Sermon Library
“Reverence for Life”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
June 28, 2009
Service Theme: Pentecost IV-2009
Source: Mark 12: 28 – 34
Pentecost IV-2009 June 28, 2009
Reverence for Life
Mark 12: 28 – 34
“I cannot but have reverence for all that is called life. I cannot avoid compassion for everything that is called life. This is the beginning and foundation of morality. It is our duty to share and maintain life. Reverence concerning all life is the greatest commandment in its most elementary form. Or expressed in negative terms: ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ We take this prohibition so lightly, thoughtlessly plucking a flower, thoughtlessly stepping on a poor insect, thoughtlessly, in terrible blindness because every thing takes its revenge, disregarding the suffering and lives of our fellow beings, sacrificing them to trivial earthly goals.”
“Much talk is heard in our times about building a new human race. How are we to build a new humanity? Only by leading men toward a true, inalienable ethic of our own, which is capable of further development. But this goal cannot be reached unless countless individuals will transform themselves from blind men into seeing ones and begin to spell out the great commandment which is: Reverence for Life. Existence depends more on reverence for life than the law and the prophets. Reverence for life comprises the whole ethic of love in its deepest and highest sense. It is the source of constant renewal for the individual and for humankind.”
The Text
These are the concluding words of Albert Schweitzer’s famous sermon entitled Reverence For Life spoken on February 16, 1919 at the morning worship service at St. Nicolai’s Church. “Reverence for life” is a simple phrase which has paraphrased the overall philosophy of Albert Schweitzer ever since his original and notable sermon. It is a beautiful phrase which has deep theological, philosophical, political, medical, musical and universal meaning of life itself. In essence, to have a reverence for life is to find ultimate meaning in life. Reverence for life could be considered the summary of the Ten Commandments, the bible and life itself. The very text Albert Schweitzer initially used for his original sermon entitled Reverence for Life is the most important text in all of the Torah and the Gospels being both found in Deuteronomy and Mark regarding Jesus’ answer to the first and most important commandment of all of life. “The Lord our God is one: and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is like it, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Taking Jesus More Clearly, More Nearly, More Dearly
To revere all of life could sound simple, but unfortunately, as Schweitzer would be the first to admit, is in many ways the most challenging thing we can do. It is about genuinely taking Jesus incredibly seriously. Schweitzer wrote in his original sermon, “Now we cannot escape it if we would be truthful: the Christian ethic has never become a power in the world. It has not sunk deep into the minds of men and women. It has been accepted only superficially, acknowledged in theory more than put into practice. Mankind behaves as if the teaching of Jesus did not exist, as if Christian behavior had no ethical principles at all.” Personally, I would temper this thought slightly because I do think that Jesus has been significantly influential even if it has been more on a subconscious level. I think Jesus’ teachings have changed the Western world even when people to not make a direct correlation. At the same time, we can always do far more to follow Jesus “more clearly, more nearly, more dearly.”
Reason and the Heart
Schweitzer encourages us, however, when he said, “What does it mean to love God with all our heart and to do good only out of love for God? Follow up this train of thought and a whole world of new ideas will open. The demands of Jesus are difficult just because they require us to do something extra ordinary. At the same time he asks us to regard these as something usual, ordinary. While the unusual is exactly what he demands of us.”
“Reason and heart must act together if a true morality is to be established. The heart maintains that ethics is based on love. Let us explore this word. Love means harmony of being, community of being. The commandment of love means this: no one is a stranger to you; every man’s welfare is your concern. We so often take for granted that some people are our immediate concern while others are a matter of indifference to us. Clearly this natural feeling is not permitted by ethical standards. The other person must mean as much to you as your own self. You must feel their welfare as your own direct concern.”
“Our love of God is akin to reverent love. God is infinite life. Thus the most elementary ethical principle, when understood by the heart, means that out of reverence for the unfathomable, infinite and living reality we call God, we must never consider ourselves strangers toward any human being. Rather we bind ourselves to the task of sharing his experiences and try being of help and support. That, then, is what the heart says when it tries to give meaning to the command of love toward God and neighbor”
Believing and Following
For many years now at the Chapel we have been making a distinction between believing in Jesus and following Jesus. Ron James has a great sermon in his book of sermons entitled Belief System or Spiritual Path. Elaine Pagel’s best selling book is entitled Beyond Belief. Belief in Jesus is important and plays a part, but Jesus asks us to go beyond belief and to follow him in order to be transformative. Albert Schweitzer has taken this literally.
