Sermon preached by the Rev. Lillie Mae Henley 27 Aug 2006
In our reading today, Paul is writing to a group of new Christians. We do not know what these Christians were like before, but what we do know, is that they have “changed” from what they were before to a people of faith. For these new Christians, Paul was “the encourager.” He said, yes, there are outside forces trying to destroy you, to “stamp out” this new Christian faith, but the real enemies, the real challenges to you new Christians are the spiritual forces of evil.
What he meant in the context of that time, was, a reminder that Christians are to focus their lives toward God who is outside of time and outside of this world. This new faith offered a life free of all the bondages of human existence—physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. What you do is pray “in the Spirit at all times” and depend upon God to help you to this new Christian who walks with God now and forever.
There is no potion, no magic here, no ecstatic conversion. There is the very real effort required of these new Christians to put on the “armor” of God, to participate in their own transformation to a higher level of existence.
What Paul’s encouragement means to us today, is a recognition that we too, are challenged by outside forces, as well as emotional and spiritual challenges within, and that like the Christians of the First Century, we too, can overcome these challenges through deliberate effort and prayer. There is no more a potion or magic or ecstatic conversion for us than there was Paul’s first century Christians.
I am reminded of a Japanese story about transformation when I read these scriptures.
There was a young couple happily married for several years. One day, her husband was called to war, and she stayed in their home, among the wonderful memories of her life and waited for her husband to come home.
After several years the war ended and her husband came home. But he wasn’t as excited to see her, as she was to see him. He didn’t even embrace her, or say he was glad to be home. In fact, he wouldn’t eat the wonderful food she prepared. Nor would he sleep inside their home. He slept outside in the forest, and found food somehow there. He didn’t move away, but he wouldn’t wave to her, or speak to her; it was as if they had never been married.
The young woman was quite upset about this change in her husband. So, one day she found her way to the village healer. She asked her for a potion or some magic to heal her marriage. The healer said she could help, but “You will need to remove one single, white hair from the crescent around the neck of the Crescent Moon Bear. When you return with the single hair, I can give you what you need, and you will have your answers.”
The woman eager to begin her journey left early the next morning. The climb was steep, the foothills covered with thick undergrowth, thorny plants, boulders to climb over, and rock slides to avoid…
She took shelter in a shallow cave and could barely pull all of herself into it. Though she had a full pack of food, she did not eat, but covered herself up in leaves and slept. In the morning, … she thought, “Now to find the crescent moon bear.”
She searched all day … before dark, she saw gigantic bear tracks in the snow. Looking at the deep pad and claw marks was overwhelming. Nevertheless, she followed them and they led to his cave…
She didn’t know how she was going to get one hair from that bear’s crescent moon on his neck, but somehow she would, she had to. She took a bowl of food, set it outside the bear’s den, and ran back to her hiding place. The bear smelled the food and came lurching from its den, roaring so loudly it shook loose little stones. The bear circled around the food … then ate the food up in one gulp…
The next evening the woman did the same, setting the food in the bowl, but this time instead of returning to her shelter she retreated only halfway… This continued for many nights, each night edging a little closer to the bear’s den. Then one dark blue night the woman felt brave enough to stand next to the bowl…
The woman trembled, but stood her ground. The bear stood up, smacked its jaws, as if to eat her, and roared so loudly that the woman could see right up into the red-and-brown roof of its mouth. But she did not run away. The bear roared even more and put out its arms as though to seize her, its ten claws hanging like ten long knives over her scalp. The woman shook like a leaf in high wind, but stayed right where she was.
Then in quiet tones she spoke to the bear. “I’ve come a long way to see you.” The bear brought its front paws to earth in a spray of snow and peered into the woman’s frightened face. For a moment, the women felt she could see entire mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, and villages reflected in the bear’s old, old eyes. A deep peace settled over her, and her trembling ceased.
... Could I have one of the hairs from the crescent moon on your throat? The bear paused ... Yet, suddenly he was filled with pity for her.
“It is true,” said the crescent moon bear, “you’ve been good to me. You may have one of my hairs. But take it quickly, then leave here and go back to your own.”
The bear raised its great snout so that the white crescent on its throat showed, and the woman could see the strong pulse of the bear’s heart beat. The woman put one hand on the bear’s neck, and with her other took hold of a single glossy white hair. Quickly she pulled it out.
“Oh, thank you, Crescent Moon Bear, thank you so much.” The woman bowed and bowed… She turned and fled down the mountain as fast as she could. She ran to the healer who sat tending her fire… “Look, look! I have it! I pulled it out myself! I have it, a hair of the crescent moon bear!” cried the young woman.
“Ah good,” said the healer with a smile. She peered closely at the young woman, took the pure white hair, and held it out toward the light. She weighed the long hair in her wizened hand, measured it with her finger, and declared, “Yes! This is an authentic hair from the crescent moon bear.” Then suddenly she turned and threw the hair deep into the fire, where it popped and crackled and was consumed in a bright orange flame.
