So what are you working on these days Northwood? What life task are you working on? We are all working on something. When we are little, we work on the ‘3 R’s: reading, writing and arithmetic. As we get a little older, we work on social skills: ‘play nicely with others’ (some adults it seems are still working on that one…but I digress). Other skills might include driving; balancing life’s many responsibilities… relationships, family, parenting, grandparenting, aging, dealing with illness. You are quite amazing in the life’s skills you have navigated and are working on! So, what life’s task are you working on right now?
One life task that you are working on, one we might not be consciously even thinking about, is integrating the unfolding of our life. Life integrity is the existential work of wondering what this life has really been all about; of living well; of the legacy of your life. Many of you will recall the work of the psychologist Erik Erickson from the last century. Some of his contemporaries were other thinkers like Freud, Jung and Piaget. Erikson put forth a series of life tasks that range from childhood through our elder years. And his final task was the work of life integration. It was the beautiful work of weaving one’s life together and either feeling a sense of integrity or feeling a sense of despair. This work of “ego integrity” Erison suggests occurs in later adulthood and falls along the poles of feelings of achieving a feeling of either: “Integrity vs. Despair”. One might feel a sense of integrity with their life as they answer questions about how well they lived; how meaningful their life has been; the way in which they have accepted the story of their life. The other side of this challenge, despair, might be found in ways that people look back and feel deep regret, bitterness or a sense of wasted opportunity in their life’s journey. As you take this in, does this ~ perhaps ~ resonate with some of your ponderings of life? Integrating your life, finding resolution, sharing legacy… or a feeling of more work to do resulting in despair. Integrity and despair.
As we focus upon the texts this morning, I would like to suggest that they highlight this natural yearning of the human condition to move towards integration…to resolve, to heal, to pass on to others…to come home. Jesus’ actions of remaining faithful to God through the temptation narratives, and the garden of Eden: humanity’s desire for homecoming with God.
Beginning our focus upon the Garden, I will suggest, represents our natural human resting place; our human state of comfort when we feel ‘home’; deeply in the presence of God. The Garden is the place where Adam and Eve are intimately connected with Creator and Creation, walking in harmony with the Holy. The beginning, this is when humanity ~ Adam and Eve ~ walked in full communion with God. Now, as we look at this text, we remember that there is a wide range in which scholars view it. Very few view this text literally. Was there ‘really’ a couple named Adam and Eve? You will have your own answer. I will note that, ALL religious scholars view the Adam and Eve story as one offering a deep truth. And many view it as having truth through the power of myth. Joseph Campbell did a lot of work around myths. What is a myth? Campbell proposed myths not as a false story, but rather as a living, symbolic narrative conveying deeper truths about our human experience. Campbell is remembered as saying: “Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.”
And so, as we thin about integrity and despair, what Adam and Eve narrate is this human longing in life we all have to come home…to integrate our life, to heal and find wholeness, to find forgiveness, to pass on a deep legacy to the generations to come. It is the ongoing yearning of seeking a feeling of coming home; of feelings life well lived: a feeling of a life lived with integrity. When Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden, they leave with a sense of despair and separation from God. And the human search ~ Adam and Eve’s (and ours) ~ is that of moving integrating our life as a whole and finding a way ‘home’. For Adam and Eve, they begin to feel the pains of hunger and the separation from God. And in our human condition, we have these parallel feelings rippling through our dark nights as we seek healing, forgiveness, and move towards a feeling of wholeness. Adam and Eve’s journey is also ours as we seek to integrate our life’s story.
Shifting to the gospel text, we see the temptation story of Jesus through the lens of Matthew. This text reveals the deeply human part of Christ and the human temptation to walk away from God. The tempter offers three temptations. They appeal to Jesus’ physical needs, tempting Jesus with the offer of turning stones into bread; the appeal to our spiritual pride: throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple and you will not dash your foot against a stone. And lastly, there is the human desire for power and glory when Jesus is promised all the kingdoms of the world. Each of these temptations: physical needs, spiritual pride, power and glory….all would take Jesus’ in his humanity away from being fully God! Each temptation would be a parallel to Adam and Eve eating the fruit and leaving the garden. Each one would shift towards despair and away from a life of integration with God! Jesus’ denial is that profound teaching and call to do the challenging and wonderful work of: healing, of wholeness, of completion…of feeling a life’s integrity. Feeling a life well lived!
I should pause and credit the source that guided some of this reflection’s thinking. I attended a recent course in Death Doula training. Doula is the Greek word that gives us servant. So, a ‘death doula’ is a person who serves/ cares for the dying person and their family. It is something that many of you have already done and something that continues to be a part of my pastoral ministry at the church. This is a powerful new movement in end-of-life care that has been a gift to people who are in a time of hospice and palliative care. The founder of the movement, a social worker named Henry Fersko-Weiss, shaped much of his thinking around Erikson’s final life stage we have been touching upon. And in the end of life, to support one in having a “good death” (as he calls is) centres around one’s finding healing from their struggles in life, finding forgiveness in broken relationships with self and others, and realizing a growing awareness of love around them. It is that deep sense of life integration, of integrity, as we look back upon our life’s journey that allows one to feel whole and complete as they prepare to take their final breaths. I took the course to further enhance my pastoral work in dying and grief care; however, this thinking behind it prompted our Lenten focus this year. It is this yearning of Adam and Eve to journey back to the Garden. It is Jesus’ denial of the temptations and choosing to walk fully with God. And perhaps, it is also for us, our call to live more fully with God in our Lenten preparations towards Easter as we live more deeply into our faith. I loved the death doula’s approach of caring for people in their last days, but I got to thinking: ‘why should we wait until to do this beautiful and healing work of life integration in our final days?’ Why not actively work on this beautiful experience of finding a life that is based in forgiveness; a life that is always seeking healing; a life that works towards wholeness; a life that is witness of God’s love now!
In the 40 days ahead, I hope you will ponder with me if our work is that of more fully seeing to ‘come home’. Come home from those areas that we may feel alienated. Come home from those areas we feel isolated. Come home and feel fully present with God. The temptation in our lives are less about turning stones into bread or seeking power; however, they may feel more like being alienated from oneself. Those areas that take us away from our true self are things like seeking forgiveness and restoration of relationships. It is about living a life that matters to others, and pondering the legacy that is left for them. It is the ways in which your life touched another’s with love, teaching and grace. This is the work of coming home as we integrate our humanity and see where God’s beams of light shone through.
We are going to stay along this course of life’s integration over the coming weeks as we examine it through the journey of lent. The challenge of walking the journey with depth and integrity, walking towards the heart of God.
May we walk the journey of Lent with faith and hope. Amen.