Shepherds: Week 5, Thomas Keating

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0:00 For the rest of us, we've been talking about this reality that God gives. We got to this like that the church is a real present thing in the world because of Pentecost. The church being people called out to live under the reign of God in the world that doesn't recognize his authority. And then we started to talk about what are the what's the culture that happens among those people living under the reign of God. There's a specific notion of work, of money, of

0:35 justice, of love. There's specific cultural values that emerge among the people living under the reign of God that at times find themselves in conflict with the cultures of the world. And we spent some time going through that. And then we began to look at that God, though he Christ ascended and left the church to people who doesn't leave the church alone. That God set up an example of what it is to be a good shepherd. We looked at the example of God as

1:06 shepherd in the scriptures and then we began looking at the reality that he leaves small shepherds for us here. We've been looking at people that have been like role models or leaders for me, people that I have wanted to emulate. We looked at Elijah, Mr. Prophet. We looked at Oscar Romero from El Salvador. We looked at last week, we looked at Fannie Lou Hamer. I don't know about you if you got a chance to look up Fannie Lou Hamer's story. Wesley and I talked a little bit about it this week. It's kind of a miraculous story that she was able to

1:40 maintain faith and such a faith that it was contagious and filled rooms and powered movements of people. The Mississippi Freedom Summer is something that is like, should be a place marker in the history of our country. It's good work done in the face of opposition. I looked up some of her hymns. You can find recordings of her singing out there, Fannie Lou Hamer. It's inspiring stuff. The reality that she could maintain faith in the face of hardship has

2:13 been encouraging for me this week. I want to look at another leader for me, a person who's been a model for me, a marker of hope. It's a monk. I thought he was the trapez monk. He's a cis-durshin monk and probably cis-durshin monk. Probably the reason I thought he was at the trapez is because I didn't know cis-durshin was a thing. Anybody know cis-durshin monk? Anybody heard that before? I'm waiting. You have, of course. Jen was their horse. Anyone besides Jen? This monk's his name is Thomas Keating. Anybody heard

2:52 Thomas Keating before? Yeah, okay. We're landing on ones that we've both heard. This is awesome. I stumbled on Thomas Keating. Well, I was introduced to Thomas Keating in college. But before we get there, let's pray that God would join us or thank him for being here with us. Hey Lord, thank for being here with us this morning. We know that you promise wherever two or three are gathered in your name that you are in our midst.

3:24 So we are grateful that you are here. We are open to your work in our lives, in our hearts, in our minds this morning, Lord God. We welcome your love, your conviction, your rejuvenation. Come and be at work amongst us this morning in ways that you see fit. We are

3:55 we submit to you this morning in Jesus' name and pray. Amen. So I went to the University of Florida as kind of a separate little miracle how I got in. I can share that another time. I shouldn't have gotten in but I have family and God who look out for me. I made my way into UF and I started off as a philosophy major and got into a metaphysics class and quickly realized these people were lost in their head. That's another story I can tell you.

4:30 I thought I can't study this much philosophy and run around in circles and ask what makes a dog a dog for a whole semester or something. So but I loved the idea of thinking deeply and I found out I didn't realize religion was a field of study and so I found my way into the religion department and got my bachelor's degree in religion and I really loved it because then I felt like it was philosophy with a purpose. Like I could understand it was it was directed at a specific

5:04 question and so I could look at and understand and begin to learn about the basic tenets of all the world religions. So it took Intro to Buddhism and Hinduism and the eight and Islamic studies and but with the classes that I really liked were the philosophy of religion classes and and the thinking about the theory of religion and one class I had was a junior seminar class we were studying all these different things and the the professor was like a new age rabbi really

5:41 interesting stuff but he he had us reading this book called The Human Condition and I was like wow pretty universal and then it was written by this monk, Sistershen monk Thomas Keating and it was a tiny little book. I would have brought it today but it's there's a couple of books that every time I get my hands on it I give it away and never get it back and so it's one I'm all I've bought like probably six times since then and and I never have a copy and it's a transcription of

6:16 a series of talks he gave at Harvard on the human condition and and it kind of blew my mind in a couple of ways which we'll go through but before we go through that Thomas so I got this book and the reason he gave us this book is because the rabbi was was really into him and gone to come speak so then I got to hear Thomas Keating be in the room and

6:47 go through a practice led by Thomas Keating which I was nervous about going into because I didn't you read this book and the guy's very open Thomas Keating was born I made some notes for you just so you know he's a real person in 1923 in the United States he became a monk in Rhode Island in 1944 and then in five years he was leading that monastery and then he went to Colorado and then back to Rhode Island and then by 1981 he was leading a retreat center in Colorado for Centering

