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baptist church
October 2009 
Love and Compassion: Jesus and Quan Yin
Sylvia
source of painting
Hi, folks - as some of you know, this Sunday I co-led and preached for a service with the title theme at the Baptist church where I was baptized as a young adult. Before you fall off your chairs ... there've been a lot of jokes over the years that the church is closet Unitarian [soft smile] - it's an unusual congregation. They responded *very* enthusiastically to the service and sermon - and there was a wonderfully high energy buzz in the room afterwards.
I wanted to share the information that I wrote for the beginning of the bulletin as well as the opening litany and an annotated bibliography. I'm planning to share the link to this blog in the e-mail to the church list with above information - so some of the church members may choose to jump in to any discussion that arises. I'm hoping and guessing that you all will enjoy each other quite a bit if that happens :-).
bright and loving blessings -
Sylvia
Resources for First Baptist Church of Granville, Ohio service 3/15/09
Theme: Love and Compassion: Jesus and Quan Yin - prepared by Sylvia Niedner, MDiv
please see Annotated Bibliography for sources.
Quan Yin as personifying compassion and mercy is known and revered under many names throughout most of Asia and is becoming better known in the west as well. She is alternatively called a goddess or bodhisattva: an enlightened being who chooses to remain on earth to assist others on their paths rather than going on to Nirvana. In either case, she embodies loving patience, and is understood as “One who hears the cries of the world.” In several of the more famous portrayals, the goddess is shown as enduring deep suffering in order to help and.or spare others. Many have found resonance between Quan Yin and Mary mother of Jesus. Both are known as avenues and channels of Divine compassion.
Litany of Compassion and Love
Leader: When rhe world around us is changing rapidly, and the news often sounds depressing and even frightening how can we keep our internal balance?
Congregation: The sacred stories of Quan Yin and Jesus can help.
Leader: What resources can we draw from the stories we are sharing today?
Congregation: We can tap into the bottomless wells of compassion and love in these stories.
Leader: How can we understand compassion?
Congregation: We can look at the Buddhist word “karuna”
Leader: What does karuna mean?
Congregation: When translated as compassion, karuna can mean “our ability to relate to another in so intense a measure that the plight of the other affects us as much as if it had been our own. “
Leader: Love can have so many meanings, which one might most help us keep our internal balance?
Congregation: We can look to the Greek word “agape”
Leader: What does agape mean?
Congregation: Agape can be understood as pure, selfless love. We can connect with Jesus’ story to help us be present with agape.
Leader: So how do karuna - compassion and agape - love come together?
Congregation: They come together in feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.
Leader: Where do they come together in congregational life?
Congregation: They come together in lunches on the Square and trips to Rancho Ebenezer.
Leader: When do they come together in community?
Congregation: They come together in listening patiently to what is alive inside ourselves and others, so that everyone’s needs might be met.
All: In this changing world, we can draw on the weaving together of compassion and love in sacred story.
Annotated Bibliography:
Websites:
Compassionate Communication of Central Ohio: http://www.nvcohio.org/
A local resource for the Compassionate/Non-violent communciation movement
founded by Marshall Rosenberg
http://www.geocities.com/zennun12_8/kuan-yin.html
A rich look at Quan Yin across Asia
http://www.exoticindiaart.com/article/kuanyin/
An Indian perspective on Quan Yin, emphasizing Karuna and other Buddhist thought
http://www.holymtn.com/gods/kuanyin.htm
A Chinese perspective on Quan Yin, with rich history
http://www.purifymind.com/Kuan.htm
Many really good links, lots of helpful information
http://www.mother-god.com/quan-yin.html
“A Chapel of Our Mother God” - emphasizing the Goddess and connections
with Mary mother of Jesus
Books:
_The Crystal Bible: A Definitive Guide to Crystals_ by Judy Hall
A helpful look at rose quartz and other gemstone crystals
_Discovering Kwan Yin, Buddhist Goddess of Compassion: A Woman’s Book of Ruminations, Meditations, Prayers and Changs_ by Sandy Boucher
Source of the Vietnamese Thi Kinh story of Quan Yin
_Love is in the Earth: A Kaleidoscope of Crystals: The Reference Book Describing the Metaphysical Properties of the Mineral Kingdom_ by Melody
Another good book re: gemstone crystals
_Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life_ by Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD
A basic look at Non-Violent/Compassionate communication - a good resource for
activities fromm the Compassionate Communication of Central Ohio website
_Nonviolent Communication: Companion Workbook_ by Lucy Leu
Fleshes out and gives practical exercises for the previous book.
