Radical Trust Matthew 6:24-34

From an ancient story: Four people entered a holy place to pray. Deep, sincere praying. Then, a holy one walked by. One of the people praying asks: "Oh, are you going to begin the prayers now?" The second person praying said, under her breath: "You spoke. Now your prayers don't count." The third person praying said out loud: "Don't scold him! You've done exactly the same thing! Correct yourself!" The fourth person said: "Thank God! I haven't made the same mistake as these others!" As you see, all four prayers were interrupted, And the three fault finders were more at fault than the first speaker! Blessed is the one who sees their own weakness, Blessed is the one who, when they see a flaw in someone else, Takes responsibility for it themselves. Half of any one of us is wrong and weak and off the path. Only half! The other half is swimming and dancing and flying in the Invisible Joy! ---from the writings of Rumi "No one can serve two masters. Either they will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other." And this: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food..." *** This passage of scripture, from the Sermon on the Mount, is one of my favorites. As I studied the passage and reflected on it this weak, I was struck by the dichotomy Jesus lays out for his listeners, and finally, for us. As people of the 21st century, we are accustomed to thinking about things in complicated ways. When there's a problem, we try to analyze it before we change it. When there is some new information, we go to great lengths to implement change. As soon as we learn about what we can determine from the results of DNA testing, we need a Congressional Bill to protect our rights to not have this information used against us! This is very complicated - even convoluted - indeed! Maybe that's why spirituality doesn't seem real to most of us. The words of the great teachers, the sages, like the words of Jesus, just seem too simple to apply to our complicated lives. We are too interested in reason to be interested in wisdom. Yes, we are complicated people, the world is complicated. And at the same time, we are people who can live more holy, more whole, more complete, more fulfilled, more meaningful lives, if we can only see things from a clearer viewpoint. That's what the words of Jesus offer. A clear way to see the world, to see our lives. "Don't worry about your clothes!" Don't you hate it when someone says: "don't worry!"??? I do! But as I listened more closely to the words, I began to see that Jesus was speaking to all of us, and saying this:  Choose to live in fear. OR, choose to live in trust. In other words, part of you is wrong and weak and off the path. And part of you is dancing and swimming and flying in the invisible joy. Choose. Choose the part of you that is dancing and swimming and flying in the invisible joy. Choose your whole self, your holy self, instead of the ego, your small self. Choose life instead of death. And how to choose is ultimately simple, but not easy. When you are worried, think about your part in all of creation. You, too, are like the birds, who don't appear to worry. You, too, are like the lilies of the field, in all their splendor. You, too, are free, and perfect as you are. Learn to identify with the part of you that is holy, that is whole, that is free, that is trust. Because you are not only your worried little thoughts. You are not only the judgments of others. You are not only your judgments of yourself. You, too, are free, and beautiful, and holy. Trust. Choose to trust. Choose to see this day, this hour, this moment, as perfect as it is. When your "little" mind, the worrying, calculating, judging mind, begins to judge, remember, just for a moment, that you are more than this worrying, calculating, judging human being. You are part of the great, good, whole of Creation! You are holy!  Trust. There is something so beautiful about trust. There is something so beautiful about allowing your partner to make their own mistakes, without your intruding. There is something so beautiful about allowing your child to step a bit more freely into the world, to do it their way. There is something so beautiful about seeing that today - and all that it brings - is perfect as it is. Choose: trust, or fear. Whole-ness, or small-ness. Acceptance, or worry. Power, or strength. Surrender, or clutching. I think the most powerful part of the teaching of Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount is the thought that we are capable of this. We are people who are capable of radical trust. We can trust the times. We can trust ourselves.  "I'll not listen to reason," says a woman servant in Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Cranford. "Reason always means what someone else has to say. --May 25th, 2008

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