Reaching Inside From the Outside - Ecclesiastes 6

Reaching Inside From the Outside - Ecclesiastes 6
Sermon from June 22, 2008

As most of you know, Sarah and I had a big decision to make last Sunday. Our cat, Skookie, has been struggling with kidney failure for the past year. We've been paying attention to her quality of life and her symptoms. The last couple of weeks I noticed her going off alone more than usual. There were other symptoms as well, but nothing that was enough to make us feel like we needed to bring her to the vet. This Sunday was different. We talked to the folks at the animal emergency hospital and decided we should spend the rest of the day together as a family. Monday morning we called Skookie's regular animal hospital and got an appointment for 12:30. After an examination and a discussion, Sarah, the doctor, and I decided it was time to help Skookie transition from this life to the next. The doctor left the three of us alone. We talked to Skookie, cried, and held each other. Then the doctor came back in with an assistant. Together we accompanied Skookie, and assisted her in her dying. We cried some more and held her now still body.

Before I talk about this experience in the context of our faith, I want to thank Sara Ross for taking over for me here (at church) and for her friendship and devotion to me and my family. Sara has been a constant and faithful friend for years. She is like a sister to me. I also want to thank Mark P. for his love, support, and encouragement. Next, I want to thank you all for your prayers and grace. We miss our little one. We commend her to The Holy and to Sarah's grandmother Marion. Every window sill in our home feels a little more empty than it did before. Each room has a little less energy. A few weeks ago, when I talked about feeling before healing, I really meant it. We are intentionally and actively feeling our loss even while at the same time we are grateful that Skookie is no longer suffering.

As I have been meditating on this experience, something that the doctor did became more and more meaningful to me. When she was examining Skookie, she did a number of things. She listened to our story about Skookie's symptoms, she took Skookie's temperature, and she palpated Skookie's body. The doctor did to our kitty what many doctors have probably done to each of us. She used her hands and reached toward Skookie's insides from outside her body. With her fingers, she detected a lump. There was something in our dear friend that should not have been there. The doctor said that she couldn't tell if this lump was inside the bladder, if it was an enlarged bladder, or if it was something inside the abdomen. In the doctor's professional opinion, for a 17 year old cat with kidney failure, it only mattered that there was a lump.

Through training, practice, and experience the doctor knew what the inside of our cat should have felt like. This is what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about reaching toward the inside from the outside. As people of faith I think we need to do this all the time. It is at least part of what faith is – reaching inside – not only seeing with our eyes or hearing with our ears. Certainly the doctor did all that. We need to do all that too. However, what we take in with our five senses is not enough. Jesus berated people for being able to observe and interpret the world with their five senses, but not be able to reach inside from the outside.

Luke 12:54-56
He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

I think Jesus explains this difference between seeing and seeing in a section in Matthew.

Matthew 13:10 - 17
Then the disciples came and asked him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" He answered, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that 'seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.' With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: 'You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn - and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

In this passage, Jesus isn't just talking about a person's physical eyes and ears. He's talking about the eyes and ears of a person's soul or spirit.

The character of Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes is very involved in experiencing the world and his life with his five senses, but both Jesus and Solomon do not limit their experiences to what they can see, hear, touch, smell, and taste in the tangible world.

The idea of a sixth sense is common. One pastor of mine called it "knowing with your knower." I like that phrase. I like the idea that we have a "knower." But I believe it is still too limiting to call it a sixth sense. For me, it's more like utilizing all five senses within the intangible realm. We can see in our spirit, taste in our spirit, touch and hear and smell in our spirit. When you walk into a room with people, if your physical vision is intact, you can see the people. But seeing the people with your physical eyes isn't the only way to experience them, is it? I bet you all, to one degree or another, have experienced a person looking at you without seeing them look at you. You can feel it. Have you ever turned your head for an unknown reason only to find yourself staring into the eyes of someone who was staring at you? Have you ever just "known" something was about to happen? Have you ever had to make a phone call to a friend and didn't know why until they answered and told you whatever story was on their heart? These are all examples of using our five senses with our spirits. We hear the cry of a friend in our soul. We feel the touch of someone's gaze.

Jesus experienced people this way too. The woman with the hemorrhage is the most obvious example. With all those people crowding around him how could he feel the power get pulled from his soul by this one woman who touched him for the very purpose of pulling that power?

As we read through Ecclesiastes; as we go about our day; as we discern who we are as a church … as a community; I implore us all to reach inside from the outside. Pay attention to those strange times when you know you know something; when you know you feel something; when you look at something and it doesn't actually look like what your eyes tell you it does. Just like Skookie's doctor, you don't always have to know exactly what it is that you are feeling. Sometimes it is enough to know simply that something is there. Other times we may be able to discern more specifically what is being sensed. It comes with practice, experience and some training. Our reading scripture together, my sharing what I see, our praying for each other, all of what we do together here and outside of these walls ... all these things are types of training, experience, and practice.

What I want to say more than anything is that we have this power! We are created with this power. It is part of who we are. Sure we misunderstand things sometimes. We don't always get the signs or the vibrations right. But we try again because we are made to reach inside from the outside. I think we need to peel away the layers of preconceived notions that we have ... of assumptions ... of sermons and teachings. When we read in Ecclesiastes that, "All human toil is for the mouth, yet the appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage have the wise over fools? And what do the poor have who know how to conduct themselves before the living?" ... when we read this, can we reach into it from the outside. Can we listen to it with our spirit as well as with our minds? Can we see the words beyond the words? Yes, I think we can. I have no doubt that we each can do this ... that we each bring a different perspective to these teachings and to our experiences. This is one reason we enjoy the participation of whosoever will in leading us in prayer and readings and communion. This power that we have been created with, to reach inside from the outside, gives glory our Divine Beloved and causes miracles to happen. It causes miracles to happen!

Reach out. Reach in. Reach around. Find your power. Find your gift. And share it with us.