A Joyful Mind

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

September 7, 2014; 13 Pentecost, Proper 18, Year A, Track 2

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Ezekiel 33:7-11)  You, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, "O wicked ones, you shall surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

 Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: "Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?" Say to them, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel? 

(Romans 13:8-14)  Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet"; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

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Following the news lately has been terribly demoralizing.

I hear the scriptures today:  "God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die…?"

I admit to a sad feeling of relief when I heard this week that drone strikes had killed Ahmed Abdi Gondane, the leader of Al-Shabaab. I hope that some future evil he might have planned may have been thwarted, even as I recognize God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Oh that he might have turned.

Sometimes I think, If we could only defeat the powers of darkness… If we could rid the world of all those bad people. But violence seems to beget more violence. Saddam Hussein is dead, but Iraq is not a peaceful democracy. My mind is restless over these things.

Cynthia Bourgeault tells of a student who watched the movie Cold Mountain and couldn't sleep that night, bothered by the human atrocities the movie portrays. Distressed, she approached Cynthia the next day, saying, "How could this darkness exist? How can we remove this darkness from the planet?"

Cynthia said that she heard herself saying in response, "Don't you see… that by judging it you only make it worse? By trying to stop the black to make it all white, all good; by saying that this we can accept and this we must reject, you keep empowering the cycle of polarization that creates the problem in the first place… (T)he orientation that cleaves to the light by trying to deny or reject the shadow… only winds up empowering the shadow and deepening it… Something has to go deeper, something that can hold them both." [i]

Jesus in his passion and cross goes deeper and holds both light and darkness together. Up until his arrest, Jesus has been remarkably active – preaching, teaching, healing, feeding. Upon his arrest, he does nothing. Shackled and imprisoned, he takes no action. Questioned and tried, he remains virtually silent. He doesn't instruct, he doesn't defeat, he doesn't fix. He just lets everything be, while he remains solidly grounded in trusting love. In his body, love remains present as his life descends into the deepest places of darkness and evil, not overriding or canceling them, but "gently reconnecting them to the whole." [ii]

An anonymous nun put it this way, gazing on the cross:

            In stillness nailed,

To hold all time, all change, all circumstance in and to Love's embrace. [iii]

The Gospel of John calls the Cross the glorification of Jesus, his triumph. Yet what Jesus does is simply to let it all be – Pilate, Judas, the Sanhedrin, the mob – he does not fight or defeat them, but simply he lets it all be, and he holds everything in love's suffering embrace. From that embrace, God creates an eternal, transforming sacrament of love which embraces everything. As Colossians says, "In him all things hold together." (1:17)

Jesus is our model for facing the dualistic world of evil and good, war and peace, life and death. Jesus goes to the root of the dualities, embraces them, sheathes them in a greater love that can hold it in place until resurrection happens like the sun touching a snowflake. [iv]

But my mind fights against this transcendent embrace. I want things fixed. I want right to conquer wrong. I want evil defeated. I want my way. Now. My mind seems trapped in dualities of judgment, desire and conflict.

In his book about seeing as the mystics see, The Naked Now, Richard Rohr challenges my mind's habit of judgment and conflict and duality. Rohr cites the work of twelfth century mystical theologian Richard of St. Victor, a monk whose life under a malignant abbot was so unbearable that he had to appeal to the Pope for relief. Richard St. Victor writes expansively of the joyful mind. Richard Rohr has published a profound reflection on that, asking himself, What might a joyful mind be?

Listen carefully to this series of one-line descriptions of a joyful mind. Let them wash over you like water over a sponge. See if you can imagine letting your mind be in this way. Letting your mind be a joyful mind:

What might a joyful mind be like?

When your mind does not need to be right.

When you no longer need to compare yourself with others.

When you no longer need to compete – not even in your own head.

When your mind can be creative, but without needing anyone to know.

When you do not need to analyze or judge things in or out, positive or negative.

When your mind does not need to be in charge, but can serve the moment with gracious and affirming information.

When your mind follows the intelligent lead of your heart.

When your mind is curious and interested, not suspicious and interrogating.

When your mind does not "brood over injuries."

When you do not need to humiliate, critique, or defeat those who have hurt you – not even in your mind.

When your mind does not need to create self-justifying storylines.

When your mind does not need the future to be better than today.

When your mind can let go of obsessive or negative thoughts.

When your mind can think well of itself, but without needing to.

When your mind can accept yourself as you are, warts and all.

When your mind can surrender to what is.

When your mind does not divide and always condemn one side or group.

When your mind can find truth on both sides.

When your mind fills in the gaps with "the benefit of the doubt" for both friend and enemy.

When your mind can critique and also detach from the critique.

When your mind can wait, listen, and learn.

When your mind can live satisfied without resolution or closure.

When your mind can forgive and actually "forget."

When your mind can admit it was wrong and change.

When your mind can stop judging and critiquing itself.

When you don't need to complain or worry to get motivated.

When you can observe your mind contracting into self-preservation or self-validation, and then laugh or weep over it.

When you can actually love with your mind.

When your mind can find God in all things. [v]

If we could live with joyful minds, we might contribute our part to God's work of reconciliation and peace. And we might do a little less damage in the process.

St. Paul puts a similar frame of mind in more familiar words: Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. And Paul reminds us to extend that same loving courtesy of love toward ourselves, and toward our own minds, for only then can you Love your neighbor as yourself. (Rom. 13:8f)

When you can actually love with your mind.

When your mind can find God in all things.

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[i] Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus, Shambhala, Boston, 2008, p. 122-123

[ii] Ibid, p. 123

[iii] Ibid, p. 124

[iv] Ibid

[v] Richard Rohr, The Naked Now, Crossroad, 2009, p. 178

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