Remember (Monk On The Mic Ep 5)

Identity and Belonging. We long for these - to know who we truly are and where our place is. Our *true* Origins Story has within it clues as to not just who and whose you are and where your place is; but also how to find these. It all begins when you Remember and Awaken to the reality that has been around you all along. Join Mark Gladman in this beautiful ride that literally begins at and returns to dust, and awaken to the truth of your identity and belonging that has been before you all along.

Transcript

Well hello my friends,

This is Mark Gladman also known as Brother Frederick James,

Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks,

And welcome to another episode of Monk on the Mic,

The Monk in Docks podcast,

And this is episode five,

Remember.

Now,

I love documentaries,

And recently I watched a documentary about sustainable land use,

And one of the fascinating things about sustainable land use is this thing they call fallowing.

When someone who grows crops fallows their land,

What they do is essentially nothing.

They just set the land up and then leave the land alone for fallow.

Now,

Despite fallowing being about essentially doing nothing,

There are different ways to fallow.

There's a way where you spread aged compost on the land and leave it to soak into the soil over the time of fallowing.

Then there's one where you plant a cover crop and then just let it go au naturel.

You don't do anything,

You just let it grow and then the crop seeds and then it dies and then basically compost itself back into the soil again.

That's called a green fallow.

Then there's a black fallow,

Which is kind of the opposite to a green fallow,

Where the farmer will till the soil just as a way to control the weeds,

But then they'll just leave it for the time of fallowing.

But in every case,

Once the soil is set up and once that setup is done,

The common denominator is that the land is left alone and you do nothing else on the land for the time of fallowing.

They just leave it.

It could be left from as little as one season to as much as five years,

But most commonly the farmer will leave the land for around one year.

Now,

Question,

Why would the farmer do that?

Well,

You've probably guessed that farmers fallow their land because in the process of leaving the soil alone and doing nothing on or in it,

The soil itself doesn't do nothing.

During the fallowing time,

The soil is replenishing nutrients,

It's drawing up potassium and phosphorus,

It's drawing down carbon,

It's raising levels of nitrogen and organic matter,

It's improving water moisture retention,

It's increasing healthy microorganisms in the soil.

It's doing a bunch of stuff.

And because it doesn't have to pass any of that onto the plants that are growing in it,

The soil gets truly revitalized and returns to the state that it was in once before.

Its healthy state,

Fully connected to all the things that make it thrive.

In many ways,

What's happening during the fallowing time is the soil remembers what it was,

Returns to what it should be,

And continues to do what it does best.

Now,

When you sleep or take a nap,

Or sit under a tree and do nothing,

You actually don't fully rest.

Because while you're unconsciously dreaming about weird stuff,

Your body is as busy as the soil when it's fallowing.

At any given moment in time,

Whether you're asleep or awake for that matter,

Your body is replenishing itself.

It's regrowing,

It's replacing,

It's renewing.

And it's doing so at a rate that the cells in your skin and gut and red blood cells get replaced within months,

Your skeletal systems replaced,

Or the cells in it are replaced every 10 years.

330 billion cells in your body are replaced every single day.

But wait,

There's more.

98% of the atoms in your body are replaced every single year with another atom.

Now,

There's a finite number of atoms in the universe,

Which means that the atoms that make up you right now,

At some point,

Were atoms that made up someone or something else.

I know,

Right?

The atoms that made up you could have been a duck or a chair,

Or water or a leaf or Donald Trump or Queen Elizabeth the second or a motorcycle exhaust,

Or all of the above and more at any given point in time.

And by the way,

Those atoms are 99.

99999999996% space,

Which means you are technically 99.

1296% hollow,

In which case that says something about how empty we really are.

Just joke.

But it's true.

We are mostly empty space,

But that's just a side thought.

But what makes this atom thing and this atom sharing thing even more amazing is that when those atoms hit your body,

They somehow know where to go and what to do and how to configure themselves to other atoms in order to make up the cells that become you and not a duck or a chair or water or a leaf or Trump or the Queen or a motorcycle or what have you.

