This week one of the dear ones in my life sent me an email with a link to a video. The message called Nirvana urged me to spend 20 minutes and take a look. I promptly deleted it. Perhaps you also get emails from far and wide demanding your urgent attention. Amnesty International’s man in the West Bank writes. Various political activists write. GreenPeace writes. The Diocese of New Hampshire writes. UVIP writes. Every organization you belong to begs your urgent attention. And you may even get Trinity Tweets, and promptly delete them. Its all good, its all urgent, and its too much. To get to Nirvana I think we have to notice it, and receive it, and gently, surely, pass it on.
When I talked to my friend about his email offering he was very disappointed that I didn’t read it so I searched it out and played the little clip of a talk by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist who studies what makes the brains of people with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia malfunction. I’ve posted this talk on our parish website. She has a personal stake in the matter. Her brother is one of the 1 to 2% of our neighbors who do not perceive clearly, or process what they are told in an ordered, and ordinary way. People whose brains are affected by schizophrenia have thoughts that get all mixed up; many have delusions that the KGB or CIA or Homeland Security is spying on them, or gravity waves from Venus are controlling them or many other strange and terrifying thoughts.
The left side keeps track of shopping lists, helps us keep organized at work, remembers our childhood home and strategizes for retirement. This is the side the brain that comes up with the brilliant Scrabble plays, the side that sits up and pays attention in French class. This is the side that hears the Word of God and inwardly digests it. The Left side of our brain is stimulated, is fed by study and growing in understanding. Our thinking left brain makes us who we are; who I am, different from you, carrying my own experiences and understanding of how the world works.
The other side of our brain, the right side, thinks in pictures. It knows things through the body. The Right side holds our artist self. If you should talk a walk up Mt. Ascutney road and stop at the stone lookout and see the red and yellow hills all around you, it would be through the right half of your brain that you would experience the river of peace, the expanse of beauty flowing out in front of you.
When I talked to my friend about his email offering he was very disappointed that I didn’t read it so I searched it out and played the little clip of a talk by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist who studies what makes the brains of people with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia malfunction. I’ve posted this talk on our parish website. She has a personal stake in the matter. Her brother is one of the 1 to 2% of our neighbors who do not perceive clearly, or process what they are told in an ordered, and ordinary way. People whose brains are affected by schizophrenia have thoughts that get all mixed up; many have delusions that the KGB or CIA or Homeland Security is spying on them, or gravity waves from Venus are controlling them or many other strange and terrifying thoughts.
The left side keeps track of shopping lists, helps us keep organized at work, remembers our childhood home and strategizes for retirement. This is the side the brain that comes up with the brilliant Scrabble plays, the side that sits up and pays attention in French class. This is the side that hears the Word of God and inwardly digests it. The Left side of our brain is stimulated, is fed by study and growing in understanding. Our thinking left brain makes us who we are; who I am, different from you, carrying my own experiences and understanding of how the world works.
The other side of our brain, the right side, thinks in pictures. It knows things through the body. The Right side holds our artist self. If you should talk a walk up Mt. Ascutney road and stop at the stone lookout and see the red and yellow hills all around you, it would be through the right half of your brain that you would experience the river of peace, the expanse of beauty flowing out in front of you.
Through this right side of our brain, through touch and movement we understand our connectedness with all other beings. It is this right side of our brain that comes to know God’s healing and reconciling grace through the smells of the candles, the singing – Gloria, Halle Halle Halle. Blame your right brain when that phrase keeps singing in your ear this week. It is the right side of our brains that is fed through holding out our hands and receiving Bread and Wine, receiving and inwardly digesting the Body of Christ given for us, given that we might be the Body of Christ.
One morning Dr. Bolte Taylor’s own brain started to go awry. She had the unusual and terrifying experience of watching her own consciousness melt, her own brain shut down as she experienced a stroke on the morning of December 10, 1996. In the video she talks about what it was like the morning that one of the blood vessels in the left side of her brain exploded.
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s experience of having her left brain shut down resulted in an inability to read numbers, a problem when you know you need to call 911. She was unable to make words to clearly communicate her desperate plight, and her arm stopped moving. But as her left brain stopped working she was able to experience of the wonders of the Right brain. She found bliss, by paying attention to the peaceful power energy flowing all around her. She experienced euphoria of being present and truly alive. She swam in the warm sea of compassion that encompasses everything that is. She experienced a catastrophe that would take 8 years of hard work for a full recovery. She also experienced Nirvana. She noticed. She received. And she is gently passing it on.
Jesus, makes the same invitation to open our arms, and stand in grace. In story of the weasely accountant we hear in the Gospel we read today, the crafty embezzler couldn’t be more surprised. Maybe he thought his sleight of hand would never be discovered. Maybe he woke up in dread every morning thinking this would be the day that his world comes crashing down. Well, there is always a day in which the accounts are inspected and wrongdoing is discovered. We know neither the day nor the hour, but the day judgment inevitably comes.
