With New Eyes
Sermon Given at Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
April 18, 2021
The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
A review online gives a restaurant four and a half out of five stars and is accompanied by a single line of commentary, “Generous portions.”
A friend has a habit of frequently asking me if I’m still with that, “little church in Massachusetts.”
24/7, 365 connectivity means we can do more, more of the time where ever we are.
Each of these statement may, on the surface, seem unrelated. But each, in their own way lifts up, echoes, or advances a value that was once the fondest vision of some of our religious forbearers.
In 1886, Jame Freeman Clarke, arguably one of the most influential Unitarian ministers of his day, gave a sermon in which he revised the traditional five points of Calvinism into what he called the, “Five Points of the New Theology: the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the leadership of Jesus, salvation by character, and the continuity of human development in all worlds, or, the progress of mankind onward and upward forever.”
Of these, only the last can be said to be both alive and well today, and not only within Unitarian Universalism, but in the wider world as well. Faith in beneficent and inevitable human progress it would seem has carried the day.
Indeed, progress is perhaps the most highly regarded and most intensely pursued value of 21st century religious and secular life. Progress is, of course, closely associated or equated with improvement, advancement, evolution, achievement, breakthrough, growth, development, better, bigger, further, more, all of which generally carry overwhelmingly positive connotations.
So much so, in fact, that it is taken, to a large degree, to be an absolute good. But is it?
Consider those three statements I opened with.
Now, a restaurant given four and half stars out of five for “generous portions” may hardly seem worth mentioning here but I included it because the value that the review and comment seems to be lifting up is one closely related to progress: bigger equals at least good, if not better. And, as we know, the implications of such a value carried into other spheres of life impacts more than just waistlines.
My friend’s frequent inquiry about where I’m ministering echoes the assumption or expectation, within and outside of our denomination, that small churches are just stepping stones, places to get your feet wet, so to speak, somewhere to bide your time until something bigger and better comes along. Here progress in ministry, or any career for that matter, means inevitably moving on to something deemed better….a larger congregation, a more prestigious pulpit, a higher paying position, and so forth. But what about a person whose calling asks otherwise or conflicts altogether with this understanding of progress?
And of course 24/7 365 connectivity allowing us to work more, more often and where ever we are advances an aspect of the “onward and upward” thrust of progress too readily accepted without thought, which is, what can be done, should be done. Moving us toward increasingly blurred professional, personal, social, and ethical boundaries.
This is not to say that progress is in fact bad or without value. Indeed, in spiritual terms progress is an attribute or expression of spirit. Spirit being that part of us which is interested in and pursues transcendence. Spirit seeks to grow, to improve. It is visionary, future oriented and is associated with moving forward…”onward and upward”. And not just in matters of religion. That impulse or desire to try out a new dance, learn a new skill, go back to school, climb a mountain, pick up and read the book that’s been sitting for months on your nightstand, that’s spirit working in you.
Within Unitarian Universalism spirit is sometimes conceptualized as “wings” as in the wings that “set us free” we sing of in the popular hymn “Spirit of Life.” It drives our social justice work, our community outreach, and “encouragement to spiritual growth” as expressed in our third principle.
So, as we see, progress as an aspect of spirit is not a bad thing in and of itself, not by a long shot. Indeed, it is a vital part of who we are seeking expression. Its presence in our makeup is not the problem. Instead, it is the degree to which we defer to it, to which we allow it to dominate and direct our lives to the exclusion of another part of us that is problematic. For within us is an equally deep need seeking expression… soul.
Soul, in contrast to spirit, it is a homebody. Soul seeks not transcendence, but attachment. We talk about finding a soul-mate or of feeding our soul. Soul looks to form bonds with others as well as to objects and to places. Indeed home, a sense of place in the world not beyond it is important to soul. The enjoyment of food and drink, time with family, a dear friend or pet, cherishing an object given to you by someone meaningful to you, pausing to take in a vista at sunset, even washing your hair with a luxurious product can be and often is, an expression and need of soul. Notice how attracted it is to ordinary experience, how close to the ground it likes to live. Soul concerns the “roots that hold us close” as the hymn goes and the interconnection of each to all as our seventh principle recognizes and calls us to respect.
