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Sermon - May 25th, 2008
The Power of Now
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Matthew 6:24-34
Are you ready to live differently? Are you prepared for change? Are you ready to live with your eyes wide open? That is what Jesus was telling the crowds of people who gathered around him 2,000 years ago. Today’s scripture is part of the Sermon on the Mount. It begins in chapter 5 of Matthew and goes through chapter 7. When he finished, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. They could see clearly that Jesus was living everything he was saying. This was the best teaching that they had ever heard.
“Do not worry about your life,” was one thing he told them. I don’t know about all of you, but I’m a worrier. However, as much as I worry about things, I’m not near the worrier my paternal grandmother was. Her name was Emma Drake. She’s been gone for almost 20 years now. She was the one in the Drake family who knew everything about everyone in the family. The moment I walked in her door, I would get the run-down—from the youngest grandchild to her oldest son. I would also hear about it, if she hadn’t heard from someone recently—as if I could do something about it. Then she would ask me what was going on out at the ranch. My grandmother was the hub of the wheel of family information. If you didn’t want everyone to know something, you didn’t tell Grandma Emma. Grandma Emma worried enough for all of us put together. She was also a phenomenal gardener. In the spring or summer, she would take me out into the garden and show me how well the beans, corn, potatoes, turnips, onions, tomatoes, beets, radishes were doing, when all I really wanted to do was watch TV because we didn’t have television out at the ranch. Her flower garden was something else. Roses, petunias, dahlias, even morning glory which is a despised weed in the wheat field—it was amazing. My grandmother was a worrier and a gardener. I suspect she did not worry as much when she gardened. Consider the lilies, the grasses of the field, and the birds of the air, Jesus said. Be a gardener in your whole life.
Most of us, I suspect, have this steady stream of mostly involuntary and compulsive thinking going through our minds and the emotions that go with this thinking—worry, anxiety, repetitive thoughts. Jesus knew this. He knew that this crowd of people had a lot to worry about in their lives. And he spoke to it. Just as his words speak to us today. Do not worry about your life.
I have been noticing what I think about lately. Trying to, anyway. Have you ever tried that? I just try to notice my thoughts instead of just letting them go through my mind, well, mindlessly. I especially do this when I run in the morning. I do not run with an ipod or anything other distracting device and I run by myself. I have noticed that the central core of my thoughts are very repetitive and extremely persistent. So, I’m jogging down the street and I think, then I notice what I’m thinking about, and notice I thought about that yesterday, and the day before, it’s the same old tape, it’s old news, it’s getting rather boring, I don’t like thinking about this, it raises my anxiety, it’s not helping me any, my life hasn’t gotten any worse or any better dwelling on this! And then I start to get judgmental, harsh, another habit of mine, telling myself to snap out of it. It’s a spiral way of thinking and I’m possessed by it. So, I think to myself, hey, wake up. I’m breathing, yep, I’m breathing. My legs are moving, arms. Oh, there’s some of those aches and pains. Then, I make myself noticing the trees, the flowers, cars going by, other people walking or jogging, I’m awake, I’m present, I’m breathing. My heart is beating. Gee, I’m tired today. I’m late. I should have got up earlier. I have a lot to do today. I better call my Mom today. What’s Emma doing today? And…. I’m in it again. My thoughts, my worries, my anxieties…. Off they go, as if I’m chasing them done the street, until I notice again…and ask myself, so what am I thinking about now? It’s crazy, this life of mine, ours, yours. It’s crazy. And for more than 2,000 years, we each have had to learn this. In fact the first wise person I know of who talked about waking up in life was Buddha. Ever since Buddha walked on this earth, God has been telling us to wake up, be present to the moment! Wherever you are, be totally there. Jesus is saying the same thing. Do not worry about your life! Be present. Life is always now. Our past only exists when we remember it. Our future only exists when we anticipate it. Our life is about what is happening in this constant NOW. So although everything seems to be subject to time—such as this worship service last until 11 o’clock—everything that happens, happens in the present moment—now.
