Land of the Living

Preached at Prescott American Baptist Church
February 24, 2013

Psalm 27

Philippians 3:17-4:1

The human heart is a muscle. It contracts, squeezing and releasing, constantly without tiring. A healthy heart beats about 100,000 times daily. In an average lifetime, the heart will beat 2.5 billion times without stopping. While we depend on that fist-sized, cone shaped muscle in order to stay alive—we rarely think of it or take time to express our gratitude toward the heart for its tireless work on our behalf. It is just there and our expectation is that it will function adequately and accurately. The muscle contracts and it sends freshly oxygenated blood through our body, feeding all of our organs and insuring that we can get out of bed, eat our breakfast, do our work and live our lives.

There was once a very nice man who washed himself every morning. He took out each organ every morning, washed them and then put them back in place. One day the man forgot to put his heart back after he washed it. People in the neighborhood liked this nice, clean man very much. He had always been a favorite in town. But when he went outside without his heart, the man insulted his neighbors. He ignored the needs of the very old and the very young. He spoke harshly to the beggar on the street corner and pushed him aside. He got into a terrible argument at the grocery checkout line. The cashier who had known the man for a long time asked, “What is the problem with you today?” The man remembered. He had not put his heart back in place after washing it. So he went home. There was his heart sitting on the table where he had left it. He put it inside himself and went outside and down the street apologizing for his heartless behaviors. *

Put your hand on the left side of your chest and feel the beat of your heart. So ordinary, this beat, beat, beat. So absolutely critical to our life.  I invite you to practice this, taking a moment to recognize that steady thump in your chest, and allow that beat to serve as a reminder to you that God is with you.  And let that beat also serve as a reminder of your promise to live in faith that God is with you. Each one of us carries the treasure of God’s presence.

No matter what, the light and love of God are with us and within us. As we walk from today and into tomorrow, the presence of God makes a difference in what we encounter and how we encounter people, places and problems along the way.  In this season of Lent as we walk with Jesus toward Jerusalem and the cross, we are aware of frustration, fear, pain and sorrow. Suffering is real. But our journey becomes tragic only when we choose not to recognize and lean on the ceaseless and unstoppable presence and power of God along the way.

For about a year, I have gone to a Monday morning yoga class. I go to Evergreen Yoga Center and join a group of about fifteen other people who are sitting, standing, bending and stretching together. Our teacher, Leah Nichols, is good at guiding us into new poses and allowing us to have the experience of making progress. The practice of yoga has taught me how to find and use support when poses are challenging.  Yoga practice increases my strength, especially in my legs so I can stand more firmly. And it has helped me to stay balanced, a very good thing as we age. It’s that loss of balance which contributes to so many broken hips for us as senior citizens.

Each class ends with savasana, a time when we simply relax and allow the floor to hold us. It’s a time when we can focus on the joy of being, when I can recognize what is essential within me. There’s a light within each one of us, the presence of God. Each class ends with the teacher and students bowing their heads toward their hearts and saying, “Namaste,” which means “The light within me recognizes and honors the light within you.” 

Like the beating heart, the presence of God within us is something we too often ignore. We forget to pick it up and take it with us when we go outside. And when we leave our heart at home, we are left vulnerable to attacks from whatever enemies we might face on the outside.

The psalmist says: “Teach me your ways, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.” It is assumed that we will encounter challenges in life and that is why we need to regularly practice focusing on the presence of God within us. The more we focus on that presence the more light we will discover within ourselves and the less power our enemies will hold over us. 

There was once a farmer who lived long, long ago in a faraway place. This farmer loved his black and white cows. He made sure the cows had plenty of green, green grass to eat and lots of fresh cool water to drink. He called each cow by name and petted them each day. One day the man went out to milk his cows, as he did every single day, and was shocked to see that the cows had no milk to give. They were dry. This was a mystery to the man. The next day the farmer went out to milk his cows and once again discovered the cows were dry. Their milk was gone. On the third day when the farmer found his cows to be dry with no milk to give, he decided that there was a problem. And he made up his mind to see what the problem might be. He hid in the shrubbery beside his cows and stayed there for the night. 

When darkness covered the pasture and the moon was high in the sky, the man saw a rope drop down from the heavens and three star women scampered down the rope. The man watched as the three star women raced to his cows with buckets. They milked his cows and drank the milk. The man realized all of a sudden that he did not care so much about his cows. He was not concerned with the milk. He was focused only on the three star women and they were beautiful! He wanted one.

So the farmer ran out from his hiding place in the shrubbery and he chased the star women round and round the cows until he caught one. The other two scampered back to the rope and disappeared. The woman caught in the farmer’s arms begged, “Let me go! Let me go!”

But the farmer held on tightly saying, “No! I won’t let you go! I want to marry you!”

And the star woman said, “OK. But on one condition.”

The farmer was delighted, “Anything!”

“I carry a basket with me. You see?” The farmer noticed for the first time that she had a beautiful basket on her arm. “You must promise me that you will not look inside the basket until I am ready to share its contents with you.”

The farmer leaned back and laughed. This was a piece of cake! “Of course! Of course I promise. Anything! Now please become my bride!”

So the farmer and the star woman were married and they were happy together. The star woman loved the black and white cows. She called each cow by name and petted them each day. She took the cows out to pasture and made sure they had plenty of green, green grass to eat and plenty of fresh cool water to drink. 

One day while the star woman was out in the pasture tending the cows, the farmer looked at that basket. It was sitting right beside the front door where she had put it when first they were married. The farmer was thinking, “We are married. What’s mine is hers and what’s hers is mine. What could it hurt if I simply look for myself?” And so he leaned over and lifted the lid on the beautiful basket. He looked inside. “Nothing!”

Absolutely nothing was inside that basket. Empty. All these years and all this waiting—for nothing!

The wife came in from the pasture. Her face was full of love as she entered the house. “What a beautiful day! The cows and I have so enjoyed the sunlight and the breeze. What have you done with your day, husband?”

“I looked in the basket.”

“What?”

“Yes! I looked in the basket.”

“And what did you see?”

“Nothing! I saw nothing. The basket is empty. Look for yourself!”

“Oh heart of my heart! That basket holds everything! Everything that I would give to you is in that basket, every treasure I’ve ever known. It’s all there. And we could have shared it together forever if you had kept your promise to me.”

With that the star woman picked up her basket and went out into the pasture where a rope dropped down from the heavens. She climbed up the rope and was gone. 

And that was that. *

There are times when we see the basket as empty. We harbor the voice of the enemy and it tells us that nothing good exists in our relationship with God. We grow weary with waiting for the Kingdom to come on earth and we lose hope. We can be persuaded that the love of God is not here in the land of the living. 

I invite you to let your beating heart serve as a gentle reminder that you are a partner to the presence of God in this life. Your promise to remain aware of God’s love is as much a part of our faith’s redemptive story as is the promise of God to remain faithful to you. 

So let us together practice our focus on the light that lives within us and we will allow that light to guide us to Jerusalem, into the land of the living where we stand firm in the presence of God. By staying aware of God’s presence with us on the journey, we will discover the support, strength and balance necessary to receive all the gifts and goodness that God longs to share with us.

Amen

·        Both the “Heartless” story and the “Farmer and Star Woman” story were found in this book: Our Secret Territory: The Essence of Storytelling, Laura Simms, Sentient Publications, Boulder, CO 2011