And the atoms know how to do this because each cell in your body has a code in it,

Six feet of DNA in every cell with three billion or so letters of code written on those six feet of DNA that are in every cell.

And what's amazing about these cells is they have this amazing thing in them because of this DNA that could be described as memory.

So the atoms within these cells can change and switch.

And because of this,

The cells themselves replenish and renew.

But the cells have within them a memory that means that the particles that make them up will always be built and put together in a way that will bring them together as you,

Your body,

And not someone else.

In essence,

Your body remembers what it is and returns to what it should be so that it can continue to do what it does best and that is being you.

Now at this point,

I'm going to do the logical thing and I'm going to head all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

Genesis,

At the start of the Bible,

Is full of origin stories.

Marvel didn't make those things up.

Origin stories have been around for eons in tribes and cultures all over the world.

Origin stories do a number of things but the thing I want to hone in on is the thing that these stories do in giving us place and identity.

Now,

There will be many people who will tell you that the origin story at the start of the Bible is about a failed people who get evicted from a garden and or the presence of God for messing up.

But as I like to say,

And I'm sure others do too,

That Genesis 3 exists should remind us that there is a Genesis 2 and a Genesis 1.

But hold that thought for a second because ancient literary experts believe that Genesis 1 through Genesis 2 verse 3,

Chapter 2 verse 3,

Has a completely different author than Genesis chapter 2 verse 4 to the end of Genesis chapter 2.

And that these are actually two very different origin stories.

And if you read them carefully knowing that they are two stories written by different authors,

You'll see this to be true.

Similar,

Yes they are,

But different,

Not just in focus and content and genre and the literary devices that are used and the tone and the diction,

But also in their purpose.

Either way,

The fruit eating account in Genesis 3 comes after the two stories from Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.

And there's something important that we need to remember about these two stories.

They are our first origins,

Not Genesis 3.

And as a result,

Genesis 1 and Genesis 2,

In my opinion,

Should be the stories that give us place and identity.

So Genesis 1 tells us of a God who comes into chaos and brings order.

And at the end of that bringing about of order,

Decides to make a being who is made in the image of this God,

Who is doing the creating.

And when this God makes this being,

God invites the being to look after the world that they are being brought into.

And then when God looks around at all that has been made,

Including the being,

God sees that it is not good,

But God sees that it is very good.

And then God takes a rest.

Genesis 2 tells the story of a God who makes an earth that has nothing in it except dirt and water.

And then the God takes the dust of the earth,

The dirt,

And forms a human.

And then this God,

And I quote,

Breathed into the humans nostrils the breath of life,

And they became a living thing.

Then this God plants a garden,

And He gives the human the job of caring for this garden.

And then God makes animals and He brings them to the human to give them names.

But God notes that even in naming them,

There's no suitable partner found.

So God puts the human to a deep sleep,

Takes a rib from them while they sleep,

And makes a partner for them from the rib.

And it says at the end of chapter two,

That they were naked,

And they felt no shame.

Now what do we make of these origin stories?

Well,

The first one seems to tell us of a relational God.

You'll note that the text uses the language let us,

Which assumes that this God exists in some sort of relational plurality.

And so it's a relational God.

And it tells us of a God who is also creative,

Who creates humans to be just like them,

I.

E.

Relational and creative.

And the humans are invited into partnership with this God to care for the creation that have been brought into.

And when God looks at all of it,

And all of them,

This God says,

It is very good.

The second origin story seems to tell us of a God who makes a human before almost anything else.

This human's made of the earth,

Which the writer tells us at that point was dust and water.

But God does something special.

This God breathes into the nostrils of this human,

Which means that the God themselves is the very animating breath of humanity.

Then these people who have this breath are invited to participate with God to care for and steward the world that this God has created.

And note that the end of the chapter,

There is no shame at all standing naked.

Think about that,

Or what that might mean figuratively.

