January 28, 2024: Nodual Love

Rev. Ian CumminsPoem referenced in sermon:The older I become, the more aware I amof mystery,especially in my faith.I think when I was younger, it might have frightened meto think of faith containing mystery;I valued thinking too much to entertain that notion.I wanted to know what was true, what was “right,”Studying, analyzing, knowing!Why, this mystery thing just might have spun me into far flunggalaxiesof uncountable, immeasurable, entitiesmuch as envisioned in the Hubble telescope -and now the Webb.The very idea!It feels so much more clear now that mystery doesn’t cancelmore empirical, nail-downable knowledge, the brain’s direct perceptions -but dances with them,and I relax into how much I’ve always loved imaginingas well as “knowing.”In this space, it’s tempting to say there is no black and white of itbut there is.God loves us. We are the beloved. Period.But what God’s loving means to us opens the doorto those galaxiesnot only of every shade of graybut of every color as well.Just looking out my study window, watching the aspen leaves dance,sometimes listening to music,I go to another placeas the undeniable presence of God, of Spirit, surrounds me,something ethereal courses through my veins,and tears of gratitude and awe gently well up.How I express this - what’s “seen” in the mystery,what’s experienced and felt, what this other knowing is -becomes the more difficult task.