Luke 10:1-9 (NIV)
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
I was arrested by this first thought from Father Keith’s take on the Gospel reading:
The world is not a problem to be solved. Give your peace. Pronounce blessing on others (whether or not you think they deserve it or will accept it).
As I re-read this now with new eyes, so to speak, I get what he was saying.
The world is not a problem to be solved. This comes in line with what Micheal A Singer is teaching about these soul disturbances. Stop looking to “fix” the exterior world. Instead, stop. Give your peace. Pronounce your blessing on others. Withholding your blessing only hurts you, festers fear and anger in your own soul. Let it go.
I thought of Emerson’s body of work on Self-reliance as Jesus instructed his friends to not even take money with them. The universe would provide what they needed. This is the opposite of Emerson’s idea of relying only on the self, though I get that Emerson was preaching more about not relying on others to define oneself or one’s values. I think Emerson teeters on the edge of this spiritual breakthrough...but he still relies heavily on the mind and one’s own thoughts. His take is less about spirit and more about an individual’s thoughts. As I re-read Emerson now, maybe my first instinct was wrong. He does talk about Soul as the center of self and nonconformity of the individual as thinking independently from the hive mentality of society. It means not being afraid of being misunderstood or being afraid to change your mind, regardless of what other people think you should do. It’s about being true to your inner self.
Then I thought of the elegant and gracious work by Satish Kumar, You Are, Therefore I Am- A declaration of dependence (2008). In this sweet volume, Kumar relates his personal story growing up as a Jain monk in India. Kumar talks about learning the five basic practices of a Jain monk, beginning with the first two:
1. Ahimsa, this is the principle of non-violence. Do no harm to yourself or others. Avoid harmful thought, words, and actions. Refuse to hold on to negative thoughts, refuse to speak evil, refuse to be a part of cruelty. Discipline yourself to develop “good will, positive thought, gentle speech, and loving action” (p.54).
2. Satya is the principle of truth. This, according to his guru, means “understanding the true nature of existence, including the true nature of oneself: accepting reality as it is and being truthful to it, attempting to see things as they are without judging them as good or bad...[It means] don’t have illusions about yourself: how important you are, how unimportant you are, how good you are, how bad you are. Suspend all judgments. Face the truth without fear. Things are as they are: they are not good or bad, weak or strong. These are all interpretations” (54-55).
I thought of Kumar’s basic premise of the book: we are interdependent on each other, on the earth. Everything is interconnected. We are not alone. We need each other. We ARE each other. There is no otherness. We are all a part of this created world.
I thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s seminal work on understanding that we (the church) are interdependent. We cannot experience Christ outside of community. Sure, we may gain insights into our interior selves in moments of isolation. But few of us are called to be monks or hermits. We experience love in community. It may be imperfect, a faulty copy of the real thing, but it is a glimpse of eternal love.
These ideas of community and interdependence are much more in line with 1st century church thinking than this modern idea that we are separate from the rest of creation and can do whatever we want to others and to the planet.
I thought of the web of life. We are a part of creation - we are the incarnation of spirit.
Dorothy L. Sayers’ essays on incarnational living build on this idea of original participation. We are called to participate with nature, with all of creation.
I thought of Galatians 6 and Saint Paul's admonition that we need each other, of Thomas Merton and his declaration of our interdependence on all of creation. These are not eastern mystics, though they have more in common with eastern mysticism than “American Christianity”.
I thought of this idea of declaring that the kingdom of heaven is near. I thought of Ed Gungor’s sermons on how God hides himself. Then reveals himself to those who seek. He often speaks of this cosmic game of hide and seek. If you look for God, the eternal one, the Creator, you will find Spirit. This is the “openness” of spirit that Singer alludes to, I think. Jesus said “if you seek me, you will find me”. We just have to drop our preconceived ideas of what God must look like, act like, do for us, or we might miss him, like the people of Jesus’ time missed their savior, because he didn’t look or act like they thought he should.
In the same way, if you look for people who are seeking connection with spirit, with God, you will find them.
Today, I am listening to Chuck Jonkey’s India Meditation album.
My discipline and practice today is to fast and to meditate, not on what I think I need or how God should appear to me, but on being open. My practice is to recognize when I am disturbed inside and to consciously awake, to stop, relax, and let go of my preconceived ideas of how things should be or how people should act... you get it. This is my intention for the day.
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