Although they appear diametrically opposed, spirit and soul, or if you prefer, wings and roots, need each other and to be held in creative tension. The diminishment of one does not enhance the other, but distorts it. And indeed, spirit, particularly as manifest or expressed as a belief in and devotion to progress, carries outsized influence in modern life. As such we’ve lost contact with the ground, we’ve lost sight of home. Soul has been greatly diminished and we’re paying the price for it. “The worst consequence of soul neglect”, writes Zen teacher John Tarrant, “is a lack of love- of our own lives, of each other, of the future, and of the suffering planet.” Indeed, Climate change is among the most glaring indicators of a lack of love stemming from our chronic neglect of soul.
Climate change, which has been politicized across the ideological spectrum, a common tactic of distraction, is in fact not a political issue, but a deeply spiritual one. Indeed it is a symptom of our distorted devotion to spirit manifest as progress. Yet we continue to speak for and amplify the needs of spirit, expressing faith and hope in science and technology alone to fix things. Indeed we have no shortage of those prepared to speak for spirit.
But who will speak for soul?
As it so happens, today, in reading and listening to the “Great Kapok Tree” as presented by our multigenerational players you have joined with author Lynne Cherry to speak for soul.
Indeed, what may have seemed like a delightful story about rainforest conservation can also be heard as a hymn, if you will, to the interests and needs of soul. Think about what we said about soul and its needs….it’s a homebody, seeks attachment, values connection and immersion and is nourished in the stuff and aesthetics of the life unfolding before us each day.
Now recall that of the great kapok tree, the boa constrictor says, “It is my home, where generations of my ancestors have lived.”
While the bee speaks of connections and interconnection reminding the human, “all living things depend on one another.”
The monkey warns of loosing the roots which hold the earth in place, a reference to the tree as the Axis mundi, a concept common to many religious traditions and cultures around the world including the Maya for whom the Kapok tree features prominently. Linking the heavens, earth and the underworld, the Axis mundi sustains the entire cosmos.
The porcupine stresses the same, “If you cut down the forests you will destroy that which gives us all life.”
The Sloth then gives voice to soul’s need for the sensuous and sensual, asking the human, “What is beauty worth? Can you live without it? If you destroy the beauty of the rain forest, on what would you feast your eyes?”
Finally the child comes along and offers one last plea which is actually a vital plea directed to you and me, to all people today, “When you awake, please look upon us all with new eyes.”
With “new eyes” is the child’s instructive appeal to see not merely through knowledge, but imagination as well.
And indeed, when the man awoke, he saw before him the rain forest child and all the creatures who depended upon the great Kapok tree, and he saw what wondrous and rare animals they were!
When he looked around he, “saw the sun streaming through the canopy. Spots of bright light glow like jewels amidst the dark green forest. Strange and beautiful plants seemed to dangle in the air, suspended from the great Kapok tree.” He smelled the fragrance of their flowers and, “felt the steamy mist rising from the forest floor.”
Then, with ax raised and arms swung back he stops and takes another look at the animals and the child. He hesitates. With new eyes he sees, spirit may take us beyond our humanity, but it is soul that make us human. The ax falls from his grip and the man leaves the rain forest.
In the story the man leaves and the great kapok tree lives another day, but in the story of our lives…of the world…there is still work to be done. As the Zen teacher John Tarrant observes, “We cannot do without either spirit or soul. Our task is to restore the world from our own treasure of inward richness, which in its subtle and inexorable way turns outwards to that labor.” This pretty, endangered planet and all that dwell upon it await our awakening that we might see with new eyes. Let the journey begin.
