Fairfax Community Church, UCC

Mark 12:28-30

And one of the scholars approached when he heard them arguing, and because he saw how skillfully Jesus answered them, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

Jesus answered: “The first is, “Hear, Israel, the Lord your God is a Holy Being, and you are to love the  Holy Being as the source of your whole heart and your whole soul and your whole mind and your whole strength and power.”  The second is this:  “you are to love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.”

This passage is known as ‘the Great Commandment’.  The word entolh  means the something like a law....a rule one needs to follow to live properly in society.  So we might call it a Life Law.   And Jesus pretty much says that if you follow these two connected laws, you won’t break any other ones.    Let’s look at this most important teaching more deeply.   

Last week, we spent some time exploring/wrestling with the concept of impermanence, and how it is an inescapable part of our daily lives.  We looked at teachings of Jesus that we felt addressed the idea, even if it wasn’t explicitly mentioned.  Wrestling with and learning to accept impermanence in our lives is an ongoing practice.   We aren’t particularly designed for or supported in accepting impermanence.  Sometimes it feels like we might want an anchor, SOMETHING to hold on to.  And yet, when we acknowledge that everything changes, nothing stays the same even for two moments, what can possibly help us feel that we are NOT adrift in a sea of uncertainty?

Well, what if we are able to become friends with --- the sea we are in?   There are many spiritual allegories about being drops of water in an ocean, or a river, or a lake....there is a wonderful goddess chant that goes “we all come from the goddess, and to her we shall return like a drop of rain, flowing to the ocean”....Thich Nhat Hanh uses the image of a wave in the ocean, as do many other Buddhist teachers.  He says a wave might be frightened to think about having a beginning and an end....but notice, the wave is never not in the ocean.  The wave is always made of water.  So the true nature of a wave is water.  What does this have to do with us? 

When Jesus says the most important thing in our lives,  the only RULES or LAWS we need to be concerned with,  is the Life Law which says to Love God as the source of our hearts, minds, souls and strength.  I’ve translated this passage differently than we usually hear.....and I think it might come closer to what Jesus intended – as you probably know, translating from one language into another involves making choices...and the choices that translators make are not necessarily the only ones possible.  So I’ve made some different choices than the ones we are familiar with....beginning with my choice to say we are to love God, or the Holy Being,  as the source of our heart, mind, soul and strength.  This is a completely reasonable translation of the Greek word  ek.  It can mean with, or from...or flowing out of....or the source of.....even relating to the inner life. The Greek words for heart mind soul and strength also have deeper meanings than those we usually hear   -- the word we translate as heart actually means ‘the seat of thought, will and emotion’...the word yuch  which we translate as ‘soul’  means ‘vital principle’...or that which keeps us alive; added to this are the words for reasoning mind and physical strength, power or might.   

Putting this all together,  we can understand the meaning of this most important life-law as “we are to love the Holy One who is the source of all that is our deepest essence...or from whom flow the wholeness of our life, emotions, reasoning mind, physical strength and will.   If we flow out of the Holy Being, we must be of the same substance, in some manner.   Much like a wave or a drop of water is of the same substance as the ocean, from which they flow.  Even if a drop of water evaporates and moves up into a cloud, it is still of the same substance as the body of water from which it evaporated.  If we find ourselves looking to and loving the substance from which we flow,  we must also love ourselves....and as the second life-law says,  we are also to love our fellow beings – because we are all of the same substance. 

Even as we can see the impermanent nature of everything in the physical realm.....can we begin to get a taste of the steadiness of the Holy realm – which is the birthing place of our true essence? 

And that is what we can rest ourselves in --- the Holy Ones --- the Holy Realm that both surrounds us and flows through us.  