Now,

There was no shame about standing naked before God.

All of this happens,

And I repeat,

All of this happens before serpents and fruit and lies and animal skins and sweat and labor pains and leglessness and eviction and flaming swords.

These things are not our origin story.

They're a story of passage,

But they're not our origin.

Our origin story is the other two stories.

And those two stories,

Our origin stories,

They are stories of goodness and relationship and participation and partnership and place and identity and living breath and no shame.

Which leads us to the important question,

Why is this not the origin story we generally hold to?

I mean,

Why do we find it so hard to accept this about who we are and where we are?

Why is it so difficult for us to make this our point of return in terms of our place and our identity?

Now,

Many of you know that I've begun exploring this idea of awakening.

My theory is that when you follow the ministry of Jesus,

At the core of everything Jesus did was a signal to the people who were encountering Jesus in that moment to wake up and see.

The question is,

Wake up to what?

I say reality.

What reality is that?

Well,

First,

I think it's the reality that God is here now,

In this moment.

In fact,

This moment is all we have.

Now is all we have.

The past is gone,

And we can't get that back.

The future's not here yet,

And we may never see it.

All you and I have is now.

And God is present in this now with us,

Which means,

And I want you to grab onto this,

Which means that we don't have to attain God,

Because God is here.

Psalm 139 puts it so well.

We cannot ever be somewhere where God is not.

So Jesus taught in a way that helped people awaken to the truth that you don't have to try and please or curry favor or impress or score points with or get on the good side of God.

All these things are effort on our part to try and attain God.

But just like you are in this moment and you cannot get out of it,

Just like you live and move and have your being in this moment,

And there's nowhere else you can do that,

Likewise,

You are in God and God is in you.

And you cannot get out of God,

Even if you ignore God,

And you live and move and have your being within God.

I love how Alan Watts put this.

He said,

What we have to realize is not the getting of union with God,

But the not being able to get away from it.

Isn't that awesome?

I'll read it again.

What we have to realize is not the getting of union with God,

But the not being able to get away from it.

Wow.

And that's the reality that Jesus was talking about.

And Jesus taught about awakening to this reality of God and the reality of the already being in union with God.

And he taught about the truth that this reality is possible because of this thing called grace.

Now I've just finished writing a series which will appear soon.

In the Daily Instagram post on grace and how we might experience grace through the virtues in Galatians chapter five,

Love,

Joy,

Peace,

And so on.

But at the core,

Grace is awakening to the reality that you were already loved before you knew you needed to be loved already.

I'm going to say that again.

Grace is awakening to the reality that you were already loved before you knew you needed to be loved already.

It's the truth behind the statement,

There is nothing you can do to make God love you more or less than God already does.

If that's true,

Then that love that God has for you just is.

It doesn't need to be sourced or found or discovered.

Jesus simply said time and time again,

Open your eyes to this reality.

And much of this teaching centered on another reality that he called the kingdom of God,

Or the kingdom of heaven,

Depending on which gospel you're reading.

Now many people think that when Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven,

He's talking about some place way off in the future that we'll experience when we die.

But when we note that Jesus clearly says that the kingdom of God is among you,

And around you,

And at hand,

And within you,

God is now,

So too,

The kingdom of God is now.

So if it's not heaven,

As in somewhere I go when I die,

Then it's not heaven.

It's heaven now.

So if it's not heaven,

As in somewhere I go when I die,

Then what is it?

Well,

The word kingdom that's used here in the Greek is basileia,

Which can be translated as realm or rule.

Early translators,

I think,

Simply put this idea into the context of the time they lived.

They read basileia,

Realm or rule.

Well,

The king rules,

So it's a kingdom.

But if we think about this not so much in terms of a king rule,

So it's a kingdom,

But what perhaps a rule of life is,

That is,

A set of instructions about doing and being in the world,

Or a set of precepts about how we go about doing and being in the world,

Then the kingdom of God,

Or probably better,

Realm or rule of God can take on a whole new perspective.

