praying with our noses...

PRAYING ALL WAYS:  Praying Through the Nose: Notes from my June 20th reflection on Small is Holy

According to one of our sacred stories of origin found in the Hebrew Tanakh, human existence began when the Lord God formed humankind out of the earth’s clay and blew into our nostrils the holy breath of life. In this the Scripture says we became nephesh chayyah: living beings animated by the spirit of divine holiness as well as earthly humility. The Genesis story says that human beings are simultaneously of the heavens and the hummus – earth and sky bound together – formed from the same matter as all animals, birds, fish, and plants yet imbued with an additional gift: the ability to consciously sanctify our words, choices, and actions. That is what the rabbis tell us took place when we received God’s breath:

On the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no shrub of the field was yet in the earth and no herbs had yet sprung up because the Lord God had not yet sent rain upon the earth and there was no one to till the soil… so, the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: in this the creature formed in mud became a living being. The Lord God then planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and put the liv-ing being into it. Out of the ground the Lord God then made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life was placed in the midst of the garden along with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… In time, the Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him…” (and) casting a deep sleep upon the man, the Lord God took one of his ribs and fashioned woman – bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh – that they might become one flesh.

In part three of the Pray ALL Ways series, now that we’ve talked about praying with our eyes and our tears, I want to use three canonical texts to consider what it might mean for us to intentionally pray with our nose: Specifically, I want to use the second creation story of Genesis, the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew’s gospel where Jesus speaks of constructing a mature and balanced spirituality, and the poetry of Psalm 141 where prayer ascends to the Lord like incense rising in the Temple.

To help with the creation story, I’ve turned to four, time-tested scholars who continue to inform my practice of Bible interpretation: Robert Coote and David Ord from San Francisco Theological Seminary have done ground breaking work re: the sociology of ancient Hebrew religion; Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, Walter Brueggemann, has given his life to creating careful, nuanced, and artistically crafted analyses of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms of ancient Israel; and Karen Armstrong, founder of the Charter for Compassion, continues to extract profound wisdom from within the sacred literature of the three Abrahamic faith traditions. As a Bible geek, my soul is refreshed digging into the etymology of words or the foundation of religious roots.

Coote and Ord remind us that there is no such thing as a generalized creation story: every story of origin whether Akkadian, Ugaritic, Babylonian, Egyptian, Jewish, Islamic, Aztec, Hindu, Yorba, Zimbabwean, Chinese, Cherokee, Cree, or Inuit ALL address issues of a group’s relationship to the earth, the status of people in that society, the role of work, the function of leadership, and how people were expected to live in service to the sacred. When it comes to the creation texts of Mesopotamia, our spiritual ancestors borrowed from Babylon, Egypt as well as the Ugaritic myth-ology of the Mediterranean Syrians. Coote and Ord point out that when it comes to our Bible, each of these influences show up not only in the two most famous creation stories in Genesis One and Two, but also in the multiple other creation myths scattered through Exodus, the Psalms of King David, the prophetic poetry of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos and other worship texts formalized and sung in ancient Israel after the exile in Babylon.

The notion of receiving a sacred breath from the divine – part of what it means to receive the holy through our nose – has inspired people since at least 4000 BCE. Armstrong adds understanding to our tradition telling us that there were three main waves of wandering Arameans who eventually gave shape to ancient Israel: In about 1850 BCE, a group of Mesopotamian settlers leaving what we now know as Iraq headed towards the Mediterranean and eventually made a new home in Hebron which in what is now central Israel. They were associated with the patriarch Abraham. “A second wave of immigration linked to Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, settled in Shechem, which is now the Arab town of Nablus on the West Bank.” In time, the sons of Jacob – who became the ancestors of the 12 tribes of Israel – emigrated to Egypt during a time of famine. Some 600 years later, in about 1200 BCE, “the third wave of Hebrew settlement claiming to be descendants of Abraham arrive in Canaan from Egypt saying… that they had been enslaved in Egypt but had been liberated by a deity called YHWH and their leader Moses.” Our first reading today, the second creation story from Genesis, was shaped by this last group of settlers, those following the desert god of fire, YHWH, a name that is always translated from Hebrew into English as the Lord God. We can safely say that THIS myth is at least three thousand years old.

And Brother Brueggemann writes in his Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and the Christian Imagination that: Genesis One is actually the second myth of our origins even if it comes first in the Bible. During their captivity in Babylon beginning in 586 BCE, the deposed priestly class in exile from Jerusalem began to re-imagine their religion. In time they borrowed and revised a 3000-year-old Mesopotamian creation story that helped them: 1) re-establish a sense of an ordered universe for a frightened people, 2) reclaim the centrality of Sabbath for a new Jewish identity, and 3) renew a culture of worship for the faithful after the destruction of the Temple upended tradition.