I’ve been looking at the nature of devotion for a time.....what does devotion mean to me,  to us in our life here at Fairfax Community Church?  Most of you are familiar with the idea of ‘daily devotions’.....perhaps a small book with thoughts on which you ponder each day.  This may or may not be part of your own spiritual practice.  I know in my upbringing as a Presbyterian, that was the ONLY idea of devotion I came across.  I didn’t know it as a child, but I was missing a deeper sense of devotion. Those of you who were raised in the Catholic tradition have a different sense of the meaning of the word.  In this tradition, there is a sense of giving devotion to Jesus and to Mary, as well as to the many saints.   It’s a way of revering them, honoring their place as Holy Beings.  For some it may be a hollow exercise – for others it becomes a deep and meaningful way to feel a connection to the Holy.  In the Muslim tradition, one prays many times each day – often with prostrations, or bringing one’s body down onto the earth in prayer.   Jews offer devotion to God at each meal, as they leave and enter a home, and with special ritual prayers on the Sabbath.   Buddhists offer devotion to a number of Holy Beings – each of whom is considered a different aspect of the Buddha Nature which is within all beings.    Hindus are extremely devoted – their prayers and chants of devotion to the Holy One can often move one into a transcendent realm.  In the Sufi tradition,  chanting and dancing are devotional offerings.   What do these activities of devotion do for those who participate?  

I think they help us to remember our connection with the Holy Source of our Being.  We easily forget.  When we have a spiritual practice that involves devotion,  we are automatically reminded of the presence of the Holy in our lives – and we can touch the Holy in ourselves in the process.  Remembering our connection with the Holy,  we can then begin to remember that the Holy is present in each of our brothers and sisters.   But that is not easy, not at all.

Jesus kept reminding his friends that everyone is a part of God’s love....even the ones they had grown up believing were inferior,  were not deserving of God’s love.  Jesus said, I know that’s what you were taught, but I’m here to expand your understanding of God’s love......look, it’s like this......we are not separate from each other.  We’re all made from the same Holy Substance.   He kept giving them reminders of this.....in parables, in teachings and in healings.  He insisted that the most important thing for each of us to do is to recognize the Holy in each other.  

I think we have developed devotional practices to help us connect with that Holiness.  We humans do things all the time that cover up our Holiness --- we look at each other and we see behaviors, actions that make us forget each other’s Holiness.  It takes great mental and spiritual effort on our part to look past those behaviors, those personality traits that make us forget each other’s Holy Nature.  So, devotional practices put us in touch with Beings whose Holy Nature speaks to us.  It helps us remember what that Holy Nature feels like, looks like.....and it can help give us the energy to begin to see it in each other.      WHICH Holy Being speaks to each of us varies.   For some, a traditional idea of God or Lord works beautifully.  For others, Jesus or Mary are the Holy Being image that fits.   You might prefer the image of a Redwood tree, or the ocean, or one of the Buddha images.  I don’t really think it matters so much, because it is the Holy Essence in each one that helps you remember your own Holiness – your own source of being.   You are not separate from that Holy Being either.  I think we are drawn to an image of Holiness that is familiar to us in some way.  We may be drawn to several.  I personally am very happy with this beautiful image of a meditating Jesus --- I also love this image of Chenrezig, the patron deity of Tibet.   You’ve seen other Holy Beings that I surround myself with --- Guadalupe,  Thich Nhat Hanh,  the Dalai Lama,  and this great image of Jesus.   I do surround myself with Holy Images so I’m always near a reminder --- it does help me to see that Holiness in others.  I can’t say exactly HOW that is,  just that I know it to be so for me.  It is not necessarily the route for everyone,  but you don’t know unless you try it....and I am not suggesting that you force yourself into a devotional practice with a Holy Image that doesn’t suit you.....I invite you to open yourself to discovering what Holy Image DOES appeal to you,  and then create a practice for yourself of spending time in prayer or meditation --- opening yourself to the Holy Source that you can see in the Image,  which is also in you and in every being in the universe.

I will close with this poem When I Was In The Forest from Meister Eckhart:

When I was the stream,  when I was the forest,   when I was still the field,    when I was every hoof,  foot,  fin and wing,   when I was the sky itself,

no one ever asked me did I have a purpose,  no one ever wondered was there anything I might need,  for there was nothing I could not love.

It was when I left all we once were that the agony began, the fear and questions came, and I wept,  I wept.    And tears I had never known before.

So I returned to the river,  I returned to the mountains.  I asked for their hand in marriage again, I begged --- I begged to wed every object and creature,

and when they accepted,   God was ever present in my arms.  And God did not say, “Where have you been?”  For then I knew my soul ---- every soul --- had always held God.  AMEN

 BENEDICTION:   From The Dalai Lama: 

My message is the practice of compassion, love, and kindness. Compassion can be put into practice if one recognizes the fact that every human being is a member of humanity and the human family regardless of differences in religion, culture, color, and creed. Deep down there is no difference."