“No!” cried the woman. “What have you done?”
“It is not the hair that was required for your healing of your marriage, it was your journey to get the hair.”
Like the woman in the story, we, too, often look for easy solutions, quick fixes, potions or magic formulas to face those forces that challenge us. And like the woman, we need to be reminded that we need to look first within ourselves before we can address the many challenges from outside forces that call for our attention and courage.
What are some of those outside forces that challenge us emotionally and spiritually?
Threats of terrorism in our own country. Political divisiveness and the lack of collaborative voices in our governments. Hunger, Education, Racism, Classism, Materialism. Stress. How often do we wonder how long we can stand the stress of our work and of our lives?
And closer to our hearts, but still external forces, are other life’s circumstances that challenge us emotionally and spiritually?
Not enough time with our children and our families? Not enough time to cherish our intimate and personal relationships? Death. Cancer or some other life-threatening disease. So many challenges….
We must be spiritually and emotionally healthy to deal with these challenges. So, we look within and wonder how whole and healthy we really are.
For example, are we insecure, and does it come across to others as arrogance?
Are we afraid to make a mistake, and does it come across to others as being obsessive compulsive about perfection?
Are we wounded from a dysfunctional family of origin, and do we therefore struggle every day, asking ourselves, “Is this normal, is this what I am supposed to do,” or “is this how I am supposed to react?” never knowing the right answer and being too afraid to ask someone, for fear they might judge us, or think less of us.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians because they were new Christians and he wanted them to learn to live differently than they had lived before. Everything in their lives was new. Just because they became Christians, didn’t mean that from that day forward everything would be perfect for them. Quite the contrary. They had new cultural and political stresses, in ways it would be hard for us to understand. The new Christians in the first century were as challenged in their own lives as we are in ours.
And when we are challenged from outside and within, we have choices to make and work that only we ourselves can do. As Viktor Frankl wrote, we are self-determining.
It is our choice, but don’t for one minute believe that we are alone in our struggle. Paul promised God’s help, the metaphor he used was “the whole armor of God” and all we had to do to access God’s help was to pray.
Simone Weil said that we cure our faults by our “attention” and that attention presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer. If we turn our mind towards the good…little by little the whole soul will be attracted [to the good] in spite of itself.
Facing our challenges is scary. From personal experience, I can say that I do not know what I am more afraid of, either the fear to face the struggle, or the fear that I might not overcome the obstacle.
A well-known Native American Dragging Canoe wrote, “Once we turn to face [our fear], a quiet determined strength pours in to end the terror. It is not running from [the fear] that cripples us but refusing to” acknowledge the fear that overwhelms us.
Turning to face our inner attitudes, our inner resources, is not always easy either. We can make a conscious determination to change, but it is our faith, maybe even a “scared faith” Dragging Canoe says, but our faith, nevertheless, that makes us powerful enough actually to change.
Last, I have to remind you and myself that emotional and spiritual growth is a process, not an event. Even if there is a cataclysmic or ecstatic event that causes great pain or challenge or even great joy, the change is still a process, a process that often takes time. Perhaps that is why the story of the Crescent Moon Bear is so long, and why the journey to the bear was the answer, not the single white hair from his throat.
We all change—in our own time. Should I say that it took me two years after my brother died to go to grief counseling because deep-down I did not want any resolution before then; I held on to him by holding on to my grief. Or should I share with you how long it took me to understand that I don’t want to get rid of the “garbage” within, and even if I could, it wouldn’t make me “perfect.”
With time and the right conditions the “garbage” within will compost, and from this rich soil will come new growth, and healthy change.
We all change—in our own time. We must be patient with ourselves. But we must also remain committed to looking first within ourselves for solutions, rather than expecting some potion or magic to fix everything.
As we become the very best possible person we can be, not only will we be happier, healthier people, but also we will then have the courage and the strength to make a difference in our world, to face those outside challenges.
My prayer for us today is that we absolutely, positively allow ourselves to pay attention to the faith and the love we have for God so that our souls will always be fed by the Good, even in spite of ourselves! And as God feeds us, so may we transformed.
Blessed be and amen.
Readings
Ephesians 6:10-20
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
Reflections of Simone Weil, the French philosopher of the Twentieth Century
We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will. The will controls a few movements of a few muscles… attention is quite different. Attention taken to its highest degree is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer. If we turn our mind towards the good … little by little the whole soul will … be attracted [to the good] in spite of itself.
Extreme attention is what constitutes the creative faculty in [hu]mans and the only extreme attention is religious.
From Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
…[hu]mans are ultimately self-determining. What he becomes—within the limits of endowment and environment—he has made out of himself. In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.