Sunday, March 23, 2014

Welcoming the Stranger - sermon March 23

This sermon did not come out as polished as I had hoped.  I realized too late that drawing a parallel between the stranger walking in the church door and the shadow self didn't work as well as I had hoped, for the stranger coming in the door is seen as a positive, while the shadow self is usually considered to be negative.  Oh well. I ran out of time.  So take what you like and leave the rest. 

Welcoming the Stranger
Rev Alison Longstaff, March 23, 2014
Bath Church of the New Jerusalem
Exodus 19: 16-19;23: 9;Matt 25: 34-40; HS 4958


Your weirdness will make you stronger. Your dark side will keep you whole. Your vulnerability will connect you to the rest of our suffering world. Your creativity will set you free. There's nothing wrong with you ― Andrea Balt

When was the last time you were at a gathering where you knew almost nobody, and yet it seemed everyone knew everybody else?  How did that feel?  Besides perhaps running away, what did you most want?

When was the last time you felt uncomfortable in your own skin—perhaps afraid that you were too weird to be lovable, or too full of mistakes to ever clean it all up?

 In our readings today we heard that God commands us to welcome the stranger.  God commands us to do this.  So we need to ask, what does it mean to welcome the stranger, not just naturally, but spiritually?

The “stranger” is the unknown one at the edge of our established group, the newcomer, the guest.  But spiritually, it is also the unknown, estranged, or outcast parts inside ourselves.  These are parts of ourselves that we have found unacceptable, frightening, or worrisome.  They are also moments, memories, or words and actions in our past of which we are ashamed or embarrassed, and which we choose to ignore or block out, rather than integrate with compassion and learning.

What does it mean to welcome this stranger—the frightening, or new, or alien one, or dark side of our soul?  Well just remember, something is only dark until the light shines on it.  And understanding something brings us a long way towards no longer fearing it.  Even if we must be watchful around it, like we must be around a bear or a strong undertow or a hornets nest, the better we understand how such things work and behave, the better equipped we are for such encounters, and the more likely we will be to make wise and responsible choices in the face of such encounters.  Ignorance and fear are never the better option.

As for me, I certainly was raised to see my insides as divisible into good and bad parts, white and black parts, the stuff that I wanted to show the world and the stuff that I wanted to “shun” (to use a traditionally Swedenborgian word).  It was all or nothing, good or evil, keep or throw away, be proud of or chop it off.  I don’t remember much conversation about the vast middle ground, which includes all the stuff that needs sifting and sorting, weighing and waiting, as in the parable of the wheat and “tares” (weeds). It includes the world of the mixed things that require time and discernment to sort properly. Which world is vast.

And since my inner world was organized that way (all good or all bad), I tended to sort people that way, and I would shun or avoid and have contempt for the ones I had decided were in the “bad” category.  This made me feel both “good,” and safe from whatever it was I decided was bad about them.  The downside of that way of viewing people was the flip-side of the message—if other people could be thrown away, that meant that I could be thrown away too.  And that notion terrified me.  So I learned a heck of a lot of people-pleasing and go-along-to-get-along behaviors that looked good on the outside, but were not particularly enlightened.  These behaviors were fear-based (so I wouldn't be thrown away), and fear-based things harness our lizard-brain, and our lizard brain is never spiritual or enlightened.

The more I study human nature through a Swedenborgian lens, the more I believe that fear is our greatest teacher and greatest enemy.  It is our darkest darkness.  When Swedenborg says such things as “we are nothing but evil,” and “we are selfish and worldly,” and “we incline to evils of every kind,” I now understand that to mean that, left to ourselves, we are scared out of our minds.  Of course we are!  We are born tiny, naked, hungry, wet, and powerless! And in our terror we default to our lizard brain, and our lizard brain is completely unenlightened. That’s when the “selfish and worldly” nature wins out.  But that lizard brain isn’t our fault.  It just is.  And it can be overcome.

So rather than hide and shame and cover up our darkness, maybe we can ask it what it is most afraid of?  For the more you and I can discover what is really going on underneath our anger or shame, our confusion or outburst or clumsy remark, the more we can realize that it was never about who broke the stereo, or who forgot to lock the door, or who said what about who to whom, and then what she said back, and isn't that terrible….  It is always because we are scared.

We are afraid that we will discover that we really are unlovable.  We are afraid that we will be rejected, because we are too stupid or too untalented or too clumsy or….  We are afraid that we just don't belong, or that we made a big mistake and everyone will see it and despise us…. 

The fears are usually very primitive and pretty much the same across the board.   

It is just how we are.  We are not evil; we are terrified.  But the more we practice seeing what the fears are and the more matter-of-fact we can be about these things that run inside us, the less we need to cover them up or feel ashamed about them.  Instead we name them and own them and work on behaving responsibly around them.  We waste energy being ashamed of our nature.  It is simply how we are made.  We need to practice being responsible and open, which is very different from shaming ourselves and hiding.

