"Integrity of the Spirit"
"As for myself, I just kept walking, thinking: once more I am grateful to be present." - Mary Oliver
Today like every other day
We wake up empty and scared
Don’t open the door of your study
and begin reading.
Take down a musical instrument
let the beauty we love be what we do
There are hundreds of ways to kneel
and kiss the earth.
Those words,
woven together by Rumi,
feel like appropriate marching orders
to start us off on this week
of Sacred Resistance and Hopeful Resilience.
It’s been awhile since you and I have been together,
and even though we may not have actually seen each other,
I’ve been thinking about you,
wondering if you’ve been waking up feeling empty,
or scared,
on too many days.
And I’ve been hoping for you,
hoping that you’ve been open to the beauty around you.
Perhaps shared your own throat praise
during the recent days of rain.
Felt compassion for Creation.
Been a little kinder to those
you come into contact with
on a daily basis.
And even more than that,
I’ve hoped that you’ve been able to see the beauty and goodness
in yourself each morning,
and each evening,
as you look in the mirror.
This month we are exploring Integrity as a worship theme.
For me, integrity means living an undivided life,
living a whole life,
where your inner values are matched
by your outward actions.
Everett spoke about Integrity in those terms
last Sunday.
Creating a life where we can cultivate a sense of gratitude,
being grateful to be present in the midst of all there is:
the rainfall
the sunshine
the green grass
and brown leaves scattered on the sidewalk,
grateful even for the days we wake up
empty and scared.
That speaks to a life of
wholeness and integrity.
And for most of us,
we have to work at developing that.
We don’t just roll out of bed each day,
vibrating with wholeness and purpose and gratitude.
At least I don’t.
This weekend we celebrate a man who is lifted up
his drive to live out his faith in the world,
despite the powers and principalities
organizing against him,
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A man who lived a life of integrity
in so many ways.
Rev. King was an incredible man,
and we still learn so much, and are so inspired,
by his teachings and his actions.
And his wholeness,
his faithfulness to his values,
wasn't an accident.
He tended it.
Nurtured it.
Developed it.
So can you.
Here at Throop Church, Everett, the Adult Programs Committee, and I
have started exploring program ideas
that will help you develop your own sense of spiritual wholeness,
through nurturing an Integral Transformative Practice.
What does that mean?
Put most simply,
an Integral Transformative Practice is paying attention
to the following four areas in our lives:
- spiritual development
- physical health
- emotional life
- intellectual development
And doing so enables us to develop a more balanced,
more complete sense of self.
If you want to go more in depth on the theory,
a good book on the topic is Ken Wilber’s Integral Life Practice.
For those of you who looked at the January worship titles,
you might notice that we broke the large topic of integrity
into each of those quadrants:
- Integrity of the Mind (last week with Everett)
- Integrity of the Spirit this week
- Integrity of the Heart next week,
and I share the pulpit with Rev. Anne Hines
- Integrity of the Body, the last Sunday,
and we welcome Megan Dowdell,
Starr King Professor of Ethics.
When Catherine, Everett and I chose the monthly themes last spring,
we had no way of knowing what our country would be facing this month,
had no idea of knowing just how relevant the topic of Integrity
would be at this time in the world.
- We could not imagine that the Affordable Care Act
was in serious danger of being repealed.
- We could not imagine that the Russians interfered with our elections.
- We could not imagine Scott Pruitt heading the Environmental Protection Agency.
We could create a whole litany of the “we could not imagines.”
And yet, here we are.
And I think you all know that I want you to act.
That I want you to take seriously your responsibility as a citizen
of these United States,
whether or not you have papers identifying you as such.
And you all have been amazing at showing up.
I brag about you all to my colleagues.
You show up to city council.
You Write letters.
You call your legislators.
You showed support for a progressive agenda
when we hosted
Congresswoman Judy Chu.
I hope some of you can stay this afternoon
for the MoveOn conversation.
In the next four years,
there is going to be a lot of showing up
we will need to do together.
And in order to show up in the way we want to show up,
as religious people, steeped in our UU values, who are
- grounded
- present
- thoughtful
- fierce
- effective
Our spirits need to be as finely honed and tuned as our politics are.
And we tune our spirits through a spiritual practice.
In preparation for today,
I came across a story about Martin Luther King Jr,
and the power of his own spiritual practice, prayer.
The story talked about one evening of the Montgomery Bus boycott.
It was January 27, 1956,
just eight weeks after the boycott began.
Dr. King returned home, weary from a long day of organizing.
Of holding people’s hands.
Of telling them their actions,
their sacrifices,
would be worth it in the end.
That night, he received a particularly nasty death threat.
Agitated, he made a pot of coffee,
and began thinking of ways he could get out of
leading the movement
without seeming like a coward.
