Sermon Preached at Northbrae Community Church, November 13, 2005 By Ron Sebring

· Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche had their campers right outside our sanctuary.

· The Film crew had their meals in our Haver Hall.

· The children in the movie ran through our hallways like all children do.

It was a lot of fun.

And informative, too, for we had the chance to see how a movie is made.

Connie and I signed up to be extras in the movie, took the BART over to San Francisco and were in the audience at the spelling bee championship.

The movie is based on a book by the same title, by Myla Goldberg.

About Jewish Kabbalah and how it plays out in the lives of four people.

The book and movie touch on several themes in Kabbalah.

That Movie is out, now, and last Friday, Connie and I went to see it.

When our scene came on, we leaned forward to find ourselves.

Couldn’t find Connie, who was the one excited about being an extra in a movie.

But there I was, noticeable because of the shine on my bald head.

As movies go, it seemed a little depressing. It needed some comic relief.

As I recall, the author of the book included this in her style of writing.

But as an art form, the movie’s depression is part of the message.

Here are four people on a spiritual search, wanting to experience God.

Each takes a different track and experiences the pain of the search.

· One of them gets lost in intellectualization.

· One of them goes insane.

· One leaves the religion of his birth and goes elsewhere.

· One makes contact, and allows the Divine in her to make a difference.

It seems to me that his movie is plotted according to an allegory from the Talmud.

Four Rabbis entered Paradise (Pardes). Only one returned. Rabbi Akiba warned them, "when you come to the pure marble stones, do not say, ‘water, water.’"

· Ben Azzai stared into the water and died.

As a metaphor, being intelligent but spiritually dead.

· Ben Zoma stared into the water and was stricken

This implies that he lost his mind. Went insane.

· Elisha ben Abuya stared into the water and "cut his plantings"

This refers to leaving his faith, the religion of his birth.

· Only Rabbi Akiba entered and left in peace.

Entering Paradise, communing with God, and having God live through him to heal the world.

Without giving away too much of the plot, this seems to be the path of the four through line in the movie.

· Saul, the Jewish Rabbi – Professor, became lost in his books and theories.

· Miriam, his wife, pursued the Light and ended up emotionally troubled.

· Aaron, his son, left Judaism to search in the Hari Krishna movement.

· Only Eliza, the little girl with a gift for spelling, found Truth and used it.

Healing the shattered world is the mission of Judaism. It is called Tikkun Olem.

The "Shattering of the Vessels" goes back to the writing of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria.

When the Jews were driven out of Spain, they settled in Safed, Israel.

"Safed" [SPhD] is a Hebrew form for word, "Spaniard."

They brought the Kabbalah with them, and Rabbi Luria made it popular.

He viewed the Light of God pouring down into creation, filling ten emanations or vessels (Sephiroth) until they shattered.

The twinkling husks fell to earth to incarnate every living thing.

So everything, good or bad, has a spark of God’s Goodness in it.

There is a story about the Bel Shem Tov who came to a village threatened by an evil monster in the woods.

The villagers wanted this Hasidic genius to go into the woods and get rid of the monster. After a few days of prayer, he went into the woods.

He found the dark mass of evil, slowly approached, stuck in his hand and pulled out the spark of goodness. Once the imprisoned goodness released, no longer was there a monster in the woods.

Pardes (Paradise, garden, orchard ) is an acronym for the four levels of Jewish Biblical interpretation (Torah studies).

· P’shat for the face-value or "literal" meaning of the text.

· Remez for the metaphoric or symbolic significance.

· Drash for Homiletical or "lesson" in the text.

· Sad for the deeper, ecstatic or mystical experience of the text at its archetypal depths (as in "praying" the scriptures).

It is my belief that the Lectio Divina, a famous Christian spiritual discipline, was derived from this method of gleaning inspiration from the scriptures.

The implication is that the further we go into the depths of the scriptures, the more precarious and tricky they become.