Jesus spent a whole lot of time talking not so much about what to believe,

But how to live.

And he did this because there was this overriding reality of the realm and rule of God in the world.

The Creator sets in motion a universe that operates best when it flows with the movements that God has set in place.

This is very obvious in the natural world.

I mean,

Gravity just does its thing,

Right?

And rain,

And the cycle of rain,

It does its thing.

The reproduction of species,

Well,

They're all programmed to somehow know what to do to do that thing,

Right?

But I believe that this is also true about how we live,

That somehow the world is wired in a way that when we go about living a particular way,

We actually find harmony with all things,

Including God.

And because of this,

I really love and talk a lot about the word congruence.

Jesus teaches us that we're created to be in congruence with the way and flow of the world,

As God set it up to be.

The problem begins to emerge when we get out of that way of being and doing in the world,

Right?

And sometimes,

The consequences of being outside of that flow of being and doing,

Sometimes those consequences are subtle.

Sometimes those consequences are big,

And they're dramatic.

But when we live in a way that is congruent with that way and flow of being and doing,

We find things like peace,

Joy,

Hope,

And love.

Doesn't mean things at times won't be crappy or painful or hard or depressing.

But even within the crappiness and the pain,

And even amongst the hardship and sadness,

We can still hold to and experience peace,

Joy,

Hope,

Love,

And other things like them.

And I think that's why Jesus doesn't major on belief,

But measures on ways of doing and being.

Because as Paul put it,

The kingdom of God is not about what we do or don't eat,

Or what we do and don't drink,

But about righteousness.

And that word there,

Righteousness,

Is dikeiosune,

Which means justice.

So this kingdom is about justice and peace and joy in God's Spirit.

And we find that when we live into this kingdom,

Which Jesus said was already here.

Which is why,

When Jesus taught us this,

He was awakening us to the reality of the kingdom already being among us.

Because it's already here.

You don't have to wait until you die to love someone.

You don't have to wait until after death to feed the hungry or clothe the naked.

You don't have to go to the sweet by and by before you walk in justice,

Mercy,

And humility.

Now all these things are a part of a realm of God,

A rule of God,

A way of being and doing that God has created so we can live with peace and harmony with each other,

And with the natural world,

And with God themselves.

And that kingdom,

Like God,

Is here and now and among us and within us.

All you have to do is awaken to that reality and Jesus told parables,

He tells us,

We told the disciples,

Because the best way to come into the reality of that,

The best way to come into the light of God's presence and the reality of the kingdom,

Is not just to walk into the darkness and throw on the light switch.

That's never a good way.

No one likes that.

Walk into your teenager's room and throw on the light from the darkness and it's a bright light.

You can't see for a time it stuns you.

No,

It's never a good way that the best way is to have the light slowly turned up and to have your eyes adjust to the ever brightening light so that your eyes are opened.

And you see it,

You see God,

And you see the kingdom.

And you in the opening of your eyes and the light coming up are awake to God and the kingdom of God or the realm of God.

But as I've read and contemplated and studied and written about this idea of awakening,

It stirred up another word.

And that word is remember.

And what I've begun to see Jesus doing in his teaching and ministry isn't just he's saying not just awaken,

But I think he's also saying,

Remember at the Passover before he was executed,

He says to the disciples,

Take and eat.

This is my body.

Luke adds,

Do this in remembrance of me.

Now at that point,

Jesus had not been crucified.

He had not been resurrected.

And I know Paul makes a connection between that meal and the crucifixion.

He says,

Now,

Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup,

You show forth the Lord's death.

But for the disciples who were sitting there on that night at the Passover,

Who saw Jesus take the bread and break the bread,

Who received the bread from Jesus,

Who heard him say those words,

And who then ate that bread in that moment that he said those words,

The moment he stood in the room,

What did that mean to remember Jesus as they sat there and ate that bread that night?

