A Soul Repair Shop

Psalm 84 John 15:10-12
August 23, 2009


In my sermon two weeks ago I reflected on the challenging Bible passage from Paul’s letter the church in Ephesus where he wrote,
“It’s OK to be angry, just don’t let the sun go down on your anger.”
I don’t know about you, but I kept thinking about that passage,
and did a little play on words with that phrase, “don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” Usually we take that to mean, address the problem quickly. Don’t hold onto your anger.
It takes far more energy that carry the burden of anger than it does to simply express it.
This is wise advice.
In playing with the words, I took, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,” to mean, don’t let the light go out on your anger.

Let the anger guide you to its source.

I have been preparing for the classes that I will be offering beginning next month.
One of those classes is called Compassionate Communication and it is based upon the work of Marshall Rosenberg. And so I have been reading the book for the course, Nonviolent Communication, A Language for Life.

The wisdom in that book is what made me see the passage from Ephesians in an unorthodox way, turning, Don’t let the sun go down on your anger to mean, don’t let the light go out on your anger. Let the anger guide you to its source.

Because in Marshall Rosenberg’s book we learn that behind every feeling there is a met or an unmet need.

If the feeling is a positive one, then a need or a value that you have is being met.

Behind every negative feeling, such as anger, there is an unmet need.
Follow that feeling to its source.

One of the scary things about anger, or many strong emotions, is that sometimes we don’t know their source.
We may know the person who is causing to be angry, but we don’t really know why.

Following the anger to its source within us, whether that is an unmet need, or an unconscious habit, can lead us to an understanding that will help us resolve our conflict with our neighbor by finding a way to get both of our needs met.

The work of Compassionate Communication that we will be studying this fall is that when we can move into a place of understanding our needs and the needs of the person or persons with whom we are in dialogue, we are more likely to deepen our relationship and find a solution that is mutually agreeable.

As we explore the source of our feelings we are also deepening our relationship with our self, our soul.
What am I feeling?
Where in my body am I feeling it?
Where is the feeling coming from?

Am I angry and not expressing it because of an internalized a pattern of behavior that I learned from my parents?

Am I sad and lost because I have lost something:
my job,
my spouse,
my physical abilities?

Am I angry because my identity is defined by my political or religious viewpoint and another point of view is an attack on my identity?

Following our feeling to their source in met or unmet needs may help us to re-evaluate what we really need.
Following our feelings to their source may in fact help us to re-evaluate a Source we really need.

There has been a common thread in conversations that I have had with people recently. That common thread was heard

In a conversation with a person who is slowly dying

In a conversation with a person recently retired

In a conversation with a person who felt that their values were attacked simply in hearing someone else expressing an opposing viewpoint.

The common thread through all of these conversations is,
“Who am I when my usual sense of identity is taken away?
When I am no longer identified by my employment,
my relationship with a spouse, my identification with a political party,
with a functioning body, who am I?

Whenever we face a time of transition in life, from youth to adulthood, from employment to unemployment, from health to sickness, from a familiar home to a new home, we often face a crisis of identity.
Who am I ………….now?

Now I don’t want to even try to offer anything that would take away the pain and struggle of transition. There is great wisdom in simply saying that the emptiness caused by transitions is difficult. There is no way around it. But I am wondering if there is a way through it.
And I am wondering, if I could find my most basic identity, my Source, in my relationship with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, then would I be better able to find a way through the loss of identity that comes from my work, my family roles, my age, my health?
Wondering about all these things in light of today’s scripture reading, made me think of the church as a repair shop for the soul.
In Psalm 84 the temple, the resting place of God and sparrows nourishes the soul.
In the Gospel of John Jesus says that our connection with him connects us with God just the branches are connected to the vine. And we are invited to abide in this connection.
Dwelling in the temple and abiding in love nourishes the soul.

How does our church nourish the soul? What tools do we have in this repair shop for those times when are yearning for an identity in something eternal? One tool we have is ritual. In her book, Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, makes a wonderful statement about ritual after experiencing a ceremony of forgiveness.
“This is what rituals are for. We do ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so we don’t have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. If we bring the right earnestness to our ceremonies God will provide the grace. And that is why we all need God.” (pg 187)

In our church we have two sacraments, two rituals that we honor as doorways to God, openings to the sacred, two ceremonies for creating a safe resting place for God’s grace.
These two sacraments are baptism and communion.
Both Baptism and Communion take place in the midst of community.
They are not private events. They take place within a worship service.

