A Talk given to sixth-formers on the theme of 'Exploration' delivered 29/02/12 as part of my interview for the lay chaplaincy job at Berkhamsted School.
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What was the last thing you learnt whilst travelling in a new place?
Reaching the cusp of February, it may be a little premature to say it, but nonetheless, I I really think that this (here a slide appears), is going to be the biggest event of 2012. Olympics pah, Meteorite pah, Mayan calendar, pah. Women Bishops....a very close a second maybe.
No, for me the big event of 2012 is the release of the first part of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
I love the work of Tolkien; I re-read the books, re-watch the movies...you might say it’s an extremely bad hobbit of mine (sorry), can’t speak elvish though so I guess I’m not a ‘real’ fan.
You see, I don’t love Tolkien’s world for the sake of it; What I really love are the stories; of adventures into a new land, of companions travelling together into unknown territory.
Doubtlessly Tolkien is my favourite author, and The Hobbit is still my favourite of all his works, for at its core, it’s about a fairly ordinary sort of chap who is dragged out of his comfort zone in order to confront and discover a world he has heard a bit about, but never thought to go and explore for himself. And what an incredible world it turns out to be.
Now I’m sure we’ve all dreamed and day-dreamed about going off somewhere new and exciting, getting away from it all, doing interesting things with our lives, having adventures. Though this isn’t all; Bilbo himself doesn’t simply discover a new world for himself, he also discovers new things about himself; a taste for adventuring, an ability to fight, a streak of dishonesty, a surprising amount of courage.
In many ways the Tolkien adventures offer a richly graphic representation of the journey of the Christian life. Journeying is frequently portrayed in the bible as a good time for discovery of God and discovery of self, whether its the wandering nation of Israel gaining definition through the law given at mount Sinai, or Jacob receiving the name Israel after wrestling with God or an angel, or the two people on the road to Emmaus recognizing their Lord in the breaking of bread.
Yet, a note of caution should be sounded here, for I don’t wish to imply that by not getting out there we are somehow trapped in a boring and meaningless existence here (even as often as it can feel like it).
Bilbo, its true, had to journey through the outer world, in order to discover something about his inner being, yet for us we are often first required to travel further and further within ourselves, to explore our hopes, fears, desires- our very souls, the deepest regions of our being, and we can take what we learn in that place out into the wider world with us.
Middle-Earth is a bit like our inner self, our heart; here, like Bilbo, we may encounter good and evil, and discover things about good and bad aspects of ourselves in a rich interior landscape shaped by our experiences and thoughts and feelings. As a fourth century homily attributed to a monk known as St. Macarius of Egypt puts it:
The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. There also are rough and uneven roads; there are precipices. But there too is God, the angels, the life and the Kingdom, the light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasures of grace- all things are there... - Pseudo-Macarius
Is it not the case that we often assume that everything exciting and fulfilling is happening ‘out there’ miles away from where we are standing in the present? Often in religions humans fall into the same error; God is somehow ‘out there’ peering in at our lives, and the only way to find him is by leaving our ‘real’ selves (as we conceive them) behind, purging ourselves, and performing certain rituals which are separate from the rest of our lives.
Yet this is not the case with the God who took on flesh, and experienced in his body all that humans do, and by doing so restored the image of God, our ‘real’ self, within humans.
We cannot find God or transcendental meaning, by leaving the world or our selves. As Jesus once said, The Kingdom of God is within you. And just as God in Jesus took part in our humanity and so took it upon his divinity, so might all our human activities and experiences show the divine within us, at work, even within our darkest hours, and when we feel least in control of our feelings.
Of course, just because we know of God’s involvement, doesn’t mean there’s no point in exploring our hearts and meeting him, any more than Google maps has taken the point out of travelling to new places and seeing them first-hand.
It happens over time of course; one does not simply know oneself any more than one simply walks into Mordor, and who knows what life changing experience is just around the corner that will totally redefine our self-perception?
As sixth-formers, I suppose you are all about to embark on your own adventures in the world, your increasing independence will soon see you travelling to and living in new places, meeting new people, trying out new things, a voyage of discovery all of your own.
And there’ll be both trials and triumphs, fortune and failure. And what I want to say is that none of it is worthless, even the most seemingly foolish or even mundane activities, like discovering a simple ring in a cave perhaps(?) make up an authentic part of who you are.
And by spending time exploring the world of our heart, and being mindful of how we really feel about things around us, in the tradition of the great Christian mystics, like Macarius, we may yet find God, and a purpose, active within our lives, not imposed from without, be it by friends, family, the media or whatever. The world can be met with the true person, and not a false projection.
For in it all, God is there, grounding us. No matter how dark the journey, or how lonely the path, or uncertain our direction. Even if we turn away or flee from our monsters. Having walked that walk, having grown as a human himself, God is there, travelling with us, working within us, even if our lives take us on the most unexpected journeys.
