The Faustian Bargain

Have you heard about the triple bottom line: People- Planet-Profit? There been some very brave companies over the last few decades that have sought to balance all three. In many of those cases, acquisition by a larger company, or pressure from shareholders, has lead the company to emphasize profit- even if that means compromising on people or planet. There are a small number of companies, a growing number of companies, in a surprising number of different sectors, which are beginning to see that the company's fate is intertwined with the Earth's fate.

And so for a company to have the bottom line of profit, it must take into account people and the planet. This new trend is very exciting- companies that are balancing their own profit, or desire to do well, with the larger picture of what the community needs, and what the earth needs.

When I think about this process there is a Bible verse that comes to mind-

"What does it profit a person to conquer the whole world, if one loses one's own soul."

What does it profit any of us to gain the whole world, if we forfeit our soul which is our interrelatedness with the world?

If we forfeit our soul, there is no world to gain.

Its a Faustian bargain, a deal with the devil, where we don’t realize the full consequences of what we think we desire.

Consider the case of China, since the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989. Never in the course of human history has a larger number of people gained more wealth in such a short time. Along with the wealth, has come greater disparity between city and rural wealth and increased environmental abuse. According to a recent McKinsey Report, China is about to overtake America in terms of greenhouse emissions. What's it going to mean for China to be given the possibility of the whole world and not forfeit its soul?

I’ll leave the question hanging.

Balancing Desire and Equanimity

Just as companies and nations are going through this tension, so we all live our lives in a constant tension between desire and equanimity, desire and contentment, harmony with what is. We all know what desire is, but let me describe equanimity in very practical terms.

Two people are sitting in a restaurant across from each other. The table is lit by candlelight, there is music playing in the background, and the only other sounds are the clatter of silverware on plates. The couple sits there without saying a word to each other, because there are no words needed. They are simply at ease in each other's company. That’s equanimity.

A person is sitting atop a mountain, feeling completely at one with the mountain and the view, and with everything that they see- that is picture of equanimity.

You can have equanimity in the middle of noise as well.

Imagine being surrounded by traffic, and in the midst of the hubbub of traffic and chaos, a state of mind passes over you, and you are completely at ease with the noise and the chaos. That too is equanimity. Equanimity is being in harmony with what is at that current moment; contentment, warmth and peace.

As human beings we live this constant balance between desire or longing and equanimity or contentment. Desire gives us our passion or commitment to work for justice and create change in the world. Desire is necessary, but needs to be held in balance with equanimity.

I would like to take a little bit of license with the poetry in this morning’s reading from Genesis, because the reading spoke about two lights. One was described as the greater light, a light that guides the day, and a lesser light that guides the night. I want to take a bit of license with that imagery and suggest that in our world, in our culture, desire has become the greater light. We are guiding our lives according to a desire, which is out of balance with the lesser light, which is equanimity.

Desire has run rampant almost to the point of excluding equanimity. You are the fiery light of divine essence, nothing less, you are a green dragon, and you are alive along with all other things in the cosmos. You are a dragon- you breathe fire, the divine fire of desire and equanimity. They are both part of the divine essence. They're both necessary and they need to be held in balance. You have within you a fire. Call it a seed, call it a fire, call it divine presence, you have within you a fire, and the flames of that fire are fanned, and manifest as both a desire and equanimity in some balance.

As the green dragon, the fiery life of divine essence, you contain all the possibilities of the cosmos and yet you are contained by none of them. You desire all things yet you're not attached to the outcomes of any of them. You are alive with the creative possibilities of the cosmos, nothing less.

I want to explore the theme of fire as it relates to our human journey, this tension between desire and equanimity, and particularly as it relates to the earth. I want to give you some examples, both from nature and from spirituality, of this distinction and how we might hold them in tension.

Back Burning as a Metaphor for Balance

Nature reflects life for us. Nature reflects this tension, this pattern of life that we all exist in. The first example is something called back burning. In Australia we know a lot about fires. It is a dry continent. We know a lot about bush fires, and so back burning is something that we grow up with. Back burning is fascinating when you think about the implications for what I’m discussing this morning. It takes place when there is a very large fire that is out of control, and it is heading toward a residential area. What will happen is that a smaller fire will be created or manufactured in between the fire and homes. The small fire will kill what needs to be killed, so as to take away the fuel for the large fire.

Equanimity, even if it's a small fire in our culture, can conquer the larger fire by creating this balance. The small fire in this situation is powerful enough to overcome a large fire. Think about that in terms of your own life, and your own experience. This divine essence is powerful beyond your imagination to balance out this rampant fire called desire.