And our friend’s day has arrived. He is fired - but wait - he isn’t hauled off in chains. He notices that he has been punished, but he is not to be utterly destroyed. What kind of master would refrain from turning over this big time thief to the authorities who would surely mutilate or kill or even worse, send him to the bottom of a ship as a galley slave. What kind of master would refrain from retributive justice, from a punishment that he truly deserved?
Our friend notices the kindness his master has done, and he receives it as an undeserved gift, and he thinks what can he do with this gift of freedom. He decides that he has about a New York minute to make friends with those who owe his master. Quick! Cut your bill in half. You owe olive oil? Take your bill, sit down quickly and make it fifty. You owe wheat? Mark it down to eighty. And when the Master found this out all he could do was laugh.
Just as the younger son squandered, and suffered and lurched home hoping for a place in his father’s barn, here also the one who squandered his honest and honorable position finds himself the object of the Master’s bemused affection. I think that our thieving friend really understood the Master’s generosity. He received the gift of pardon, of freedom, and he shared the wealth. He passed on the unexpected gift of pardon to all those to whom he was connected. He understood that all that is good is shared. For the first time perhaps he was on the side of the mountain, looking out at all that is and feeling that river of peace, that expanse of compassion flowing over him, flowing through him.
The Good News we hear today is that God is tapping us on the shoulder, calling us to account for our failings, our big time thieving and our willingness to squander our one precious life in small and pointless distractions. God is tapping us on the shoulder and saying: just stop it. Stop and look up at all that is beautiful and good, stop and truly see all those beings in whom your life is entwined. Stop and begin again. Open your eyes to notice the gift of this moment. Open your hands and heart to receive it. Wherever you are, you can stand on the mountain and swim in the river of God’s healing grace. Only then will you have the strength to give as you have been given.
So drink deeply of the Spirit that is Love. And then, as you have been loved, go and do likewise.
One morning Dr. Bolte Taylor’s own brain started to go awry. She had the unusual and terrifying experience of watching her own consciousness melt, her own brain shut down as she experienced a stroke on the morning of December 10, 1996. In the video she talks about what it was like the morning that one of the blood vessels in the left side of her brain exploded.
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s experience of having her left brain shut down resulted in an inability to read numbers, a problem when you know you need to call 911. She was unable to make words to clearly communicate her desperate plight, and her arm stopped moving. But as her left brain stopped working she was able to experience of the wonders of the Right brain. She found bliss, by paying attention to the peaceful power energy flowing all around her. She experienced euphoria of being present and truly alive. She swam in the warm sea of compassion that encompasses everything that is. She experienced a catastrophe that would take 8 years of hard work for a full recovery. She also experienced Nirvana. She noticed. She received. And she is gently passing it on.
Jesus, makes the same invitation to open our arms, and stand in grace. In story of the weasely accountant we hear in the Gospel we read today, the crafty embezzler couldn’t be more surprised. Maybe he thought his sleight of hand would never be discovered. Maybe he woke up in dread every morning thinking this would be the day that his world comes crashing down. Well, there is always a day in which the accounts are inspected and wrongdoing is discovered. We know neither the day nor the hour, but the day judgment inevitably comes.
And our friend’s day has arrived. He is fired - but wait - he isn’t hauled off in chains. He notices that he has been punished, but he is not to be utterly destroyed. What kind of master would refrain from turning over this big time thief to the authorities who would surely mutilate or kill or even worse, send him to the bottom of a ship as a galley slave. What kind of master would refrain from retributive justice, from a punishment that he truly deserved?
Our friend notices the kindness his master has done, and he receives it as an undeserved gift, and he thinks what can he do with this gift of freedom. He decides that he has about a New York minute to make friends with those who owe his master. Quick! Cut your bill in half. You owe olive oil? Take your bill, sit down quickly and make it fifty. You owe wheat? Mark it down to eighty. And when the Master found this out all he could do was laugh.
Just as the younger son squandered, and suffered and lurched home hoping for a place in his father’s barn, here also the one who squandered his honest and honorable position finds himself the object of the Master’s bemused affection. I think that our thieving friend really understood the Master’s generosity. He received the gift of pardon, of freedom, and he shared the wealth. He passed on the unexpected gift of pardon to all those to whom he was connected. He understood that all that is good is shared. For the first time perhaps he was on the side of the mountain, looking out at all that is and feeling that river of peace, that expanse of compassion flowing over him, flowing through him.
The Good News we hear today is that God is tapping us on the shoulder, calling us to account for our failings, our big time thieving and our willingness to squander our one precious life in small and pointless distractions. God is tapping us on the shoulder and saying: just stop it. Stop and look up at all that is beautiful and good, stop and truly see all those beings in whom your life is entwined. Stop and begin again. Open your eyes to notice the gift of this moment. Open your hands and heart to receive it. Wherever you are, you can stand on the mountain and swim in the river of God’s healing grace. Only then will you have the strength to give as you have been given.
So drink deeply of the Spirit that is Love. And then, as you have been loved, go and do likewise.
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