Story for All Ages:
The Parable of the Herbs
(adapted from the Lotus Sutra.)
The Buddha acknowledged that his student did in fact understand importance of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sutra. When the student said he was concerned that all beings be able to hear the Sutra, the Buddha told him this parable.
Full knowledge of the truth is very important. Imagine for a moment, a vast forest. In the forest there is every kind of plant, from the largest flowers, to the oldest trees to the youngest sprouts.
Can you see all the plants in their variations, almost too many different types to name or count?
The Buddha continued:
These plants live together, side by side. Each of them seeking the same nutrients from the Earth, the same sunlight to feed them.
When the rain comes, clouds come from the West and cover the sky! And what happens when dark clouds come over the sky? That’s right… it rains.
And when the rain comes down from the cloud, each plant gets the water it needs to live, to thrive.
Each plant in the forest gathers water in it’s own way. Leaves are often shaped to trap water, and direct water to the plants’ roots. And there as many different leaf shapes as there are plants!
But even with all the diversity of plant leaves and plants, each plant gets the water it needs to live. And it uses the water to help it to reach it’s full potential of plantness. The sunflower becomes the sunfloweriest it can. So does the Birch tree. It becomes the most Birch tree-ish it can; so to do the fern, the shrub, the mushroom…. All of them use the same water, as best it suits them, to reach their potential.
They have the water in common. Whether they produce strawberries or thorns, the water unites them.
In the same way, no matter how a person worships, or practices their religion, even if they practice no religion, each person is nurtured by a common source.
Buddha called it The Wonderful Dharma, or Law, of the Flowering Plant. Other people call this source God. Some call this source Allah, The Great Goddess, and many other names.
Like the plants, some of us will use one idea to gather our nourishment, others will use a different method.
What is important though, more than the name used, is that you use the source to help you to become the best person you can be.
Pentecost: A Common Language
We are living in The Information Age. We have 24-hour news channels, Internet, and talk shows that come to our radios, televisions and NPR that uploads shows directly to my iPod.
Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.
It seems like no matter where we go, we can’t get away from the constant barrage of information, opinion and people trying to influence the way we think.
And no, I’m not blind to the irony that here I am on Sunday morning, talking.
What if we took time for listening? Really, deep, listening?
This morning’s readings told us the story of the Tower of Babel and the time of the Pentecost. Are we in our modern version of Babel? Or of Pentecost?
Are we instead, in a modern blend of the two?
Through the internet I can read papers from many lands, as long as I speak the language. And really even that’s changing. Google is introducing a new free service that will translate any language for you. It’s actually pretty amazing. Through skype and the internet I can speak with friends from around the globe. That doesn’t make Poalo’s English any better, and my Italian is so poor as to not really count as a language. I speak more like a parrot than a person.
But still the tool exists. And frankly, if 20 years ago, you had told me this technology would exist and be so common that I would have it in my own house, I would’ve thought you were nuts. Honestly, I expected flying cars, long before I expected personal, laptops with which I can literally talk to the world.
Is the Internet a tale about Babel or Pentecost?
There are many ways to consider and think about the stories of Babel and Pentecost. Pride and humility. Angry God and Loving God. Punishment and Grace are among them.
I’d like to suggest that instead of a dichotomy, we consider theses two paired stories as a continuum, in which our behavior and engagement in the world slides from one side to the other, seeking, hopefully, a balance in the middle.
Earlier I listed just some of the barrage of information and data heading our way on a daily basis. There is now so much information that we cannot possibly take it all in. Time was, not even so far back as a whole century, the town had one or two newspapers, and that was for your data input. Well, that and the local pub, or back fence, depending on your gender.
We used to have time to digest news.
The Reverend Alice Blair Wesley gave a series of lectures in 2000, on the history of religious covenant in the United States. In 1637 there were some families who founded the town of Dedham, Massachusetts. She gave the first lecture there. The men of Dedham decided that they needed to form a commonwealth and consider the founding of a church. They meet weekly, in someone’s home. Before the end of the weekly meeting the topic for next week’s meeting would be decided upon so that each speaker, man or woman, would be able to present quote “a considered opinion” on the question.
When is the last time you had a week to consider a question?
With all this data and information flying passed us seemingly every moment of the day, in someways, it can feel like we’re living in Babel. Even if the language is all my native tongue, there is so much of it as to render it confusing and meaningless.