Access: Public
Beautiful and insightful. Thank you for sharing this.
What a treat to read your sermon, Sylvia! Was there more? I love a sermon where the listeners are talking more than the person in the pulpit [is that what it’s called in your church?]
How beautiful; you have brought together two beings very dear to my heart.
Hi, Peace Seeker - thank you :-). I rejoice in having a chance and a place to share it.
Meenakshi - actually, those were just the beginning elements of the service - the first was introductory information at the front of the bulletin - and the second was the opening litany. I was the one talking during the sermon - though I didn’t use the pulpit - and it is called that at both the churches I’m currently connected with. I did get a sense that my sermon was just one element in the weaving of the story that day - folks shared several more as they talked with me afterward. [appreciative smile]
I don’t have notes, an outline or a script for the sermon - I was hoping it would be recorded for podcast but that didn’t happen this weekend. Spirit’s flow basically just came through me - I’m not really sure what all I said. The bibliography and service elements in my blog are what I have to offer at this point.
I was fairly consumed with research on the topic for several weeks beforehand and still feel like I was a ‘skeeter bug skimming the surface of what might have been said. I do get a sense that I whet peoples’ interest enough that they may follow some of the threads for themselves and that was one of my strongest hopes. As I’m guessing you can see above - there’s a whole lot of great material out there.
bright blessings -
Sylvia
beautiful to see these precious beings represented side by side
love
Hi, Hummingbird - it sure is, isn’t it? As part of setting up for the service, I planned to place similar pictures on the communion table - but the picture of Jesus I was using (a wonderful composite of actively compassionate faces) was too heavy for the picture stand that I’d brought. So I set it on a one of two chairs that happened to be sitting next to the table while I tried to figure out what to do. And then I took another look - and sat the picture of Quan Yin in the chair next to Jesus :-). It was so good to see them both have places at that table.
Deb - actually - there’s a strand of Baptist life in the US that is very progressive - many folks involved are connected with the American Baptist Churches USA and/or the Alliance of Baptists and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. The latter organization is still a touchstone of my family of faith - though I’ve been part of a United Methodist community since spring of 2001. The BPFNA gathers in different parts of the continent each summer and I’m hoping to join them in Utah this year. I attended a really renewing annual gathering of the Alliance a few years ago whose theme was interfaith life - and they had rich active participation from folk of several religions which was wonderful. Also - the Progressive National Convention, Inc. is a primarily African American denomination founded during the Civil Rights era.
bright blessings -
Sylvia
It is quite a remarkable thing you are doing Sylvia.
I spent quite a bit of time attending a Baptist church in Sydney, Australia and from my memory of that time they were a loving group but very conservative.
The thought of placing a ‘pagan’ image next to an image of Christ though would probably have lead to someone being removed from the congregation and invited not to return (being thankful they weren’t being stoned).
How long has it taken you for people in Christian circles to accept and adopt the message you are sharing and how did you do it?
Hi, Andrew - this was a particular sermon tailored carefully to a congregation of which I was a member for 13 years - having left in December of 2000 on a spiritual pilgrmage to spread my leadership wings. They have a long history of being “on the edge” with theology and church polity - and in fact have gotten in to trouble with other churches and church leadership for among other things being welcoming and affirming of and with people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. See some of the links that I posted to Deb above regarding other Baptist ‘troublemakers’ as we affectionately call ourselves. Getting folks in wider Christian circles to accept and adopt the message I am sharing is an ongoing, slow and painstaking journey.
