Interior Castle

Interior Castle

Haggai 1:15-2:9    Luke 20:27-38  

         Imagine the exiles from Babylon in 538 BC, dragging their ragged belongings across the desert wastes, to the ruined walls of their former great city of Jerusalem.  They pitch tents or find shelter in some of the still standing homes. The first thing they do after getting settled, is to rush to the site of where the great Temple stood.  Struggling up the temple mount over piles of rubble, broken columns, and stone carvings, they finally survey the utter destruction, not only of their glorious place of worship, but also of their inner peace and steady faith.  Something within them must have crumpled and dried, bereft of the holiness that they had always found in this place.  Now, after years of exiles, after losing this sacred place, after seeing it desecrated and demolished, they must have been crushed within.

         The psychologist Carl Jung wrote once that sacred spaces reflect our inner center of spiritual identity and peace.   When a church burns or a synagogue is spray painted with graffiti or a mosque is blown up; then people experience an inner sense of anguish and destruction.  Our sacred places in some ways are carried inside of our souls, and we suffer and feel abused when those holy places are damaged.     

         That was one reason why Haggai and the Israelites felt so compelled to rebuild the ancient Temple, to restore it to its sacred glory, to use whatever wealth they could find to bring it back to its integrity and former beauty.   The temple was not only stone and wood, it was a reflection of their inner being, their spiritual centers and their souls.  Haggai’s sermon to the people says that it is not the gold and silver and former glory that is important; it is God’s presence. God is still with them and will help them to rebuild their lives and the Temple.   God will works side by side with them to restore the sacred.

 “Take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.”  (Haggai 2:7)   God is with the people as they build.

Our own church is engaged in a building project, striving to expand and renovate our beautiful and historic Fellowship Hall.   It has been a long time in the making – and like the exiles in ancient Judah, there have been times when it was demoralizing to consider the money and planning and work and time that it would take to make this happen.  

But now, as the timbers rise, and the money has come in, and the plans take shape, momentum is carrying us forward.   I, for one, wondered whether this would ever really happen.  But now I’m beginning to look forward to how wonderful this building will look, and the programs we will host, and the light that will pour through the windows, and the restored woodwork in the ceiling and floors, and the brilliant Victorian chandeliers.  Marilyn Gentile has designed this space to not only be useful, but uplifting and inspiring.   Many thanks to Tom Eddy, Bob Liebenow, and all who are making this happen!

This project is not only a physical one.   It is not only made of lumber, nails, plaster and glass.  It is also constructed from the vision, commitment, faith and generosity of this congregation.   I was present when this first was proposed at a planning meeting over 10 years ago.   Carl Antisell, Bob Liebenow, and others brought this onto the floor – to my surprise – and it was endorsed wholeheartedly.  Then like a tiny snowball on a winter mountaintop, it has been rolling along ever since, picking up momentum and substance, so that it has now arrived before us as a vivid reality – soon to be completed.   This congregation has consistently expressed its support and conviction in meeting after meeting, gathering after gathering, generous gift after generous gift.  This project grows out of the desire of this faith community to build a legacy for its future, to provide classes and rooms for its children and youth, to expand areas for dinners, concerts, and educational programs, and to pull our community from the 19th century into the 21st.  Our new Fellowship Hall will not just be made of wood and stone; it will be made of our dreams, hopes, and our faith.

In the 16th century, a Carmelite nun and Christian mystic St. Teresa of Avila, wrote a guide to prayer entitled: Interior Castle.  It is a spiritual guide to union with God. Her inspiration for the work came from a vision she received from God. In it, there was a crystal globe with seven mansions, with God in the innermost mansion. St. Teresa interpreted this vision as an allegory for the soul's relationship with God; each mansion represents one place on a path towards the "spiritual marriage"--union--with God.  One begins on this path through prayer and meditation. She also describes the resistance that the Devil places in various rooms, to keep believers from union with God.  But throughout she sees our spiritual lives as an inner striving to dwell with God in an ‘interior castle’ – a place inside where we meet God and discover God’s light and peace.

