January 22, 2012

WHERE ARE YOU LOOKING?

Scripture – Psalm 139:7-12; Revelation 4:1-6, 21:1-2

Up, down, right, left, ahead, behind – topography and direction are everything. Depending upon whether you’re climbing a hill or descending a hill, you’ve got to walk in certain ways. When climbing, you must bend your knees, lean forward, and use a lot of thigh and calf muscle while tilting your foot to whatever degree the grade requires. When descending, you will keep your knees and legs straighter, somewhat lean backwards, and point your toes downward while digging in your heals so you can maintain an upright position. Left and right are kind of obvious – where do you want to go and which way do you have to turn to get there (unless you like running around in circles)? Anecdotally, some years ago I visited a member of the Chapel who was in her nineties and somewhat lamenting the fact that her family no longer let her drive to where they lived in Tampa. In fact, she told me that now she was only allowed to drive on Clearwater Beach (where her home had been for many years). She understood their concern – after all, she informed me, she was blind in one eye and only had about 30% vision in the other. I asked her, then, how she managed to get anywhere (promising myself that I would try to stay indoors whenever she was behind the wheel). Easy, she said, I only turn right. That’s correct – she had figured out how she could get to anyplace on Clearwater Beach by only turning right! Now…ahead and behind. If you walk backwards you are going to bump into things that you cannot see and, figuratively speaking, while it is important to know where we are coming from, it is unwise to dwell there instead of moving forward. But we also have to be careful about racing ahead without considering what might await us or making sure beforehand where we want to wind up.

Up, down, right, left, ahead, behind. This morning I want to talk primarily about up and down from several perspectives…most of them symbolical and psychological. And I want to begin with something I received by email from a friend. So, did you know…

The buzzard. If you put a buzzard in a pen that is six feet by eight feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will not be able to escape. The reason is that a buzzard always begins its flight from the ground with a run of ten to twelve feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain imprisoned for life in a small “jail” with no top.

The bat. An ordinary bat that flies around at night is a remarkable and nimble creature in the air, but it cannot take off from a level place. If it is put on the floor or any flat surface, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until or if it somehow reaches a slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

The bumblebee. A bumblebee, if dropped into an open jar or glass, will remain there until it dies unless it is taken out. It never sees a means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a route where none exists until it completely destroys itself.

There are lessons here for all of us because we are so much so often like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We so frequently go through life with our eyes, our hearts, our minds, our emotions, on the ground when “looking up”, figuratively speaking, could make all the difference in the world.

From a religious perspective, we have this idea that, more often than not, up is where God can most readily be found. That is also where we perceive heaven to be – up. Of course, this idea is an ancient one and originated when people who were scientifically far more primitive than we are held a belief in a flat earth theory which proclaimed that we live on a kind of disk, that we will fall off if we go too far, and that heaven is up and hell is down. Don’t we still talk about going up to heaven and down to hell, and isn’t this where they are supposedly located according to such entertainment media as literature and cinema as well as such artistic endeavors as paintings? Don’t we biblically create a scene in which, after the resurrection, Christ ultimately ascends into heaven to be reunited with God the Father? Don’t our Christmas visions portray the angelic announcement to the shepherds coming from above because that’s where we think God and angels dwell?

Of course, we now know scientifically that none of this is factually possible. We live on a globe in an immense universe…so immense that we cannot even begin to imagine its extensiveness. Up can be in any direction depending upon where one is on the planet – up from America is different than up from Russia is different than up from China is different than up from Africa. Up from the North Pole is directly opposite to up from the South Pole. And if the concept of “up to heaven” no longer makes sense factually, then neither does “down to hell”.

But this idea can have great and real power if considered symbolically. There is something soaring and majestic about mountains while valleys, which can be very beautiful, don’t produce the same feeling or effect. We all want to fly like eagles, not burrow like moles. So whatever the particulars of our beliefs in and about God, we want to find him “up there”…so that’s where we tend, in our minds, to look for him. It is uplifting (notice how that word is constructed) to think of God being “up there”…beyond our vision and limitations, and somewhat hidden from us in his awesomeness.

Revelation adds to the popularity of this concept by picturing a future world ruled by God from his throne “up there” in heaven. Indeed, in one of this morning’s scripture readings we find John seeing an open door in heaven and hearing a voice commanding him to, Come up here… And that’s where he finds God and his servants. Then, toward the end of the same book, we are told that John envisioned the creation of the new heaven and the new earth with the new Jerusalem “coming down” (which means it was up) out of heaven to the earth.

Now, the bible would never suggest that God can only be found “up there”, as shown by our lesson from Psalm 139. The reputed composer of this song, David, makes it very plain that God can be found anywhere and everywhere…even in Sheol (a kind of hell-like locale). But the portions that surely make us sit up and take notice go the other way – David talks about “ascending” to heaven and finding God; David talks about taking the “wings of the morning” (and aren’t wings used for flying “up there” in and through the air?) to get to the farthest limits of the sea…where God can also be found. So – God is a God of “everywhere”…but certainly one who lifts us above ourselves to various heights where we can become greater and better even as we go higher.

From a secular perspective, we live with the idea that looking up is a good thing to do – it is positive, it is productive, it is encouraging. We talk about feeling “up” as good while feeling “down” as bad. We don’t want to be “down in the dumps” because that shows and/or produces pain and anxiety. We want to have a “stiff upper lip” to demonstrate strength and fortitude – why wouldn’t a stiff lower lip be just as attractive? We are told to “stand tall” (even if we are short) because standing tall gets us as high as we can get without mechanical aid or equipment. We can get “high”, even without drugs or alcohol, through experiencing joy and excitement, hope and anticipation. And nobody enjoys being “let down” (gracefully or ungracefully), run down, put down, faced down, set down, or forced down. We want to “rise” in our professions as we “climb” the ladders of success. Up, up and away – that’s the way we all want to go.

I am dealing with words here…but words which convey concepts and attitudes. It’s hard to remain positive and purposeful if we spend most of our time and energy contemplating our navels or our feet (both of which are below our eyes). Perhaps that is why the great thinkers and dreamers are always portrayed as gazing upward…from whence their ideas and discoveries apparently come.

We all struggle…with problems, with frustrations, with disappointments, with failures, with anxieties, with hardships, with disillusionment. So how do we get out of the fixes we so often find ourselves in and the moods these usually produce? What is the source of our motivation to even try? It might be God – the one who we believe calls us to rise above where we now are to where we can go; the one who we believe is directing our attention “up there” as we try to climb out of the pits in which we are stuck; the one who we believe supports and pulls and lifts as we attempt to ascend to the heights he has set before us. Or it might be our own inner desire to improve our conditions and attitudes because we get tired of being where we are.

The builders of the Tower of Babel thought that if they could just construct their edifice high enough, they would reach the place where they would stand face to face with God. Jacob dreamt of a ladder rising to heaven on which angles ascended and descended. Moses climbed a mountain to find God speaking to him from a burning bush. Later he climbed a mountain to receive from that same God the commandments which were to be the guiding and governing force of what would become the nation of Israel…a mountain he had to climb a second time when the first tablets were destroyed because the people “down below” were worshiping their golden calf. And at the end of his life he stood on top of a mountain to view the land he had spent forty years wandering toward but which he would never enter. Jesus was symbolically taken by Satan to a mountaintop to see all the nations of the world when tempted to test God and use his power to accomplish his purposes the easy way. And whenever Jesus wanted to get away for awhile from the crowds that seemed to follow him wherever he went, he went up a mountain in his search for a bit of peace and quiet. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of being to the mountaintop and here seeing what could happen in the future regarding racial equality and justice. And people of faith throughout the centuries have had similar experiences. Mountains! Heights! Up!

I don’t know about you (although I don’t think we are different), but being down or looking down makes me feel lousy. And when I am in such moods, I don’t accomplish a whole lot of value. But looking ahead or looking up…ah, that’s different. I know it’s psychological and emotional and symbolic, but the feelings engendered are so different. Will looking up, then, solve all our problems? Of course not. But even such a small action or attitude might give us the inspiration and motivation to move positively forward…with or without faith in a higher (there’s that word again) being. And with faith…well, all the better (or so I believe).

How are you feeling this morning? Up or down, positive or negative, high or low? Remember: sorrow looks back, worry looks around; faith looks up. Perhaps one of the secrets of happiness is to live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and trust in the creator who loves us. I am convinced that such an outlook will keep us looking up and looking up will give us such an outlook. So…right now, where are you looking?

Rev. Herb Freitag