Beyond the Patio

Finding Out Who We Really Are
Matthew 3:13-17

Today when we hear the story of Jesus’ Baptism, it is not just an historical account of Jesus’ baptism. It is told in such a way that it touches us inwardly. I suppose that you could say that there is an outward story and an inward story and the inward story is our story .  In Jesus’ identity we discover our own true selves.  We emerge from the water reborn into him and God declares– who we really are.  Because who we are–who you and I only and truly are–are the sons and daughters of God.  We also become aware of the Spirit descending upon us and is with us all our days.

This has a tremendous effect on how we live our lives. We begin to realize that God is in every moment of every day, not just when we are at worship, prayer or any religious activity but when we are anywhere doing whatever. Every moment is a key moment because God through his Spirit is in it somehow.

As Frederick Buechner points out in one of his meditations in Listening to your Life:

I DISCOVERED THAT IF you really keep your eye peeled to it and your ears open, if you really pay attention to it, even such a limited and limiting life as the one I was living on Rupert Mountain opened up onto extraordinary vistas. Taking your children to school and kissing your wife goodbye. Eating lunch with a friend. Trying to do a decent day’s work. Hearing the rain patter against the window. There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hidden, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him, but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly…. If I were called upon to state in a few words the essence of everything I was trying to say both as a novelist and as a preacher, it would be something like this: Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

(Listening to Your Life Daily meditations with Frederick Buechner, Harper Collins, San Francisco, 1992, p. 2)

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The problem is that few of us  realize this.  We look for God by expanding our  religious activities but often do not find the spiritual experience that we are looking for in the creeds, liturgy, cult, or rules that religious institutions have to offer. We find rituals hollow and language antique. However, we still harbor a sense that there is more to life than they are being shown.  We seem to be willing to look all over the place for this treasure.  We will travel around the world to visit a monastery in India or take part in a mission in other countries. The last place most of us look is right under our feet, in everyday activities, chance happenings and encounters in our lives. However, there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from our bodily experiences of human life on earth. Realizing the spiritual presence of God in our lives happens when we engage the most ordinary activities with the most discriminating attention we can give them. There is no way to God apart from the real life in the real world.

The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw – 
and knew that I saw, 
all things in God and God in all thing
                                               Mechtild of Magdeburg

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Barbara Brown Taylor in her book Leaving Church mentions meeting a former parishioner with whom she had worked on Christian education in the past.  He had moved to a new community and she asked him where he was going to church. Without hesitation he said he was not going anywhere.  He spend his days with people of many faiths and no faith at all which gave him ample opportunity to practice his own faith.  He went on to say:

After a lot of listening, I think a finally heard the gospel. The good news in Christ is, ‘You have everything you need to be human.’ There is nothing outside you that you still need – no approval from the authorities, no attendance at the temple, no key truth hidden in the tenth chapter of some sacred book.  In your life right now, God has given you everything that you need to be human.

(Barbara Brown Taylor Leaving Church, A Memoir of Faith, 2006, HarperCollins p. 164-165)

She had to reflect for years upon those words.  She realized that there are many ways to be human, not all of them praiseworthy, however it was possible to see Jesus not as a founder of a new religion but as an exemplar of a new way of being human.

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Becoming fully human and fully alive as Jesus was, we see that everything we do and see is a key moment in our lives:  Awhile back I wrote a poem about this called Key Moments:

My days are filled with events 
that one might call commonplace
But I have come to realize that 
there is some hidden meaning in them all

A simple embrace with a loved one
as she goes out the door to face the world
A short time with family or
a chance meeting with a friend,
A smile from a stranger on the bus or
a friendly greeting from one hardly known,
Reading to the end of a chapter from a book
in the midst of friendly faces in the coffee shop.
Meeting a need in others or
finding a way of compassionate love
We find ourselves in boredom or in pain
and often in the joys and sorrows of our lives
Then also sitting down around a table and
eating together with family and close friends.

They are all and many more key moments
and food for our souls and the inner life
If only we could see them 
with our hearts wide open.

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So if we hope to find that spiritual dimension in life we start by being aware of all that is around us and especially taking time, more time than we usually do, to really become aware of all that surrounds us, people, things, interactions, sounds, voices – all of which we are a part of us as well.  Daily Om which I receive daily as an email included a short piece on “summoning your aliveness” not long ago.  It is worth looking at and integrating it into our daily living.

When we are fully present, we offer our whole selves to whatever it is that we are doing. Our attention, our integrity, and our energy are all focused in the moment and on the task at hand. This is a powerful experience, and when we are in this state, we feel completely alive and invigorated. This kind of aliveness comes easily when we are absorbed in work or play that we love, but it is available to us in every moment, and we can learn to summon it regardless of what we are doing. Even tasks or jobs we don’t enjoy can become infused with the light of being present. The more present we are, the more meaningful our entire lives become.

Next time you find yourself fully engaged in the moment, whether you are making art, trying to solve an interesting puzzle, or talking to your best friend, you may want to take a moment to notice how you feel. You may observe that you are not thinking about what you need to do next, your body feels like it’s pleasantly humming, or your brain feels tingly. As you enjoy the feeling of being located entirely in the present moment, you can inform yourself that you may try to recall this feeling later…….

….The more we draw ourselves into the present moment, the more we honour the gift of our lives, and the more we honour the people around us. When we are fully present, we give and receive aliveness in equal measure. For today, try to be fully present in your daily activities and watch a new reality open for you.

This is all holy ground, this is the arena where we are to be fully human. This is where we become fully aware of the world around us, of all the life that surrounds us, of the people around us, of the God around us and of the God within us. This may go beyond religion as we have experienced it in the past. This is living in the spirit and living out the meaning of our baptism. This is who we really are.

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