| October 14, 2007 | Priceless Parts of Life Reverend Jane Bramadat |
Meditation
Variation on the Word Sleep
I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head
and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons,
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear
I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in
I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
and that necessary.
Margaret Atwood (1981)
[found in The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English, 1982]
Comment: I invite you to ponder silently the many meanings in this poem
Sermon
When you think of the priceless parts of life - what do you think about? Perhaps it is being with friends or family when everything is completely perfect; or perhaps it was watching one of your children being born; or perhaps it was turning a corner during a walk/hike and seeing for the first time a scene that was so magical, so unexpected, so filled with beauty that it automatically comes to the top of your memory when anyone asks this question. These times or experiences are priceless.
There are many possible priceless moments. Some of us are gifted with quite a few such memories; others have had one momentous occurrence. What it’s all about is something/someone that is unique in time or context. In other words, something that is “priceless” is invaluable: having incalculable monetary, intellectual, and/or spiritual worth.
Of course this does not mean that there is not a value to it - but just that the value is impossible to calculate in any acceptably objective way. In a similar fashion we can not rationally explain why there is courage in some people and not others; or why many will retain a sense of hope (and in the final analysis be proved correct) when others are equally sure there is no reason to have any hope at all.
This morning is the kick-off to our canvass - the only time of the year when there is an open and honest request for the members and friends of First Unitarian to pledge some of your income to make sure that First Unitarian remains open...more than open - that it remains vibrant for its members and friends and visible in and to the larger community in the coming year.
When I first learned that the focus for this year’s Canvass was “Priceless” I thought, ‘yikes, it will be hard to know how to craft my words to help encourage people to reach beyond priceless to pledge.’ But almost immediately I realised the depth of this focus. It is what makes something priceless that we are wanting to provide here- a place, a community, a determination for fairness, justice, respect; a loving, thriving, strong, diverse, nurturing community. It is a place that will always be a work in progress and provide oil for the lamps we each carry to metaphorically light our way through life.
When I talk with colleagues about the congregations they serve I hear of many priceless moments. One of my colleagues serving a congregation in England had an experience that has always stayed in her memory.
It was quite a few years ago and it was still the custom for women ministers to wear high-heeled footwear more known for its fashion than its comfort or safety. There she was up on a small platform behind the pulpit, preaching to her congregation when she took a step backwards....maybe to demonstrate a point more dramatically...and accidentally stepped off the platform. With a small shriek she fell over backwards. Not a sound or movement was heard from anywhere else in the sanctuary. She quickly realised that she had broken nothing, so she pulled herself up, got back on to the platform and looked out at her congregation. No one had moved a muscle - they were just sitting there waiting for her to continue her sermon! Now this did not show their callousness but just the culture of the place - that it was important to maintain decorum and also never to imply by word or action that the leader would not be able to cope with whatever happened. I have not had anything like that happen to me, although having two people faint during a single sermon of mine, was, I believe, a close second!
I didn’t tell you that story to imply that most ministers remember disasters that happened in their congregations, but that there will always be a whole range of memorable incidents in any congregation - from the silly to the serious, from the prosaic to the profound. For example I am continually amazed and occasionally flummoxed by the responses I receive from the children when I have the opportunity to meet with them.
And while our religious history is as old and as seasoned as any Protestant Church and much more varied, it is also continually undergoing change, renewing itself even now - so there will never be a time when we will be able to say, ‘well, now we know all the truth, we can stop and rest .....or, now we’ve done our bit for creation, we can just take it easy and not bother about anyone or anything else.... or, God or Goddess is in charge,all’s right with the world.’
Rather, we need to keep doing the best we can, knowing that here we have a community where we will all be both supported and challenged as we change and mature.
Canvass time is about making a financial commitment and also about helping to make dreams come true. That is, dreams of how as a people we might work and play and worship and learn together in spite of differences. Because differences is something we will always have here - in this room we have mystics, atheists, agnostics, humanists, Buddhists, Christians, Pagans and many others. Even so, many of our dreams have similar desires. Let me tell you this story about dreams from the book Doorways to the Soul. It’s called “The Peddler of Swaffham.”
