1 10 1 https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/d5c03551707c2d66457a18350f13c14a.pdf 180ca104deaa4aa027beb293eadedc9e PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-285_A.mp3 I am still searching for God, hand over heart, trying hand over heart, and see if there be any real way in. And [INAUDIBLE] voice everlasting, everlasting. Amen. Pitts Theology Library Emory University There is, in every person, an endless sea. And in that sea, there is an island. And on that island, there is an altar. Standing guard before that altar is the angel with the flaming sword. Nothing can get by that angel to be placed upon that altar unless it has the mark of your inner authority. Nothing passes the angel with the flaming sword to be placed upon your altar unless it is a part of the fluid area of your consent. This is your crucial event with the [INAUDIBLE]. Through Jesus God breathes through all that is. The sparrow overcome by sudden death at the end of his life-- the lily blossoming on the rocky hillside. The grass, and the field, and the garden path. The clouds, light and burdenless, or weighted down with unshed waters. The madman in chains or wandering among the barren rocks in the wasteland. The little baby in his mother's arms. The strutting arrogance of the Roman legion, the brazen [INAUDIBLE] of the craven tax collector. The children that play and the old man quibbling in the marketplace. The august Sanhedrin fighting for his life amidst the impudencies of empire. The futile whisper of those who have forgotten Jerusalem. The clear voice, utterance of the prophets who remember. Through Jesus, God breathes through all that is. To Him, God was creator of life and substance, the living stream upon which all things move. The mind containing time and space, and all their multitudinous offsprings. And beyond all these, God's friend and Father. The time most precious for Him was at close of day. This was the time for the long breath from all the fragments left by the commonplace, for all the little hurts and the big aches to be absorbed, and the mind to be freed of the immediate demand. And voices that had been quieted by the long day's work could once more be heard, and there could be the deep sharing of the innermost secrets and the laying bare of the heart and the mind. Yes, the time most precious for Him was that close of day. And there were other times He treasured. A great while before day, says the Book. The night had been long and wearisome because the day had been full of needles and annoyances. The high resolve of some winged [INAUDIBLE] had [INAUDIBLE] panics, no longer shielder of free, had been embarrassed as it had never been. There was need and utter urgency, for some fresh assurance, the healing touch of a healing wave. A great while before day, He found his way to a quiet place on the hill and prayed. I had a very strange experience of getting here. Not about getting here, but getting here. [LAUGHTER] 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Now, I had prayed rather hard on the theories that I was-- to you I have announced it, but. And then I felt that I didn't want to do it. And I was embarrassed, because at my age, you don't have a lot of hours left to do something and then don't do it. But I just couldn't do it. So I started out in another direction. I want to think first of all tonight about the meaning of religious experience. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And perhaps, perhaps finally in the last few minutes about meaning of the religious experience to Jesus. There is something so very private, and personal, and intimate about the religious experience. It is-- and a paradoxical way, it seems to me-- a time when it is, I think, the individuals who are alone in all the universe, and yet at the center of the experience he seems to be a part of everything there is. It's a strange paradox. It's private, it's personal, it's intimate. It is the experience of stripping, laying bare, of revealing whatever there is that is intimate and literal, and elemental, primary-- all the words. Time and mind. It's a naked-- when pretensions disintegrate, when one runs the risk of being himself or herself in the presence of God, there is something very-- there's something very terrifying about it, because to feel oneself be as one is looking upon oneself from the other side where there is no activity, no functioning, no pretension, completely exposed, completely vulnerable, and completely secure. Now then at the center, at the core of religious experience, one comes upon what, in my language, is the awareness of the givenness of God. Let's save that. The givenness of God. It is not merely an act of will for those who may be involved. It is not merely a dimension of reflective thinking, because reflective thinking is in God. It is where one becomes aware of God as a part of one's own deep inner landscape. For it seems to me-- and I do not wish to speak, seem to speak, even, irreverently. But I have felt for long time that God is very shy. Put aside all the vast rumblings of creating a universe. All of these things we are seeing and hearing, the whole structure of existence, the anatomy of existence, but the God. God seeps into the awareness. [? Did ?] any of you with my innermost [INAUDIBLE], you see. And suddenly I realized that always He has been there, always. The awareness of the givenness of God. Now, it is the nature of the mind-- and pardon me. I know this has been a long day, and it's the end of the day. And I know there are other things that may be going on in your mind that you don't-- you can't begin to be as tired as I am, so. Just do the best you can, because that's what I'm doing anyway. But if you really get weary, it's all right if you just put it back. Just do it quietly. One of the things that seems to be always in attendance to any feeling, tone, about the quality of what I am thinking and feeling is the mind-- the mind is a very wonderful thing, but it's-- it's a trickster. It's very, very funny. We get our minds about 30 seconds ago. It's all new [INAUDIBLE]. Looking for proof. That's human insecurity. You ever try to prove a thing of which you are sure? 