Sermon: Questions Inside
Mark 12:28-34
How do you know what is right? How do you sense it?
How do you tell if you are on the right path, or heading for it, looking for it?
Some of my earliest memories of being right are completing an English spelling test right (r-i-g-h-t) in Grade 1, or my Kumon math exercises (4 + 2 = ?), or circling multiple choice questions. Or, performing a play with my classmates, figuring out who is telling the truth about forgotten lines. Then, as we grow older, we become exposed to more complicated times and tasks. There may be no one right answer; we must make choices.
Our coming to maturity invites the question of the right path. The right choice and the right path might sound like the same thing, but I would say, our spiritual life is bound up more in the right path than right choices. Choices assume that there are a number of roads to take and we can choose one, or a few of them. When we make choices, we think we can predict what end is awaiting, what future we can expect from that one decision. Choices are made based on a predicted, or anticipated, outcome. On the other hand, the right path is more about a way of life. It comes to us more as an open question than an answer. It is a question that creates a perspective, a path, guided by the urge, intuition, wisdom, inside of us. The right path works sincerely for those who look for it, explore it, seek it, create it. The benefit is in the process, not just at the end. It’s defined from the inside, and the benefit, if it is really “right”, is for both the inside and the outside of us.
For example, peace is the right path. Justice is the right path. Right Relations is the right path. I believe this topic of the right path is relevant to this day, Remembrance Sunday, as we commemorate those who have made sacrifices for their faith and belief.
In today’s reading, a scribe asks Jesus “Which commandment is the first of all?”, and Jesus tells him, “Love your God. God is one. You shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second one is, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” The commandments are the guide to the right path of life, the right way to live life, from God, from the Spirit. The commandments are never given from the outside in, as God is not on the outside of our being, on the outside of where we are in Creation. God is all things good, all things beautiful, all things right in our heart, in our soul, in our mind and in our strength.
The right path is revealed to us, to our understanding, in the right time, when we are led by the right question. And the right path is not just one circle around a multiple-choice question. The touchstones are: Do you feel a sense of joy? Is your spirit moving in you and do you feel alive? Have you become (more) hopeful? Have your vision and goals been expanded and broadened? Often, this spiritual journey leads us to discover forgotten and ignored aspects of our lives; they emerge and connect, linking to other parts of our lives. These new connections allow us to enter a profound awareness of who we are and who we want to be. I really like this phrase: “Then, there will be no longer any part of ourselves in exile.”
This phrase comes from the book Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations written by Richard Wagamese. Here’s the quote that follows these beautiful words: “Nothing in the Universe ever grew from the outside in.”
“I want to listen deeply enough that I hear everything and nothing at the same time and am made more by the enduring quality of my silence.
I want to question deeply enough that I am made more, not by the answers so much as my desire to continue asking questions.
I want to speak deeply enough that I am made more by the articulation of my truth shifting into the day’s shape.
In this way, listening, pondering and sharing become my connection to the oneness of life, and there is no longer any part of me in exile.”
One more quote from the same author.
“My Spiritual Father once told me, ‘Nothing in the universe ever grew from the outside in.’ I like that. It keeps me grounded. It reminds me to be less concerned with outside answers and more focused on the questions inside. It’s the quest for those answers that will lead me to the highest possible version of myself.”
Immanuel United Church also wants to do the same. I mean, that’s what I sense we want to do/engage to find/identify/discern/ the highest version of ourselves, as a community, as individuals. This is what we hope for ourselves and for where we belong. As I said before, the Right Path is revealed to us, in our understanding, in the right time, when we are open to be led by the right questions, when we are open to the spirit moving in us.
Explain about the Open Questions process.
Open question # 1: How might Immanuel encourage diversity?
Open question # 2: How can the arts provide spiritual nurture and invite participation by the community?
Open question # 3: As a church that contributed to colonization, how shall we express our commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?
Explain our plan for November, December and January.
I would like to conclude this reflection with one more quote from Embers, a book which has given me a very pure sense of joyful excitement; it gives comfort to my soul and illuminates my understanding of what the right path is like and how we can look for it, find it, and even walk on it. The heart of its wisdom lies in accepting the challenging task or the opportunity of discernment as a way of participating in “ceremony”. We say ‘ceremony’ because when we really need to discern the right path for ourselves, we need many people to support us: family, a community, a group of friends, to participate in our time of questions and remain open to the spirit. Immanuel’s journey on the Three Open Questions may be just like that too. It’s a community-wide call, and therefore, everyone is invited to participate, to discuss if these are right questions, asked in the right time, about how we can, then, create the right path together.
Here’s the quote:
Me: What is the purpose of ceremony?
OLD WOMAN: To lead you to yourself.
ME: How?
OLD WOMAN: By giving you an idea of who you want to be and then allowing you to create the experience of being that way.
ME: Which ceremony is the best, then?
OLD WOMAN: Life. Choose what leads you to the highest vision you can have of yourself, and then choose what allows you to express that. What you express, you experience. What you experience, you are.
ME: How do I prepare?
OLD WOMAN: Breathe…
So, we breathe.
And find the truth between each word, each thought, each moment, each breath, as we follow our right path.
Amen.
Ha Na Park
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