BREATHE!
Psalm 150; Genesis 2:4b-25
April 25, 2010 – Rev. Jerry Duggins
Breathing
is important to me… as it is for all of us. So take a deep breath… Take
another… I remember hearing once that one of the reasons people are so tired
all the time is that they forget to breathe. Their whole day is spent in this
shallow kind of breathing, just pulling in enough air to get them to the next
moment. Those who practice yoga may well be aware that one of the things you
can do to increase your energy level through the day is simply to remember to
periodically take a few deep breaths.
Those
who have taken natural child birth classes will have learned a variety of
breathing techniques designed to mange pain and bring focus into the birth
process. If I remember correctly all these breathing patterns began and ended
with a “cleansing breath,” a deep breath that steadies the woman as she enters
a contraction or calms her as one finishes. It introduces energy and focus.
Breathing becomes a part of the rhythm of child birth.
One
of my few vivid impressions from childhood must have occurred while I was ill
with pneumonia. If I think about it, I can still feel what seemed like an
enormous weight bearing down on my chest, forcing the breath from my lungs. I
remember quite distinctly at the age of 4 or 5 being quite afraid that I would
not be able to take another breath.
Perhaps
this is why I’ve always associated breathing with life; not just the life of
the body, but the life of the mind, and the life of the soul as well. Breath is
for me the very seat of creativity. Those who master the art of breathing are
able to create some extraordinary things.
Some
say it takes a keen eye to reproduce beauty on canvas, or sensitive hands to
create fine sculpture; but I believe that it is breath that gives life to art.
My daughter has sometimes mentioned how important the right kind of breathing
is for music, whether vocal or instrumental. But how many paintings began with
a deep breath? Or what of those moments in the artistic process that required
holding the breath? There are few activities or endeavors that cannot be
improved by paying attention to the breath.
So
I want us to think about the breath today and I want to begin with this idea
from the Psalm that everything that “has breath” is called to praise God. We
should not be surprised, of course, to find in the worship literature of
Judaism an emphasis on praise; but to see it take precedence over obedience may
be quite shocking; as no less an authority than Walter Brueggemann writes; “the
expectation of the OT is not finally obedience but adoration.”1 In
the end faith is not about adherence to the Ten Commandments but about
marveling at the wonders of creation. Meister Eckhart understood this when he
wrote: “This then is salvation – when we marvel at the beauty of created things
and praise their beautiful creator.”
At
our best, we understand this, but we are practical people. The
Psalm 150 asks believers to do something apparently
pointless – the thing most antithetical to our culturally conditioned
understanding of human industry. If secular culture defines us so that we hope
through praise to gain something tangible – wealth, health, happiness, or fame
– then we will find praise useless and the act of praising superficial. However,
if we understand praise as our ultimate
expression of loving recognition to God, then we can begin to imagine our part
in what God receives as Psalm 150 crescendoes among creation.2
“Let
everything that has breath praise the Lord!” Ironically, those who have breath
are called to bear witness to wonders that take the breath away. It’s not
practical, serve no useful function. One might say it is unproductive and yet
praise is as essential to the life of faith as breathing is to the life of the
body.
One
might make similar observations about art. There are those who have no use for
art except as a commodity. Art, too, draws our attention to beautiful things
either in an effort to reproduce beauty or to challenge our notions of beauty.
Many people have no patience or time for art. There are bills to pay, meetings
to attend, groceries to buy, meals to make, rooms to clean, clothes to wash.
Our lives are incredibly busy with “productive” matters. They are filled up
with shallow breathing.
I
have an large photograph of a bleeding
heart plant done by an artist that hangs over our bed. When I pause to look at
it, the moment is like taking a deep breath in the midst of a busy day. There
is a frame containing three black and white photographs of my children taken by
Janet which I see every time I leave my bedroom that fills me with wonder and
evokes that soft spot in my heart for my children. It too, represents a deep
breath in my life. I see gardens as works of art and they remind me to breathe.
I listen to a wide variety of music and when I attend a concert, it often
becomes a deep breath. Seeing the work of young artists as they nurture their
own creative spirits reminds me to pause and wonder at that creative spirit
that God has placed in each of us.
If
we breathe at all, we have something of God within us, something of beauty;
maybe not practical, but nevertheless worthy of praise. If I had a favorite
scripture, it would probably be from this text in Genesis 2 in my own
translation: “then the Lord God formed the earth creature from the dust of the
ground and breathed into the nostrils the breath of life; and the earth
creature became a living being.” It may sound a little odd to say “earth
creature” but the Hebrew clearly intends us to see the link between Adam which is often translated man, and adamah, translated as ground. The Bible
clearly intends us to understand, if you will forgive the pun, that human
beings are rooted in the soil from which they were made. This has enormous
consequences for understanding our relationship to the earth and our
responsibility for it. But today I want us to hear the second half of the
verse, that life derives directly from the breath of God. It is no accident
that inspiration and respiration share the same root word. We breathe because
God breathed into us.
We
do not always acknowledge it, but creativity has its ultimate source in God.
When you breathe deeply, remember this. And remember to breathe deeply often.
This is what sabbaticals are all about. Sometimes in the work of day to day
ministry, one forgets to breathe deeply. This applies not just to the pastor,
but to the congregation as well. We can fall into routines that are not healthy
or life-giving. We need to step back and ask if this way of doing things is
still beautiful. As the Lily Endowment who is funding this sabbatical puts it:
we are engaged in a journey to discover what makes the heart, our heart sing.
Today,
as we move forward on the sabbatical journey, we take one deep cleansing
breath; and when Janet and I return at the end of August, we will take another
deep cleansing breath; and we will ask together; “What has God shown us in this
time?” Please, understand that this is your sabbatical time as well. You have
the greater challenge of discovering God’s beauty while remaining in place. The
planning team has generated several possibilities to help. I hope that you will
take advantage of them and participate in the activities. They are designed not
to be busy work, but opportunities to breathe deeply, to reflect on where God
has led us and where God might lead us in the future. Whatever happens this
summer, remember to breathe. Breathe deeply and know that God is a God of life
and love and peace and hope. Breathe deeply and celebrate the wonders of God in
this place. We have much for which to thank God. May our praise reflect a
recognition of God’s love and the beauty of creation and Creator, through whom
we live and breathe and have our being. Amen.
1 Brueggemann, The Message of the
Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1984), p. 167.
2 M. Ashley Grant, in Feasting on
the Word Year C vol. 2 edited by
David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (