August 27, 2006
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 16)

 

I Kings 8:1,6,10-11,22-30,41-43
Psalm 84
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69

In the Celtic spiritual tradition, pilgrims often draw a circle around themselves before  embarking on a journey. Initially standing still, the pilgrim points her finger outward and then rotates in a clock-wise direction until she completes the circle. This practice of faith, the “caim” or “encircling,” reminds the traveler that God surrounds him wherever he goes. Despite the threat of thieves and robbers, malign spirits, or opponents of the faith, the pilgrim is constantly within God’s circle of protection, the everlasting circle of divine love.

Today’s scriptures reflect on God’s presence in the world and in our lives. In his celebration of the great temple in Jerusalem, Solomon remembers that though God dwells in the temple, God cannot be contained by any human work. “But will God dwell on earth? Even heaven and earth cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built.”
The greatest antidote to national empire building, theological dogmatism, and doctrinal and behavioral exclusivism is the recognition that God is always more than we can imagine. God is centered in this place and in our worship and theological reflection, but God is centered everywhere, including the Great Beyond that we can never fathom.

The tension between the infinity of God and the significance of our finite projects is evident to those who ponder the immensity of the known universe and its billion galaxies, each with a billion stars. Still, Solomon knew – and we trust – that we are not “lost in the cosmos.” Our lives and actions matter to ourselves, our planet, and to God, who treasures all things in the love that knows no end.

Solomon’s praise and awe in God’s presence within and beyond the Jerusalem temple inspired him to welcome all the people of the earth. Authentic worship acts on the vision that God is in all things and all things are in God. Panentheistic spirituality welcomes God’s holiness in all things, even the most hidden and hideous of things.

The Psalmist lifts up the importance of the worship in personal transformation. A day in the temple is like a thousand days elsewhere. Worship centers us on God and invites us to experience the divine center in ourselves. Communion with God in prayer, praise, contemplation, ecstasy, and wonder, transforms our lives and our perspective on the universe. Connected with God, we can count it all joy, as the apostle Paul proclaims, even amid our confrontation the “powers and principalities.”

“Put on the whole armor of God.” While some might shy away from Paul’s military language, Paul is simply recognizing the nature of the spiritual journey. Those who follow Jesus may have to take up the cross and enter the conflicts of the religious and political spheres. We need protection whenever we enter the conflicts of life – protection from others, but also protection from ourselves!

These days in Pennsylvania there is a movement to bring an amendment to the voters that would ban same sex marriage. As pastor of a small, progressive and open and affirming church, I challenge such initiatives as forms of political opportunism that exclude God’s children primarily for the purposes of political gain. If the bill clears the Pennsylvania legislature, and I anticipate that it will, battle lines will be drawn. In my conservative Pennsylvania county, I ponder the cost of placing a yard sign, going to a vigil, or writing to the newspaper, proclaiming the equality of all persons before God. Will I receive threats or have my mail box blown up? Will my middle-of-the-road neighbors think our family has gone too far in embracing diversity?

We need the whole armor of God, or, as Paul says elsewhere, “an armor of light,” to protect us from our own fears and our temptation to join the complacent crowd. As Walter Wink notes, there are powers and principalities that threaten our planet and our highest values. While I do not know the origin of these powers, or their metaphysical status, I know that governments and churches can be forces for evil as well as good. I can see it in the erosion of rights under the present administration, the lies about the war, the visions of global empire in American foreign policy and Islamic fundamentalism,  and the dangerous dance of religion and politics in our country and in the Middle East.
As a Progressive Christian, I know that I must take a stand against these movements, grounded in love, humility, and forgiveness, rather than hatred and exclusivism. I need a sense of protection and courage in times like these. I need to know that God’s care, inspiration, and guidance are more powerful than the powers that threaten my well-being.

Paul concludes this section with identifying prayer with protection and power. Prayer connects with God and one another. Prayer makes explicit – the constant inspiration of God, our ties with others, spiritual resources that we cannot fully imagine – what is always here and at our disposal. When we pray, we gain courage and patience because we discover that we are not alone and have resources beyond our imagination!

The Gospel continues Jesus’ meditation of the body and blood. “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” We struggle with the passage’s focus on eating Christ – body and blood  and the apparent denial of the flesh as useless (v. 63). As process preachers, we need to redeem such passages for our time and place. We can affirm that the spirit gives life, but the life of the spirit is not just “spiritual,” it is also “embodied” and “incarnational.” Taken literally, this passage can inspire some of the worst abuses in Christianity – the implicit violence of substitutionary atonement, the accusation of religious cannibalism, and the devaluation of the flesh. But, from a process perspective, the spirit does give life – it inspires personal creativity and transformation, it lures us to support the well-being of others, it challenges us to look beyond our own interests to an integration of our well-being and the well-being of the planet.

“You have the words of eternal life.” In a world of process, we need to affirm the constancy of God’s love and embrace of all things. Affirming God’s dynamic and intimate constancy, we discover our own personal constancy – our own faithfulness through all the changes of life. We acquire the character that enables us to face challenges and conflict, sickness and death, threat and uncertainty, knowing that God’s eternal care surrounds and protects us.

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In today’s worship service, I would invite you to integrate the Celtic practice of “the caim” either in the children’s sermon or in worship itself, perhaps, as part of the benediction or sending forth. In addition, given the emphasis on worship, it is appropriate to invite persons to bring instruments and dance and clap their hands in joy. Worship involves the whole person and our theological reflections are most transformative when they are joined by movement and action.

Bruce Epperly is director of continuing education and professor of practical theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the author of God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus and The Power of Affirmative Faith; and co-author of The Call of the Spirit: Process Spirituality in a Relational World. These titles are available from the Process & Fatih bookstore.

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