Amen and Blessed Be
Sermon Given at Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
April 18, 2021
The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
A review online gives a restaurant four and a half out of five stars and is accompanied by a single line of commentary, “Generous portions.”
A friend has a habit of frequently asking me if I’m still with that, “little church in Massachusetts.”
24/7, 365 connectivity means we can do more, more of the time where ever we are.
Each of these statement may, on the surface, seem unrelated. But each, in their own way lifts up, echoes, or advances a value that was once the fondest vision of some of our religious forbearers.
In 1886, Jame Freeman Clarke, arguably one of the most influential Unitarian ministers of his day, gave a sermon in which he revised the traditional five points of Calvinism into what he called the, “Five Points of the New Theology: the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the leadership of Jesus, salvation by character, and the continuity of human development in all worlds, or, the progress of mankind onward and upward forever.”
Of these, only the last can be said to be both alive and well today, and not only within Unitarian Universalism, but in the wider world as well. Faith in beneficent and inevitable human progress it would seem has carried the day.
Indeed, progress is perhaps the most highly regarded and most intensely pursued value of 21st century religious and secular life. Progress is, of course, closely associated or equated with improvement, advancement, evolution, achievement, breakthrough, growth, development, better, bigger, further, more, all of which generally carry overwhelmingly positive connotations.
So much so, in fact, that it is taken, to a large degree, to be an absolute good. But is it?
Consider those three statements I opened with.
Now, a restaurant given four and half stars out of five for “generous portions” may hardly seem worth mentioning here but I included it because the value that the review and comment seems to be lifting up is one closely related to progress: bigger equals at least good, if not better. And, as we know, the implications of such a value carried into other spheres of life impacts more than just waistlines.
My friend’s frequent inquiry about where I’m ministering echoes the assumption or expectation, within and outside of our denomination, that small churches are just stepping stones, places to get your feet wet, so to speak, somewhere to bide your time until something bigger and better comes along. Here progress in ministry, or any career for that matter, means inevitably moving on to something deemed better….a larger congregation, a more prestigious pulpit, a higher paying position, and so forth. But what about a person whose calling asks otherwise or conflicts altogether with this understanding of progress?
And of course 24/7 365 connectivity allowing us to work more, more often and where ever we are advances an aspect of the “onward and upward” thrust of progress too readily accepted without thought, which is, what can be done, should be done. Moving us toward increasingly blurred professional, personal, social, and ethical boundaries.
This is not to say that progress is in fact bad or without value. Indeed, in spiritual terms progress is an attribute or expression of spirit. Spirit being that part of us which is interested in and pursues transcendence. Spirit seeks to grow, to improve. It is visionary, future oriented and is associated with moving forward…”onward and upward”. And not just in matters of religion. That impulse or desire to try out a new dance, learn a new skill, go back to school, climb a mountain, pick up and read the book that’s been sitting for months on your nightstand, that’s spirit working in you.
Within Unitarian Universalism spirit is sometimes conceptualized as “wings” as in the wings that “set us free” we sing of in the popular hymn “Spirit of Life.” It drives our social justice work, our community outreach, and “encouragement to spiritual growth” as expressed in our third principle.
So, as we see, progress as an aspect of spirit is not a bad thing in and of itself, not by a long shot. Indeed, it is a vital part of who we are seeking expression. Its presence in our makeup is not the problem. Instead, it is the degree to which we defer to it, to which we allow it to dominate and direct our lives to the exclusion of another part of us that is problematic. For within us is an equally deep need seeking expression… soul.
Soul, in contrast to spirit, it is a homebody. Soul seeks not transcendence, but attachment. We talk about finding a soul-mate or of feeding our soul. Soul looks to form bonds with others as well as to objects and to places. Indeed home, a sense of place in the world not beyond it is important to soul. The enjoyment of food and drink, time with family, a dear friend or pet, cherishing an object given to you by someone meaningful to you, pausing to take in a vista at sunset, even washing your hair with a luxurious product can be and often is, an expression and need of soul. Notice how attracted it is to ordinary experience, how close to the ground it likes to live. Soul concerns the “roots that hold us close” as the hymn goes and the interconnection of each to all as our seventh principle recognizes and calls us to respect.
