flower that reaches into the endless sky, you become vulnerable through beauty and love, inviting your True Self in Christ to emerge and even flourish.
Paul writes the church in that very wealthy city of Corinth with it’s highly diverse population, using images to express the dynamic, life-giving adventure of growing into the image of God we are created in. He reminds us of setting aside our ego-centric, calculated mindset, and through the uncomfortable, challenging, and unsettling work of inner transformation, the glorious gift of God’s love renews us. From a wisdom perspective, as Paul says, “we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence,” this is another way of saying that we can be like Jesus in this life. Our created core is divine, not built by human hands, but linked with God’s eternal glory. Jesus invites us to this hard work, what Paul calls a “slight momentary affliction” to release those temporary identities we cling to. In the Jesus Way, in Christ we discover “the indivisible reality of love as the only True Self.”
This teaching of the wisdom tradition is way beyond what those first disciples would have comprehended in that crowded house. It is denied by the scribes, and not even recognized by the family of Jesus, by those who knew him better than anyone else. But they’re not in the house, they’re outside. Everyone’s got to do their own work.
As we see Jesus when he is told his family is searching for him, he announces this radical awareness of the Divine in all things, the Unity of each stitch of creation’s tapestry. The crowd sitting around him, symbolizing a stance of openness and learning from a master Jewish Rabbi teaching the Wisdom Tradition; they tell him “‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said,
‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’”
Awareness. Noticing the Noticer, inviting God’s still, small voice to speak, recognizing the Holy Spirit is at work beyond our conceptions, beliefs, and understandings; these are the first steps toward eternally important, Spiritual work. Becoming aware of the unitive nature of all things, of the larger consciousness infusing creation seen and unseen, of the bottomless depths of faith: awareness invites us to allow God room to work, as the reality of love grows from our heart, renewing our mind, helping us recognize and claim the intimate Presence of our True Self in Christ.
May God open our eyes to see beyond that which crowds us, and trust in God to guide us into a deeper awareness of Divine Wisdom. As we follow the Wisdom Jesus on the Way of the Living Christ, may God be glorified, now, even as forever. Amen.