“Mysticism & Me – Mysticism 101”
Sunday August 28, 2016
Isaiah 6: 1-8
Acts 9: 1-19
One of the questions I get a lot from youth in confirmation
and adults who aren’t involved in a faith community is, “How do you know God
really exists?” I am upfront and honest with them and I say, “I have no hard
evidence, I can’t show you a sign or introduce you to God like I would a
friend. All I can tell you for sure is that I know God exists because I have
experienced God in my life and in the world.”
The next question is easy to guess, “How did you know what
you experienced was God and not some trick of your mind or phenomenon of
nature?” And again all I can be is honest, “All I know is that when I
experience the presence of the Divine I know it’s God because when God isn’t
present I know that too.” This often leads to, “But I thought God is always
present?” And my response, “Yes, you are right. God is always present but I
don’t always recognize or pay attention but when I do, I know God is there.”
On the whole people either nod with a “I’ve experienced that
too” kind of look on their face, or I get a questioning look that says, “I
don’t get it. How do you know God is present if you don’t know God?” And we
have entered the Mystic Zone.
Evelyn Underhill Writes:
The website www.christianmystics.com says for some
“the word "mystic" summons up
images of the occult, heathenism, and otherworldly spiritual attitudes or, more
specifically, of concepts such as those found in "New Age"
philosophies... a Christian Mystic [is a] person concerned not with knowing the
letter of the Word, or religious dogmas, but with knowing the Spirit of the
Word, which is to say living from within the experience of God’s word at the
very core of being. A mystic, quite simply, is a lover of God who pursues the
beloved from a deep realization that life as a Christian is evolving as the
soul moves toward its fullness and destiny in relationship to God.
To travel into the world of the
Christian mystic, one must discard concepts such as ego, pride and spiritual
materialism in favor of adopting a sense of humility and hopeful expectation.
It is to begin a great and stirring adventure that moves the soul from the
kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God.
Indeed, one begins to experience
the Bible as the living Word of God, which guides the reader from an
ego-centric point of view to a mature and deeper sense of God's presence.
Jesus' message that the kingdom of God is not out there somewhere, but rather
here, within, available to [the] humble through faith, is a personal realization that
reaches across time to every human soul willing to follow.”
Mysticism is a mysterious realm for most of us who have been
raised in the ways of “shoe me, give me the hard facts, explain the steps and
tell me how empirical measures show it to be true.” The fact is mysticism is
knowing without being able to prove it or show it – it is knowing without
knowing if you know what I mean. C.S. Lewis tries to help us understand by
using a metaphor:
“Discovering
spirituality is like discovering you are in a boat. Mysticism is like pushing
off from the dock. Since many leave safe mooring and perish in the waves, this
is not to be done in a cavalier fashion – even though it can be exciting to
push off into the deep.
The issue is not whether we
should push off, for Christians must do so as well if they intend to get
anywhere (and that is what boats are for), but rather of where we are going…The
Christian casts off from this world as well, but with clear intent to where he
is headed, with the best maps, circumspectly, deliberately.
The Christian Mystic arrives,
against all dangers and odds. Thus we launch out with fear and trembling, but
trust that He who commanded us to do so can calm the waves, and see us through
to His real, safe port.
Again from www.christianmystic.com:
There is more to life than can be
gained through the physical senses and even the faculties of the soul that shelter
their harvest.
There is that which is uncreated,
which pervades everything, but remains outside the reach of human knowledge and
understanding. The intellect can entertain the concept of God, but not grasp
God.
God cannot be reached by logic or
captured by thought. Instead, one can only approach by love steeped in humble
expectation of God's grace.
The qualities that mark the…mystic
includes devotion to {God}, being humble and without spiritual pride,
refraining from judgment and trusting that God speaks to the heart of each
person in a way and time of God's choosing.
A…mystic is transformed and
transforming; the transformation is an ongoing process, an unfolding of the
soul. Not accomplished in a single step, one continues in humbly seeking the Kingdom
of Heaven.
So how is it that this experience you can only know by knowing it
can be known? There isn’t a formula that works for everyone or that works every
time. There are however some common elements that define a what is a Christian
mystical experience. www.christianmystic.com continues: What then are the
beliefs and/or practices that defined the beautiful tradition of Christian
Mysticism and continue to define Christian Mystics today?