For some, sharing this Biblical background material might seem excessive, irrelevant, and perhaps even arcane. We are a utilitarian people who like to cut to the chase. But if the past 16 months of pandemic living have taught me anything, it is the importance of slowing down to take stock of what is real. As a contemporary person of faith, therefore, it has become increasingly important for me to own the truth within my spiritual roots given the proliferation of sloppy thinking, Biblical ill-iteracy, the depth and breadth of our QAnon culture of conspiracy theories, and the brutish fear-mongering and violence born of our this new fundamentalism. Knowing where our stories of origin come from makes it clear that authentic Biblical interpretation has NEVER advocated literalism. NEVER.

Not among the founding fathers and mothers of Judaism nor their heirs who followed the spirit into Christianity. In about 400 CE, St. Augustine of Hippo wrote that: “When there is a conflict between a proven truth about nature and a particular reading of Scripture, an alter-native reading of Scripture must be sought.” Authentic Biblical interpretation, you see, always borrows insights, poetry, wisdom, creativity, and common sense from culture, science, history, and sacred presence in order to bring life to older truths within an ever-changing reality. James Russell Lowell, in one of the great hymns of New England, sang: New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good uncouth; they must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth. Pastor Emeritus of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco, Cecil Williams, was more blunt: The only thing that NEVER changes is what’s DEAD. If you can’t go with the flow and follow the Holy Spirit into the realm of life right now: you’re ALREADY dead. So, for us the question is not is their life after death; rather, we want to know is there life BEFORE we die!?!

Like Joseph Campbell, Ursula Le Quinn, Howard Thurman or Lucille Clifton, I trust that there is still value within the ancient images, symbols, and insights of our tradition. But we must work through their dross before we can extract their gold. This is one of the blessings I have learned from the realm of rabbis who keep working theirs text for generations until a word of wisdom for their generation has been discerned. And when it comes to the sacred breath God blew into the nostrils of our primal ancestors, two gems from the rabbis are worthy of comment today.

First, they remind us that it is God’s breath that gives us life: “L’chaim – to life!” is a standard toast offered in Hebrew when a couple announces their engagement. Nourishing a life of integrity has roots in our creation story where the sacred shares something like mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with the mud creature – except in Genesis 2 it’s a sharing from mouth-to-nostril, ok? Obviously one truth is that breathing is essential for life – and God set our lives in motion with this gift – but the rabbis have pondered, prayed, played, and pushed deeper into what it might mean for humanity to be filled with God’s breath from the beginning.

+ Some have noted that there are Biblical stories where nephesh – a living being – is used inter-changeably with ruach – spirit or breath – suggesting that in the beginning the Holy One breathed the Holy Spirit into us. In the Septuagint, the Hebrew Bible translated into Greek and widely used by Jews living outside of Israel, nephesh is translated as psyche meaning that God’s breath within us brings a healing to our souls.

+ There are times when nephesh suggests refreshment as in Exodus 31 where after creating the heavens and the earth in six days, the Lord rested and was refreshed by the inner spirit of life. And, over the centuries, the quality and vitality of this life force came to be associated with the essence of our blood. To consciously live as if God’s breath had been poured into us is to trust the grace of the Holy Spirit: it is to construct a life of integrity with a healthy passion for justice, a rhythm saturated with Sabbath rest, and committed to wisdom and truth.

Second, the rabbis teach that God’s breath fills us with a sacramental awareness that we either honor or neglect: when God breathed the Spirit into our ancestors’ nostrils, the sacred filled us with a sacra-mental commitment to live in a manner that distinguishes us from all other living beings. Beyond instinct, beyond habit, beyond what is utilitarian or expedient, the Lord God gave us the ability and knowledge of how to live in a way that sanctifies our existence. 

+ THIS is what they tell us separates human beings from the law of the jungle and the red tooth and claw and tooth of savage violence and merciless competition.  Once upon a time, it was believed that human communication is what made us categorically different from the rest of nature. Today we know that ALL living beings communicate: trees, plants, animals, fish, pets, even molecules and microscopic life talk to one another. And while our culture is still woefully anthropocentric, science asserts that: “Once we have established that animals, birds (and plant life) can communicate with each other, the level of their language sophistication becomes immaterial. As primitive as their interactions may be, the mere fact that they interact at all reduces the difference between human and animal language to a quantitative measure, as opposed to a qualitative one.”

+Increasingly, we know that trees talk to one another in different ways, issuing warnings as well as encouragement and praise, as do mammals and the creatures of the sea. We also know that humans share at least 25% of our DNA with other life forms rendering the ancient Scriptures correct when it asserts that from the beginning, we are ALL nephesh chayyah: living beings created by the holy.

