From Common Sense To Spiritual Sense
The Rev. Dr. Daniel P. Matthews
Rector, Trinity Church, Wall Street
New York, New York

(This sermon is also available in audio.)

Probably the most popular, well-known Psalm of the Psalter is the 23rd Psalm. We all know it, or most of us do. Many of us learned it as children. It is important to know the 23rd Psalm. It is one of the best.

I have been coming here for many, many years and have always been impressed that behind the cross on the altar is a sheep. That's a symbol for us in the Christian tradition. John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus, "The lamb of God."

In the Hebrew tradition, they didn't use animals like the Greeks did. The Greek myths had all sorts of animals, but the Jews didn't do that. So for this particular Psalm we love so much, the 23rd, to talk so much about sheep, shepherd, and so forth, and then to have John the Baptist call him "the lamb" is a very important sort of twist to the way we think about our faith and about God.

Sheep can't find the grass, we're told, and that is the reason they need a shepherd. The author of the 23rd Psalm knows this and says, "He maketh me lie down in green pastures." A sheep will not drink from a rushing stream, so the 23rd Psalm says, "He leads me beside the still waters." We also know that a sheep strays. A sheep puts his head down and nibbles around and doesn't even look where he is going, and, suddenly, he is lost. The 23rd Psalm says, "He leads me in the right paths." Finally, it is known that a sheep will not put her or his head down into a bucket when the water is low in the bucket, even if they are very thirsty, and so the Psalm says, "My cup overfloweth."

In New York City everybody rides on the subway, or the train as we call it. When you come as a visitor, you probably ride in a taxi, but if you are going to go to work back and forth every day, you ride the train. Most people in New York don't even own a car, so your transportation is the train, buses and subways.

The subway during rush hour is crowded. I hadn't been in New York more than a week or two before I was having all these new feelings. One of them went something like this:

I get on the train and it is crowded. There are no seats, but I’m able to squeeze on. At the next stop there are twenty-five people right at your door trying to get on this train. You look around and you say to yourself, "Where are they going to go?" And then immediately you say to yourself, "They're not going to take my space." And so, when they begin push, push, pushing, you just push back. The harder they push you, the harder you stand your space. Pretty soon you learn to brace your feet and push until the train door closes. Then you feel a little sorry for the twenty-five people still waiting for the next train, but you don't feel too sorry, because you are not going to give up your space!

Pushing back when somebody pushes you is not just for New Yorkers on the train. It's for Memphians and all of us, because that is the way life is lived--"I got my space and don't you try to take it." We call that "common sense." It's just common sense to take a little protective action to prevent somebody from stealing your space. After all, it's yours; you got on there first. Common sense says, "Y'all get another train. This is mine."

The trouble is it happens not just on the train. It happens in families, doesn't it? Family members begin to push a little bit on you, and you just push a little back. Pretty soon you push a little harder and they push a little harder, until you've got a real conflict going, and you can't even imagine where it started. "Why is she so mad at me? Every time I am with her she tries to take me over, push into my space. Run my life. Tell me what to do. She's not my mother." All that stuff goes on with all of us all the time.

It happens at work. You go to work and there's this person that's trying to get your space. You push back and pretty soon you both wind up in the Human Resources Department. One of you is about to get fired, and all you were doing is just protecting your space. Common sense, isn't it? Sure, it's common sense. That's just what you do. That's the folkway of our world, isn't it? It's the folkway of America. That's just being a good American. Protect your space. Push back.

A funny thing about Jesus, he didn't do that. He really is quite an amazing character. Jesus saw Zaccheus up in that tree. Everybody was pushing back as much as they could against Zaccheus—scoundrel, thief, betrayer. Why didn't Jesus push him right away? Instead, he said, "I want to come into your space, Zacc. Let's have dinner tonight."

Remember the woman at the well? She was a mess. But Jesus not only went to the well, he talked to her. He shouldn't even have said hello. He should have kept her far out of his space, because she was trash. He not only said hello to her, he had a good time talking to her, and she enjoyed every single minute. As a matter of fact, when it was over, she went back to town and practically converted the whole town. She said, "I met the most wonderful man. He doesn't push you out of his space. As a matter of fact, he takes you right into his space. What an amazing man I've met today!"

Everybody liked to be with Jesus. You could hardly get to him. It’s the same with you and me. Just meet somebody new some time who doesn't push on you. As a matter of fact, doesn't push you a bit. And when you push on them a little bit, they just say, "Come on. You can share it. You can have some of this space. Sure. Come on. It's yours, too. I'll share." You can hardly wait to get back to that person. You tell your friends, "Oh, she's the sweetest thing. He's the nicest thing. I just love being with him. Oh, are they going to be at the party tonight? He is wonderful!" But what we are really saying is, he lets me into his space. He never makes me feel guilty; never makes me shame-filled that I somehow encroached upon something that is rightfully his, and I have no right to it all.

