Rev. Dr. Nancy Parent Bancroft
A few weeks ago, Dick Bennett was lector and he commented how much he appreciated the fact that so many Christian denominations use the same three-year cycle lectionary and that people all over the world reflect on the same scripture passages each week. I agree. And although we are an independent church and not restricted to that practice, we usually check out the prescribed weekly readings first when preparing a service. So this week, when I saw the readings, they hit very close to home. I don’t have barns of grain, but I do have a lot of stuff: flowers, books, clothes, jewelry, dishes, etc. etc.
But Jesus in this week’s parable is not saying that we can’t have goals for acquiring nice things. Both Jesus and Paul, in his letter to the Colossians are saying, I think, that these superficial pursuits shouldn’t consume us. We are invited to live deeper. We are urged to be awake, to be astonished, to bow our heads in awe as we recognize the divine in all. And, we are urged to live as one body, with all of creation.
I’m very fortunate that over the last two years I’ve worked with my spiritual accompanist on becoming an elder. I’m not there yet, but it’s been very useful work. What distinguishes an elder from an old person is that an elder has done enough life-repair work, that he/she has developed a spirituality marked by gratitude and compassion. As a therapist, it always made me sad when someone whom I was working with who had a behavior pattern or feelings that limited their quality of life would tell me, “Well, that’s just the way I am.” They usually followed this by complaining about something that their mother did or that their dad didn’t do. Although out of the home for sixty years, they may have parented others, but did not successfully reparent themselves. It’s never too late. Anyway, the journey to elderhood involves life repair, or what Jungians call shadow awareness. The other two important aspects of the journey to elderhood are mortality awareness and finally pure awareness.
As I said, luckily I’ve been focusing on mortality awareness and it has helped me deal with my present situation. Pure awareness, however, is usually out of my grasp. That is a glimpse of the divine; an awareness that all is connected to everything else, and that we are all one. The ultimate Awe.
We live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood.
Pure awareness highlights humanity’s profound and inseparable relationship with the natural world and all living things, that all living things are related and share a common origin and destiny. Pure awareness is a growing consciousness that humans are part of a larger “family of things,” where everything is connected and interdependent. This good news hopefully fosters in us both a sense of belonging as well as a responsibility towards the planet.
Many mystics, from various traditions, have, following a deep religious experience emerged with a greater awareness and appreciation of the natural world as a living entity with which humans can commune.
Not only mystics and spiritual mentors, but philosophers, scientists and naturalist have reached the same conclusions. In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben describes how trees in the forest are “ social beings.” He says that we can’t communicate directly with trees because trees are creatures on a different time scale. Nevertheless, electrical impulses pass through the roots of trees at the slow rate of 1/3 of an inch per second, and these electrical impulses that pass through their tissues allow them to communicate with each other. And electrical impulses is only one of the many ways that they do so.
Trees use their sense of smell and taste for communication If a giraffe starts eating an African Acacia the tree releases a chemical, a smell in the air, that signals a threat to the other trees, that then begin to release toxic chemicals to protect themselves.
Insect pests are treated differently. The saliva of some leaf eating pests can be “tasted” by a leaf on a tree being eaten. The tree then sends out a chemical signal that attracts predators that feed on that particular leaf-eating insect.
Most astonishing is that trees in the forest take care of each other, sometimes by even nourishing the stump of a felled tree by feeding it sugars and other nutrients and keeping it alive. Why do trees care for some felled trees and not others? Are they the parents of the other trees in the forest?
The scientific research between fungi and other plants is still very new. But scientists are aware of a “ wood-wide web” of soil fungi that connects vegetation in an intimate network of information and goods.
We live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. We are urged to be awake, to be astonished, and to bow our heads in awe as we recognize the divine in all.
A few years ago we were fortunate to have Sy Montgomery at our annual summer speakers series where she presented her book, The Soul of an Octopus in whichshe shared with us surprising information about the consciousness of Octopuses.
