Be Wise
“Be Wise”
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B July 29, 2018
Ephesians 3:14-21 John 6:1-21
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
This summer I’ve been preaching a sermon series called Be(e) Keeping: A Journey Into Contemplative Faith. One year ago (today), my wife, Shawna and I were at Buckfast Abbey on the Dartmoor in the Devon region of southwest England, where the “monks have been keeping bees for over a hundred years. Archaeological evidence also shows the medieval Buckfast monks also kept bees.” (Beekeeping at Buckfast Information Sheet, 70p) Brother Adam was the most famous of Buckfast’s beekeepers, in charge for over seventy years. He started with 45 hives, and at its peak Buckfast had over 700. The Buckfast Bee is a strain of honeybee Brother Adam bred after spending years travelling over 100,000 miles around the world seeking to include the best qualities of honeybees while minimizing the less desirable traits. You can still find Buckfast queens available around the world, although the Abbey itself does not have an emphasis on bee keeping like it once did.
As we visited with the older Monk who served as our host, asking him about Brother Adam (whom he knew) and the bee keeping tradition, he seemed a bit agitated, scoffing that Brother Adam “was an arrogant bugger!” In British lingo, this was a slam. His experience was that Brother Adam stayed somewhat separate from the community of Brothers and would rather push his own thing than observe the traditions and steady regiments of the monastery. In my perception, there is a disconnect between the monastic community and bee keeping at the Abbey, and so it’s no wonder that when Brother Adam died in 1996, the Abbey phased out the honey production, breeding program, and queen rearing, and reduced the hives to just a few dozen kept for educational purposes only. They now give occasional tours, and their beekeeper, Clare Densley, is extremely knowledgeable about honey bees and has many resources to share about various topics. She’s amazing! You can find her on Facebook. But the apparent disconnect between the Apiary and the Monastery seems evident to me, as our tour took place on Sunday morning during the time the Brothers led Mass.
For Clare Densley, working the bees is a spiritual experience, so she doesn’t mind the scheduling conflict. As the bells on the chapel filled the valley with ringing, we beekeepers were worshiping at a different level, up on the hill. While the tradition was enacted in the chapel, out on the mountainside we lingered in our awareness of God in all things and all things in God.
This morning as we read from John and Ephesians, we discover two of the most spiritually infused texts when it comes to contemplative prayer. In John, who loves to write about signs and wonders that point us to the Living Christ, Jesus is with his disciples, sitting down on the mountain, trying to find space away from the crowds; yet the people are persistent and follow him. The Passover was near and the story that unfolds involves feeding bread and fish to 5,000 people as they sit on the grass. What seems impossible because of scarcity becomes a sign of God’s provision and care, defined by God’s economy of abundance.
Subtle images here reveal these themes, such as it being near Passover. Much like the Last Supper in which Jesus shares bread with the disciples, here Jesus shares bread with the world. Much like the Good Shepherd gathers the sheep in green pastures, Jesus asks the disciples to tell the people to sit down, for there is “a great deal of grass in the place.” The people had as much as they wanted, and there were twelve baskets of left overs, symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel. This also shows us that everything belongs, even that which we may typically cast aside, as nothing is lost, and nothing is destroyed. The people are so impressed that Jesus has prophetic powers they want to force him into being king. But, “He withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”
The next scene is a great metaphor for the struggles of life and a peace that is given from God. While Jesus is by himself on the mountain, the disciples take a boat across the sea and the wind begins to blow. They are caught in the storm, and it’s now dark, but Jesus has not come to them yet. Ever been in situations like that? Life seems chaotic, you don’t have a clear vision on what’s going on or where to go next, you make mistakes, maybe not the best decisions, and you’re frightened. God seems far off, distant and detached and you ask, “Why, what does all this mean?” Your best efforts seem to be getting you nowhere, like the disciples rowing against the strong wind.
Awareness changes everything. Becoming enlightened to the Presence of the living Christ transforms fear because the unifying gift of love frees us. Paul writes of this to the Christians in Ephesus, where in chapter three he shares his sincere prayer. Paul, the mystic, is showing us how to avoid a disconnect; how to plant the roots of faith in the fertile ground of our heart. Contemplative prayer is at the core of this passage which is steeped with unity, depth of soul, and transcendence. He sets the stage by sharing that everyone is defined by divine Presence. It’s in our “inner being” that we discover the strength of this power in the Spirit. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love” is the essence of spiritual awareness and relationship as we participate in this divine dance.
Then Paul gets challenging. How does he expect us to comprehend that which is beyond comprehension? How does he expect us to know that which is beyond knowing? “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” This is heart language, where faith picks up as our mind reaches it’s limitations. You can’t think your way into revelation. God at work “in our inner being” is our glory.
These passages give us specific, time encapsulated, context specific moments that reflect or illustrate a larger truth. As Richard Rohr might put it, they are microcosms showing us the macrocosm. And as Paul talks about God changing us from the inside out, the story of sharing bread on the mountain mingles in as themes of incarnation, sacrament, and Presence drift around like the smoke of incense layered in the air.
In a recent daily devotional on the theme of Eucharist, Richard Rohr talks about communion as “A Universal and Unifying Meal.” He says, “The mystery of sharing food and a common table takes place on different levels. First there is the unifying idea of sharing the same food. Then there is the symbolism of the table itself: where you sit at the table, how the table is arranged, and who is invited. Together the food and table become a symbol of how our social world is also arranged. […] Jesus’ last supper was a meal of deep table friendship—with his closest followers—[…] Frankly, most people have never been ready for the Eucharist’s radically demanding message of solidarity with both suffering and resurrection at the same time. Therefore, we made it into a worthiness contest and something that we could supposedly understand with our mind—[…] Yes, we are to recognize Jesus himself in the Eucharist, but we are also to “recognize the Body” […] of those present as the Body of Christ[…]. There is no true Eucharist without a living assembly because we are being saved together and as one. The message is corporate and historical. […] The Eucharistic meal is meant to be a microcosmic event, summarizing at one table what is true in the whole macrocosm: We are one, we are equal in dignity, we all eat of the same divine food, and Jesus is still and always “eating with sinners” […].
(Adapted, Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations (CAC Publications: 2016), 296-297. http://email.cac.org/t/ViewEmail/d/C92FD2BDCAC21DE12540EF23F30FEDED/713021DC5DC21FE0C9C291422E3DE149 , Week Thirty, Eucharist, Rohr’s daily email devotional from Thursday, July 26, 2018)
Just as beekeepers seek the helpful traits of bee races, such as being gentle, easy to work with, hardy enough to survive tough times, and hard working to maximize honey production, while at the same time trying to minimize the less desirable traits, we too are growing in Christ. We come alongside the disciples and the people on the hillside as Jesus provides us with green pasture yet is beyond our manipulation or control; we are all in the same boat, weathering the storms, working hard to maintain our heading, and trusting that if we let Christ in among us, and heed the words, “do not be afraid, God’s love suddenly changes everything; and we mingle among the Ephesians as Paul shares his prayer for the importance of this inner work. Contemplative prayer is a spiritual discipline that helps us experience what Paul is praying for. Awakening to the Living Christ in and among us, allowing this light to shine brighter in and through our hearts, and doing important shadow work of healing our soul all are part of what Paul calls “the power at work within us” as we are “filled with the fullness of God.”
In Christ, there is no disconnect. We are microcosms of the macrocosm. We are part of community. We are loved. Let us seek to be wise beyond knowledge. As we allow God’s love to define us, inside and out, may God be glorified, now, even as forever. Amen.