Original Blessing

Welcome. Beautiful day to you!
We’re so glad you are here!
That’s our message to you this morning,
and we believe that’s creation’s message to you as well.

After the service today there is both
the musical and monologues, The Apple Tree and Other Forbidden Fruit,
and a Soul Poetry Gathering.
In honor of both, we want right now to offer you thoughts
on creation and human nature through prose, story and poetry.

Poetry is like sowing seeds.
Some of the words get lost and just drift away.
Let them go.
Other words or phrases may mean something to you.
They may take hold in you,
stir your own thoughts and feelings
and deepen in you.
Grab hold.
We hope your good ears will find here something of worth to you.

Last Sunday morning Carmen Cook was here
with her new born daughter Maisie.

Looking at the two of them it was hard for me to believe
there had ever been the question-
are human beings born in original sin or original blessing?

When the prevailing notion in Christianity
was that a select few would be saved
and a great horde would be damned for eternity,
our liberal religious ancestors proclaimed that God is love
and that no one is outside of that love.
Salvation is universal.
Each life is a blessing.

Carmen held fresh and new and beautifully original Maisie in her arms.
Surely we all are born to live abundantly, born to love life.

Hello, Life. Welcome to the World.
The Psalmist sings“Royal dignity was yours
from the day you were born, on the holy mountains,
royal from the womb, from the dawn of your earliest days.”
(Psalm 110:3 as translated in Matthew Fox’s, Original Blessing, chapter 7, Bear and Company, 1983)

And Joan Baez celebrates
“You are amazing grace.
You are a precious jewel—
You-special, miraculous, unrepeatable, fragile,
fearful, tender, lost, sparkling
ruby emerald jewel rainbow splendor person.”
You are amazing grace.

Carmen held fresh and new and beautifully original Maisie in her arms.
Like Adam and Eve, Maisie will move beyond those arms,
out into the world, explore new territory, stretch limits.
This is good.
Maisie will be curious, learn and grow.

Carmen won’t be able to protect her child from everything.
Maisie will get bumped and bruised.
May she know her self well, respect and love her self.
May she receive and give to others respect and love.
Being grounded in respect and love will strengthen her for hard times.
Maisie will stretch the limits and grow her way,
and no doubt that will stretch and grow Carmen as well.

No matter what, Maisie is likely never to move
beyond the embrace of Carmen’s love.

We are born with possibility
with the creative essence of the universe
in every cell and molecule of our bodies,
with minds that spark with ideas,
synapses stirring opportunities,
envisioning evolving embodiment
of truth unfolding…

Was it the taste of some sweet fruit
that gave us this freedom
or is it the nature of all existence?
How free are we?
What must we do to increase our freedom,
to free ourselves from the limits of our own perspectives?

Sometimes people see the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden
as knowledge of good and evil, of life and death, of sex and shame.
The body is not at war with the soul.
Sensuality, pleasure, passion, celebration give life.

Walt Whitman sings,
“I am the poet of the Body.
I am the poet of the Soul.
If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred.
Whoever you are, how superb and how divine is your body, or any part of it.

Seeing, hearing, feeling are miracles,
and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from.
I am the poet of the Soul.
I am the poet of the Body.”

This week I sat in the ob/gyn waiting room at Kaiser.
I am not pregnant.
Pregnant women filled the room:
one looked East Indian, another sounded Eastern European,
one was Asian American and was accompanying
a woman from Africa who is a student at a theological school.
We exchanged greetings, eye to eye looks and some warm conversation.
Though it is not always this way,
these women looked like they wanted the best for their unborn babies,
beginning with appointments, waiting rooms, and prenatal care.
They seemed as if they wanted to bring something beautiful into being.
Ready to do what it takes, to practice,
to do the disciplines of healthy eating, exercise, breathing,
regular appointments, to prepare for birthing.
I am not pregnant,
but aren’t we all really preparing for birthing possibility?
Opening to who we most essentially are and who we can be?

14th century Sufi poet Rumi says it this way.
What was said to the rose that made it open
was said to me here in my chest.

What was told the cypress that made it strong and straight,
what was whispered the jasmine so it is what it is,
whatever made sugar cane sweet…
whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush like a human face,
that is being said to me now. I blush.
Whoever put eloquence in language, that’s happening here…
The great warehouse door opens. I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane, in love
with the one to whom every that belongs!

Believing human beings are born as original blessings,
does not mean that things cannot go horribly astray.
Horrible things happen to us, by us, and all around us.
There are plenty of examples of deplorable depravity,
of almost unspeakable suffering.
Each of us has power to create or destroy.

We are born with choice
with the decisive power of direction:
this road or that one,
the well-traveled or the newly-blazed,
forming the future in the present
by turning this way or that…
shaping whatever is given us.

