Living and Active
“Living and Active”
Proper 23, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 21st Sunday after Pentecost, Year B October 14, 2018
Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10:17-31
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
At yesterday’s Labyrinth Retreat, Jolie the facilitator reminded us of what’s called The Threefold Path; three aspects involved in the dynamic of pilgrimage. When a pilgrim, or person on a spiritual journey, sets out with an intent, in order to focus and bring about that intent, other things must be let go. To embrace the new, the old, or former must be shed. Then your hands are empty enough to embrace or receive what gifts are discovered or revealed along the journey. Pilgrims pack lightly. So the first part of the Threefold Path is purgation, purging, releasing, relinquishing, cleansing.
As lessons are learned and wisdom is revealed, enlightenment becomes the second fold of the path. New insights, a different take on something, perspective gained, or a deeper trust can all be aspects of experiencing something that the word, “awakening” tries to describe.
That third aspect of the Threefold Path involves Integration, which is how we are challenged and changed. Life is not the same as it was before the lessons from the Path, if we integrate the purgation and enlightenment rather than go back to old, familiar, comfortable patterns.
It takes courage, resolve, and grace to allow Christ to lead us on this type of journey, especially as an inward journey that speaks to our heart and soul. Our minds may get nervous or try and talk us out of whatever peace it is we’ve been offered.
The ego of the mind likes to be considered separate and superior to all others. Like a flashlight shining into the dark night, the beam of our understanding only goes so far. Whatever our ego cannot comprehend tends to be excluded, banished, and condemned. Only that which we’re comfortable with gets included in our circle. If there are things in life that we just can’t get our head wrapped around, or somehow we label as different, or things that we fear, we push them into that outer fringe, draw a line, and reject them.
This is called a dualistic mode of living, and it’s a survival technique. This pattern of thinking is hardwired into our psyche as humans. Dualistic thinking is often the default, and it’s just easier. But operating from judgment, from rigid dualism that constantly divides things into categories of good or bad, this is a symptom that the small self, operating from an egoic center, is in charge. Embracing something outside egoic understanding can feel frightening or threatening.
Living from an egoic operating system is part of the human condition. Why do you think one of the Old Testament creation stories has Adam blaming Eve for their problems? If you don’t do your inner work, wrestling with your own demons, then you project them out. Just turn the radio or TV and you can hear and see people blaming, condemning, finding fault in others. If you hear someone doing this, complaining or blaming other people for their problems, picture them with a mirror in front of them reflecting back what’s projected as they spout, and realize they could very well be unsolved issues that are denied or repressed.
The human species seems to be on the threshold of the next great evolutionary leap. Our small mind is learning to die, and it may kill us all in the process. Entering a Larger Mind is an important step in life’s creative movement, and this will take place as the meek inherit the earth. Religion is supposed to help us in this process of growth, supposed to teach what we need and what we must let go of in order to live life in its fullness. The Threefold Path is one great example of a healthy spirituality doing important work, partnering with God for the greater good.
This morning’s scriptures from Hebrews and Mark point to Jesus showing the Path through this transition. They use image and story to illustrate the movement away from our false self that projects out unresolved issues, and seeks to find validation from externals in order to soothe the inner pain rooted in our own insecurities.
Jesus, whether you call him the high priest or the good teacher, shows us that our True Self in Christ transforms our inner being. The scriptures teach us about change, moving away from a world where we try and think our way along, with thoughts and opinions shaping our reality, and rather to learn the art of letting go, purgation, shedding our ego’s need for control. This is called Kenosis, a Greek word that Jesus lives out, showing us how to release that which blocks the light of illumination.
Essentially, these scriptures are teaching about love, which cannot be contained by or limited to the mind. These Bible stories show how to live a loving life, where perfect love casts out fear, has nothing to defend, finds unity with all things seen and unseen, and embraces our core identity, our True Self, which is, through Christ, divine because we are created in the image and likeness of God.
Indeed, the word of God is living and active…able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
And the author of Hebrews goes on talking about Jesus as our great, high priest. We can approach the throne of grace with boldness. Jesus shows us the Way.
In Mark we see someone coming to Jesus with boldness, proud of their accomplishments and religious devotion. Yet, this is one of the only scenes in scripture where Jesus invites someone to follow him and they leave in sadness. He didn’t want to take that great leap, just as our world continues to struggle.