         Our places of worship act as interior castles, exterior expressions of an inner reality – our deep awe, longing for God’s grace, inner stillness, and peace.   That is why such effort goes into making them beautiful.

Here are some of St. Teresa of Avila’s words from her book, Interior Castle, written to her fellow sisters in faith: 

“I thought of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent crystal, and containing many rooms, just as in heaven there are many mansions. If we reflect, sisters, we shall see that the soul of the just person is but a paradise, in which, God tells us, God takes delight.  What, do you imagine, must that dwelling be in which a King so mighty, so wise, and so pure, containing in God’s self all good, can delight to rest?” 

“When once you have learnt how to enjoy this castle, you will always find rest, however painful your trials may be.”

Our work as people of faith is not only to build exterior buildings, but also interior ones.  In our disciplines of worship, caring for others, work and prayer, we fashion spaces of inner peace, clarity and vision within our souls.   Even our new Fellowship Hall has been a spiritual exercise as well as a physical one.  We have had to overcome several spiritual hurdles in order to achieve what we have accomplished.

One spiritual task that has enriched us and created an interior castle is our generosity.  Giving funds for this project may have felt like a simple economic decision – but consider it for a moment.  There is a saying, “It is the heart that gives, the hands just let go.”   Our hearts have given to this effort.  We have had to put our money in perspective, to push past our self-centeredness, to consider connections we have to this worshiping communities, to our friends, and to our faith in God, allowing us to give precious and very generous gifts to make this happen.   This giving is a spiritual discipline that opens up space in our souls – allowing us not to be so ruled by money and its demands.  

         St. Teresa teaches that we have within us crystal castles of God’s presence. Through prayer and meditation, self-giving love, and faith, we find our way into them to rest and dwell.   We discover this by taking time in daily devotion, in quiet times of prayer or walking or reading, by assisted those in need.   Little by little we build an inner temple, as Haggai and the returning exiles re-constructed Solomon’s Temple.  With God’s grace we piece together twigs of inspiration, straws of love, ribbons of wisdom, and weave them into a nest of peace – like a bird building a nest for its young.     

In ending let me share with you this beautiful poem by Anna Kamienska, that speaks of this inner work – the work of paying attention, of mindfulness, of prayer that little by little, weaves a swallow’s nest of grace.

It usually starts taking shape

from one word

reveals itself in one smile

sometimes in the blue glint of eyeglasses

in a trampled daisy

in a splash of light on a path

in quivering carrot leaves

in a bunch of parsley

It comes from laundry hung on a balcony

from hands thrust into dough

It seeps through closed eyelids

as though the prison wall of things of objects

of faces of landscapes

It’s when you slice bread

when you pour out some tea

It comes from a broom from a shopping bag

from peeling new potatoes

from a drop of blood from the prick of a needle

when making panties for a child

or sewing a button on a husband’s funeral shirt

It comes out of toil out of care

out of immense fatigue in the evening

out of a tear wiped away

out of a prayer broken off in mid-word by sleep

It’s not from the grand

but from every tiny thing

that it grows enormous

As if Someone was building Eternity

as a swallow its nest

out of clumps of moments

Small Things by Anna Kamienska from Astonishments: Selected Poems by Anna Kamienska

“As if Someone was building Eternity as a swallow its nest out of clumps of moments.”    That is our task – not only to construct buildings, offices, dwellings plans, bank accounts or resumes; not only to rebuild the physical temples that crumble or are destroyed by callous accidents or time.  It is to weave together crystal interior castles in our souls that house the Spirit of God, that become sanctuaries of calm, inner rest and spiritual satisfaction.  We are to care for the exiles, those whose structures and peace have been destroyed; and to rebuild with faith.   Along with Jesus we build the Kingdom of God ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’   It is in our power, through God’s grace.  Let’s get started.    Amen.