12/18/16 – “Wisdom, Truth, and Love Born into the World”
After many years of doing engineering work in factories and listening to loud music, I finally had to break down and buy some hearing aids. Truth be known, when I first tried using them, I found them annoying and didn’t wear them. Since my hearing loss was related to high pitched sounds, what I heard sounded like Paul’s reference to “clanging symbols”. Well, I had a checkup and the doctor could tell how many hours that I had worn them and was not too pleased with my non-compliance. I had been caught. Who would have thought that the hearing aids could keep track of how long I wore them? Well, apparently hearing aids can do a lot of things nowadays. They can be tracked through GPS so that you can find them if they are lost somewhere. They can play music directly into your ears from an iPhone. In fact, I’m playing Pink Floyd in the background right now. So, if I start playing Air Guitar during this reflection, don’t think that I am having some kind of spasm. Well, that’s not really true, but I have been tempted to do it in boring meetings at work.
Well, what’s this got to do with today’s gospel? The fact of the matter is that I can now hear sounds that I have not heard in probably 30 years. It’s sort of amazing. It’s like rediscovering something that I lost during my youth. Have you ever had an important insight and said to yourself, “Oh, I’ve always known that. How did I ever forget that?” It’s like we’re rediscovering something core to our life – something that we knew as a child or something that we’ve known all along. And, it’s usually some simple truth about ourselves. Well, in Joseph’s dream, he heard a truth that he could not ignore. His dream and his following the voice of the angel of God came from an inner compass – a GPS system, if you will, which guided him to be able to hear with his heart, instead of his ears.
Here’s another instance of knowing a truth from childhood. When my grandson James was around 5 years old, my daughter, his mom, made an agreement with him that she would give him a small allowance if he helped keep his room clean. This allowance, however, would come with a caution to not waste his money on things that were not tangible, things that he couldn’t keep – things like candy, video games at the mall, things that you couldn’t hold onto. Well, James took this seriously and saved his money. While at the Christmas Eve service at our Episcopal church in St. Louis, it came time for the offertory. Our family was sitting together, including our daughters and James. The choir had finished and it was quiet as the offertory continued. When the plate came to James, he pulled out a fresh ten dollar bill and put it in the offering. Quite a sum for a 5 year old. Then he turned to his mom and said, “But mom, it’s okay to waste money on Jesus”. He said it loud enough that the congregation roared in laughter. Out of the mouths of babes. He got the truth. He heard with an open heart. In fact, I used his statement in my first vicarage as the slogan for our stewardship drive.
Some of you may have heard of Morton Kelsey, an Episcopal priest, professor at Notre Dame, and author of many books related to the intersections between spirituality and psychology. In his book “God, Dreams, and Revelation”, he details how the wisdom of dreams is expressed in symbol and metaphor – not facts. He also argues quite convincingly that the wisdom of dreams are from the Spirit of God – a channel of communication, if you will, with the truth and wisdom of God. Honestly, where does this wisdom of our dreams come from anyway?
As Kelsey states, “No one who does not know oneself can know others. And in each of us there is another whom we do not know. This other speaks to us in dreams and tells us how differently they see us from the way we see ourselves. When, therefore, we find ourselves in a difficult situation to which there is no solution, the other can sometimes kindle a light that radically alters our attitude.” Is “that other” possibly God? Is “that other” the light that radically altered Joseph’s attitude?
Primarily, dreams speak to us about us, to our own inner psychic life, to our own compass, our own core, our own inner GPS system. It is not unusual in my dealing with seriously ill patients at the hospital, that their dreams,which they sometime share, reflect a reality that is not grasped through the conscious, ego-controlled mind but, nonetheless, the truth inherent in them is indelibly etched in the patient’s heart. For example, I recently heard a dream in which the patient descended a staircase to the open arms of Christ – a dream that profoundly brought her hope. A dream is a mystery, but it is a mystery that can be experienced and felt at an emotional, physical, and cognitive level.
Our souls, our psyches, our centeredness connects with the core of ourselves and invites meaning into our lives when we listen with our hearts. Even, in the suffering, the relinquishment, the priorities of our existence, we can still find wisdom, freedom, and truth. What is important comes to the surface and we find relationship, love, and transparent honesty.
Regardless of the social convention which had a hold on Joseph, he hears the soundof God’struthin his heart. He rediscovers that the loss of hearing with his heart has left him in a posture of law and social convention. He wanted to protect Mary but was driven by social norms. He was inclined to dismiss her, but with as much empathy as possible. Then God in Joseph’s dream divulges the niggling truth that something profound is happening and this phenomenon holds the possibility that the potential healing of humankind may be “birthed” throughsomething mysterious. Joseph said “Yes” to God’struth and healing was born into the world.
Joseph relinquished his social pressure to dismiss Mary in order to open his heart to a new vision. He recognized the reality of Immanuel - God with us. He affirmed and invited the opportunity for truth to come into the world. And through Joseph and Mary’s saying “Yes” to God, the wisdom and truth of Immanuel was birthed into existence in the form of baby Jesus. And the wisdom, truth, and love of Jesus was felt to the core by those who encountered him throughout his life. And those who were touched by his being shared the truth through the stories that we still carry with us today. Joseph and Mary’s sacrifices gave birth to the greatest story ever told.
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