The sins, the wrong doing, the hurtful things that we humans do,
do not seem original, but all too common.
So common we can act like violence is not happening at all.

Original blessing means that no matter what
we have the potential, the promise always within us
to turn things around.
We have depths to touch within ourselves,
depths to reach in others.
We can bless and be blessed.

We are constantly invited to be who we are
and who it is possible for us to be.

—Even when we mess up.
Theologian Paul Tillich says we are accepted
even when we are unacceptable.

Continually we are invited to join our voices with the poets and prophets
who envision us humans connected to all that is,
“kindred with all creatures of the earth and sky,”
lifting our voices in gratitude,
“giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed.”
Love life with all your heart and mind and strength
as you love your self as you love you neighbor.”

Our affirmation of inherent worth and dignity is like the North Star.
It beckons, leads us, and it always shines afar.

When you are in the thick of dealing with evil done to you,
you aren’t asked to believe in the evil-doers’ inherent worth and dignity.
You are asked to believe in your own,
to love your self, to believe there is a way through.
You are asked to begin to trust
in the inherent worth and dignity of companions on the road with you.

Walt Whitman invites, “Whoever you are, come travel with me.”
And Richard Gilbert, Welcome you
“who come with weary spirit seeking rest,
who come with troubles that are too much with you,
who come hurt and afraid,
who come with hope in your heart…anticipation in your step…”
And Rumi, “Come, come whoever you are.” Come.

As part of this congregation’s participation
in the Volunteer Read Aloud program
in the Richmond and San Pablo schools,
I was reading on Wednesday to Stephanie.

One of the books was titled What Would You Rather Be?
I read, “What would you rather be a dog or a cat?”
Stephanie: a dog.

“What would you rather be a grown-up or a kid?”
A kid.
“Alone or together?”
Together.

Awhile later we read the fable The Milk Maid.
In the story, the milk maid imagines selling milk to get chicks,
selling chickens to get a pig…
And while imagining, she slips and falls.
The story ends,
“She spilled the milk and all she had left was bruises.”

Stephanie and I sat in silence with the milk maid’s sad story.
“Sometimes things are really sad,” I say.

You can be by yourself and be together,
but the milk maid was lonely and bruised.

I wish she didn’t feel alone even though she is by herself.
I wish she had people to be with her.

Pointing back to the other book, Stephanie says,
“I wish she was together.”

Or as our teacher Bob Kimball writes,
“Be with, dear reader, wherever you are - be with.”

Be with yourself so you can be by yourself and not be alone.

Be with others so you can be together and not feel alone.

Keep in touch with your depths, wisdom, worth, dignity and responsibility.
Keep in touch.

We are born as blessings and new life is always possible.

We depend upon one another more than we know.

Blessing can continue in our living and in our dying.

For a time this year, Joan’s world got narrowed down to one hospital bed.
Joan said she was not afraid and she was ready to die.
But her body didn’t cooperate.
She was limited physically.
But from this small space,
she created more love in her family, in the congregation, and in me.
It was as if Joan couldn’t be caged, couldn’t be hidden,
as if she lifted her head out from under the covers.
“Here I am.”

I’d call and she’d say, “Thanks, love,”
“I’m so grateful,” she would say.
And she would list family, friends, her church community…
She was saying, “Thank you”
like a guest leaving a wonderful dinner party, life’s banquet.
She was experiencing what is everlasting in this moment now.

“The real work of religion,” Rumi sings, “is
permanent astonishment…

I have…[some]things to say [to the Beloved]-
First, when I was apart from you
this world did not exist.
Second, whatever I was looking for was always you….
Third, why did I learn to count to three?”

Rumi sings on, “So she speaks, and everyone
around her cries with her…
in the union of lover and beloved.

This is true religion.
All others are like thrown away bandages
beside it.

Day and night I sing…
in this phenomenal cage.

My soul [cries]
Find a friend and hide.

But what can be hidden?
Love’s secret is always lifting its head
out from under the covers.
‘Here I am!’

…The real work of religion is permanent astonishment…”

Carmen Cook was gazing upon her newborn baby.
Everything about her look said,
“Welcome, darling. Love surrounds you, wants the best for you.
You, dear child, invite me to see the world afresh.
You lighten my heart, delight my spirit.
May you know deep respect, trust, and love.
May you bless and be blessed now and forever.”

Isn’t that the creation story?
Hello Life. Welcome to the world.
Something deep inside you wants the best for you.
Something wants you to see the world afresh,
wants to lighten your heart and delight your spirit,
wants you to know deep respect, trust, and love,
wants you to bless and be blessed now and always.

Isn’t that the creation story?
You are an original blessing!  ♦