“Once in Swaffham in Norfolk, a peddler named Chapman lived in a small house beside a towering oak tree. One night the peddler dreamed that there came a knock on his door. When he opened it there stood a saintly messenger. The messenger told him that if he went to London Bridge he would find a treasure. He didn’t go right away, but after the dream had visited him for several nights, he packed his things and walked all the way to London Bridge. There he stood upon the bridge for three days looking about and listening for some news of his treasure. At last a shopkeeper who had been watching the peddler came out to him. “I’ve been watching you for three days, standing here on the bridge neither selling wares nor seeking alms,” said the shopkeeper. “I beg you to tell me what is your business.”
The peddler told the shopkeeper about his dream.
The shopkeeper laughed. “What a fool you are, taking such a long journey for the sake of a dream! Peddler, last night I had a dream that I was supposed to go to Swaffham in Norfolk, a place completely foreign to me. I dreamed that I was to go behind a small house owned by a fellow named Chapman. Next to the tree there was a towering oak tree. I dreamed that if I dug under that tree I would find a vast treasure. Now, you don’t see me running off to Swaffham just because of some foolish dream, do you? Were I you, I’d get myself home again.”
Chapman thanked the man for his wise advice and set off immediately for home. There he dug under the great oak and found a large box, filled with a vast treasure indeed.”
The point of the story is not to go home and dig up or under any trees! Or to wonder what might be under the roots of the beautiful willow in front of this building. The points of the story are many.
First of all, listen to your dreams. What are your dreams but your deeper self speaking to you in code? What are your dreams but the possibilities that are all around you, but can be hard to see if looked at straight on?
Secondly, listen to advice/knowledge offered to you carefully before you decide whether following it would be a good thing. Sometimes the least and most unexpected comment from an unexpected source can bring you insight.
Thirdly, be prepared to go to places you weren’t expecting to go - sometimes alone, sometimes with others. This isn’t necessarily geographical places, but mental, emotional, spiritual places as well. To grow and mature doesn’t always mean staying in one spot.
Yet fourthly, have a place you can find comfort, safety and honesty. This will sometimes be your family home but often it will be a community of people who share values and can hear the same almost inaudible rhythm thrumming through the universe and inviting us to participate.
If that place is here, support it - so that it is priceless not only for you, but for others who will come after you. Or so it will be available to you whenever you need it. We all go through periods when we need this place more than other times, but of course there needs to be ongoing support so it will be an ongoing, healthy presence in the larger community and be available no matter who needs it.
Ancient scripture reminds us that the price of wisdom is also beyond rubies [the ancient’s way of saying something was priceless..](Job 28:18) And wisdom is often found by absorbing yourself in ideas or endeavours that stretch your present understanding and sometimes bring you up against beliefs you have that you thought would never change, would never have to change.
If this place is always here then there remains a base from which to reach out in protest against the butchery in Afghanistan, the chaos in Iraq, the horror and complexity that is Palestine and Israel; it means there will be a place where meditation is taught and governance is democratic and in our hands; there will be a place where the music will keep enchanting us and the people befriending us.
And for me, the image at the end of Margaret Atwood’s poem is an essential part of what supporting this place brings. It brings an environment that can be a breath of fresh ‘air that inhabits you for a moment only....air that would be that unnoticed and that necessary.’ Now that is priceless!
Closing Words
We are a diverse people.
It is both our blessing and our curse.
Yet there is a great unity of spirit among us --
for we are a people of good will
for we are people possessing the courage
to ask and to act.
We will walk together, too, in ways still to be revealed to us --
as our journey leads us to unknown lands, where we will meet
unfamiliar peoples.
May we have the grace and the strength to carry on
May peace and courage and love go with you.
(from 1997 UUMA Worship Materials Collection, by Andrew C. Backus - adapt. jmrb)
Blessed Be, Shalom, Salaam Aleikum
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