Nature reflects life for us. It shows us the very same tension that we experience in life.

Metabolism as a Metaphor for Balance

The word metabolism comes from the same origin as diabolic, which is the word for devil. We have within us all a metabolism. We have within us a fiery furnace that takes what we give it, what we feed it, and it creates energy for us. Now, we know that we have to feed our furnace. We only need to feed it small amounts at a time to keep the fires burning. We also know that within our metabolism is a need for both oxidants and anti-oxidants, and they need to exist within us at the same time to create tension, and it is different for every person. We need oxygen to fan the flames of our metabolism. We need anti-oxidants to create some equanimity within.

Again nature reflects life. It reflects the very tension we all live with between desire, longing, craving, and equanimity, or peace, warmth, and acceptance of what is.

I offer you two stories that draw out spiritual desire and spiritual equanimity.

Spiritual Desire

The first story comes from William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison was a fiery activist whose issue was slavery. One day he was speaking to a group, and he was becoming very agitated as he was speaking, and he was pounding the pulpit and raising his fists and shouting out loud, “all people exist in the image of God! All people are worthy of the respect of the divine!” And someone called out “Lloyd Garrison, You’re on fire!” His answer was this- “I have to be on fire because there are icebergs of indifference to melt. “

Think about that in the context of the world we live- where at both poles icebergs are melting because of the indifference of our culture. What's it going to mean for us to be on fire? The fire of desire that we would live differently, that we would have different priorities, the fire of commitment to make a difference? Lloyd Garrison illustrated for us a spiritual fire of desire, a commitment to want to make change. That’s spiritual desire.

Spiritual Equanimity

Rabbi Nathan Finkel lived towards the end of the 19th century and headed a yeshiva in Slobodka, a small town in Lithuania. On cold, dark winter mornings, it is said, the rabbi used to get up early, cross over the bridge and go into town. He would stop off in all the shtibelech, all the little prayer houses and places of study, one after another. And in each small, dark room, he would light a fire in the oven and stoke the flames before continuing on his rounds. Why did he do it? His closest friends would ask. And he would say ”If all the prayer houses and places of study are warm early in the morning, then coachmen, porters and all kinds of poor people will come in to get warm - and then they will find themselves in a sacred place.”

Rabbi Finkel was creating equanimity, the fire of warmth and peace, and harmony with all there is, spiritual desire and spiritual equanimity. Somehow we must live our lives with that balance.

I ask you, how do you find the balance? How you live that balance between wanting to get ahead and maintaining harmony with all that is? How do you hold together Jesus’ words- "What does it profit a person to conquer the whole world, if one loses one's own soul." How do you hold desire in your perspective without forfeiting your soul?

Paul’s Cosmology and the Earth

St. Paul in Romans 8 painted a picture for us, which is really a cosmology:

18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

This text is fascinating. Paul is attempting to place his theology into a cosmological perspective. He says, the creation waits, with eager longing, that is the earth has desire. And yet it waits for humans to catch up, offering patience and equanimity. The creation expresses for us the very tension that we exist in- desire and equanimity. The creation is groaning under the weight of human desire run rampant. And yet it waits for us to catch up. Paul's cosmology is leading us back to the earth. Paul's cosmology is asking us questions about what it means to be one with the earth, one with the cosmos.

We stand at point of great crisis in our earth. Our earth is burning with the flames of our desire run rampant. The earth is melting because of our lifestyles. How are we going to take on this cosmology of Paul in such a way that we can make a difference?

The earth is burning, and it is burning because of us. What's it going to mean for us to find harmony with the earth?

Standing in the Fire Together

Will you stand in the fire? Will you stand in the fire alongside your brothers and sisters and not shrink back? Will you stand in the fire alongside the earth itself? You are no less than the green dragon, the fiery life of divine essence. You are one with the earth whether you realize it or not, whether you like it or not. Will you stand in the fire with each other and the earth, and not shrink back?

What is it going to mean to stand at the brink of possibility, as individuals, as a community, as a nation, as a global community, the possibility of the whole world, and yet not forfeit the soul, the heart of life itself?

You're nothing less than the fiery life of divine essence. You are a green dragon. Within you lives all the possibilities of life itself. Within you lives a longing, a craving for justice and peace. Within you lies a peace with all that is right now. How will you live that balance?

Will you stand in the fire and not shrink back?