Reality and Reason
Albert Schweitzer also takes religion realistically. He believes that all of life, no matter what endeavor we are pursuing can be better purposed when we understand our humble inter-relationship with God and all of life. Schweitzer encourages us to seek truth by considering all forms of reason. He states, “Reason is the desire for knowledge and the desire for happiness, and both are mysteriously connected with one another, in an inward way.”
This next paragraph I have triple starred. The words are wonderful. “Desire for wisdom! Explore everything around you, penetrate to the furthest limits of human knowledge, and always you will come up against something inexplicable in the end. It is called life. It is a mystery so inexplicable that the knowledge of the educated and the ignorant is purely relative when contemplating it.”
Then he provides this pleasant example. “What is the difference between the scientist who observes in his microscope the most minute and unexpected signs of life; and the old farmer who by contrast can barely read or write, who stands in springtime in his garden and contemplates the buds opening on the branches of his trees? Both are confronted with the riddle of life. One may be able to describe life in greater detail, but for both it remains equally inscrutable. All knowledge is, in the final analysis, the knowledge of life. All realization is amazement at this riddle of life – a reverence for life in its infinite and yet ever-fresh manifestations. How fantastic that in other existences something comes into being, passes away again, comes into being once more, and so forth from eternity to eternity!” “As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.”
“Reverence for the infinity of life means removal of the alienation, restoration of empathy, compassion, sympathy. And so the final result of knowledge is the same as that required of us by the commandment of love. Heart and reason agree together when we desire and dare to be men who seek to fathom the depths of the universe. Reason discovers the bridge between love for God and love for all people – love for all creatures, reverence for all being, compassion with all life, however dissimilar to our own.”
Living Out His Words
These are some of his words spoken in 1919. He went on to live out his words. He already has completed masters in Philosophy and theology at the Universities of Strasbourg, Berlin, Paris and his Ph.D at the University of Tubingen. Soon after these studies, he began his medical studies and became a physician. And through all of this time he became an accomplished musician and organist. In 1893 he played for the French organist Charles-Marie Widor, for whom Johann Sebastian Bach’s organ music contained a mystic sense of the eternal. Widor, deeply impressed, agreed to teach Schweitzer without fee, and a great and influential friendship began between the two of them.
He also published “The Art of Organ Building and Organ Playing” in French and German. Only a little latter did he publish his classic book The Quest of the Historical Jesus. I have since discovered that the title came from the publisher. Schweitzer’s original title was Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung which is accurately translated as History of the Jesus-life Research. He took the position that the life of Jesus must be interpreted in the light of Jesus’ own convictions, which he characterized as those of late Jewish eschatology. He brilliantly concludes that the First century theology, originating in the lifetimes of those who first followed Jesus, is both incompatible and far removed from those beliefs and doctrines later made official by the Roman Emperor Constantine. And this too has been a significant search for us at the chapel with the help of Elaine Pagels, Cynthia Bourgeault and many others. In fact, another current scholar, Bart Ehrman has recently completed an academic study and presentation entitled From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity. Schweitzer has helped to pave this way of changing Christianity from a latter belief in orthodoxy to an earlier practice of Jesus’ original teachings.
Schweitzer went on to live out his words by serving people in Africa with their medical needs. These people had no help other than Schweitzer’s help. But fairly soon
There were other medical professionals who followed in Schweitzer’s footsteps, but not without controversy. He established his largest hospital in a central west African country, Gabon and the city of Lambarene. This hospital is going strong today specializing in internal medicine, surgery, maternity, pediatrics, dentistry and a major Malaria research center. There are also 2000 Schweitzer medical professionals serving around the world as we speak. We will learn more about this in two weeks when the President of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship will be with us at the Chapel. His name is Lachlan Farrow and he is a professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Albert Schweitzer was a minister, a theologian, a philosopher, a missionary, a musician, and a medical physician, but he also excelled in all of these areas and he typically continued to do so throughout his whole life. One might say he was a master of multi-tasking in major areas of life. In 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, although he would be the last person who desired any recognition. He accepted because of what this could mean to further his service to others and specifically to build metal roofs for the hospital and the people in the village.
Schweitzer and Aspen
The fact that this man only came to the United Statesonce and only in New York, Chicago and Aspen is remarkable. His presence in Aspen helped to establish the Aspen Institute and the Music Festival. This July 6th is the actual 60th anniversary of his keynote speech in Aspen. He was a little tired because he initially thought Aspen was a suburb of Chicago and was not expecting a 24 hour train ride. On July 6th we will present the world premier of a new one man show “The Schweitzer Memoirs.” Please come. It can make a difference in how we see life and feel the reverence for life. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
0077 Meadowood Drive
Aspen, CO 81611
http://www.aspenchapel.org