In communion, in offering the bread to our neighbor in the pew we are imitating the love of Christ.

In our receiving the bread and the cup from our neighbor in the pew we are imitating the vulnerability of Christ.

We have love to offer. We have love to receive.

In baptism a similar thing happens. At whatever age a person is baptized, whether as an infant, child, or adult, they are welcomed in to a community connected by love.

A person is welcomed into an ancient story that has shaped us a people. A story that we reshape as we tell it, hear it, and live into it. A story that begins in creation, wanders in the wilderness, builds tribes, communities and nations. A story that sees how tribes, communities and nations can be built or destroyed depending upon how the care for the “least among us.”

A story of shepherds and saints, kings and rebels, the best and worst of humanity.

A story of mothers and children, brothers and sisters, fathers and prodigal sons.

And a story which has within it the constant invitation to choose life. To begin again. No matter what is ending, no matter how have come to this end, begin again. The story of resurrection is found throughout the Bible for God is always our Loving Companion Presence.
In baptism a person is welcomed into an ancient story and a local story;
a story of a denomination; Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, United Church of Christ; and a story of a local church, First Congregational Church, Murphys.

A person is welcomed into the community as a gift from God to the community. The community welcomes each person baptized into the community as a complete and worthy human being.

For in that moment of baptism, in the holiness of the worship service, we uphold that aspect of the person, which is the real person
and the soul beyond their own self-doubt, their own actual or potential shortcomings.

In that moment of baptism as with communion we are welcomed with a radical hospitality that says whoever and wherever you are in journey, you are welcome here.

I was a part of a sacred conversation of Friday. It was the monthly meeting of the Committee on Ministry, which reviews candidates for ordination. Students seeking ordination in the United Church meet annually with the Committee on Ministry for support, guidance, and challenge as the Committee is charged with the responsibility of recommending this candidates for ordination.

One of these candidates said something very beautiful about the sacraments of baptism and communion. This candidate is in 50s. He had a very successful career in business, including owning his business.

He was used to being in control. He was used to being important because of his status.
He was used to people saying what they thought he wanted to hear.
He was used to people caring about what he had to say.

All of that went away when he followed the call to ministry. He was no longer important because of his identity as a business owner. And it had a profound impact on him.
He relaxed.
He accepted life as it came to him not as he wanted it to be. He paid more attention to his heart than to his head. He stopped analyzing and began paying attention to his feelings and the feelings of others.

And he came to wonder, what a Christian community would be like, if we could greet one another as we are greeted at our baptism,
“You are well loved.”
“You are worthy”
“You are a part of this perfectly imperfect community.”

And he came to wonder, what a Christian community would be like, if we could serve one another and be served by one another as we do when we share communion.
This bread that was broken for you and this cup that was emptied for you, we share with one another. In our sharing, in our giving and our receiving, we know Christ.
We abide in Christ.
In Psalm 84, the Psalmist remembers the temple and says, “Oh how lovely is your dwelling place.”
The interesting thing is that that Psalm may have been written long after the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. It may have been written during the time when the people of Jerusalem were in exile in Babylon.
And they were asking that question, “Who are when we are away from the land promised to us by God?”
In that time of exile, of loss, they found the eternal.

The temple is not a place, the temple is verb,
Jesus is not a set of doctrines to believe, he is a relationship in which we live.
Abide in me.
Abide in Christ as Christ abides in God.

Drink the living water, eat the bread that multiplies itself as it is used and broken and blessed.
Find your identity in God.
Seek first the kin-dom of God Jesus says.
We do find our identity in our work, in our family, in our health, in our political parties, in our nation.
But they all pass away.
In this sanctuary of place and time, our souls are repaired as we remember what is eternal,
And as we are given our lesson to practice for the week ahead,
Remember your baptism,
Remember your communion,
Offer welcome and self-giving love to one another.
Build the temple again.
It is within you when you give yourself to the Source of life.
Place your feelings in the holy container of the baptismal font, the plate of broken bread, the cup of self-giving love, and lean on Jesus, lean on your brother, lean on your sister.
And let them know that they can lean on you also. How lovely is this dwelling place.
Let those who love mercy and do justice say. Amen.