Now,

I find it really,

Really interesting that Luke,

Who's the one who adds the words,

Do this in remembrance of me in his gospel account,

Also tells a story that's found nowhere else in the other gospels,

Only in Luke.

And it's one about two people who after the crucifixion of Jesus,

They're on their way to a place called Emmaus.

And as they're going along,

They're joined by a man who Luke identifies as Jesus,

But they didn't recognize him,

Which raises a whole bunch of questions about resurrection,

Which we'll save for another time.

But anyway,

They're going along and Jesus asks them what they're talking about.

And they say,

We're talking about Jesus of Nazareth.

And they have this conversation about what happened.

And Jesus teaches them for a bit.

And they get to Emmaus,

The town,

And they say,

Come and stay with us.

So Jesus goes and stays with them.

And then at dinner,

Jesus takes bread,

And he blesses it,

And he breaks it,

And he starts to give it to them.

And in that moment,

They remember,

And they recognize Jesus.

Now,

I want you to capture this word.

Remember,

It's a very,

Very important word.

The etymology of the word is from Latin.

And it's made up of re,

Which means again,

And memore,

Which is means to be mindful.

Memore is also the Latin word at the core of memory.

Obviously,

You can see that now.

So to remember is to have a memory again,

Or to be mindful of something again.

And here is the cool bit.

Strictly speaking,

Remember implies that a thing has existed in the memory before,

But that it just hasn't been present in your thoughts.

And then suddenly recurs without any effort.

Now,

What does that mean?

Well,

It means that to remember something,

You have had to have experienced it before,

Because it's already a part of your unconscious memory,

Let's call it that.

And a trigger sets you off,

And pop,

Bang,

There it is.

You didn't will it to appear.

And this is where some of the dictionaries will tell you recall and remember,

Although they're kind of used side by side,

They sort of miss each other.

When you try to recall something,

You're recalling it.

But when it happens without effort,

That is at the core of the English word,

Remember,

It took no effort,

Something just triggered it,

And it was there.

One day,

When I was about 18 or 19,

I worked for a fishmonger,

I sold fish,

And I was serving fish.

And I smelled a smell,

Which sounds ludicrous to say about a fish shop,

But it wasn't the fish.

It was a fragrance.

It was a perfume.

And I immediately looked up and audibly said,

Lisa,

And the staff member beside me said,

Why'd you just say?

And I said,

Well,

I'm looking around the crowd of people who had come to buy their fish for Good Friday.

And I'm looking for Lisa Spencer,

You know,

Lisa Spencer,

Right?

She was the girlfriend of Scott O'Brien,

Who I played music and wrote songs with when I was in grade eight,

Nine in 1986 and 87,

In a now closed high school in Canberra.

And Lisa would come over and hang out while we were playing or writing and,

And she wore this perfume that lingered around and you could always visit Scott's house and know that Lisa had been there a little while before you because her perfume smell would linger in the air.

It was that distinct.

And that day in the fish shop,

I remembered Lisa.

Now,

I didn't need to remember Lisa,

As nice a person as Lisa was and hello,

Lisa and Scott,

If by some freak chance you're listening to the podcast.

But the smell of that perfume effortlessly took me to a memory.

I remembered Lisa,

If I'd never met Lisa,

Or she'd never worn that perfume.

I would never have had that memory.

Now,

Back to Emmaus.

Jesus breaks bread,

And he eats with them.

And they remember Jesus.

How can they do that?

Because they have experienced Jesus before.

Now,

Back to the Last Supper.

Jesus says,

Eat the bread and do this in remembrance of me and all the people there would have eaten that night.

And at that moment,

And every time they ate after that moment,

Would have remembered something of Jesus or their time with Jesus.

But these words remember me are also for us.

Jesus says to you and me when you eat bread,

Remember me,

Which means that as far as Jesus is concerned,

We have a memory of Jesus somewhere that can and will be stirred and brought to mind because somehow you and Jesus are already acquainted.

The question is how and where.

Now,

Back to reality.

