Comments for Jim Other sermons.           

I will begin with something from the Gospel of Hamlet. The melancholy Dane is speaking:

I have of late--but
wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust?

Hamlet. Act II, Scene ii

I find a kind of resonance between Hamlet’s words and Psalm 8. This is not surprising because, in fact, Shakespeare knew his Bible well. Here it is as if Hamlet and the Psalmist are in a dialogue. For the Psalmist, the wonders of creation are an expression of the grandeur of God.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;

When the Psalmist looks at the heavens, he sees God’s overarching majesty:

"How majestic is your name in all the earth!...You have set your glory above the heavens." When Hamlet lifts his view to the skies, he cannot help but be moved. But in his depressed state, "it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours." In his consideration of man, he grasps, indeed echoes, what the Psalmist says. Hamlet says, "..in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a God! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" But still he cannot be cheered by this. "And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"

Not surprisingly, given Hamlet’s intellect and disposition, he is struggling to understand what we human beings really are. Are we divine, or nearly so? Or are we simply creatures – things made from dust. The Psalmist says that in a grand and wonderful creation, we are the pinnacle, nearly God-like, just short of being angels. For Hamlet, we are the quintessence of dust.

So what do you think? Did you and I narrowly miss angelic status? Have we been crowned with glory and honor? Or are we, essentially, not so far removed from our slithering reptilian forebears? From the Enlightenment on we’d have to say that the prevailing view is that we are complex and magnificent organic machines. And though we have minds, these minds are the effulgence of complex brains. Consciousness itself is but a remarkable by-product of an amazing array of electrical systems made up of nerves and synapses. No brain, no mind. No body, no spirit.

But the ancient spiritual systems of history say something different. They say that though you have a body, you are not that body. And though you have a mind, you are not that mind. Then what are you? You are Eternal Spirit. In fact, some would say, that your mind and body are but gross expressions of Spirit, perhaps in the same way that matter is a gross expression of energy. I’d like to believe that my body and my mind are not the real me. But I have noticed that they do tend to follow me around wherever I go. Though I profess Spirit, I suspect that I tend to lead my life as a materialist. (Functional atheism some have called this.)

I think that is what Hamlet is brooding about. Whether we label him as melancholy, or depressed, we can certainly say that he is a worrier. He is worried and anxious. His anxiety means he doesn’t know how to deal with his worries. Jesus said, "Do not be anxious," particularly about your bodies. Don’t worry. But we worry.

So what is the relationship between mind and body and Spirit? The Bible says simply that God picked up a handful of dust, shaped it into a little doll, and blew into it the breath of life - God’s breath. We are, in other words, dust animated by God’s breath – bodies filled with God’s spirit. Are we just bodies? No. Are we just bodies inflated by God’s breath – like little balloons? No. We are bodies transformed by the Spirit, radiant with Spirit, dust recreated by the Divine, into something totally new.

Look at the familiar passage from the Fifth Chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Paul says:

…we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

This is not a little pep talk from Paul telling us to stop grumbling and make the best of our misfortunes. No, Paul is saying that we can have the endurance to persist in suffering because God gives character and hope by pouring love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And that Spirit, that Love, is eternal – that is, beyond time and space – pure sacred essence. And when the body goes and the mind goes, Spirit remains because Spirit is God. But for now we are, as Paul says, spiritual bodies, resurrection bodies.

How then shall we live? Let me suggest three things. First, start where you are. Be honest. You’re worried. Anxious. Angry. Probably a little depressed. And you don’t know what to do about it. Like Hamlet, you feel you should be happy and appreciative of God’s good creation, including yourself, but you are not. So, begin by getting real about how bad you feel.

Second, just look at those feelings. Don’t judge them or yourself. Just observe them. Your feelings are not you; they are your feelings. Don’t attach to them. Don’t do anything at all. Just look at them.

And third, pray. Pray that God will do what needs to be done. Pray that God will show you what you need to do (or not do!) and that it will become clear. Let go and turn it all over to God. Maybe your situation seems bad, or even dire. The fact is, you don’t really know. You can’t know. Maybe it is not as bad as you think. Maybe it is worse than you think. It doesn’t matter because God will do what needs to be done, as long as you get yourself out of the way so that God can do it.

Sounds crazy, no? Try it.

I’d like to close with a short poem by George Macdonald.

My prayers, my God, flow from what I am not;
I think thy answers make me what I am.
Like weary waves thought follows upon thought,
But the still depth beneath is all thine own,And there thou mov’st in paths to us unknown.
Out of strange strife thy peace is strangely wrought;
If the lion in us pray – thou answerest the lamb.

AMEN.

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