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu But the mind, you see, that religious experience must validate itself-- must-- It must-- it must become an object of thought. Now, in order for religious experience to become an object of thought, it has to be imprisoned. Now, follow me carefully. Pitts Theology Library Emory University It has to be imprisoned. It has to-- religious experience is fluid. It's moving. It's dynamic. There at the heart of it, the pulse beat of creative urges. It's alive, like the liveness of light. But it moves so rapidly that the mind can't draw a bead on it, so it has to be trapped. Then the mind can draw a bead on it and extract what? Doctrine. Dogma. Theology. Principles of rationalization. For all dogmas, all theologies, all creeds, however crucial they are for the enrichment of the common life, even for the redemption of the human spirit, all doctrines, all dogmas, all creeds are inventions of the mind. They are what the mind does with the fluid creativity of religious experience. Therefore, all dogma, all creeds, all theologies are just a little out of date. They describe-- they depict what was when the moving rhythmic pattern of dynamic religious experience was trapped temporarily. Meanwhile, the religious experience goes on experiencing. So you are always going through the difficult job of making religious experience an object of thought so much to yourself you can seem to be rational as you try to feel it with your mind, if I may be contradictory here. But it always escapes. So what do we do? We set up a whole series of little laboratories so that we can make dry runs. Check it out. And always, always we see that the test, the test of the religious experience can never be found in that which is pragmatic and empirical, which is not to say that, as long as there is mind function, there will be the effort to reduce it to that which is empirical and pragmatic. But the test of it is not there. But I am never relieved from the necessity for trying to prove it that way. So even in the Book it says by their fruits ye shall know them. This is what the Book says, dealing with this whole question of a pragmatic checking out of the validity of the religious experience. For the more, you see, that the religious experience becomes an object of thought so that I can talk to you about it as I am talking about it now. You know and I know that I'm talking around it. Now, one-- one or two more things. It is for this reason that in prayer, meditation, that I-- there was a time when I would use the word meditation without self-consciousness. But I can't use it now because, well, because I know what I'm talking about, but nobody else does, because everybody's talking about what it has come to mean. And this is good. But as in prayer and meditation, what we are always trying to accomplish, to experience, to-- what we are always trying to become aware of is-- is the presence of God. And therefore, all of the disciplines that we use are meant to ready us so that there will be a climate within us in which God may assert Himself without embarrassment. But the curious thing is that there is no necessitous-- mark my words, please. There is no necessitous relationship between all the discipline, all the preparation, and the coming of the awareness of God. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Now, if you hear this, don't-- don't disagree with it or agree with it. Just hear it, and leave it alone. It'll take care of itself. Now, all of the disciplines, all of the preparation, all of the spiritual exercises, all of these things are part of the readying, the sensitizing of the spirit so that we may become aware of God's presence. But there is no necessitous relationship between the preparation and the awareness. Pitts Theology Library Emory University If you don't get anything else, help me, please, by getting that. I tell you that there is no necessitous relationship between all of the disciplines, all of the spiritual exercises, all of the meditation, all of this-- however you phrase it-- and the awareness of the presence of God. Only one of the mystics with who I am familiar in one place seemed to suggest something to the contrary. And you'd never know. There was one passage in [? Descartes ?] in which he says that, if a man rids himself of preacherliness, God automatically fills him up, so that God is put in a situation in which He has the can't-help-its. But consistently it is the description of the statement of the journey in the inward region that I have only one responsibility, and that is to ready myself. There is a vast creative mystery about the spirit, for around any road, anywhere, any time a man may come upon a burning bush and hear a voice say take off your shoes, because the place where you are now standing, doing what you're now doing is a holy place. At late night, He comes after the