Meditation: Oddly enough, in the history of the
Church the terms for meditation and contemplation are 180 degrees different
than are used in the East. In Christian terms, "meditation" means
conscious thinking on a subject with the objective to raise one's spiritual awareness
or deepen one's spiritual understanding. This means thinking something over,
letting the heart of the subject melt into one's own heart.
Contemplation: In Christianity,
"contemplation" more approximates the Eastern tradition of
meditation. Perhaps the premiere handbook in Christianity for this is The Cloud
of Unknowing which stresses the abandonment of the soul, intellect and psyche
to the very presence of the Transcendent.
Prayer: There are ample misunderstandings
about prayer and the power of prayer. At the very base level, prayer is an
attempt to somehow cajole God into doing one's will by flattery on the one hand
and absolute personal debasement on the other. "Get me through this
horrible airplane flight, God, and I'll never sin again."
Jesus'
use of prayer is a model -- it is not to be done in public in an effort to
impress God or others with one's sanctity and piety. It is a private affair.
Prayer
is also not a grocery list of wants, but a chance to experience one's self and
one's needs from the highest possible point. One doesn't have to try and
convince God that you are worthy of love -- God is love and so how else can God
relate to you?
Prayer…is
a moment of cleansing, of "coming out" with one's priorities and
needs and hopes made manifest. It is characterized by one phrase,
"nevertheless, thy will be done." A prayerful attitude, then, is
letting go in life to the protection and reassurance of [God’s] Presence.
Action: What distinguishes Christian Mystics
from many others is that a person who walks the path, who prays and meditates,
who contemplates wisdom simply cannot be satisfied with having achieved some
amount of inner peace. That is because, ultimately, the way as taught by Jesus
is dynamic not static, ongoing and not a destination.
Action,
then, becomes one of the great keys to the kingdom. It is absolutely essential
that the realization of Christ within is radiated out in kindness, compassion,
charity and generosity...love in action is what keeps one within the boundaries
of the country of love wherever they are in this world.
And this is why I’m a Christian, our faith is a wedding of inner
peace and compassionate action – the way of the mystic, mysticism and me.
Father Richard Rohn offers us a vital critic of our faith as we
think about mysticism and Christianity:
With all that I have shared and said we are still at the
same place – how do you know what you are experiencing is the presence of God, the
Divine, the wholly holy other? For that you have to trust others you perceive
as knowing God, you have to be open to discovering the presence and you have to
look back over your life for those moments that were something different,
something more.
For a lot of folks these moments have to do with
extraordinary moments in life:
- The birth of a child
- Summiting a mountain
- The sunrise over the ocean
- The emotional and intellectual connection you have with another that goes deep into the soul
- A particular piece of music
- A painting
- And opera
- A play
- And yes even a movie or TV show.
For me one of the most obvious of these moments in my past
happened when I was at high school summer church camp at Magruder when we would
celebrate communion down on the beach at sunset. The ritual, the setting, the
gathered community and being in a space and place that allowed me to be open to
the presence of God – it happened every year. And for a number of years I
sought to find that moment again but couldn’t – it was gone but others followed
when I realized that you can’t create them you have to just be open to them and
ready to go with them when they come.
I think a lot of people outside these walls have had these
mystical experiences. They know something holy, something more exists because
they have felt it, sensed it, found it. But they don’t hear we who are in here
talk about our similar moments in similar ways. Often we want them to label
their experiences in certain ways – born again, know Jesus as my personal
savior, etc. – or we want them to interpret their experiences in our narrowly
defined ways. We expect them to take their holy experience of the presence of
God and package it in a box we can say fits with what is correct theologically
and doctrinally. And they will have none of it! Karl Rahner has it right:
And this is the first and maybe only rule for mysticism –
there is no one way or correct path or acceptable experience, there is only
your experience that when shared with another makes them say, “I know what
you’re talking about” and stop there. This is Mysticism 101 – validating the
experience of another without judgment or requirement and admitting you’ve had
a similar experience too. This is the way of mysticism for me. Amen.
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