Reverend Jackie Hibbard
The inspiration for today’s sermon comes from a few places. First, I practiced the contemplative prayer practice that I learned in Meggan Watterson’s book Mary Magdalene revealed – Soul Voice Meditation. I opened my heart and asked – what would you have me preach on September 1. I’ve been asking this for weeks. And I listened, and felt, got quiet, wrote in my journal, met with my spiritual director, spent time with the horses, listened to sermons these recent weeks, opened my heart some more. This is after all, the invitation we have been receiving from Mary Magdalene and the mysterious Divine Feminine.
I asked one morning 2 weeks ago – what would you have me preach? And in the midst of facilitating a wonderful woman in a horse coaching session, the horses spoke to her and me. Clyde, who many of you have met, chose to work with her that day and this woman has a very special bond with our blind horse, Anu. I put Clyde’s halter on, and the woman led Clyde around the paddock and soon Anu was following them – all around. If you don’t know, Anu is blind. He walked just behind them like she was the Pied Piper. In the horse world, this is called Join Up and is super special and happens when a human is fully present and the horse can trust them. The next thing that happened is Clyde led the woman to the gate and Anu came and stood right next to her. The woman was right in the middle of miniature horse Clyde and Appaloosa Anu, looking at the gate. All of them. Looking at the gate and of course the beautiful view beyond. They stood there for several minutes. Quietly, no one moving their feet. At the gate.
I knew right in that moment that our scripture this morning included knock, and the door shall be opened, seek and you will find, ask and you shall receive. I knew it clear as anything. My heart spoke. “This is what you’re preaching on.”
The woman had a whole different takeaway from this interaction I should note, but that is another story. I asked, then I received my answer and direction.
Nicole offered us a beautiful invitation 18 months ago as she and others wrote a grant to the Lilly Foundation for her sabbatical time of renewal. In the grant she asked for money to go on this amazing pilgrimage seeking to learn more at a heart, emotional and intellectual level about Mary Magdalene and the Divine Feminine. She asked us to accompany her and have our own experience. She led us to the door (or the gate) and knocked. Lilly opened the door, and we all walked on through asking, seeking, eating, playing and praying! We received this amazing gift. Some of us went through with eagerness. Some went through with hesitation. I suspect some never walked through at all. But what I know is, because we walked through the door asking questions and seeking, we opened our hearts, listened, and we’re all changed.
You all gifted Nicole and I a journal in May on our sendoff Sunday. I’m not sure anyone ever said what the invitation was, but I will share that I have been writing in mine all summer. I’ve been writing what we’ve done, what I experienced, my experiences with Soul Voice Meditation. My own journey with a broken leg and living through a wildfire and being evacuated. This week as I prepared for today, I read through what I wrote and then wrote some more.
It occurs to me that we all knocked on the door of exploration, wanting to learn more about this spiritual journey we are on. Wanting to know more about love and what exactly that word means. Whether we are long time Christians, recent converts or somewhere on the journey, knocking is what this congregation does. So, this summer we knocked on the door of the Divine Feminine and Mary Magdalene. We accepted Nicole’s invitation to eat, pray and play in new ways.
I think we learned a few things and experienced some beautiful moments.
Eat – We fed our neighbors with a food drive for EFAA. We had an amazing omelet bar on the patio and the mischievous and playful Divine Feminine came along and we ran out of gas for the grills with 30 or so orders yet to be cooked. So, we sat some more, talked, laughed and had a joyous time with great conversations while we waited for a propane tank to be delivered. So fun!
We had Ice Cream Socials with ice cream, delicious toppings, whipped cream, root beer and edible spoons that Phillip found for us that sure didn’t work because they kept breaking, but they were a fun idea!