Modern communication is both Babel and Pentecost. Confusion and salvation.
Through our modern technology, we can have friends from around the world. I have friends who’ve moved to Belgium, Germany and far-flung parts of this, our own country. I have friends that I made when I was the summer minister in a church outside of Manchester England. I have friends who speak many different languages than I do.
There are people we interact with on a regular basis for whom English is a second language.
When is the last time you sat with someone and just talked? When is the last time you sat with someone, for an hour, and didn’t pull out your laptop, cell phone or other communication device? When is the last time you sat with a friend, new or old, for an afternoon and didn’t have to care about what time it was?
We have made our own Babel.
And since we’ve proven we can do that, perhaps we can help bring our own Pentecost into being. We can plant the garden in which a Pentecost can grow. We can make space in our lives for the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, to come to us and to help us communicate passed all the noise, to communicate from one heart to another.
We can take time to engage the shop clerk in 90 seconds of actual engagement. Instead of the precursory “How ya doin’?” What if you looked in their eyes and asked them “How are you today?” and then waited for an answer?
What if you took the time to ask each person you met three questions about themselves, and not about your business transaction?
In some ways I think of the gift of the Pentecost as a break from the babble of multiple languages, not just as a tool to teach what the Lord said, but also to listen. Most people approach the story of the Pentecost from the point of view of the people in the room. They were able to speak, through some miracle, so that each person outside the room could hear the message in their own tongue.
But what if we considered the miracle from the point of view of the listeners? What if the real lesson here isn’t about speaking, but listening?
Like the Parable of the Herbs where the water reached each herb, as the herb was, and helped the herb to reach it’s full potential as the herb it was meant to be, so too is the ability not just to hear the myriad of sounds that go by us every moment, but to understand and discern what’s being communicated.
Imagine the shock and amazement you might feel if suddenly, instead of hearing a thousand different sounds, and dealing with a hundred distracting thoughts, you were able to hear, really hear and understand your neighbor; your beloved.
Your “enemy.”
From the Christian Century in an article on the Pentecost: “What would it look like if in our worship, our speaking truth to power, we invited the Holy Spirit among us to bring the miracle of understanding? What would happen if amid our ongoing speaking in our native tongues and world-views and truths, we could at least marvel at understanding what the other was saying, whether or not we could shout amen? What if I could at least grasp that had I been shaped by another’s life, and that I might think as another does, even though my life shaped me to think that person is dead wrong?”
Susan Werner wrote, in a song called “Forgiveness” these lyrics.
How do you love those who never will love you
Who are happy to shove you out in front of the train
How do you not hate those who would leave you lie bleeding
While they hold their prayer meeting
How do you love those who never will love you
Who are so frightened of you they are calling for war
How do you not hate those who have loaded their Bibles
And armed their disciples, ‘cuz I don't know anymore
And I can't find forgiveness for them anywhere in this
And with God as my witness I really have tried
How do you love those who never will love you
I think only God knows and he is not taking sides
I hope one day he shows us how we can love those
Who never will love us but who still we must love
What Ms. Werner is looking for is understanding. She is acting as the hearer, asking how we can love those with whom we don’t agree. How can she practice the love she believes God wants her to, when the people she’s supposed to love are actively engaged in ways that not only confuse her, but actually leave her feeling frightened and threatened.
The answer may be less pleasant than we’d like.
We have to put ourselves out in the world, and hold our arms wide and our ears open. We have to take on the responsibility of being the ones who offer the olive branch of peace first. If we want peace and understanding, we must be prepared to offer it to the world.
In the story from Acts, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, and allowed the people to hear each other.
If we understand the message of Pentecost, not as a story about the speakers, but the hearers, the focus of the story shifts from that of the message, to a story about understanding. Through this understanding the people can come together. And through coming together, they can effect change.
If we want to create a Heaven on Earth, we must strive to learn to hear and understand one another.
If we want to help the homeless on the street, the women struggling with reproductive choices, the new immigrant who left his entire family of origin so that his children might have a better life, we have to learn to hear. And then we need to learn to speak, speak the language of those we are called to help.
Theodore Parker said “Ours is not a Sunday Morning religion, but a religion for all seven days.” Go into the world and practice spreading your arms open wide to the world, exposing your heart. Try to make a habit of asking each person three questions. Practice listening to the people around you. If the world is to be made a better place, then we are the ones who must start the work.
Many blessings for your journey.
