Our Thursday morning book group is reading A Spirituality of Imperfection. We just read a chapter about the role that mystery and miracle pay in a spirituality of imperfection over against the idea of magic. Magic was defined as the manipulation of reality that gives rise to a false sense of security or a false sense of what is real. Miracle and Mystery point to the wonder and awe that we constantly experience and how each moment has both the immediate fact of that moment as well as the deeper mystery where we meet God. A spirituality of imperfection enables us to accept our own humanity and thereby move beyond the need for magic into the realm of miracle, mystery, wonder and awe, all of which are about seeing. How do we see the world around us?
Let me begin with a story that comes from A Spirituality of Imperfection. Nikos Kazantzakis, among other story tellers, tells this story; Kazantzakis wrote the provocative novel, The Last Temptation of Christ. This story is about a monk who all his life has wanted to go on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Christ, walk three times around it, kneel down to pray, and return to his monastery a changed man. The monk belongs to a Greek Orthodox monastery in the north of Greece. Since monks share communally their possessions, it was difficult for the monk to save enough money to go to Jerusalem, circle the empty tomb of Christ three times, and kneel in prayer. However, the monastery was in favour of this monk embarking on his pilgrimage and so, late in his life, he set out. He took with him the funds he needed for the trip, a sum that was about $100. He took a few belongings, a walking staff and set out of on his journey. After traveling a short distance, he came across a man collecting herbs in the ditch beside the road. The man was very poor and dressed in rags. As the monk was a friendly person, he greeted the herb collector warmly. The herb collector greeted him back and asked where he was going. "To Jerusalem," said the monk. "All my life I've wanted to see the empty tomb of Christ, walk around it three times, kneel in prayer and return home a changed man." "It is a noble pilgrimage on which you are embarked," said the herb collector. "How much money have you for your pilgrimage?" The monk thought this a strange question and yet, being without guile, answered truthfully, "about $100." The herb collector then said, "I am a poor man who raises money to support my family by finding herbs to sell in the market. Give me the $100, circle around me three times, kneel and pray and return to your monastery a changed man." The monk pondered this suggestion for some time. Finally, he fished into his belongings, took out the $100, gave it to the herb collector, walked around him in a circle three times, knelt down and prayed, and returned to his monastery a changed man. The monk in his reflection after this experience realized that when we are able to see, we will recognize others as the Christ and that the empty tomb of Christ is not what is important but the life of Christ recognized in every being.
How do we see the world around us? What would we have seen in the herb collector? The face of Christ? The face of someone in need of charity? The face of someone who should just get a regular job? Or maybe something different altogether.
It seems to me that the function of any spiritual tradition or discipline is that we are helped to see the world differently. Jesus, in the tradition of the Jewish prophets before him, sought to have the Jewish leaders see the Torah differently, from the heart and from the perspective of love. Jesus tried to help his friends and followers see the reality of loveÑthat God loves them, even those who are the poorest of the poor, to let them know that they are worthy of love and that they are part of God's circle of love, the Commonwealth of Love. Jesus tried to help the Jewish leaders also see how grasping after power over had come to affect relationships with others and the proclamation of God's Word. Jesus even tried, although this wasn't his primary intention, to help the Romans see that the motto, "Pax Romano" wasn't really about peace but about assimilation and coercive power.
The Apostle John, from whom we hear the story of Jesus calling Nathaniel and Phillip to be disciples, is an interesting story on many levels. It is a story about the call to all of us to be followers of Jesus. It is a multi-layered story also about how to see. John loves to layer his stories so that as we go deeper into the story, we discover more and more nuances and ideas. John through this telling of the story about Jesus calling disciples raises the question about what it means to see.
The Greek language, which was used for the Christian Scriptures, has at least 6 words that relate to seeing. You know when something is important when there is more than one word for an idea or concept. In our passage this morning, two of these words are used. The first, more commonly used means to see with the eyes, but also has a more spiritual dimension that invites the one seeing to see further into the mystery to recognize something significant. In John's story, it is to recognize Jesus is the Christ. The other word used by John in today's passage has to do with seeing like watching a dream. This is used in the latter part of our passage this morning, the part about seeing heaven opening and the angels ascending and descending.
One of the shifts in thinking in the last 25 years relates seeing to what we believe. We see what we believe we will see. Nathaniel didn't believe anything good could come out of Nazareth and yet when Jesus confronted him with thoughts about seeing differently, Nathaniel changed his beliefs and saw something significant, something of the mystery of God. At a recent meeting of our presbytery executive, a question arose that produced in me a rather visceral response. I reacted from a place of fear and with a certain perspective that wasn't about openness or love, but was from a place of uncertainty and emotion. I believed that the result of a course of action related to this particular question would lead to conflict and tension. In the last couple of days as I reflected on my response, I realized that what I saw or what I might foresee happening is more related to my own fears and limitations rather than new possibilities for the future.
Jesus invites us to see in a way that moves us beyond our fears and our limitations. Rather than look for instant fixes to problems or quick solutions that might compromise us ethically, we are invited to cultivate a sense of wonder and mystery, to realize that there is the reality of a particular moment, but that underneath this reality is also the reality of God's presence, the reality of grace and love. A sunset can be a beautiful thing in and of itself, but a set of circumstances can lead one to see in the sunset a new direction, a sign of consolation maybe, an assurance that we are not alone. I remember shortly after the death some years ago of a dear friend, I was standing on my deck in the dark of a summer night thinking of my friend and right at that moment, a shooting star moved across the night sky leaving a long tail. I saw and felt a comfort regarding my friend that would otherwise not have come.
Jesus not only invites us into a relationship of love and following, Jesus also invites us to see the reality around us with a deeper sense of God's presence. We are called in some instances to see beyond the mere superficiality of something to see the call to justice behind it, or to see the deep need of someone who might be lashing out at something. We are called to see the deep joy in those experiencing a moment's enlightenment or a new direction. We are called to see in each other, sometimes where we least expect it, the face of Christ and summons to know that we are loved and that we are called to love the world that God has made more deeply, more justly, more gracefully.
This is why Jesus continually said, "Those who have eyes to see, open them and look!" Let's look together and see the miracle and wonder of life.
Amen.
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