|
UUCGT Home | UUCGT Member Portal | Return to Sermon Index |
|
LIVING THE IN-BETWEENS (Read a short biography of the Reverend Kayle Rice) |
| Have you ever found yourself in a position of being outside cooking your supper on the grill and being aware of a nearby anthill? Here's an interesting story by UU minister David Bryce:
Last night I went outside and lit the grill; turning back to the house, I found that thousands of ants were swarming in our back yard. They covered an area two feet wide and 12 feet long. I walked around their swarming area, being careful not to step on any and feeling somewhat guilty for already having done so inadvertently on my trip to the grill. I try not harm these living creatures, respecting their spark of life, the divine fire, as being worthy of honor. Like a Jain monk, I carefully peered at the ground before taking each step. As the evening wore on I made several trips to the grill to check the fire, to spread the coals, barbecue the meat, each time being careful not to step on the ants. And so the irony. I was so careful not to kill any of these ants while I prepared the fire and then cooked the flesh of a pig, whose life had been taken to serve my appetite for meat.…I was struck by the irony of being so careful about ant life and so cavalier about a pig's life. (Adapted from: "Ironic Contractions: I Have Them On My Mind" Rev. David Bryce) Such a contradiction! Trying not to step on an ant, while grilling the flesh of a pig is certainly a metaphor of how many of us live our lives. We take note of issues and situations in our world, and in our everyday living, and having noticed them, wonder whether to do anything about them. If you're like me, you have on occasion said to yourself: "Oh well" and go on about your business. Therein the question becomes: "Is that the path of growth?" In this context Rev. David was telling the story in relation to animals suffering to satisfy his need for meat. Said he: That saddens me, in a way, because I think of myself as a better person than that. And so I live in between. I live in between the person who is uncaring and the person who is caring enough to stop. Living the in-betweens is reality and it is human: Christian theologian Paul Tillich contended that to be human is to be the question posed by our very existence. To be human then, is to live in-between the seemingly contradictory impulses of our ego and our shadow. Do you know about Baba Yaga? In Russian folklore she is an old woman looking much like a fairy-tale witch who stirs her pot and knows all things. She lives deep in the forest. To seek her out is to be frightened, for she requires us to go into the dark, to ask dangerous questions, to step outside the world of comfort and logic. Here's a story: When the first young seeker comes quaking up to the door of her hut, Baba Yaga demands: "Are you here on your own errand or are you sent by another?" The young man, encouraged in his quest by his family, answers, "I am sent by my father." Baba Yaga promptly throws him into the pot and cooks him. The next to attempt this quest, a young woman, sees the smoldering fire and hears the cackle of Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga again demands, "Are you on your own errand or are you sent by another?" This young woman has been pulled into the woods alone to seek what she can find there. "I am on my own errand," she replies. Baba Yaga throws her into the pot and cooks her too. Later a third visitor, again a young woman, deeply confused by the world, comes to Baba Yaga's house far into the forest. She sees the smoke and knows it's dangerous. Baba Yaga confronts her: "Are you on your own errand, or are you sent by another?" This young woman answers truthfully. "In large part I'm on my own errand, but in large part I also come because of others. And in large part I have come because you are here, and because of the forest, and something I have forgotten, and in large part I know not why I come." Baba Yaga regards her for a moment and says, "You'll do," and shows her into the hut. (From Jack Kornfield: After the Ecstasy, the Laundry) We live in-between because we come to our fullness and our potential and our best and bravest in the deep dark, because we are spurred on our own quest, and because we are sent by others, and because "it's there" and because there is something in us that has been forgotten and which we need to reclaim…but mostly we live in-between because we do not know why we've come. The third young woman in the Baba Yaga story knew this. Therein lies our secret on the path of growth: awareness, or as Jack Kornfield tells us in A Path with Heart: healing attention. I like what 20th century thinker of philosophy, psychology and religion P.D. Ouspensky says: Self observation brings (us) to the realization of the necessity for self-change. And in observing (ourselves, we) notice