We ate with one another at sacred communion tables in worship, in the fellowship hall, on the patio – communing with one another, offering love, support, building new relationships, or rekindling friendships we’ve had for a while. We laughed, we cried, we tried new things. We fed Cathy when she came home from the hospital after her stroke. We fed Judy while she recovered from a hip replacement. You fed Jai & I when I broke my leg. We are feeding Maddy this weekend & throughout the week after her hip replacement.
As I reflect about our “eat” theme I notice that we celebrated the love we have for one another and this community. And even perhaps we started noticing the divinity within each other in a new way.
I’m struck that we also received spiritual food and nourishment too. My heart is beaming as I reflect about various moments this summer that touched me at a really deep level. A moment during the Sound Journey on the patio still captures me. Our beloved Wyatt stepped into leadership with my horse Clyde which was in and of itself, something to behold. But then he listened to me explain how to let Clyde lead and I watched as Clyde led him over to Karen & Dan’s granddaughter Opal – oh my gosh, my heart – that horse, Merlyn’s music and those 2 kids – pure joy and heart level connection. Pure love.
Our speakers/preachers this summer brought new ideas, spiritual food for us to chew on. More than one of you wrote about how Brooklyn’s reflections about the Divine Feminine and weeping really made you stop and reflect. Elizabeth’s invitation to try Dancing as an image of God was very playful and I think many embrace that and some of you are still skeptical. Our LGBTQ+ Pride Sunday was joyful and fun and our booth at Pridefest continues to be one of the most popular at the event. Reece and Ken offered soul stirring music all summer long moving us in ways that sometimes words just can’t do. The Divine Feminine Retreat was filled with heart stirring and thoughtful reflections with a new and different way to experience God, the holy, the sacred – inviting us to listen with our hearts as much as our ears. An invitation to love.
Soul Food.
Play – What shall I say about bubbles, play doh, clay, candy, jeopardy, balloons and dancing in worship? We laughed, experienced joy and fun. What elements of this do we want to take with us and continue? Maybe we’ll dance today with our last song! How can we bring play into our every day like we did as children? How can that enrich our lives and fill our spirits? So much more to say about wonder and playfulness and love shown through playful moments. Maybe that’s another sermon.
Pray – We experienced music as prayer many times this summer. The Sound Journey in worship allowed many of us to let go of all the thoughts in our minds and let the music take us for a heart and soul opening experience. Tears, joy, peace, new awareness came for many that day. And then we added my horses a different day and the beauty of the evening is still with me.
Anne led us through a lectio divina contemplative prayer experience in July – again inviting the heart’s wisdom to speak to and through us. Be Still and Know that I am God allowed many of us to feel the truth of that at a very deep level. Some for the very first time. If you liked it, join us for Breathing Space on Tuesday & Thursday mornings on zoom or Sunday’s at 8 here or on zoom. Our 2 Nicole’s & I are already dreaming about how to offer more contemplative practices in the coming months, reclaiming this ancient sacred practice to go deep, listen to the heart and be guided by the holy.
Janet invited us to gratitude as prayer and her cards allowed many of us to open up to a gratitude practice for everyday things like windows, music, chairs, books, our bed or in my case with aid from the mischievous, playful divine feminine – legs! We experienced prayer in the retreat and from Megan Watterson’s book – The Prayer of the Heart – Kyrie Eleison – Jesus Christ have Mercy on Me. And during the retreat, I broke down the Soul Voice Meditation prayer practice and invited people to try it as we sat outside together. Judy shared her own story of how listening to her soul voice in prayer led her down quite a surprising path that touched many of us. We walked the labyrinth as a form of prayer. And as we do, we prayed in worship with intercessory prayer and lifted our joys and concerns and hopes.