Although they appear diametrically opposed, spirit and soul, or if you prefer, wings and roots, need each other and to be held in creative tension. The diminishment of one does not enhance the other, but distorts it. And indeed, spirit, particularly as manifest or expressed as a belief in and devotion to progress, carries outsized influence in modern life. As such we’ve lost contact with the ground, we’ve lost sight of home. Soul has been greatly diminished and we’re paying the price for it. “The worst consequence of soul neglect”, writes Zen teacher John Tarrant, “is a lack of love- of our own lives, of each other, of the future, and of the suffering planet.” Indeed, Climate change is among the most glaring indicators of a lack of love stemming from our chronic neglect of soul.
Climate change, which has been politicized across the ideological spectrum, a common tactic of distraction, is in fact not a political issue, but a deeply spiritual one. Indeed it is a symptom of our distorted devotion to spirit manifest as progress. Yet we continue to speak for and amplify the needs of spirit, expressing faith and hope in science and technology alone to fix things. Indeed we have no shortage of those prepared to speak for spirit.
But who will speak for soul?
As it so happens, today, in reading and listening to the “Great Kapok Tree” as presented by our multigenerational players you have joined with author Lynne Cherry to speak for soul.
Indeed, what may have seemed like a delightful story about rainforest conservation can also be heard as a hymn, if you will, to the interests and needs of soul. Think about what we said about soul and its needs….it’s a homebody, seeks attachment, values connection and immersion and is nourished in the stuff and aesthetics of the life unfolding before us each day.
Now recall that of the great kapok tree, the boa constrictor says, “It is my home, where generations of my ancestors have lived.”
While the bee speaks of connections and interconnection reminding the human, “all living things depend on one another.”
The monkey warns of loosing the roots which hold the earth in place, a reference to the tree as the Axis mundi, a concept common to many religious traditions and cultures around the world including the Maya for whom the Kapok tree features prominently. Linking the heavens, earth and the underworld, the Axis mundi sustains the entire cosmos.
The porcupine stresses the same, “If you cut down the forests you will destroy that which gives us all life.”
The Sloth then gives voice to soul’s need for the sensuous and sensual, asking the human, “What is beauty worth? Can you live without it? If you destroy the beauty of the rain forest, on what would you feast your eyes?”
Finally the child comes along and offers one last plea which is actually a vital plea directed to you and me, to all people today, “When you awake, please look upon us all with new eyes.”
With “new eyes” is the child’s instructive appeal to see not merely through knowledge, but imagination as well.
And indeed, when the man awoke, he saw before him the rain forest child and all the creatures who depended upon the great Kapok tree, and he saw what wondrous and rare animals they were!
When he looked around he, “saw the sun streaming through the canopy. Spots of bright light glow like jewels amidst the dark green forest. Strange and beautiful plants seemed to dangle in the air, suspended from the great Kapok tree.” He smelled the fragrance of their flowers and, “felt the steamy mist rising from the forest floor.”
Then, with ax raised and arms swung back he stops and takes another look at the animals and the child. He hesitates. With new eyes he sees, spirit may take us beyond our humanity, but it is soul that make us human. The ax falls from his grip and the man leaves the rain forest.
In the story the man leaves and the great kapok tree lives another day, but in the story of our lives…of the world…there is still work to be done. As the Zen teacher John Tarrant observes, “We cannot do without either spirit or soul. Our task is to restore the world from our own treasure of inward richness, which in its subtle and inexorable way turns outwards to that labor.” This pretty, endangered planet and all that dwell upon it await our awakening that we might see with new eyes. Let the journey begin.
Amen and Blessed Be
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