Sermon, July 1, 2001
4th Sunday of Pentecost, Proper 8, Year C
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Gospel -- Luke 9:51-62 Jesus on his way to Jerusalem

Karen Armstrong's A History of God is only the latest study in a tradition of looking at the sweep of history and exploring the evolving relationship of God and humanity. Some philosophers and theologians, especially those of the process school such as Whitehead, Hartshorn, Cobb and Pittenger, see the development of higher consciousness as part of the internal character of the divine. They say that God also learns and grows and evolves.

Classical Christian theology has said that God is and always has been whole and complete, but that there is a development within humanity's understanding of God -- it is the creation which learns and grows and evolves. One model that I find helpful traces the entire history of humanity through stages of growth that are recapitulated in each human being. We can see in our own personal process of becoming civilized a reflection of the history of the evolution of human consciousness.

Maybe you remember from high school biology the story of how a human embryo grows from a microscopic organism, through a fishlike stage with gills and a reptilian-like period and so forth. The development of each human life shares within it the whole story of life evolving on our planet. We begin without a sense of our selves as separate from our environment. An infant experiences its mother's body as an extension of itself and responds instinctively to the basic animal urges that motivate all natural life. During that first year of life, if our instinctual needs are not met, we respond with chronic rage. 

At some point, we realize that we are separate beings. My mother is not me. Out there is other. Some have called this the fall into consciousness. We now have a self to be conscious of. We are still primitive; we are not yet civilized. We have likes and dislikes, the beginning of an emotional life. There is a magical quality to our consciousness. When we cover our eyes and play "peek-a-boo", we disappear. From about age two to four we cannot yet distinguish imagination from reality.

Around age four, we reach the level of evolution that I want to talk about today. Thomas Keating and others call it the Mythic Membership level of consciousness. We are becoming socialized. Language blossoms. And what we learn first are the values of our parents, our culture and our peer groups. We learn and we accept what we are taught. We become tribal beings.

This is an important and necessary part of our development, but it has its failures. Typically we over-identify with our family, peer group, and culture. When I was seven and eight, my family had a Ford. My best friend Charles‚ family had a Chevy. We argued to the point of violence over which was best. Each of us was convinced our dad‚s car was the best. We learned about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and we were sure that America is the greatest country on earth. We started a neighborhood club. No girls allowed. And we learned about race. The colored people were different from us.

Happily, Charles and I both evolved beyond the Mythic Membership level of consciousness. We developed some capacity for logical and abstract thinking. And, to our parents‚ chagrin, we became self-reflective over the values and opinions they had given us. In some ways, each of us moved beyond those entirely self-centered values of our early environment and began to embrace some values of compassion and even occasionally, unconditional love. We grew up. At least partially.

But all of the characteristics of those more primitive levels of consciousness are still there. Our animal instincts still rage to have their needs met, and if I do not have a bite to eat around mid-day, I will become cranky at best. My emotional likes and dislikes still bombard me with neurological chemicals, and when I am particularly stressed, I will try to make magical deals with the universe so that things will come out the way I want.

And the associations of our Mythical Membership days are still with us as well. We tend to socialize with people like us. We still can over-identify with the values of the groups we belong to. The Hogs simply CANNOT lose to UNLV again this year. Some Episcopalians are just a touch vain. And on a national holiday like the 4th of July, some people may go beyond a sense of gratitude for our heritage of freedom and a recommitment to the ideals of extending those freedoms to all people.

I'm always nervous on the Sunday closest to the 4th of July. I'm bothered when churches proudly practice civil religion. I'm troubled by claims that God has chosen America, that we are God's special favorite among the nations. I'm troubled when the Mythic Membership qualities of belonging to a particular religion combine with the Mythic Membership qualities of belonging to a particular nation to produce a kind of divinely ordained patriotism. Too many wars have been fought because of religious factionalism and because of nationalistic ambitions. An evanglist in front of the American flag gives me shivers.

When Jesus and his disciples took the direct route to Jerusalem by traveling through Samaria, they were not welcomed. Ancient tribal animosities flared up, and James and John proposed settling them in the traditional fashion, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

Jesus draws us to a higher level of consciousness. He used political terms to transcend political boundaries. He spoke of the Kingdom of God or the Reign of God. How things would be if God had God‚s way. The qualities of that nation transcend nationalism. All humanity is included. All are recognized as children of God. Power is exercised in service. The highest value is love.

St. Paul described the differences eloquently toward the end of his letter to the Galatians. When he describes the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, he is describing the difference between the products of our lower levels of consciousness and the possibilities of our highest level of consciousness. He says, "the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these." That's a pretty complete list of the problems that arise when we let our animal instincts and our tribal affiliations rule our higher rational and spiritual self.

"By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things." If we want to be great people; if we want to be a great people, a great nation, these are the qualities we need to strive for. What if every legislator cast every vote by choosing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control instead of party politics and power? What if every employer and business created products and work environments that promote love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? What if every family lived in an atmosphere of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? What if every person lived in the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? 

What we would experience would be the evolution of human consciousness to a new way of being. That is the Kingdom Jesus calls us to. That is the nation God rules over. That is the fulness of life. Each moment we are evolving, growing in one direction or another. Choose this moment and this day to transcend your animal and tribal instincts, and embrace the vision of a higher way. The whole evolution of our planet is at stake.