Hopefully we have a different understanding of the varieties of prayer and communing with God. That it doesn’t have to look a particular way. That the “rules” we thought made up a “good” prayer got thrown out. Prayer leads us to deeper relationship with ourselves, each other, the world and God – as if any of that is separate. That’s a myth as we learned from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
The Divine Feminine – what a fun exploration noticing that she is everywhere and has always been. No longer hidden despite years of tradition that tried to keep her away and out of mind and sight. She’s out and about, mischievous, playful, encouraging vulnerability, nurturing, truth-telling, spirit filled, heart-centered, crying, laughing, dancing, moving, filled with love. A part of our tradition from the beginning in early scriptures. So much more here to explore!
And Mary Magdalene, the first apostle. The one whom Jesus loved and kissed on the lips. The one who Jesus revealed deep truth to. The one who comforted and taught the other disciples and apostles of Jesus about listening to their hearts and turning them toward the Good. The one who was so different in her learnings from Jesus that the tradition and words from the ones who followed her were hidden, buried, torn out. The one who the resurrected Jesus appeared to first. The one who proclaimed Jesus had risen before anyone else. The one history tried to erase by taking away her voice and power. The one so dangerous to the norms of the day and the acceptable Jesus tradition, that years after being written, writers created a 2nd sister Martha in the raising of Lazarus story by changing some letters in the gospel we know as John. What!? I can hardly imagine that we will experience Easter the same again after what we have learned.
And so we are at a new door now. Nicole had her experience that we will hear more about. We have had our individual and collective experiences. We are not the same as we were in May.
What are asking for, what are we seeking? The words in the introduction of Meggan Wattterson’s book just keep coming to me –
… “How we see anything, changes everything. …. If how we see, truly see, is not with eyesight, but with a vision, a form of spiritual perception that allows us to know what’s real, what’s lasting, what’s actually true, if this comes from within us then no one has power over us.”
We are seeing differently now. We are changed. We learned new things and maybe let go of things that no longer work. We can keep learning, keep exploring, keep re-constructing as we build beloved community.
Watterson goes on, “… The point of Mary’s gospel is not to suggest that we need to be someone else, someone “better.” There isn’t this om-vibrating version of yourself that you figure out how to be. … It’s about really waking up to the fact that our system of understanding the world is no longer serving us.
… It’s more of a series of perpetual moments when you remember that you don’t have to feel separate from love - if you don’t want to.”
For me – I’m turning toward the Good. I’m listening more and more to the wisdom in my heart which has said multiple times this summer – slow down. The mischievous Divine Feminine didn’t think I understood that message when it came during the retreat in early June, so slow down she made me with my broken leg. I’m journaling more. Hanging out with the horses more and getting into slow horse time. I’m remembering and waking up again to the mystery and playfulness of the Divine Feminine that has always been here dancing among and with us. I’m remembering and waking up to the truth that I am and we are not separate from God, Love, the Divine, the Holy – it’s within me – it’s within you. There is not God out there – God is within, so close, so intimate. Love is right here and I choose it. Do you?
What I heard from many of you during discussions is what has been handed down to us through tradition doesn’t serve us anymore and the truth for me is I have been reimagining and filtering what doesn’t work for a long time. This summer has re-ignited that. I suspect that this is happening to many of you. Jesus said in the Gospel of Mary Chapter 4 “For the Child of True Humanity exists within you. Follow it!” In my words, God is not out there. God’s right here. Follow it! Follow love!
Maybe that’s the next door we’re knocking on. How do we follow it, God, the Divine, Sophia or whatever name you have for all that is greater than us? Now that we have learned what we’ve learned, how do we follow it? What will be possible? How can we reimagine Church or dare I say Christianity? How can we expand our learning and exploration? How can we widen our circle? How do we remember that we are not separate from love – and never have been? Love is right here.
That’s a lot of doors to knock on. A lot of seeking and finding and listening.
Friends, our seeking isn’t over. We have so many more questions to ask and answers to receive. So many more doors to knock on. Keep on asking curious questions. Keep on seeking the Divine in all its forms and keep on knocking on the door of what’s next and then walk through when it opens. Listen to and for the invitation. Your heart is calling. Love is calling. Knock, Knock.
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