“Soul
Mates”
John
1:43-51
First
Presbyterian Church
The
Reverend Donald E. Ray
January
18, 2009
When I first called and asked Karen for a date --
20 years ago now, she declined -- she turned me down. She was gracious
about it, offering that if circumstances in her life changed, perhaps we could
have dinner. Several months later, she let me know she would accept my
invitation.
From that first date, we recognized a mutual
connection. We have often used that contemporary term, “soul mates” to
describe it, identifying with a sense of wonder, the events, circumstances,
similarities in choices and characteristics that surface as recurring parts of
our relationship. Frequently we observe that it seems we have known each
other all our lives.
Soul mate relationships have a distinct beauty
about them. So long as there is not a bulging, controlling ego, agreeing
on daily matters, finishing each other’s sentences, independently drawing the
same conclusions are uncannily neat. The risk with soul mates is just
reveling in the novelty of the likenesses. Only enjoying, sometimes even
taking those connections for granted, can short-change their worth. A soul
mate relationship with its link at the very core of our being affords the
ultimate fulfillment, enrichment, building of each mate’s life.
A practice that has become common in wedding
ceremonies is the lighting of a Unity Candle. One line of thought would
have the individual candles extinguished after the lighting of the Unity Candle,
symbolic of each partner surrendering individual identity in their marriage.
I am adamant about the individual candles continuing to flame. If the room
were to be completely darkened, the light of only one candle would be less than
of the two. The light of the three candles is brighter than of only the
two. The union of soul mates creates a greater than the sum of its parts
and enhances both and enriches the world they together touch.
Today’s Gospel text struck a familiar chord for
me. I reread my sermon “On the Road—Under the Fig Tree” from the
past summer’s “Beats and Beatitudes” series. Someone has said that
every sermon, with its time constraints, is heretical for what it leaves out.
It was summer then, I was walking, the series was about being on the road - I
may have given more emphasis to linking with God on the road than in the quiet
of “under the fig tree.” Now it’s not walking weather, so it’s the
twenty minutes or so of quiet “under the fig tree” shared with our ultimate
soul mate that roots and grows my life.
When they met, Jesus defined Nathanael by the
integrity Nathanael held sacred.
“Where did you get to know me,” asked Nathanael. “I saw you
under the fig tree…” Jesus answered. In his exclamation, “Rabbi, you
are the Son of God!” (John 1:48-49) Nathanael recognized his soul mate.
It was the moment of wedding worship, prayer, meditation, hymn with the
incarnation, the giving flesh, the human living of the Spirit. It is that
wedding of Spirit and human that defines our Christian faith.
The stories of Jesus are inspiring, intriguing,
challenging. Many, reading those stories have been motivated to follow his
word and example. But, Jesus himself, it would appear, urged going beyond
his life to a greater reality. John’s Gospel that ends claiming its
intent to be sharing this story that readers may believe that Jesus is greater
than a man from Nazareth, begins with the story of Nathanael recognizing his
soul mate in Jesus because he had communed with the Christ in his meditation
under the fig tree.
Common to the practice of meditation is the use of
a “mantra.” Repeating a word or a phrase aids in maintaining focus,
blocking thoughts and distractions that would cause interference in communing
with the Spirit. This past week, that portion of the Tao Te Ching we
discussed in Aging and Saging contrasted the substance of a thing with what
Derek Lin translated as its “emptiness.” It is the space inside a
container, the holes created by windows and doors in a room that make for their
usefulness. (1) So in meditation, in prayer, in worship it
is in our emptiness, our openness that there is communion with the Christ, our
soul mate. For me, it is through that window that the Gospel of Jesus has
meaning and significance.
Paul in his letter to the Galatians, enumerates the
fruits of the Spirit as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) As I read
the stories of Jesus I can see evidence of all of those fruits. But it is
in communion with the Christ that I realize these fruits coming alive in me and
in our community of faith. The stories can, as they are intended, lead us
to becoming open to that connection with God. Our connection with God
enlightens our valuing of the
stories of Jesus and our recognition of the Spirit in all living.
Worship, meditation, prayer are not complete in
gratification and appreciation. The soul mate connection enlarges our life
as the Spirit bears fruit in us. The Soul mate connection enhances the
presence of God’s Spirit in all of life.
At the 1963 March on
“I
have a dream” Dr. King said, “that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed. ‘We hold these truths to be self
evident, that all men are created equal.’”
“I have a dream that my four little children will
one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their
skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”
Coretta Scot King described her husband’s words
that day as flowing “from some higher place…for that brief moment the
Dr. Martin Luther King did not live to see his
dream fulfilled. But his dream lives. All who have communed with
that dream, looking beyond the prejudices that would enslave our culture, now
and then have a glimpse of soul
mates in and through whom that dream is coming to life.
The Apostle Paul never met Jesus - never walked the
roads with him. Luke describes, however, Paul’s dramatic meeting with
the Christ on the road to
Paul wrote to the Philippians:
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ,
Jesus,
Who though he was in the form of God,
Did not regard equality with God as something to be
exploited, but emptied himself,
Taking the form of a slave,
Being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself
And became obedient to the point of death—
Even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted
him…”(Philippians 2:6-7)
Jesus did not live to see the peace he offered come
to be. It is in our openness to God’s Spirit, under our fig tree, in
communion with our soul mate, the Christ, that we find our soul mates among us.
Sometimes in the most unlikely. Nathanael viewed Nazarenes with prejudice.
“Can anything good come out of
Amen.
(1) Tao Te Ching No 11, translated by Derek Lin