I do find that women in particular are hungry for the sharing and weaving together of other traditions with Christianity - and resonate deeply with various metaphors for the Holy - particularly female ones. I know in the US there is a whole strand of feminist theology that has mostly risen out of and through the church that continues to challenge rampant patricarchy and offer reframed thinking that for me more accurately captures the rich hope that spirituality can offer.
One place that friends and I have had somewhat more success in the congregation of which I’m currently a part - is building a healing prayers ministry. We started out simply offering short reiki based healing prayer sessions after services the last Sunday of each month. After that’d been going for over a year, we got together to talk about next steps - and realized that meeting as a group to build energy and support each other was an important component of what we might do. That’s been wonderful. There’s not been really a specific format for our meetings - we’re just intuitively guided and present for what’s alive each month. The pastor would like for us to be more proactive and communicative about what we’re doing - but my response to him is - the group is organic - and that’s as it needs to be for us to do what we do. That for me is a feminist model of community :-).
I have also found a lot of interest from various folk in the images and resources that I shared above - which is one way that I see the work continuing. My style is often that of raindrops on limestone - drip, drip, drip - it is out of such efforts that the Grand Canyon eventually formed.
peace and blessings -
Sylvia
Very interesting Sylvia.
I certainly understand the stigma the term ‘troublemaker’ carries.
So you don’t think I’m some sexist mysogynist fossil, I’ve always likened, for the benefit of understanding context as masuline gender in scripture as being dominant or spiritual and feminine gender as submissive, or referring to aspects of the soul.
This in no way inplying the same exists for people. I absolutely believe in equality of the sexes, but we are different, in the same way that everyone is unique or different to everybody else. It does not inply that one is more important than another, society or culture makes that distinction.
How do you apply feminist theology to scriptures that were primarily written by men in cultures where women were seen as less than equal. Isn’t it necessary to recognise that cultural ‘bent’ to fully understand what the writers of those scriptures were trying to say?
An eccentric Aussie
Hi, Andrew - I’m interested in your distinction between dominant/spiritual and submissive/soul. I would agree that there are ways in which the dominant/passive paradigm are portrayed in the Bible - but I think many of what we take to be such portrayals come out of the lens of Greek thought which has influenced much of “Western” Biblical interpretation.
Certainly women tend *not* to be treated well in the Hebrew scripture on the whole - Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, the judge Deborah, Esther and Ruth are some fairly notable exceptions.
In the gospels - Jesus’ relationships with women were pretty subversive to cultural attitudes of the time. Certainly Mary of Magdala was an important part of his circle - and some (perhaps a significant part) of his financial support came from Joanna, wife of Chuza - Herod’s steward. Not long after I was baptized in my early 20s I became part of a wonderful ongoing Bible study at the church where I recently preached. They had been using Phyllis Tribble’s _Texts of Terror_ and Renata Weems _Just a Sister Away_ as starting points for their discussion. _Texts of Terror_ takes a look at four especially difficult Hebrew Scripture stories about women - and raises tough questions about what those stories might mean. _Just a Sister Away_ takes different Bible stories about women and uses them as starting points for stories of modern day women. So the Bible study class I joined combined those two methods - and went “In Search of the Women in the Bible”. What emerged was a very powerful exegesis (passage study) and writing project. We would examine Bible stories from the perspective of the women portrayed there - and then one or more class members might let that woman’s voice emerge through the lens of the class member’s writings. Mary Magdala in particular became of a focus of our work.
This experience had a big part in shaping my basic conviction that the Spirit of G*dde continues to live and work among us - my sense that Divine revelation did not end with the Bible and other sacred writings. Instead, since G*dde lives and breathes through us - we continue to come to new understandings of and ways to be in relationships with ourselves, each other and most deeply the Holy.