Inspiration, at the felt level of the letters, is how we let God in to heal the world through us. Not an easy level at which to work.

Kabbalah understands the universe as created and sustained by the archetypal powers both represented and evoked by the 22 Hebrew letters.

Based on this ancient belief going back into antiquity, Abraham Abulafia, a 12^th century Rabbi, founded the system appealed to in BEE SEASON.

 

One trap is to fall into too much intellectualization, thinking that we are "religious."

All religious experience can be "talked about" – creeds, doctrines, theologies.

The problem is in getting so wrapped up in talk that we fail to take the walk.

Another trap is to carry religion into insanity.

And we have only to look around the world today to see this:

· Television evangelist condemning whole cities, states, for they way they vote.

· States forcing schools to teach a religious mythology and calling it "science."

· End-time theologies controlling politics.

Religion can cripple whole societies.

A third trap is "cutting one’s plantings."

To explore "spirituality" by chasing the latest fad. And there is a regular smorgasbord out there. And we can go back for seconds. Thirds.

Stroll down the isles of any bookstore, and there are hundreds of titles promising "secrets" to spiritual fulfillment.

 

Staring into the water is the source of insanity, intellectualization, and discouraged abandonment.

And while I think that BEE SEASON’s portrayal of an ecstatic trance is a Hollywood cliché – quietism is a valid possibility – the idea of surrendering the ego to the Wisdom of Creation is indeed what it’s all about.

I grew up really not liking the parable that was read this morning.

A master goes on a vacation, and he gathers his servants to entrust his wealth.

To one he gives five talents, to one, two, to one, a single talent.

The first two invest and double theirs.

The one with the lone talent buries his.

The master returns and rewards the first two.

He rebukes the third.

And then we have this most unfair, unjust passage.

For those who have, more will be given.

For those who do not have, even what they have will be taken away.

Now what does that mean?

People interpret this according to material wealth, or personal abilities.

"Tithe," says the television evangelist. Give, and you’ll have prosperity.

"Invest in God." "Be rich."

A lot of "prosperity" talk surrounds this parable.

A little child taking music lessons and the teacher says, practice your piano or you’ll lose your "talent."

The mind of the Middle East thinks in metaphors.

And perhaps they would find it as strange that today’s world takes things so literally as we do struggling with their figurative language.

Perhaps "talents" refers to our "spiritual investments."

God given abilities to pray, or meditate, or to reflect and draw truth from our experience (prophecy).

To enter the Opus Magnum, Ignite the alchemic ovens and remold the Prima Materia.

The words of Jesus echo to us from the chambers of history:

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust consume and thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your hearts will be also."

Alchemy makes a lot from "salt" as a metaphor.

A powerful biblical symbol: "salt of the earth." "Don’t lose your ‘saltiness’."

Salt is a substance that wants to crystallize.

It wants to preserve. Indeed, it is used as a preservative.

It tends to purify, killing germs and neutralizing impurities.

And it wants to draw moisture into itself.

In our inner consciousness, it represents our tendency to fixate on something, to crystallize an image that we want to manifest, to purge our minds of distortions.

Metaphorically, let us remember …

Alchemy says that our tears are "crystallized thoughts," coming out of us.

It is the way we get rid of our pain, and fear, and sadness.

As our teardrop moisture dries, our excess saltiness is removed.

Crying gets rid of the images and thoughts that embody our tears.

Tears dissolves sadness.

Washing consciousness, cleaning the slate for new images.

The sadness in BEE SEASON. The sadness in all of our spiritual misadventures.

Whether from too much intellectualization,

Or suffering the fall-out of our religious insanity,

Or feeling spiritual emptiness and frantically searching.

This sadness cleans the slate for us to simply "let go" to God.

Inviting that spirit which Transcends us to move through us … we just effortlessly go along, whispering prayers of gratitude, and watching Spirit heal the world.

Our hands are God’s hands. We just need to give them over.