Prayer and Meditation
Jan 22, 2012
Jan 22, 2012
The last time I did get up and dance, though, someone came up and danced with me and showed me what a terrible dancer I was. But anyway, it was just a fun party. And thank you for setting up my prayer so nicely with that happy interlude.
What a week, with the snow and rain, sleet and wind, and here we are all stir crazy enough to come to church on Sunday morning. If we had kids at home, we're really glad they're downstairs because they're as tired of us as we are tired of them, and here we are, some of us beating ourselves up because we weren't here to do what we are supposed to do and feeling terrible and useless and all that, not paying attention to what really is important -- and that is being centered and content where one is, because that's all that there is, really, is right where you are.
So hopefully we're moving more to that place in our old rhythms with a little more kindness for ourselves. I invite you to join me in the spirit of prayer and meditation.
This life we have is such a strange yet common gift, so fraught with twists and storms, betrayals, mercies, and inspirations, revelations, and hidden treasures buried before us. There is pain in it sometimes, often loneliness; riddles and enigmas, wounds endured, inflicted in terror we cannot name. Yes, in glories too, seen, heard, felt, borne beyond all ability of words to express.
May we become wise enough, merciful at least to measure ourselves not by our fears or failures, however large, but by our faith and our hopes and our loves, however small; that we may truly live this mortal gift and be a source of light for others, so that by grace, all our struggles and all our joys will be daily rehearsals in what it means to be human, to be finite, to be magnificent.
To these imperfect words we add the silent intention of our hearts. ~Jon Luopa
(and later)
I spent a good part of this past week worrying whether or not I should share this reading with you this morning, because I was afraid of what you might think -- about me, not about the reading. They are words I heard often as a child and were precious to me because they were enigmatic. They are words that were often requested at memorial services in congregations on the East Coast that tend to be a little more traditional than we are here. Families would remember this and, Would you do that? Would you say these words for us there?
And then I remembered that yesterday was the first anniversary of my heart attack, and I'm still here.
Audience member: Praise be.
Praise be. Thank you. (Applause.) And maybe one of the things I hope I learned from that event is that it's important to say things that are really meaningful to you when you have the time to do it, because we, none of us, know what time we have.
So we should say what's in our heart, and for those who are able to hear it, they will hear and take it in, and those who cannot, cannot. So just say it.
The reading comes from what we call today the New Testament. They were words attributed to Jesus of Nazareth. They are considered by Biblical scholars and literary professionals probably the only authentic words that we have that Jesus actually said, because they are found in all of the primary sources virtually all in the same form. And so we think inasmuch as we have an inaugural speech of Jesus, these are his words.
They are found most commonly in Matthew in the 5th Chapter and are known as the Beatitudes, and I'm going to read them to you in the old English translation, which is what most of us are familiar with, but then I'm going to go back and paraphrase them in the Aramaic in which they were written because the meaning is very different, indeed.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the Children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice's sake, for theirs in the kingdom of Heaven.
This was typical of Jesus' teaching style to match two seemingly opposing phrases to each other, such that the meaning of them is really to be found in the exchange between them. So here they are, then, in Aramaic and we think closer to what He meant when He uttered them first.
Blessed are the poor in spirit really means blessed are the empty in spirit, those who have no spirit, who have no hope, who have no dreams. They are empty in their spirit. There is nothing there. When you're this way, the kingdom and all Heaven is yours.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Mourn means only those who are able to cry with the poor, with the marginalized, with the weak, with the abandoned, and understand the pain of the world. And most of us are so insulated from those states of being that we are no longer able to cry with the immigrant, to cry with the poor, to cry with the oppressed and the rejected. If we are able to reclaim that natural human right, we shall be comforted.
Blessed the meek means blessed are they who own nothing, who are not possessed by their possessions; they have nothing. Blessed are these people for they shall inherit everything.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, meaning those who hunger after justice, fairness, equity, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful means blessed are those who are seeking to be forgiven. You will be forgiven, and you will be able to forgive.
Blessed are the pure in heart. This is one of the most ancient Jewish teachings, claiming that if your heart is not pure, you will not be able to see. But when your heart is right, you will be able to see the world as it really is. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see the grandeur of the source of all being.
Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the people who attempt to reconcile the things that separate us, one from another, to reconcile differences. Blessed are these because they will be called Children.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice's sake. Interesting; one must be persecuted seeking justice in order to understand what Heaven truly is. To live a just life is to have identified with the longing and hunger of the poor, of the empty, of the meek, of those who own nothing, and of those who weep; who stand in solidarity with the oppressed, for it was His understanding that human tears are more important than human words to understand who God is.
Curious for us enlightened modern, post-modern people that we dismiss the concept of God because it is a concept. But if you're able to cry in solidarity with the oppressed, you will see God, and God will be with you, because you will own the tragic nature of all existence.
Jesus taught that as long as only a few of us believed these things, we would be like leaven in the whole loaf, and that is all that would matter. ~Jon
(Below is a link to the third of three readings that lucky day by Jon Luopa. His spoken words are even better than the written.)
http://www.uuchurch.org/sermon/3850