I could keep going about feminist theology and the Bible - but I’ll close for now [smile]
peace and blessings -
Sylvia
PS I use G*dde in reference to the Holy One of Israel - respecting the Hebrew tradition of writing the Holy Name in such a way that it can’t be pronounced - and honoring my own sense that the Divine flows back and forth between male and female - both and neither - hence using the old English godde - which to me is halfway between male and female.
I respect your reference to the Holy One, I like to think of as the original Cause.
Something that a lot of people seem to overlook is that while the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth were in hiding and frightened to go outside after the crucifixion the women overcame their fear and went boldly to the place Jesus had been laid.
I am well aware of the key role women play in the Judeo-Christian scriptures.
An example of what I was referring to in regards soul and spirit is the reference Paul makes regarding wives being in submission to their husbands and not allowing women to teach. These passages make a lot more sense if the female gender is attributed to soul (or mind or the letter) and the male gender to spirit.
I believe if the ‘churches’ recognised this simple fact they would all be standing room only on Sunday mornings.
There is an enormous amount of this sort of typology in scripture, which has absolutely nothing to do with the relative merits of men and women. The same applies to the lake of fire that some judgemental souls seem to take delight in likening to hell. Or the Book of Revelations as some future or current world event (spare me from another escatologist - I’m a pan millenialist - it will all pan out in the end). I see Johns revelation as a type of the journey people go through on the path of awakening to the Truth.
If was from that perspective I was enquiring, whereas you look at the function of women from the historical or an apologetic point of view. I don’t think you should have to prove yourself worthy as a female anymore than any man should prove his worthiness as a male.
We are all created on the image and likeness of the original Cause, which I don’t think has anything to do with physical or psychological attributes, which are subject to change.
Sorry I’m getting a bit carried away, this is your blog not mine.
Thank you for giving your time to address my questions Sylvia.
I’ll leave you in peace
Andrew
Hi, Andrew - I get a sense we may be communicating at cross purposes here. So for some clarification - I have a question for you. What do you feel are the overall purpose/intent and message(s) of the Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament?
peace and blessings -
Sylvia
Late coming to this, but I thought you might appreciate me sharing this poem I wrote.
Kwan Yin
Kwan Yin stopped at heaven’s gates,
Blown on the south wind she divined the cries
of the world; turned her heart towards their plight,
vowed to bring all to a peaceful enlightenment
that would resonate long and strong like ancient
singing bowls, a harmonic blend with beauteous
overtones. A burnished bowl she resonates,
reflects and shines the light of universal love.
Her soul's substance light as thistledown
floats serene, and spots the tiniest bit of fertile
soil in every human being, without judgement,
she nurtures innate love, reflects it back
to all. She bears a violet flame, lights our path,
if you stray invoke her name, she will appear
seated on a lotus blossom of a thousand petals.
Her jewels a jade bracelet, angel skin coral,
and rose quartz. In her hands a willow branch,
an eye, and vase with water for life and growth.
Kwan Yin offers gong fu tea ceremony
pours tea from a pot of Yixing clay.
Asks “Come. Will you drink at my table?”
Hi, Zephyr - thank you for this - it's beautiful. I was struck by your mention of rose quartz as one of her jewels. I facilitated a ritual of touching compassion at the end of the service - and instinctively chose rose quartz beads as one of the elements - just seemed to fit. I also continue to notice how much listening is part of compassion - both in the biblical stories that were part of the service, and in the all the stories about Quan Yin - it's a tremendous reminder to listen with our hearts.
Something I forgot to share in the original blog - the Bible passages were Matthew 15: 21-39 and John 21:15-18
bright blessings -
Sylvia
Interesting that you chose that instinctively, it seems such a good fit, such a soft and gentle colour. Listening is so very important Sylvia, not only what is said, verbally and non-verbally - but also what is not said. Nursing taught me that, I learned to allow space for listening among the physical tasks and its amazing what bubbles up then, if we listen actively..