It’s hard to find an animal more unlike a human than an octopus. Their bodies aren’t organized like ours. We go head, body, limbs. They go body, head, limbs. Their mouths are in their armpits. They breathe water. Their appendages are covered with dexterous, grasping suckers, a structure for which no mammal has an equivalent.
And not only are octopuses on the opposite side of the great vertebral divide that separates the backboned creatures such as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish from everything else; octopus are classed within the invertebrates as mollusks, as are slugs and snails and clams, animals that are not particularly renowned for their intellect.
And yet, Sy Montgomery and others have been able connect intimately with them. Sy told us that as she stroked an octopus with her fingertips, its skin turned white beneath her touch. White is the color of a relaxed octopus. The octopus also seemed as curious about her as Sy was about the octopus. Octopuses are highly individual. They seem to realize that humans are individuals too. They like some people; they dislike others And they behave differently toward those they know and trust. They even communicate their feelings by changing colors.
We live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. We are urged to be awake, to be astonished, and to bow our heads in awe as we recognize the divine in all.
Third story: Many of us have experienced anxiety, even real concern, about the state and safety of our democracy. I dare talk about this here because it is a problem that began long before this administration. As we all learned in civics classes, the developers of our government designed a three-branch system of government that would protect citizens from the tyranny of dictatorship. But for many years now, through several administrations, the legislative branch has become so partisan that, in the process, it has given up a lot of its power to offset the executive branch. And the judicial branch of our government seems to be following suit.
I have a friend, Kathy, in fact she’s here today from Michigan, and whenever she is going through some difficulty, she always asks herself, “What is God trying to teach me here?” What lesson can we learn from the present state of our government ?
Today there is a Sister of St. Joseph here from Lebanon. Some of you are aware of the situation there since our outreach program sent a contribution this past year to help the sisters. The sisters had two convents in Lebanon. The one on the border near Israel had a school. Because of the fighting, the sisters, and everyone else living near the border had to abandon their homes and move north, leaving much of their things, living in public accommodations or with extended families. The sisters have changed their ministry from education to working to help house refugees, get kids in schools, assist adults find work, etc. The Lebanese government at present, seems limited in its ability to protect and care for the many needs of its people.
One more story: Sister Colette, is here is from Burkina Faso, where Jihadists have taken over swaths of the country and the government seems extremely limited in what it can do. This past spring, the Jihadists went to the village where Colette’s family was living. It had been a successful agricultural community. First the Jihadists destroyed the town’s irrigation system, making farming near impossible. Then they entered the village and began killing men and boys. Sr. Collette’s youngest brother, 28 years old, husband, father of a three-year-old and a not-quite one year old was killed along with five members of her extended family, uncles and cousins. Her parents escaped but are not able to return home because the government is unable to secure the roads.
So what is God trying to teach us given our present democratic struggles? Perhaps, the difficulties that we are having , our anxieties and our fears for our future may help us to have a greater sense of solidarity with our brothers and sisters in war-torn areas of our world. Maybe our concerns about our threatened democracy will make us more compassionate towards those who have even fewer safeguards. Perhaps when we pray for our brothers and sisters in ravaged countries, we will do so with more empathy. Maybe our concerns will give us a deeper sense of unity with others living at risk throughout the world.
So as we all age and hopefully journey towards elderhood, we can open ourselves up to pure awareness. We can pay attention to the awesomeness of interconnection with all things. Our well-being and chances for a meaningful life are tied to recognizing and honoring the interconnectedness of all things.Living in Grace involves acknowledging this interconnectedness and not privileging certain aspects of the world over others. We are invited to pay attention. Each day we have multiple opportunities to have mystical visions of the world, where the human soul can experience a deep spiritual connection with the divine through nature. This connection is not separate from the natural world but rather a unification with it. This is an invitation to keep our attention on eternity; to connect one’s true self with the things that endure.
We live with mysteries of interconnection and unity too marvelous to be understood. We are urged to be awake, to be astonished, and to bow our heads in awe as we recognize the divine in all.