This story begins with Jesus setting out on a journey. This implies dynamic movement, like a pilgrimage with a purpose but not necessarily a plan. It does not say, “Jesus left for his destination.” It says, “As he was setting out on a journey.” The rich young man runs up to him, kneels, and asks,
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
He’s looking for the plan, for a map to a destination.
There are so many ways we could go with this passage in terms of interpretation. The conversation between Jesus and the young man, involving the word ‘Good,’ and the various religious laws or commandments, why it is this rich man calls Jesus, “teacher” and what that term may mean. We could compare the Wisdom perspective from an eastern Christian stream such as from India, verses the Greek, Western church with it’s typical interpretations that have entirely different trajectories, world views, and assumptions. Lots of ways we could play with this, but what stands out this morning seems to involve the shift Jesus is trying to get this young man to make.
Jesus points out all the lessons this young man has faithfully learned, and devoutly implemented in his life. But by suggesting, in this story, that he sell everything, give the money away to the poor, then come and follow Jesus, this is a lesson about Kenosis, that Greek word for ‘letting go.’ This is an invitation for transformation on the inward journey of faith. This recognizes not only the limits of externalized lists of laws, behaviors, and beliefs, of knowing the system and doing well through institutions, but it also highlights the confining boundary of the mind itself. This man’s strategizing, planning, and checklist approach to life will not get him what he needs, no matter how well he does it, because what he needs involves a change of heart, a loosening of ego’s grip, a deeper trust in God’s larger benevolence, and a renewed sense of identity that doesn’t create status or prestige from externals, but finds deeper meaning and value intrinsically.
It sounds like this rich young man, who was “shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions,” basically fails at the first step of the Threefold path, purgation. He can’t let things go, and we’re not just talking about wealth. The money is part of a metaphor for the spiritual journey of following Christ.
Jesus, Good Teacher, is an enlightened one who moves the conversation from the head level to the heart level, from externals such as commandments to internals such as having no attachments, even holding our own sense of who we are as a person, lightly. Jesus himself, somewhere along the path of his life, learned the art of letting go. Intentions of the heart, naked and laid bare to the eyes of God. Anything that comes between us and that Living and Active Presence will be removed. Spiritual disciplines teach us how to practice this, even now.
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing…’
But in order to gain this one thing, the lesson involves letting go of everything else. In other words, through a wisdom perspective, this is a lesson about attachment, about identifying ourselves through anything other than our Source, our True Self, centered not in our ego, but in Christ. The fullness of love is flowing and this man has blocks. We too need to learn how to let go, how to die before we die, how to invite God to change us from the inside out.
We are warned, even in the invitation, that transformation is not an easy process. The young rich man went away shocked and grieving. We aren’t forced into this. Jesus lets him go, doesn’t call him names, just keeps teaching the disciples about inner work, transformation, letting go, and they don’t get it! Even Peter argues with Jesus. This is gut wrenching, and reminds us that one of Jesus’ sayings, “Those who lose their life will find it” doesn’t just jump to finding.
But transformation shows one of the deepest, most profound patterns of creation: that systems or beliefs or patterns or practices, even good and faithful ones, have limits. Institutions, things we thought were so predictable, dependable, and solid, run their course. All things in creation are finite, they have a beginning and an end.
Reaching the limit of something, waiting on the threshold of what comes next, as this story shows, can be shocking and involves letting go that is so deep it brings into play a grieving process. But transformation also shows another powerful aspect of creation, because just as purgation leads to illumination, so too, healing and love lead to newness of life. Even death becomes a transition, one we don’t need to fear. God’s goodness is endlessly creative. Redemption is a core aspect of resurrection faith, and trusting that next step past the threshold is what faith involves as we lean into that which makes a seed sprout from the depths of the earth as it grows toward the light.
As we continue to learn spiritual disciplines, such as walking labyrinths and contemplative prayer, may God help us release that which binds us, blocks us, or becomes an object we cling to so hard that it destroys us. May the Living and Active God expose the true intentions of our hearts as we follow Jesus, who shows us the Path to life and love in the fullness of grace. Open your heart like a humble pilgrim, partnering with God as you do your inner work. As we come and follow the Living Christ, may the Good Teacher help us integrate the lessons from the journey so everyone can celebrate the love which makes us whole.
And may God be glorified, NOW, even as forever. Amen.