Gosh, what a fun thing it is to live a life and have at least one friend who lets you move into their space. When they do that, it's not common sense. No common sense about it. Do you know what that is? It's spiritual sense. Oh, that's not sense of this world. You don't pick that up on the street. You don't get that from the folkways of our culture. You get that from Holy Scripture. You get that from reading about Jesus and really getting into those stories and saying, "Wow! I wonder if I could begin to make my life in some little way like that."

Maybe the best story about Jesus that really represents space is when Simon had Jesus over for a dinner party. In that time, the dinner party was not a closed operation. When you and I have some people over for dinner, we shut the front door and the neighbors know they are not invited. They wouldn't dare come over. They're wondering what we're doing, but they wouldn't dare come in. That wasn't true at Jesus' time. In Jesus’ time the houses sort of surrounded an open inner patio. At Simon’s dinner party they were probably sitting outside in that inner patio area. They didn’t have chairs, so they were kind of lying down on pillows and their feet were stretched out. Because of this openness in the homes, people could walk in, listen to the conversation for a few minutes, and then walk out and continue with their business. It wasn't particularly unusual that this one particular woman came in.

This is not in scripture, but this is the way I picture her: She was wearing spiked heels and had on the shortest, tightest red dress you ever saw--skin-tight, way above her knees--and she'd spent a little too much time with Max Factor. The Bible doesn't quite say that, they left it up to preachers like me to imply that.

So here she comes. She kneels down at Jesus' feet, and she begins to cry. Then she takes her little vial of perfume that all Jewish women carried--precious, precious stuff, you might keep it for years and years. Instead of taking it and putting a drop of perfume on his feet, she poured the whole thing over his feet. Imagine what it smelled like in the place! We have expressions for those kinds of odors, don't we? The whole place began to smell. Then she did the absolute most embarrassing, inappropriate thing a woman could do. She began to pull the combs out of her hair, and her long, rich, black hair began to fall down all over his feet. She began to wipe her tears and the perfume with her long hair.

In Jesus' time, when a young girl got married, she put her hair up, and it never came down again in public. As a matter of fact, many married men at the time Jesus lived never saw their wives with their hair down. And here she is, letting her hair down. Wouldn't you think Jesus would have enough sense that he'd get up quickly and usher her out and say, "We'll talk about this tomorrow. I don't have the time to do it now. This is not the place." You and I would do that, wouldn't we?

Jesus allowed her into his space--not only allowed her into his space, he affirmed the fact that she was an important person to him and should be to everybody in the circle. He even said, "I've got a riddle for you, Simon." (That’s the way they taught in those days. They kind of taught with riddles. We left riddles in about, what, fourth grade?) Jesus gave Simon the riddle about who would be forgiven the most, and it brought the woman right into the center of the issue.

Jesus didn't have boundaries like you and I have. We love boundaries. Here's my lot, and my lot line is here. The magnolia is on my property. Where is your lot line? We live that way with our love also. But we can't live that way with our love, can we? "These are the boundaries of my love. I can't give my love away. Those people are on the other side of the boundaries. If I give my love away to people like that, it'll probably run out. It'll just disappear. I won't have enough for my kids and my husband."

The truth is the more love you give away--the more people you allow into your space--the more you've got to give. It always happens that way. The more you love, the more love is there. God is not going to let you run out. But we live by common sense and not by spiritual sense. Lent is the time to stop and say, "Who are the people who are pushing me? Who are the people in my life that I need to let share my space?" It's hard to do because it's not common sense.

We are a country right now facing what's been widely attributed to be evil. I'm not sure I know what evil really is, because the older I get and the more honest I am about my soul, it's got its share of evil. So, when we begin talking about evil, we've got to be very careful about being honest about our own. One thing about evil is it tends to say, "I am right, and you are wrong." There are lots of ways to handle evil. One is to try to destroy it. One is ignore it. One is try to pacify it.

The Jesus way to deal with evil was to allow a little more space. I know it sounds corny, but Jesus really meant, "Turn the other cheek," or else it continues to escalate. Somebody has got to stop and say, "Okay, you can come into my space."

A funny thing about those subways I ride on every day, they are very crowded and very tight. You stand and you have to put your hand on the ceiling, because there's not even a strap you can reach or find. After you are in the train for a minute or two, you turn your head and notice that in the middle of the train there is plenty of space, but nobody is going to move that way and give up their space.

Doesn't that sound like you and me? Doesn't that sound like the evil within us? Doesn't that sound like pride that we don't ever want to do anything that will jeopardize the common sense of looking out for number one or give an inch to anybody else?

Spiritual sense is the only way evil stops, or else escalation continues until we are all destroyed.

This particular time in our land is a tough time for us. It's a tough time for people who are as proud as you and I are. It's a tough time for people who have so much as you and I have. It's a tough time for people who know they're right, and the other folks are wrong.

What would Jesus be about with us today? It's a great challenge for Lent. It's a great challenge for our souls. Can we move from common sense to spiritual sense? Lord, God, help us to do so.
Amen.

Copyright 2002 The Rev. Dr. Daniel P. Matthews

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