July 7 2024 Embracing Love, Shaking Dust, Pursuing Common Ground

Rex McKee

 

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Embracing Love, Shaking Dust, Pursuing Common Ground

I begin with a poem by Rumi, a Sufi mystic who lived in the 13th century: What Jesus Runs Away From

The son of Mary, Jesus, hurries up a slope as though a wild animal were chasing him.

Someone following him asks, ‘Where are you going?

No one is after you.’

Jesus keeps on, saying nothing, across two more fields.

‘Are you the one who says words over a dead person, so that he wakes up?’

I am.

‘Did you not make the clay birds fly?’ Yes.

‘Who then could possibly cause you to run like this?’

Jesus slows his pace.

I say the Great Name over the deaf and the blind,

they are healed.

Over a stony mountainside, and it tears its mantle down to the navel.

Over non-existence, it comes into existence.

But when I speak lovingly for hours, for days, with those who take human warmth and mock it,

when I say the Name to them, nothing happens.

They remain rock, or turn to sand, where no plants can grow.

Other diseases are ways for mercy to enter, but this non-responding, breed violence and coldness toward God.

I am fleeing from that.

As little by little, air steals water, so praise is dried up and evaporates with foolish people who refuse to change.

Like cold stone you sit on, a cynic steals body heat.

He doesn’t feel the sun.

Jesus wasn’t running from actual people.

He was teaching in a new way

 

In recent weeks we have heard several stories of Jesus forming his disciples, crossing over the northern end of the Sea of Galilee several times, and return to his homeland. In today’s Gospel from Mark, Jesus instructs His disciples to “shake the dust off your feet” and to leave an encounter that does not welcome them, hear them or return their peace. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” These instructions are found in all the synoptic gospels.

Jesus instructs his disciples to leave behind negativity, fear, conflict, to move forward unburdened, to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; to wear sandals and a single tunic.

Rumi’s poem illustrates this passage, Jesus fleeing from those who mock human warmth and do not respond to love and grace. Jesus did not carry resentment, anger, offering instead forgiveness and grace. However, he was persistent, as shared in the many times he quizzed Peter.

God likewise is persistent. The prophet Ezekiel as we heard, was sent to a rebellious and stubborn people, with God’s message clear: speak God’s truth regardless of whether the people listen. Our role in civil conversations is not to convince others at all costs but to prophetically present our values and listen with intentional respect and understanding. “Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them”.

These examples suggest to us to shake off our worldly and emotional baggage and to offer forgiveness as we navigate rejection, argumentation, and dismissal.

Consider this Zen Parable:

A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. They came to a river with a strong current. A young woman asked if they could help her cross. The monks had taken vows not to touch a woman, but the older monk with compassion picked her up, carried her across, placed her gently on the other side, and continued his journey. The younger monk was speechless for hours, then finally blurted out, “As monks, we are not permitted to touch a woman, how could you carry her on your shoulders?” The older monk replied, “Brother, I set her down on the other side of the river, why are you still carrying her?” (Suzuki)

This parable like many in the Zen tradition teaches us to let go of our burdens, to embody compassion over dogma, and to be mindful and present in the moment. We learn to lean into our experiences, seek reconciliation where possible, and forgive, changing patterns in our lives to avoid being controlled by past traumas. We understand that acknowledging pain does not mean pretending it never happened.

Rumi’s poem suggests moving from negativity towards healing and growth. This might mean setting boundaries, changing behaviors with those who cause harm, or choosing to forgive and discontinue carrying past grievances.

The United States is experiencing increasing political and socio-economic divides, leading to shrinking bonds of shared values and a decline in common courtesy. Racial Violence, xenophobia, White Christian Nationalism is on the rise, often disguised as traditional values. Words are frequently wielded as weapons, turning conversations into zero-sum games where everyone loses.

Yet, we are called to pursue common ground through civil, loving dialogue. Gathering to eat, pray and to engage in face-to-face conversations on difficult topics we can nurture sacred spaces for beloved dialogue. In these spaces, we can recognize the humanity in each other and see the face of Jesus in each other. Paul writes about the varieties of gifts from the same Trinity, modeling diversity within unity. We can share different perspectives and be united in our common humanity as children of God. Civil discourse, seeking enhanced understanding, helps us deepen our understanding of each other and our community.

Theologian Karl Barth wrote that being in a true encounter with another is not imposed from without but must be “done on both sides with authentic gladness of heart.” With gladness, we see and are seen; With gladness, we speak and listen; With gladness, we receive and offer assistance. He suggests that this can be called the first and final sign of humanity.

We live in complicated times, and social media can alter our perceptions, sense of identity and moral responsibility.

Our use of social media “can alter our sense of identity, agency, intention, and consciousness, affecting how we evaluate the actions we take, the phenomena we encounter, and the judgments we make by mediating between us and reality while altering our assignment of moral responsibility.”  (Nelson)

Sacred respectful civil discourse can assist us recognize differing perspectives and likewise learn about our own shortcomings. Jesus challenges us in Matthew to remove the log from our eye before addressing the splinter in another’s. Theologian Karl Barth suggests that listeners assume the speaker is trying their best, and Martin Buber emphasizes the Holy relationship of I and Thou, both speaking and hearing. “When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.” He continues that spirit is not in the I but between I and thou.

The act of speaking to another is not simply the passing of AI like information. Our humanness is more than a like or dislike button on a social platform, or a scaled response on Yelp about our recent meal.

“To be human is to be the kind of being that generates commitments, through speaking and listening. Without our ability to create and accept (or decline) commitments we are acting in a less than fully human way, and we are not fully using language.” Understanding arises in listening, not to the meaning of individual words but to the commitments communicated through dialogue. (Herzfeld)

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples at the Last Supper, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

Paul insists that love is the essence of every good word or deed. No matter how much knowledge you have or faith you proclaim, if it is done without love it is nothing.

Jesus returns to His hometown, is met with skepticism and rejection. Regardless, He continues to love, teach, heal, and embody compassion. Rumi’s poem reminds us that Jesus’ response to cynicism and closed hearts is to continue to move forward.

I know from my own experience, we all know, that often it would be easier like the Jesus in Rumi’s poem to simply run away. To avoid the conflicts. To love one another as Jesus loves us is an active, persistent Godly mission. To be engaged fully we are challenged to shake the negative dust from our own baggage. As we learn from the elder monk to engage with compassion and not hide behind our fears, pain or dogma.

When we listen and share common values in loving civic engagement, we participate more fully in being co-creators, with the Holy Spirit, of the Beloved Community, bending the arc of history towards justice.

Today’s gospel illustrates the challenges of being a prophet and disciple. The disciples after witnessing Jesus’ rebuke and instruction to shake the dust do not give up: “They went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons and anointed many who were sick and cured them.”

When our worship has concluded, as we leave this space, let our ministry begin: love one another and ourselves as Jesus loves us, heal the logs in our own eyes, and relentlessly pursue common understandings in love with those we encounter. May we be peaceful instruments of God’s love, and reconciliation in ourselves, our families, our communities, and all of creation. Amen.

Rex McKee

July 7, 2024

 

Mark 6:1-13; 1 Corinthians 12:4-7; Ezekiel 2:1-5

Noreen Herzfeld. The Artifice of Intelligence (p. 80). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.

Lisa Nelson, The good the Bad and the Ugly, Research in Philosophy and Technology

Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, V3

Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks

Martin Buber, I and Thou

Essentials of Zen Buddhism, E.T. Suzuki

 

10am Service