Contemplative Vision or Conventional Vision?

Contemplative Vision or

Conventional Vision?

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

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

December 7, 2014; 2 Advent, Year B

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

Isaiah 40:1-11 –

Comfort, O comfort my people,

   says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

   and cry to her

that she has served her term,

   that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the LORD's hand

   double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:

"In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,

   make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

   and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

   and the rough places a plain.

Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

   and all people shall see it together,

   for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

A voice says, "Cry out!"

   And I said, "What shall I cry?"

All people are grass,

   their constancy is like the flower of the   field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

   when the breath of the LORD blows upon it;

   surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades;

   but the word of our God will stand forever.

Get you up to a high mountain,

   O Zion, herald of good tidings;

lift up your voice with strength,

   O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,

   lift it up, do not fear;

say to the cities of Judah,

   "Here is your God!"

See, the Lord GOD comes with might,

   and his arm rules for him;

his reward is with him,

   and his recompense before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd;

   he will gather the lambs in his arms,

and carry them in his bosom,

   and gently lead the mother sheep.

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All people are grass.

The prophet Isaiah had begun with words of comfort, comfort, speaking tenderly of God's near approach. Look in that direction! he says. But his reverie is interrupted with a harsh voice: "Cry Out!" It seems to Isaiah that everyone is looking in the wrong direction; they are obsessed with the grass, which fades, not with the coming approach of divine comfort.

All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower in the field. The grass withers, the flower fades; …surely the people are grass.

What is it that catches your attention moment by moment? Is it fading and inconstant or is it grounded and trusting. Surely whatever news source you access implies that the people are grass – there is no true constancy – it's mostly stories of withering and fading. Surely the people are grass.

What have you failed to do this week? What's pressuring you from the "to do list"? What nags you and awakens insecurity in the back of your mind. The withering stuff. Let's call that the Conventional Vision. Letting your attention be toward looking at the withering grass of our contemporary time.

Get you up to a high mountain, says the prophet. On the mountain you can gain some perspective and distance from the withering grass. Coming here to church this morning is an act of getting up to a high mountain. We leave the withering world for a while and ground ourselves trustingly in the holy and the eternal. We are fed with the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation.

The act of prayer or meditation or contemplation is a way of going to the mountain – acts of intentionally moving your attention from the threat of the withering grass all around you, and instead looking toward a Contemplative Vision. A contemplative looks simply – allowing, observing – grounded in the presence of the divine.

Do not fear! says the prophet. I'm told the scriptures say "Fear not" or "Do not fear" or "Be not afraid" 365 times, a verse for every day of the year. The consistent message of the saints and mystics is "Fear not! Trust."

Ultimately, the contemplatives tell us, "All shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." Dame Julian said that in the middle of the Great Plague. A Contemplative Vision.

Conventional Vision – becoming anxious or fearful because of the inconstancy and withering threats all around us. Contemplative Vision – watching with peace and fearlessness, trusting God that all shall be well.

A Conventional Vision is all about fear. If you leave your attention on the contemporary situation and its cacophony of commentators, they will try to fill you with fear. Their constancy is like the grass. They wither and fade.

The Contemplative Vision turns away from fear and lifts up the voice with strength, trusting not in the fading grass but in the might and presence of God. Listen to Isaiah one more time: Get you up to a high mountain, …herald of good tidings, …say to the cities…"Here is your God!" …He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. The contemplative rests in God's arms, in trust and peace. Do that, here and now in worship. We have centuries of witnesses telling us that resting in God's arms is where we belong and where we may dwell, if we choose. It is a choice, moment to moment. But we have to turn away from our self-centered, fearful tendencies. As John the Baptist says, "Repent." Which means simply, turn around; go the other way.

Science tells us we didn't evolve to be peaceful and trusting; we evolved as fearful, defensive creatures. The cortex of the brain evolved mostly to analyze the past and imagine the future in a fearful and defensive way, which can leave us radically unaware in the present.

Our ancestors could make two possible mistakes: "Thinking that there was a lion behind the bushes when it was actually a beige rock and thinking that there was a beige rock behind the bushes when it was actually a lion. The cost of the first mistake was needless anxiety, while the cost of the second was death. So, we evolved to make the first mistake a thousand times to avoid making the second mistake even once. Our ancestors remembered every bad thing that happened and spent much of their lives anticipating more trouble. And this is the mind they bequeathed to us." [i] We are wired to pay more attention and to give more weight to the negative than to the positive stimuli.

Someone told me last week of an online news service that ran an experiment. For one day they published only good news. No killings, no outrage, no scandal. Online traffic dropped 80%. They went back to publishing the bad news the next day.

Political operatives know this. People vote against much more easily than they vote for. Fear motivates. It is in our DNA. We are fearful and stressed animals. Some studies estimate that over 80 percent of visits to the doctor's office in the developed world are for stress-related disorders. We are hardwired to be stressed.

Much of what we teach and practice in the church seeks to help us be free from our evolutionary fears. There really aren't many lions anymore, and our constant stressful anxiety over the imagined lions in our lives is much more dangerous to us now than any exterior threats we may need to flee. There are a lot more beige rocks than lions these days.

So breathe. Relax. Practice relaxing. Let go of the hurts and threats of the past. Let go of the anxieties and fears for the future. Be in the present. Let it be. Here. Now. Simply accept reality as it is, and trust God for guidance in the present moment. Simply do whatever you need to do – right now. Now is all you have. The past is gone; the future is not here.

God is with us. Love heals and overcomes all. Ultimately, it's all grace. Even the crosses and crucifixions end up being the impetus for resurrection.

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. …Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together. Get you up to a high mountain…, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, …lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities..., "Here is your God!" …He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

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[i] Ronald D. Siegel, The Science of Mindfulness, Lecture 2: Our Troublesome Brains; The Great Courses, Course Guidebook, p. 12

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