7:24 Prayer which is what he really became known for which is what this series of talks the human condition concluded in. The reason it made me nervous a little bit is because the he Thomas Keating pulls all of this learning from from other world religions and it made me really nervous. He starts off the book the the human condition book talking about how all humanity is made for a connection to the divine but that we move around in life and then he uses this ancient story this

7:58 from a Sufi master where he the Sufi master loses the keys to his house and he can't find him. He can't find the keys and so he has several friends come over and they say we're so sorry that you lost your keys we're going to help you find your keys and they get down in his front yard and they start moving their fingers through the grass and they're looking all through the grass to find his keys to his house and so him and his friends are all in the front yard looking for the keys and one of his friends asked him hey do you remember where you lost your keys

8:31 and the Sufi master says yeah I lost them inside the house and they said well then why are we looking in the front yard and said because the life's better out here Thomas Keating starts off the book and says we as humanity across the board recognized that we were meant for something deeper but for the life of us we can't figure out where to look and so we're looking for it in all these places where we'll never find the deeper thing that we were meant to connect to he says that all humanity is born with these like three basic needs a need

9:09 for security and survival power and control affection and esteem so security power and affection that all humanity is born with a base need for security power and affection from the time that you are a baby you need to know that you are safe that you are loved and that you have some measure

9:39 of control over the world that you live in you're not completely powerless of course parents love babies in broken ways you get some glimpses of affection but not complete unequivocal love you have some measure of power when you cry they bring you something but you don't have the power that you need the control that you need you are somewhat secure you're probably more secure than

10:11 you realize as a baby but when you get unswaddled all of a sudden you think that you're going to fall forever into nothing and from the time that you're a baby you develop coping mechanisms to meet your needs for security affection and power or control on your own little systems to make yourself feel safe to make yourself feel loved to give yourself a sense of control and what Thomas Keating says is that as you get older those schemes and systems don't go away they just

10:43 get more complex and subversive and the trick the problem of the human condition is that we've developed these systems and we don't even know we recognize that we need to feel love and we're looking out in the yard for it when it's definitely somewhere in the house we just don't even know it so the connection to the divine is the answer for these things of course the problem is we get really attached to the systems we've developed to make ourselves feel loved to create our own

11:20 sense of control to give ourselves a sense of security the the kid who feels secure with the right brands of clothes on turns into the parents who feel secure with the right dollar amounts in the bank account right the child who feels loved when he when she gets the right cereal in the

11:52 morning and dessert after breakfast turns into the parent who runs after the latest food craze to know that she's looks right and is loved then we we develop systems when we are children that only nuance and evolve as we get old and Thomas Keating says the answer is connection to God connection to God this blew my mind absolutely blew my mind security security affection and control

12:30 survival power and the steam as driving characteristics and the reality that I was solving that problem myself I was making myself feel secure that I was making myself feel love just making my myself feel powerful or in control that I developed systems Thomas Keating at one point this book says the the fact that we experience anxiety and annoyance is the certain sign that in our unconscious there is

13:02 an emotional program for happiness that's being frustrated the reality that you experience anxiety or fear tells you that you have a system you've developed for these things that's being frustrated you don't know what to do now you feel lost in the world the connection to the divine is the answer for this that blew my mind and has helped me think about why would I press through to engage with God at all

13:38 especially when the people who claim to speak for God say so many crazy things all the time when the church looks like a place where folks are judged and excluded where even churches have in groups and out groups where it looks so often the church looks like imperialism and

14:09 colonialism where the the church looks like we're we're like on a mission to take over the world rather than live under a world that God is already taken over why would I bother to continue to engage in the church and look for a God of the Christ I realize it's because I need a God of the Christ in order to be settled and to live I need to press through and find security

14:40 affection power these things come from God Thomas Keaton says we can encounter them in God but there is a primal a first challenge in encountering them and I want to look at Matthew chapter 16 to find that challenge Matthew chapter 16

15:22 Matthew chapter 16 the Pharisees right the beginning of Matthew chapter 16 the Pharisees want some proof that Jesus is reclaimed the is God on earth they want to do a miraculous sign show us that you're the answer of course he doesn't and he says there a problem then he asked Peter Peter says we know you're the Christ and then he backtracks and then he Jesus foretells his resurrection and then

15:56 we get to the the story that I want to look at in chapter or verse 24 of chapter 16 so Matthew chapter 16 verse 24 then Jesus told his disciples if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it

16:34 for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and force its his life or what shall a man give in return for his life for the son of man is going to come with his angels and the glory of his father and then he will repay each person according to what he has done truly I say to you there are some standing here who not see death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom this is a pretty enigmatic passage it can be kind of hard to figure out and it may raise

17:05 specific questions for you or folks at home if it does don't hesitate to reach out after it I'd love to process some of this with you about the end the son of man coming in his kingdom but the part I want to think about is this first half of this section or first three quarters if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me remember of course the cross is a recognized symbol for the disciples like you're going to

