Sermons at St. John's Presbyterian Church

Soul arch: PreparAtion to Strength and Grace

Transcribed from the sermon preached May 1, 2011

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8, John 21:1-17

It is often said that the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.  It is a strange thing that discipline and knowledge build confidence, but they often build humility too.  Now it is important to note the difference between low self-esteem and humility.  Low self- esteem means you feel bad about yourself, about who you are or what you do.  Low self-esteem makes you feel like your effort isn’t worth the time.  Humility takes and honest look at who we are and where we are, notes faults and weaknesses and the complexity of life around us, but through grace, moves forward with power and confidence. 

So Grace is key.  It may be that the most frequent theological statement or question I get from people is, “I don’t fully understand grace.”  Grace is one of those mysterious words that is never fully understood intellectually.  So don’t worry.  Grace is a word and concept that you should stew in and meditate on for a while, like for the rest of your life.  And as long as you and I are here on Sunday morning, you will get a dose of Grace every week.

A beautiful and graceful move in surfing is called a soul arch.  It is likely one of the oldest moves, evolving from and perfected by royalty in ancient Hawaii.  It is not the hardest move, nor the most spectacular.  You may see it or do it in one foot surf or twenty foot surf.  The most likely place you may have seen it is in one of the seventies surf movies; a long boarder steps up to the nose then arches back and up to the sky.  It tends to be spontaneous, something that is drawn out of the surfer as he or she mimics the arch and circular power of the wave.  The soul arch is invoked, deeply spiritual and yet playful. 

The soul arch is regal in that the surfer stands tall and proud.  It evolves from a power or warrior stance, which seeks to match power with power.  The warrior is both grounded and forward moving.  When you have stood tall and stepped forward, when the surfer is as we say, “Locked in” to the power of the wave, then the wave asks you to let go, to flex deep, to do a soul arch.  It is a grace filled act. 

This past winter of 2010 and 2011, Andy Irons, a two-time world champ well known and loved in Hawaii and around the world died on his way home from a competition in Puerto Rico.  The day of the memorial service in Hawaii, Kalani Chapman, a local Hawaiian and friend of Andy paddled out to surf Pipeline, one of the heaviest, most competitive and dangerous waves in all the world.  The surf was pumping, throwing round and thick barrels offering up the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.  Chapman stroked into a second reef bomb, pulled a freight train rolling down hill bottom turn, swung around under the lip, set his inside rail, leaned back to stall for a very brief moment, stepped forward strong.

At this very moment, a perfectly defined, very thick lip of water threw over his head.  Now believe me when I tell you he is in a very critical, terrifying and life threatening situation.  Yet, at this most critical moment, Kalani switches from his powerful warrior stance into an arching prayer posture.  Just then he disappears behind the rolling tube of water and, as the compression explodes from within the wave, a blast of water, air and Kalani come shooting out of the wave.  Later, he would explain, I wanted to offer up a prayer for Andy.   Beyond fear, beyond work and beyond power is grace.  "O death, where is thy victory?  O death, where is thy sting?"

We see and feel grace in forgiveness and love that endures trials and hardships of relationship.  We see and feel grace in almost every aspect of life, in art and writing, in music, dance and sport.  It is the moment when hard work and practice, when the effort and work toward an ideal transcend the effort, the work and the ideal.  Grace is the intuitive insight in mathematics.  I have known musicians who were hard working and technically superior, yet did not seem to have grace.  The perfection was too important, personal expectation and pride too great to let grace flow.  We enjoy grace as the musician who has practiced so much that task and technique are forgotten and the music plays the musician.  Time slows down and even stops and we rest in the flow of the eternal present.  The effort and power of ego give way and we feel united with a force larger than ourselves.  Now it is the knowledge or experience of this force larger than ourselves, which lends humility, a sense that even in our most glorious moment, we are a mere small player in this amazing life.  We have tapped a truth and beauty that is greater than ourselves, that deep Word of God below the river bed, the ancient energy of the divine wave, and despite ourselves, we get to be a part of it.  Wow! And that is when we just can’t help it. We’ve got to do a soul arch.

Isaiah gives us a great example of Grace.  Isaiah is a temple priest.  He has been groomed for the job for his entire life.  He studies scripture and prays every day.  He is a pro.  He has all the robes and tassels, he knows the temple and the other priests and royalty.  Isaiah is a big man in town.  He has reason for pride.

The problem is that the ruling elite have grown corrupt, the land and common people suffer.  Now Isaiah is the Priest for the elite, they are the ones who provide him with the job.  And it sounds like he and the other priesthood have been preaching peace, peace, when there was not peace.  So one day Isaiah enters the temple, perhaps right off the bat during his ordination service, when after all the hard work and preparation he becomes an official member.  He enters the sanctuary and the foundations of Isaiah’s world are shaken.  He realizes he is part of this ruling elite, this system that has gone wrong, this priesthood that has been afraid to tell the emperor that he has no clothes.  And Isaiah is struck by the holiness of God…Woe!  Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.  Then Seraphim, a crazy looking six-winged creature takes a coal from the fire and purifies Isaiah’s lips.  This is a baptism by fire.  There, facing his own shame, shining bright under the light of God, Isaiah is cleansed and receives grace.  You see, despite the fact that Isaiah has come from among these elite who spew out lies and injustice, God needs a spokesperson. 

So here is the thing; as he is cleansed, he is no longer focused on how talented, smart, rich and well trained he is, nor is he focused on how slimy and unholy he is; he goes beyond both to focus on what God is calling for, what God needs.  Whom shall I send?   God asks.  “Here I am Lord, send me.”

The result is, Isaiah becomes a tough and honest prophet of God, and we have one of the greatest pieces of prophetic literature ever produced in the history of the world.

In our story from John this morning, some of the boys are together back in Galilee after the crucifixion.  Jesus showed up to Mary, then to the disciples in the upper room eight days later.  Now, we don’t know how long it has been, but they are back in Galilee. 

Maybe it is because they need to work, or perhaps because Peter finds grace and peace on the water, but he says,  “I’m going fishin!”  The others, having nothing better to do, join him.  They go out all night and catch nothing.  Then, on their way in some stranger on the shore says, cast your net on the other side of the boat.  And wouldn’t you know it, they catch a huge load of fish.

Remember the movie A River Runs Through It?

In the afternoon, we would walk with him...             

while he unwound

between services.

He almost always chose a path

along the Big Blackfoot...                  

which we considered our family river.

It was there he felt his soul restored

and his imagination stirred.

Long ago rain fell on mud

and became rock.

Halt a billion years ago.

But even before that,

beneath the rocks...

are the words of God.                  

Listen.

And if Paul and I listened

very carefully all our lives...       

we might hear those words.

Even so, Paul and I received as many

hours of instruction in fly-fishing...

as we did

in all other spiritual matters.

As a Presbyterian,

my father believed...

that man, by nature,

was a damn mess...

and that only by picking up

God's rhythms...

were we able to regain

power and beauty.

To him, all good things, trout as well

as eternal salvation, come by grace. 

And grace comes by art,

and art does not come easy.”

So here we are on this side of the resurrection. If Jesus who embodied the Spirit of God is killed, why would we fare any better?  But here we are none the less, with visions of miracles and grace which show the Spirit of the Lord is alive and well, inviting us to fish, to eat, to serve.

We have to develop talent and knowledge, and we have to work, but after that, above and below that, we are carried by grace.  Grace frees us from focus on perfection, on the law, it frees us from sin, it frees us from fear of death as it unites us with the eternal love and beauty of God. 

[3] And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
[4] but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
[5] Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist,
and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.
[6] The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.