Coming To Our Senses

Psalm 95: 1-5 & Genesis 1: 26-31

Roger Lynn

August 12, 2018

Breakfast Under the Big Sky

(there is no audio or video for this week – they will be available again next Sunday)

As living, breathing human beings who have been created in the image of God we have ways of perceiving reality that go beyond just what is possible through our five senses. We are spiritual beings as well as physical beings. We are more than just our bodies. But we are not less than our bodies. Much of how we experience the world around us, even its spiritual dimensions, happens through touching, tasting, hearing, seeing, and smelling. The ancient Hebrew people understood this. They had a holistic view of who we are as human beings – body and spirit are not separate and distinct, but deeply and intricately intertwined and interconnected. We see this understanding reflected in the worship practices of the church down through the centuries as well. Incense has been used, candles have been lit, bells have been rung, foreheads have been anointed with oil, communion wine has been shared. Various means have been used to engage our senses in the experience of worship. But in spite of such practices and deeply embedded understandings, all too often we forget. There seem to be so many forces conspiring to cut us off from sensual experiences – from the air-conditioned air we breath and the processed food we eat to the ways we are often encouraged to avoid touching each other or even looking at each other. We get out of touch with our senses, lose sight of our humanity, and become disconnected from God. 

So every once in a while it is important for us to be intentional about taking steps to help us remember. Occasionally we need to come to our senses, literally. That is the real reason why we bring our worship out to a setting such as this. It presents us with a fresh opportunity to rediscover the ways in which our senses connect us with the rich spiritual dimensions of our lives. Take just a moment to become aware of the world around you. What do you see? What do you smell? What do you hear? What do you taste? What do you feel? How long has it been since you last remembered to be aware of these sensations? Imagine that they are additional lines of connection linking you to God’s gift of creation. Imagine that they are additional pathways leading you to God. 

It is sometimes difficult for us to recognize the ways in which our senses expand our connection with God because it often takes a form that is something other than rational. I don’t mean irrational, but non-rational. Which is both its strength and its limitation for those of us who live so completely in the world of thoughts and logic and ideas. We spend lots of time thinking about God. Much of our experience of God is processed through the highly organized rational portion of our brains. So when we find ourselves presented with an experience that doesn’t fit neatly into a rational category we don’t always know what to do with it or how to make sense of it. What does the smell of pine trees teach us about God? How does the sound of the birds in the trees help us understand God’s love? The answers are not always obvious and apparent. But that absolutely does not mean there are no answers. We may not be able to find words to describe the answers. We may not be able to identify a list of ways in which our relationship with God benefits from these sensual connections. But if we pay attention, if we continue to practice “coming to our senses” then we most certainly will begin to experience an expanded and revitalized appreciation for God’s presence and activity in our lives.

Matthew Fox is a theologian who writes extensively about what he calls “Creation Spirituality.” Included in this view of life is an understanding of the important connection between sensuality and spirituality – between things of the senses and things of the spirit. In his understanding we experience God most completely in the very midst of our living in this very physical, sensual world. He writes, “Thus, a sensual spirituality is not one that merely tolerates the experiences of the senses; much less is it one that tries to “put to death” the senses. A sensual spirituality praises the gift of one’s senses – fingers and eyes, ears and olfactory nerves, tongue and imagination, nerves and brain waves and the Gift-giver. And it praises the Gift-giver neither abstractly by pious words or recited formulas nor asensually but in a decidedly sensual manner. That is, one celebrates the gift of these gifts by using them. Therein, as within any adult gift, lies the ultimate thank you or Eucharist or prayer: in enjoying and using and developing and sharing the rich potential of the senses.” (from  “WHEE! We, wee All the Way Home...A Guide to a Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality” by Matthew Fox)

Hints and clues and traces of God can be found all around us, and within us. May we remember to watch for God, and listen for God, and feel for God, and smell for God, and taste for God. May we remember to come to our senses. They are, after all, gifts from God, which God declared to be “very good.”