King said, “I sat there and thought about
a beautiful little daughter who had just been born …
I started thinking about a dedicated and loyal wife,
And I got to the point
that I couldn’t take it any longer.
I was weak.”
In the midst of his fear and doubt,
feeling empty and scared,
he sat in front of his untouched cup of coffee
and began to pray out loud:
“Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right.
Now, I am afraid.
And I can’t let the people see me like this
because if they see me weak and losing my courage,
they will begin to get weak.
I am at the end of my powers.
I have nothing left.
I’ve come to the point
where I can’t face it alone.”
King heard an inner voice assure him,
“King, stand up for justice.”
King describes this experience
as one of his most revelatory spiritual experiences.”
Friends, we will need more than our books and intellect
for us to make it through the next four years,
though our books and intellect are vitally important, too.
We will each need to prioritize developing a spiritual practice,
or maintaining the one we already have.
Your spiritual practice need not be overly complicated or demanding -
in face, it should not be either of those things.
My guess is all of you already do something
that could become your spiritual practice
if you put the right intention behind it.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the earth.
A few are
- Meditation
- Prayer
- Yoga
- Gardening
- Reading poetry in the morning
- Journaling
- Reading books on spirituality
- Walking your dog
- Ethical eating
- Singing in the choir
- Creating art
I’d love to hear what your ideas are.
Taking some of these activities
into the real of a spiritual practice
means making it a formal discipline,
and something that you commit to doing
a certain number of minutes,
a certain number of days a week,
with attention and focus,
that you do with concentration,
freeing your mind from the
daily anxieties
and reminders.
I want you to try maintaining a spiritual practice of your choosing
for the next 8 weeks.
It takes that long to establish a new habit.
If you think you might not hold yourself to it,
find an accountability buddy.
Someone you can text or email
each time you do your practice.
Choose someone right here
in this room!
If you feel stymied about what such a practice would be,
talk to Everett or me about it,
or to people here who already have a deep personal practice,
like January Nordman or Reni Fulton.
We will need to gather up our strength
in order to meet the days ahead.
I share an exercise with you now,
that you can take with you,
to help you remember the inner strength you carry within yourself.
The exercise is from a book
Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience
of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.
Take a breath.
Close your eyes if you are comfortable doing so.
Breathe, and come into yourself.
Be aware of thoughts passing through your mind,
without any need to engage them.
Feel the strength in your awareness,
always clear and everlasting,
no matter what passes through it.
Now sense the vitality in your body.
Notice how your breathing has a strength of its own.
Sense your muscles,
your capacity to move in any direction.
Even if your body feels weak in some areas,
connect to where you feel strong.
Recall a time in your life when you felt really strong.
Imagine that situation as intensely as you can.
Bring to mind the sense of strength you experienced.
Strength in your breathing.
Strength in your arms and legs.
That same strength is beating today in your powerful heart.
Whatever you feel is fine.
And continue to be open to the sense that you are
strong, clear, determined.
Notice how it feels good to feel strong.
Let strength sink into your being.
Now, continuing to feel that strength,
bring to mind a person, or group of people,
who supports you.
Make this as real as possible.
Imagine their face,
the sound of their voice.
Maybe those are people in this room.
Let yourself feel supported, valued, believed in.
Sense how this feeling of support increases your sense of strength.
Notice how it feels good to feel strong.
Let strength sink into your being.
Notice any other feelings coming up, too;
perhaps even opposite feelings like weakness.
Whatever is arising is fine.
Just notice it,
let it be,
and let it go.
Turn your attention back to your sense
of being strong.
Finally, abiding in a sense of strength,
bring to awareness a challenging situation.
Solid in your strength,
feel a spaciousness around that difficult situation.
Allow it to be what it is
while you continue to feel strong and centered.
Be strong, with no need to grasp or struggle in any way.
Any problems are flowing through awareness like clouds across the sky.
Be spacious, relaxed, and easy.
Feel the strength, in your breathing,
in your awareness,
in the clarity of your mind,
in the wholeness of your body,
in your good intentions.
As you go about your day,
pay attention to the sense of feeling strong.
Notice how it feels good to feel strong.
Let strength sink into your being.
Feeling that strength,
become aware of being here in this room,
gently open your eyes.
This is just one of many guided meditations
you can incorporate into your own practice.
I’ll share resources on where to find them
in this week’s Tuesday Tidings electronic news.
The world is calling out to us,
you are needed to help create positive change.
Developing an Integral Transformative Practice
that nurtures your
- spiritual development
- physical health
- emotional life
- intellectual development
helps you fully show up -
in the public square,
on the streets,
neighbor to neighbor,
friend to friend,
however you are called to teach the mission of our faith:
- offering the art of hospitality
- revering the critical mind and generous heart
- encouraging diversity
- witnessing to all that we must hold the whole world in our hands.