What has continued to intrigue Bible scholars – and the rabbis in particular - is why the oldest creation story says that only humankind received the sacred breath of God? What is the signifigance of this distinction? The medieval French rabbi, Rashi, who wrote commentary on the entire Hebrew Bible as well as the oral tradition known as the Talmud, answers this question by studying another text: the reunion of Joseph with the brothers who once threw him into a well to die and sold him into Egyptian slavery out of jealousy. That’s a time-tested way of making sense of confusing texts, you know: finding insights from one part of the Bible that helps explain another. Rashi’s studies are always filled with wise details, but it’s his conclusion that matters today.

+ You may recall the arc of the Joseph story where after the brothers dispose of Joseph, there comes a time of famine in Israel which forces the family – and many others – to flee to Egypt in search of food and shelter. After decades, Joseph has risen above his slave status to become an advisor to Pharoah wielding great power and authority in Egypt. When his estranged family meets Joseph again after years of separation, they do not recognize him as kin, but he knows them to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. They come in great need – humble and powerless – and at first Joseph speaks to them through an interpreter. He’s been living among Egyptian royalty for decades and was cut off from his clan by his family’s violence. For a time, Joseph maintains his anonymity but eventually reveals himself to be their long lost and aggrieved brother – who finally speaks to them in their mother tongue Hebrew.

+ Some rabbis suggest this was the breakthrough moment: when Joseph returned to his Hebrew roots and shared a common language. But Rashi disagrees noting that mere communication is never enough. Rather, he teaches that it is Joseph’s desire to redeem the moment by asking his shame-filled brothers to trust and know him as he is now. Not as they once knew him shaped by their own greed, violence, and jealousy; but as he is now – a brother seeking reconciliation and offering forgiveness.

Rashi insists that mere communication is not salvific. Hebrew – or Arabic or French, English or Russian – is not what elevated and sanctified this situation. It was Joseph’s choice to become forgiving and live beyond his wounds that made the difference. Tapping into the spirit of holiness that God blew into the nostrils of his ancestors, Joseph’s choice of compassion and healing sanctified that moment just as God intended. A contemporary rabbi adds that: It is not our knowledge of Hebrew that turns us into anything special, nor is it our ability to communicate; nor, even, is it the volume and complexity of the words we use when we interact. Animals can also communicate with each other, and we are no different to them in that respect. No, the only thing that separates us from all other communicators is if our interactions elevate us and the world around us. 

All of this is why I’m down with Fr. Ed when he asks us to learn to pray through our nose and our breath-ng: our breath can connect us with our ability to sanctify life. Not automatically: It takes practice – and intentionality. It requires a conscious commitment to honor the spirit the Lord God breathed into us in the beginning.  The sacred name in that creation story – the Lord God or YHWH – gives us another clue about what it means to pray through our nose with our breath.

If you know the Moses story you may remember that after fleeing Egypt, Moses married into a shepherd’s family in the mountains, and became a man of solitude. One day, while tending his father-in-law’s flock an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness in a flame of fire in the midst of bush. Exodus tells us that when Moses looked: lo, the bush was burning but it was not consumed. The Lord God called out to Moses saying: “I am the God of your fathers and mothers, the God of Abraham and Sarah; the God of Isaac and Rebecca; the God Jacob, Leah and Rachel. I have seen the affliction of my people and heard their cries – and I have called out to you to help deliver them into freedom.”

As this sacred vision matured, Moses realized that while he was out in the desert mountains, his ordinary place of work, it had now become holy ground so in humility he took off his shoes. He then said, “If I go to the people of Israel and say the God of your parents has sent me, what name shall I give them?” To which the Lord God replied: Say to them I AM has sent me.” YHWH – the sacred name – I AM. The power of love and justice right now – not in the past nor the future – just I AM – right now.

+ There is a spiritual practice associated with the sacred name and it has to do with using our breath to ground us in rest, peace, and emotional balance in this present moment. It is a practice that links our flesh with the spirit, our breathing with our intentions, and our actions with our sacramental commitments.