Correspondentially, we are seeing a shift in the world of spiritual thinking to a “healing” model of spirituality from the more punitive, shaming “compartmentalize and chop the evil off” model that has reigned so long.  Very much like our advancements in medicine, in which we continue to develop ways to save body parts that are at risk rather than amputate them, in spirituality we are learning how to have compassion for, heal, and reintegrate parts of our personalities and souls that we formerly thought shameful and irredeemable.  For example look at how alcoholics were viewed and treated seventy years ago compared to today.  Then, alcoholics were shamed and blamed for their condition and considered worthless, hopeless, and lost.  Nowadays many alcoholics confess without shame that they are alcoholics, they seek and get help, and they live useful lives reintegrated into society acknowledging and behaving responsibly in relationship with their condition. 

And these recovering alcoholics are the best and wisest angels in supporting, aiding, and guiding others who struggle with the same disease to find recovery.  Their wisdom drawn from their darkness becomes a potent gift in service to others.  It becomes their strength.

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.

Now, how do you behave when a visitor walks in our church doors?  Do you stare at them and ask another member who it is?  Do you say a quick hello and then scurry off to talk to your comfortable friends?  Or do you get over your personal shyness and go introduce yourself?  Do you remember how hard it is to be in their shoes, and decide to ease their experience?  Do you try to set them at ease and make them comfortable because they are a guest in your church home?  How good are you at helping newcomers feel included, respected, safe, and at ease?

Now remember.  Every single one of us has some level of anxiety when it comes to talking to new people.  Every single one.  Never assume you are the only one, and “it is those other people who are comfortable talking to visitors that should do it.”  Those people that you assume are comfortable making small-talk?—They have worked at that skill.  They have practiced it and honed it until it looks effortless, but it never starts easy.   And for most of us, it takes a serious inner push for us to reach out to any stranger at any gathering, no matter who or where we are.  I know!

Then remember.  It is hard work to come to a new church.  It is harder work to keep coming, unless the people there welcome you back and act truly glad to see you again.  Put yourself in the visitor’s shoes and show hospitality.  Be interested in them.  Make a point of learning their name and be glad to see them again, even if you've forgotten their name! 

Because, if you, yes you, commit to being friendlier and kinder to strangers, in virtually any setting, you will gradually undergo an inner transformation---where at first you were pasting friendliness on the outside of yourself and wielding your rehearsed phrases, “Hi, have we met?” “Hello, I’m Jane church member.  Welcome.  Is this your first time here?” you will begin to discover that soon you really care about that other person.  Curiosity and compassion will begin to trump self-consciousness; phrases and questions will flow more easily, and eventually you will forget yourself in the delight of discovering someone new to know.  
Because when you reach out to another to build relationship, you are reaching out to a facet of God.  If you do it to the least among us, you do it to God—to the goodness in that other, with the hope and prayer that you might both be blessed by the encounter.

In the past several years, BCNJ has welcomed God in the form of Wesley Seekamp, and God in the form of Jody and Lee Evans.  We have welcomed God in the form of the Rudy/Mozak family, and have welcomed back God in the form of the Trott and Legard families.  God willing, we will continue to welcome God in the form of old friends and new, individuals and families, as folks find their way to our doors and discover a place of worship that is good for their souls.
God willing.

God commands us to welcome the stranger. 

So, next time you find yourself pointing at a stranger and leaning over to a friend to ask in a whisper, “who is that?’  Be sure to go the next step and speak to that unknown person face-to-face as soon as you can.  Say, “Hi, I am so-and-so.  It’s nice to have you here today,” or something like that.  The Holy Spirit is very good at giving us ideas of what to say.  Will it be uncomfortable sometimes?  Yes.  Will it be awkward sometimes?  Yes.  But it won’t kill you.  In fact it will lead you to more spiritual riches than you can imagine.  Get ready.  Treasures beyond treasures await us behind that next set of bright eyes.

Amen
Originally “How Inclusive Are We?" July 19, 2009


The Readings

Exodus 19:16-19 and 23:9  (NLT)
16 On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram’s horn, and all the people trembled. 17 Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply.
23:9 “You must not oppress the stranger. You know what it’s like to be a stranger, for you yourselves were once strangers in the land of Egypt.

Matthew 25: 34-40  “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My sisters or brothers, you did it to Me.’

AC 4958. “Hungering” is referring to a spiritual longing for goodness because in the internal sense 'bread' is referring to goodness and loving-kindness, indeed food in general is referring to all goodness. “Thirsting” is referring to a spiritual longing for truth because in the internal sense wine (and also water) mean the spiritual truth or the “truth of faith.”  'A stranger' is referring to one who wishes to receive spiritual instruction…. 

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