This is a paradox. Everything happens in the present. All we experience is what we are experiencing right now. Yet, we see the evidence of the passing of time all the time, too. We make plans for the future. We learn from mistakes in our past. But what Jesus is telling us is do not be preoccupied with the past or the future. Be one with life, allow this moment to be what it is. Because if you don’t you will miss it. And we miss a whole lot of life by dwelling on our past and worrying about the future.
When the word got out that I was getting divorced a very dear, and wise member of the Dallas United Methodist congregation gave me a book titled The Power of Now. Eckhardt Tolle is the author of the book and his more recent book called A New Earth. That was my first introduction to living in the present. And what a time to try to live in the present when I was going over and over and over again what went wrong. That was almost five years ago and I’m still not getting it very well.
Buddha said, “Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be.” And that is what Jesus is telling us. Here are his words according to Eugene Petersen’s paraphrase, “What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving…Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out…Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now.”
And then Jesus goes on to tell the people some clues for living. Jesus says “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment.” He says, “Don’t be flip with the sacred…Don’t reduce holy mysteries to slogans.” “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need.” “Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them.” “Don’t look for shortcuts to God….The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.” The next one is a personal favorite of mine, “Be wary of preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity.” Actually, my real favorite is “The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.”
Brother Lawrence said many years ago, make your whole life a spiritual practice. He called it practicing the presence of God. He said do this even when you are doing menial, daily chores. Eckhardt Tolle says the same thing. He says, start by making a list of everyday routine activities—you know the tedious, uninteresting things, chores. Exclude from this list what you absolutely detest, put them on the “I need to simply accept” list or “I need to stop doing this” list. Then, whenever you are engaged in these routine activities, let them be your vehicles for alertness. Be absolutely present in what you do and sense the alert, alive stillness within you while you do the activity. Driving my car is one area I need to work on a lot, just ask Emma. She is always telling me, be mindful, Mom. You need to be mindful. And she’s right. Brother Lawrence calls this spiritual practice.
Eckhardt says, what will happen is that even though you are not enjoying the activity, you will enjoy the inner dimension of consciousness. He says, “This is finding the joy of Being in what you are doing.” “The joy of Being is the joy of being conscious.” You are still an ordinary human being doing ordinary things; but what is extraordinary is what comes through you into this world. You are doing the ordinary but what comes through you is extraordinary.
This is the power of now. We can always cope with the Now. We can not cope with the future because it is in the future. And you can never change the past, it has already happened. Life and God is about the present moment. God is in this moment. Our life is in this present moment. Eckhardt combines the teachings of Jesus and Buddha and his own experience to tell the world that a new transformation and awakening of the human species is taking place. We are waking up, he says. A new heaven and new earth are arising within us at this moment, just as Jesus said, “the kingdom of God is now, right here in the midst of you.” That is the power of now: being mindful, awake, present, and one with life, no matter what you are doing. Jesus said, “So, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
I still worry. Probably always will. I have “what if” thoughts. I imagine future situations that don’t exist yet. I’m not talking about making plans, appointments, and all the necessary things we have to do to get things done. I still catch myself trying to cope with something that hasn’t even happened yet. The difference I am learning is that I am catching myself. When I do, here’s what I am learning to do: I become aware of my breathing, feeling the air flowing in and out of my body. I try to feel my inner energy field. And then, I tell myself, all that I ever have to deal with, cope with, in real life is this moment. And what happens when I actually succeed with this exercise, is I open up an inner space for God. Not that God isn’t there already. I clear the way, to notice God. And then I feel the power of now, I feel peace in the present, I feel the flood of joy and a wave of enthusiasm—I am in God and God is in me. At least, for a moment, the present moment. Until I catch myself worrying again…. Or dwelling on the something I can do nothing about…. May God help us, all of us together, to be present, to wake up, to live one with life and one with God. “Do not worry about your life.” Jesus said. Live it. Live it with awareness, acceptance, and aliveness. Live it in the power of now.
Amen.