pattern of his own inner disposition. [INAUDIBLE] like that. I can't chart His course. The only thing I can do is to be there at the pass, waiting. He may not come, and I prayed my heart out. I've got everything. Or He may come but He's the last person in the world I'm thinking on. There's something eerie, and mischievous, and marvelous about the freedom of the creator of existence, for He [INAUDIBLE] existence, and then move according to His principle. And He will within the throbbing context of His creation. Now, the Master saw this. Do you remember? He tells a story. The Master tells a story about a man who decided that he got on a trip. And he knew he was going to spend quite a bit of money, so he called three, I believe, the Gospel says, of his prime movers to him. And he said, I'm going away. And I'm going to do some high spending. So when I come back, I'll need to recoup. So here's $100. Here's $75. Here's $25. Report when I get back. So finally he came back. Do you remember? But he came back. The first man said you gave me $100. Here's $125.90. The man to whom he gave $75 said here's $80.50. The man to whom he gave $25 was the only man who made a speech. [LAUGHTER] Now, he said, you may not know it, but you have a bad reputation. You reap where you haven't planted. You print coupons where you haven't been tested. And I knew this, so I hid it so I could watch it every day. And when the word came that you'd come back, I brung it, and here it is. And 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu the master said that he'd put him off of his place, cast it into outer darkness where there was wailing and gnashing of teeth. Why? Why? Why? Not because he did not show any increase. No. But because he didn't work at it. Pitts Theology Library Emory University The only responsibility he has is to work at it. God moves as God moves. And He will not jump where I pull the strings. He will hear me cry. He will find ointment for my bruises then. For He's God. He's God. All of my life I've tried to [INAUDIBLE] so that in my own moments of weariness and desperation I would know which way to use and it would the [INAUDIBLE] way. But I never found out. I never found out. I have never found out. Where did it come? There's a little village where Jesus lived. There was a man, John the baptizer, preaching. That's a job. And Jesus joined the group with the others. Why? Oh, I don't know. I wonder what was going through His mind that He journeyed to [INAUDIBLE]. I wish I knew. And He presented Himself to John to be baptized. And when He did, it is written in the Book that, as He came up out of the water, the heavens opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon Him like the dove. And gee, nothing's certain. Not John. He heard the Lord in the language of His own heart. You have made me very happy, my Son. Prying into, personal, intimate, primary, naked-- as if He and His Father alone existed in that moment of time. A curse on him who relies on man, who depends upon mere human aid, for he is like some desert scrub that never thrives except in a salt solitary place in the steppes. But happy is he who relies on God-- God, who has God for his confidence, for he is like a tree planted beside a stream, sending his roots down to the water. He has no fear of scorching heat, his leaves always green. He goes on bearing fruit when all around him is barren. And he looks out on life with quiet eyes. With quiet eyes. With quiet eyes. 5 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Meaning of the Religious Experience (1976, [Disciples of Christ Retreat], Santa Barbara, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Howard Thurman illustrates the all-encompassing nature of religious experience. The encounter with God is a renewing experience in which one's very center is changed, rippling out into all of one's life. It is in this whole-bodied commitment that one comes into the creativity and responsibility of ethical life. This sermon series contains a number of Thurman's most familiar images, i.e. the inward sea, the sound of the genuine, etc. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Erik Mattson & Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Meaning of the Religious Experience, Part 1 (Santa Barbara), 1976 Jul 23 Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-285_A.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Santa Barbara, CA Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1970s Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Meaning of the Religious Experience, Part 1, 1976 July 23 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976-07-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-285_A Description An account of the resource In this first sermon, Thurman sets out to explore the meaning of religious experience, and the religious experience of Jesus specifically. For Thurman, religious experience is a private and intimate experience, and yet it also seems to involve everything that is. Religious experience is not static, but rather a dynamic experiencing that our minds cannot capture totally. Nevertheless, the mind tries to freeze it into doctrine, dogma, and theology – the language of rationality. But Thurman says religious experience cannot be reduced to the practical and empirical. Ultimately, religious experience is our awareness of the presence of God, and nothing we do gives us control over that presence. For it is God that gives of Godself freely and lovingly. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III.