Loving Sea Monsters
“Loving Sea Monsters”
First Sunday after Christmas Day, Year C, December 30, 2018
Psalm 148 Colossians 3:12-17 Luke 2:41-52
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Psalm 148 certainly gets to the cosmic, all encompassing dynamic of the interrelationship of God Almighty with every aspect of creation, from brother sun, sister moon, and all the stars, to more earthly expressions of life, both wild and domestic. Everything is put on the same plane of existence, and equality is experienced as all peoples, animals, plants, and waters, are all called to praise the LORD, united through the glory of God. It’s quite a vision, including things we don’t usually think of, such as the ‘waters above the heavens’, and ‘sea monsters and all deeps’. If even these participate in praising God, and loving sea monsters is part of God’s connection to the earth, then this image encourages us to powerfully expand our awareness of the unitive nature of God in all things, and all things in God.
This is linked with the letter of Colossians as we read the invitation to “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” This love is linked, in the very next sentence, to a key aspect of living in this love, as it says, “And.” This love has an effect.
“And, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you indeed were called in the one body.” Love creates, love connects, love leads. Love leads to peace within unity, and the heart is central to this peace of Christ. It’s through a transformed heart, seeing in Christ, open to divine Presence, that allows us to notice the illumination of creation. Like Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Priest says,
“When we see the image of God where we are not accustomed to seeing the image of God, then we see with eyes not our own.” (https://cac.org/seeing-the-divine-image-everywhere-2018-12-23/)
In Colossians, transformation includes putting on like we put on clothing, “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” Forbearance and forgiveness are part of the journey, and “above all, clothe yourselves with love,” as it unites all things. Love is a real clincher.
As Rohr puts it,
“Jesus says we have to love and recognize the divine image even in our enemies (Matthew 5:44). [Jesus] teaches […] love of the enemy. Logically, this makes no sense. Yet soulfully it makes absolute sense, because in terms of the soul, it really is all or nothing. Either we see the divine image in all created things, or we end up not seeing at all. There is a first epiphany, and gradually the circle keeps moving outward, widening its embrace. […] The Christian vision is that the whole world is a temple. If that is true, then our enemies are sacred, too. Who else created them but God? The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing. And it doesn’t stop with human beings and enemies and the least of the sisters and brothers. It moves to frogs and waters and weeds. Everything becomes enchanting once we have full sight. One God, one world, one truth, one suffering, and one love (see Ephesians 4:4-6). All we can do is participate.” (cited earlier, plus this part is adapted from Rohr’s book, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, Crossroads Publishing Company, 2003, pgs. 55, 57-59).
In Luke, Jesus responds to his frantic parents asking, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Then it says, “But they did not understand what he said to them.” They heard the words, but they didn’t have a frame of reference. These questions highlight that even Jesus’ family of origin was limited in their experience of the unitive nature of the Christ Consciousness, of the expanding relationality of the Great Cloud of Witnesses, and of the depths of wisdom as Jesus illuminates the Living Christ in his life, words, and actions. Mary and Joseph seem stuck in the egoic understanding, which is limited and allows fear and anxiety to get the best of us, and takes offense at anything outside its circle of understanding and comfort. “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” We can’t blame them because they’re acting like most parents who have a concern for their children, especially if they’re separated. They didn’t have text messages or amber alerts back then.
This is a story of Mary’s transformation as well. At Christmas Eve service we looked at the dynamics of amazement compared with pondering. As the shepherds received the Angel’s message, and witnessed the Heavenly Host praising God, singing God’s glory, they went into Bethlehem, shared their story of what happened, and all who heard it were amazed. The shepherds went from feeling terrified to honored. After their fear, the next condition was Amazement. In response to God’s glory, amazement is appropriate and natural. But Mary was not amazed. In that story, Mary treasured their words, pondering them in her heart. We looked at biblical pondering as different than amazement. Amazement involves giving back, in kind, what is received, like electricity carried through a wire, volt for volt. Pondering involves transformation, taking in one quality but giving back what results after pondering mixes that quality with grace, peace, and love.
This morning Mary is 12 year in as Jesus is growing. She is learning about releasing that which up to now has involved clinging and attachment, defining identity through externals. She is devout, going to Jerusalem every year for the Passover. She’s surrounded by friends and relatives, people who watch out for her, people she can trust. The ironies of her transformation are amazing, for near the end of Jesus’ life they will again return to Jerusalem for Passover, but in that case trust is elusive and crowds of supporters don’t have the best interest of Mary or Jesus in mind. In each case, Jesus disappears from sight, and it’s after three days he is seen again, and people are astonished as in their surprise, they move from anxiety into relief.
Like the Christmas Eve story, this morning Mary treasures all these things in her heart. This is once again a sign of her transformation as she moves from the head to the heart and biblical pondering takes in one situation or quality and gives back another, changed by grace and love.
To help us dive deeper into the transformational pool of treasuring, or biblical pondering, I’d like to share a poem called Wage Peace, by Judyth Hill. I found this poem down in the Fellowship Hall, and there are other copied downstairs on the piano. It’s a poem that is similar to contemplative prayer, so as I read it, and it begins by talking about breathing, I invite you to use your breath as a form of participation, as a learning toward the transformational power of biblical pondering and different way of understanding words Jesus says, like, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” as we treasure in our hearts the deep wisdom of the Living Christ.
So let’s close with this poem by Judyth Hill and prayerfully come alongside not only Mary as she treasures all these things in her heart, but joining into that larger life-song that even loving sea monsters are wise enough to sing, giving praise to the LORD!
Wage Peace…
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.