+ This way of praying through our nose with our breath also links our spirituality to the best practices of science which has shown empirically how our anxieties and stress can be tamed by focusing our minds again on the gift of our breath. Sports medicine, for example, teaches athletes that if they need more energy and power during a long event, they should breathe shallowly through the mouth. If, however, the need is focus and resolving anxiety long, slow breaths through the nose will do the trick. Spiritual director, Presbyterian clergy, and life-coach, Nancy Wiens, writes:

The same science that helps athletes transform their stress also stands behind the ancient spiritual practice of Breathing Prayer. In my work as a spiritual director, I have seen the practice transform responses to both daily distress and complex trauma, as well as deepen devotion to God. Breathing Prayer provides a person of faith a conscious way to partner with God in healing physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds…The research of science into “voluntarily-regulated breathing practices” (VRBP) shows (these) breathing practices proved successful “in correcting imbalances of the stress response systems and facilitate emotion regulation, social engagement, bonding, and recovery from trauma.… (VRBPs) are particularly useful with those who have experienced symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, depression, stress- and trauma-related disorders, ADHD, schizophrenia, and substance abuse.” Intentional breathing interrupts the feedback that perpetuates the trauma, returning the nervous system to harmony.

I have come to believe this is part of what Jesus was teaching in the Sermon on the Mount when he told his friends that the goal of their spiritual practices was to become balanced and mature. The old text translates St Matthew 5: 48 as “be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” But let’s be clear: this translation has been a disaster reinforcing shame and confusion when the Lord’s words were meant to bring guidance and comfort.  The New Testament Greek word that is used in the verse is teleios which CAN imply perfection but only in the sense of something coming to completion. Maturation. Do you grasp the distinction?

Practically and spiritually speaking, Jesus is NOT telling us to try to obliterate our mistakes, our failings, or brokenness as if we could become spotless and pure. Rather, he’s encouraging us to make peace with our shadow, learn to manage and even gain control over our anxieties, live in harmony with our true selves so that like I AM we can be fully alive in this present moment instead of being trapped in fears and histories long finished but still all to active within. Fr. Richard Rohr recently made the case that balance and spiritual maturity includes getting honest and humble with ourselves and God. There is no other way to read Jesus’ stories of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32) or the tax collector and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9–14). In each story, the one who did wrong ends up being right—simply because he is honest and humble about it.

The one who is formally right ends up being terribly wrong because he is proud about his own performance. How have we been able to miss that important point? I suspect it is because the ego wants to think well of itself and deny any shadow material. Only the soul knows we grow best in the shadowlands. Western civilization has failed to learn how to carry the shadow side. We did not teach our people how to carry the paschal mystery—with its suffering, death, and resurrection—within ourselves, and it is now coming back to haunt us. Christians have little ability to carry the shadow side of themselves, of the church, of history, or of reality itself. It is much easier to see things as all-good or all-bad, rather than both crucified and resurrected at the same time. So, it’s no wonder we’re so out of balance.

St. Paul tells us much the same thing after coming to terms with his own failures, experiencing Christ’s grace and forgiveness, and learning to find a sense of balance within himself, he wrote in Ephesians 4:  We must no longer be little children, tossed to and fro and blown by every wind of within and without, by people’s trickery, their craftiness, or their deceitful scheming. Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, with each part work-ing properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

I’m rather fond of Eugene Peterson’s reworking of this text that tells us: No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Jesus, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

So, just like last week when I showed you a body prayer from St. Julian of Norwich to help you get grounded without words, let me give you a breathing prayer from our Eastern Orthodox sisters and brothers that is equally time-tested. It is known as the Prayer of the Heart and links a sacred passage of Scripture with God’s sacred breath filling us with peace. The original Prayer of the Heart used these words:  Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.

But you can use any combination of words that ground you in God’s grace:  Sophia, wisdom: grant me peace.  Blessed Mary, hear my prayer. Spirit of God, fill my heart. The key involves three parts:  words that resonate with your heart, two distinct phrases that can guide your inward/outward breathing, and practice.

Let’s practice right now using the first words of the prayer – taking LONG, slow breathes in and then releasing them slowly too – so that we slow everything down within us. You know the con-temporary spiritual writer, Annie Lamott? She says that our soul always calls us to slow down if we’re feeling unbalanced: it is deep calling to deep and we do damage if we ignore this sacred invitation. So, try it with me:  Jesus Christ… have mercy on me.  In – and out.  Jesus Christ… have mercy on me…

I have concentrated on only one aspect of praying with our nose: breath. Fr. Ed suggests a variety of other ways:  using incense in our homes. Every Sunday before I start this live-streaming I use incense to evoke the beauty of the Lord. Some of you know that one day I used so much I set off our smoke alarms. But incense is a way, like Psalm 141 tells us, to let our prayers ascend to the Lord as we inhale the aroma.  You might stop and smell your evening dinner in a sacramental manner, too. Or the flowers in your garden or at the bodega. Like singer Annie Lennox tells us: there are a thousand beautiful things all around us that show us the essence and truth of the holy if we but have eyes to see, ears to hear, and noses to smell and breathe with…

check out the video here:

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