that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in (our) inner processes. (We) begin to understand that self observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of Awakening. By observing (ourselves, we) throw, as it were, a ray of light onto (the) inner processes which have hitherto worked in complete darkness. And under the influence of this light the processes themselves begin to change. And indeed a light of awareness that living in between is not the place we should always be…it cracks open that safe in-between-ess and growth begins to occur. We manage a little clarity and take a stand for this growth. We all know people who have done it…and not just famous people. There is courageousness in even the more ordinary of people. There is courageousness in you. And here's an ordinary person who also took such a stand. In the fall 2000 issue of the UUWorld, Clifton Spires, a UU journalist tells of a time when he, his wife and their son were attending an annual music awards school banquet in which the son would be receiving a couple of awards. Each member of the school's band or choirs went to the stage when his or her name was called… About midway through I noticed the girls at the table next to ours. One of the girls would comment on the students making their way to the podium. I sat there seething, realizing the little snob was passing judgment on other people's children, apparently to impress her friends…what would she say about my kid-the straight younger brother of my oldest gay son? "Stop saying that!" I told her, leaning over and putting my face directly in front of hers…"I don't want you to say another word about anyone going up on that stage!" I told the girl, who now looked like a deer caught in headlights of a speeding Mack truck. "Not another word about people being gay, or anything else about their sexuality." "OK," she said, in a voice just above a whisper. About 15 minutes later this gal went to the restroom and stayed there for the next hour and a half, evidently bawling her eyes out. Spires continues: (Later) my son asked me, "What did you say to her, Dad?" I told him…and apologized if he thought it would cause him any future hassles. He shrugged and said, "Who cares? You did the right thing. I'm proud of you." And so it was that I got the top prize of the evening, just for losing my temper. When we witness (injustice), we have to stand up and speak…it can be as simple as saying, "Oh, shut up!" (adapted from "Out of the Mouths of Babes" UUWorld September/October 2000) This is the call to us on this day: to call upon our healing attention and courage and step away from the inbetween place so that true healing and justice can take root. There is a season and a time for every matter in our lives. Which time is yours? The in-between time or the edge? Repeating from Roethke: In a dark time, the eye begins to see, The path of growth is not easy…sometimes it seems like we're forever dancing endless circles, trying to find our edge. The journey in between what you once were and who you are becoming is where the dance of life really takes place. (Barbara De Angelis) And it's there. And we're here. Welcome it all. The ants, the pig on the grill, the Baba Yaga experiences, the in-betweens and the edges. The Sufi poet Rumi beautifully reminds us of this:
May our living the in-betweens be a guide to show us that it doesn't always have to be that way. And may we call upon this discomforting place when something needs to be done for the healing of ourselves, of relationships and of community. Blessed be…Amen CHALICE LIGHTING O Spinner, Weaver of our lives, READING, From Theodore Roethke: "In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
CLOSING WORDS Mark Belletini A short biography about our guest minister, Reverend Kayle Rice……. The Rev. Kayle Rice has served the Marquette UU Congregation since July 2002. She received her Masters of Divinity. degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary and was ordained a United Church of Christ minister in 1984, serving UCC congregations in South Dakota. In 1994 she returned to her hometown of Kalamazoo, MI and began what she calls a "seven-year sabbatical." During this time she received an M.A. in Comparative Religions from Western Michigan University, was a part-time hospital chaplain in Kenosha, WI and discovered her true spiritual path in Unitarian Universalism. She began her journey in transferring her ministerial credentials to the UUA in 2000, did her internship at Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Oak Park, IL, and received Preliminary Fellowship in 2002. The Marquette, MI congregation installed Kayle as its first settled minister in October 2003. Rev. Kayle loves the pace of life in Marquette and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and is happily living out her dharma as parish pastor. She is married to Brian Leekley. |