September 13, 2009

First Church and Parish in Dedham

Reading “The Gift of Water” Rumi

Someone who doesn’t know the Tigris River exists

brings the caliph who lives near the river

a jar of fresh water. The calif accepts, thanks him,

and gives in return a jar filled with gold coins.

“Since this man has come through the desert,

he should return by water.” Taken out by another door,

the man steps into a waiting boat

and sees the wide fresh water of the Tigris.

He bows his head. “What wonderful kindness

That he took my gift.”

Every object and being in the universe is

a jar overfilled with wisdom and beauty,

a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained

by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth

more shining, as though covered in satin.

If the man had seen even a tributary

Of the great river, he wouldn’t have brought

The innocence of his gift.

Those that stay and live by the Tigris

grow so ecstatic that they throw rocks at jugs,

and the jugs become perfect!

They shatter.

The pieces dance in water…

Do you see?

Neither jar, nor water, nor stone,

nothing.

You knock at the door of reality.

shake your thought-wings, loosen

your shoulders,

and open.

Sermon “The Water is Wide” The Rev. Rali Weaver

Imagine living just in front of a river, well not just any river but one of the two greatest rivers in the Middle East that define the boundaries of the Mesopotamian Valley. You have all the water you will ever need, and then your visitor as a thank you gift -brings you a jar of water.

I figure most of us at some time or another have received a less than perfect thank you gift. But I can’t imagine any of us receiving anything as bad as a jar of water when we have a river running through our back yard or pure drinking water from our faucets.

Seriously what do you think you would do if the Charles River came right up to the back door of your house where pure clean drinking water runs through your pipes and a guest to your home brings you a jar of water? I believe I would have a hard time offering even a simple “Thank you”.

I was thinking it might help us to understand this story better if today we considered our Water Communion Ritual to be instead of a Communion an Offering.

Imagine if you will - being the traveler in the story and bringing your water forward as an offering.

Since there is no running water in our Meeting House, and since the only water we ever see in this space nourishes the flowers on our altar, or occasionally is used in a baby naming, water in our context is a precious resource we can all appreciate.

It is also important to recognize that today is the only day in the entire church year that each of our offerings will appear exactly the same. Sure some of the water we bring will be from exotic faraway locations such as the coast of Greece while other offerings such as mine might be from someplace closer to home such as the kitchen sink, but no matter where our offering comes from it is all water, beautiful, pure, life-sustaining H2O.

In contrast the rest our yearly offerings will probably appear quite different.

For instance some of us will share our gifts through song by singing in the choir, while others by work behind the scenes to make sure the sound system works and others will sit in the pews and appreciate the music and tell their friends.

We will all be in service to the same goal but our offerings will be as different as deckled paper is from a tree.

I use this as an example because hand made rough paper and a tree hold a similar cell structure- one being the creator of the pulp and the other being created out of pulp. But their uses and their gifts are quite different. Paper serves as a vehicle to communicate while a living tree offers shade and comfort.

Our offerings on other days are as different as these, similar in structure and intention but different in make up.

Rumi points out that what we offer is bound by human nature to be different at all times.

This is emphasized by the Caliph’s gift when he gives the man a jar of gold coins.

Golden Coins.

This seemed a bit excessive to me until I learned that in most Middle Eastern countries, the tradition of giving an offering to the traveler (instead of to the host) is most common.

It wasn’t as though the Caliph was paying an exorbitant price for a resource he had plenty of. He was simply offering a gift to his visitor, as was the custom.

In this way it is not the custom of the Caliph to offer the better gift nor is it some socialistic impulse that causes him to offer gold coins for the jar of water. Instead it is simply the nature of his purpose. Just as the gifts we offer all year to this place are grounded in our own individual purposes and skills.

The water we offer in our service today is a beautiful example of how our individual gifts merge as one. Being the traveler and offering our gift we would naturally all receive something in return.

But does what we get in return here at First Church begin to compare to a jar of gold coins?

I don’t know. Only you can answer that because Rumi makes it clear that it is how the gift is received that makes it gold.

The man crossing the dessert to bring the Caliph a jar of water was probably offering his very best gift. Water would have been as gold to this man.

This is the first and most important thing for us to consider. As we offer our gifts to this community this year, we need to ask ourselves, not do they measure up to the gifts others bring, but are they the best offering we can provide?

Is this offering the best I can provide?

For the man who came across the dessert water would have been as valuable as gold to him.

Once he realized that the Caliph lived along a river the gift he received in return, the jar of gold, must have seemed overly generous. Even the offer of a ride in a boat for the next leg of his journey would have seemed as precious as rainwater in a draught to that man.

If I was that man I might have felt ashamed when I recognized the water I offered was not as precious to the Caliph as it was to me.

If I had known I certainly wouldn’t have brought water as my offering.

It is then that the poet Rumi explains that every drop of water in the Tigress makes the earth more shining. That the water is so wonderful that the people who live around it dance and grow so ecstatic that they throw rocks at jugs, and the jugs become perfect as they shatter.

Shattering jugs all along the shores of the Tigress sounds as though they are littering to me but Rumi assures us that even these shards of pottery are beautiful as they dance around the river.

With his poetic words he reminds us that “Every object and being in the universe is a jar overfilled with wisdom and beauty” if we only open our hearts and minds to enjoy it.

“shake your thought-wings, loosen your shoulders, and open.”

It isn’t the quality of the gift that matters. It is the way in which it is received.

If we can open to the treasures both given and received what marvelous riches are in store for us this year?

This is the part of the story I hope we rest in this year --the opening to whatever is offered with joy.

By opening to what is offered with joy the Tigress river is transformed from a messy river to a beautiful magical place. How might our own lives be transformed if we opened our hearts and minds to everything that is given as though it was as shining as gold?

As we move forward to our water communion and to this new church year may we shake our thought wings and trust that what we bring is the right gift in this time.

May we loosen our shoulders and receive all the gifts that surround us with the knowledge that every object and being we encounter is overfilled with wisdom and beauty.

And may our hearts open to whatever comes our way.