17:36 your death you're you're laying something down and Thomas feeding says that that our systems that we've developed for how we know we have power or feel like we have control in the world our systems that we've developed for how we feel like we are loved and worthy the systems that we've developed for how we have security feel safe in the world

18:08 it can be hard to put those systems down we can use money because it's easy to the degree that we feel like our money secures a future for us we rob god of the opportunity of giving us complete security un-inhibited by the circumstances of our life and carrying us past the grave it can be hard to put down go whether I have money or none

18:40 god gives me security my security is found in him alone but that kind of firm ground gives you something to stand on that lets you follow Jesus into the places where he calls you to go like like after Romero serving the poor at the cost of his own life like Fannie Lou Hamer lifting up the song of faith in the in the faith of real brutal opposition the only way that we're able to fully be the churches to stand on the security of god rather than the weak little systems that

19:10 we build up for ourselves the way that we're able to believe like like leaders of the church like alive here to stand up against his enemies like Romero and Hamer the only way that we believe we have the power to make a difference in the world is to stand on the power that god gives us not the power that we grasp by by putting ourselves over and better than others but it can be hard to let those systems go that Jesus is calling his disciples you and I to say that in god and the

19:44 person of Christ we find all that we need we put down our other systems for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but for fits his life when I read this passage I remember I feel like I was in seminary still and I was at my folks house and my grandpa was visiting my dad's dad and

20:18 must have been actually later than that because oh no he had just talked to his sisters my my grandpa is the youngest of five in his family and he's late 80s right now this was maybe a little more than 10 years ago and he had lost all of his siblings at this point he was the last one left and we were sitting I grew up one of the my grandpa worked on cars a lot so I have like

20:49 some some smells and memories associated with my granddad one of the smells is the smell of working on a car because he he would he just likes working on cars smell working on cars and the other is like the smell of a good pilsner because he always drank Miller lights I mean religiously drank Miller light like four o'clock wherever he was my grandma would come with peanuts and Miller light in a cold glass for him because it was happy however he was and so the memory I have

21:24 this memory of my granddad a little more than 10 years ago he's lost all of his siblings is by then I was able to drink a beer with him which was like really cool and so I wanted to bring him a beer that I liked you know and so because I didn't want to drink the Miller high life light I mean I would we'd always load up on Miller high life light when grandpa was coming but I also brought him just like a half step forward I brought him an ansel light at the time my life and still light you know still tasted like beer but it it had a little more flavor to it and we were sitting

22:00 listening to this our drinking ansel light and I explained in my hand that I found I liked and then he switched and put to one that he liked and so he liked the bearing to the ansel I just fine but it feels like I need a fork I got to chew it he said it's so thick and then he put on this song this is why I remember it he put on this him and grandpa's of the age where he had just memorized a lot of him to use a preacher and the the him was about being carried home it said

22:33 being carried home to Abram's bosom and grandpa had passed through like five different churches he had raised five kids he had been married to my grandma for like 50 years and he started to cheer up saying he really wanted he was really looking forward to getting home that he feel like he had known Jesus all this time and he couldn't wait to meet him and when he met him his siblings would

23:03 be there with him he started to cry and I realized that for my grandpa he had he had was moving through but he knew where he was going no she hasn't died yet knows where he is going that all the other things in life are things that have happened to him along the way to affirm secure solid future and Jesus says what does it merit a man what does it profit a person if they gain the whole world

23:45 and force it their life you may run elaborate decades long schemes that in order to find love affection security control or power when all the while it's waiting for you inside the house what I love about Thomas Keating is Thomas Keating is always there in the back of my mind pushing me to

24:19 go put down your little schema your elaborate plan to be powerful or influential to be loved to be safe just put it down and come back and sit with the god who made you who loves you who endowed you with power as this image creator in the world and has set up a future for you beyond the grave nothing can shake okay put all your schemes down put down what does it matter if you gain the house

24:56 and the car and the job and the story and what does it matter if you gain the friends and the insults if you lose your life in the process put down your schemes and meet with god where security affection and power reside I don't know if that resonates with you this morning but as I think about some of the

25:28 the guideposts for me in my life it is revolutionaries like Romero and Hamer and it is also contemplatives like Keating and Merton but these two things in my life go together that I cannot be active in justice and mercy in the world without being grounded in the god who loves me

26:01 that these two things go together and I hope that we are able to be the church together and if we will if we are able to be the church it will be because we have these two things going on the same time grounded in god and active in the world living under his reign and authority let me pray that we would move in that direction this week hey lord thank you for the witness of Thomas Keating

26:35 thank you for the way that you found him and spent time with him and inspired him to write down those words teach us how to turn over our life our schemes to lay down our lives and gain it back with you a life that starts now and never ends

27:05 and Jesus may not be amen