Jesus is teaching about this reality,

In which God simply is,

And the realm or rule of God simply is.

We cannot get away from either of them.

We are submerged in both of them,

Both God and this kingdom of God,

Both of which are around and among and within us and at hand.

And I would put to you that Jesus is doing something more than just awaiting us to this reality.

But he's asking us to remember this reality.

Now,

Recall that remember means that you have brought back to your memory something that you have experienced before.

We cannot remember if we have never had that experience before.

So how do we remember that proximity to God and that realm in which we live in congruence with God and others and nature to see this?

You need to understand what your origin story actually is.

It's not the Genesis 3 one.

It's the Genesis 1 and 2 stories.

Your origin story are the ones about goodness and relationship and participation and partnership.

You can see where I'm going with this,

Right?

Jesus calls us to remember God and this kingdom of God,

A God and a way of doing and being that somehow deep within us we have experienced before that we know that we can awaken to and we can return to.

It is a memory of whose we are.

It is a memory of who we are.

It is a memory of what we were created for and the condition in which we were originally created,

Which is in God's very own words,

Very good.

That's right.

Original goodness.

And some of you might be freaked out by that phrase original goodness.

Hey,

Is an original sin.

Well,

Original goodness is nothing new.

Many in the early church and through Christian history spoke and wrote and taught about original goodness.

It just didn't get enough votes on the day and didn't get into the books of doctrine.

But the fact remains,

Your origin story is goodness.

It's relationship with God.

It is walking in Eden together.

It is working and stewarding the creation of God together with others and sharing life and love with them.

It is standing before God naked and having no shame.

It is having the very breath of God animating your life.

It is a story of your place and your identity.

Back to you,

Napping and the soil following.

Remember that when the soil follows and you nap under the tree,

In fact,

When you do anything,

There is a memory of what the original state of who you are and what the soil is and that there is a return to what that state should be because of that memory.

And from there,

Both the soil and you can go on to do what it does best for the soil.

It's to be good and fertile and bring amazing life to whatever is planted in it next season.

And for you,

It's about being the amazing physical human creation that does weird and wonderful things that you are.

But my friend,

I want to suggest to you today that your inner self also needs to remember that your inner self also has a memory.

It is a memory that's connected to a reality that you are created in the image and likeness of a creator who created and continues to sustain and hold the universe together.

It is a memory that's connected to a reality that you are created to live in proximity to this God and to share with this God and all of the created order,

Goodness and relationship and participation and partnership.

It's a memory that all around you,

God simply is and that you are naturally wired to live a way of doing and being that is congruent,

Congruent not just with the created order,

But with this God who we are told is love itself.

It is a memory that you have experienced this state of being with God and the kingdom of God and God's greatest desire is that you would have that memory triggered somehow so you can remember so that you can awaken,

That you can have the light turned up and brightened so you can see what you already have before you but have somehow lost.

And what's really key here is the soil doesn't try,

Is that the atoms,

The DNA,

The cells don't try.

The memory just brings them back into that state and this is where prayer,

Contemplation,

Just allowing ourselves to be fallow,

To allow ourselves to listen can be so vital in helping to revitalize that memory.

It is a memory that reminds us that we can stand before this God naked and we don't have to feel any shame.

A memory that flowing through us is the very breath of the one who created us that animates us and gives us life.

It is a memory of our place and a memory of our identity,

Who we are and where we belong.

And so my friends,

May you know that there is a memory of the you that is connected to God and God's kingdom.

May you know the goodness and the proximity and the relationship and the and the participation and the no shame and the breath of life and the place and the identity that is given to us in this memory.

And as this memory brightens in your spirit,

May you see how to bring yourself into congruence with the flow of love in the universe.

And as the light gets turned up around that memory,

May you know the grace,

Peace and love of the God that is present with you and around you and at hand and within you now and always.

Amen.

Peace be with you,

My friends.

We'll see you on the next episode.

God bless.

Reviews

This was a great teaching!