A Coherent Life

co·her·ent  (k-hîrnt, -hr-) adj. 1. Sticking together; cohering. 2. Marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts: a coherent essay. 3. Physics Of, relating to, or having waves with similar direction, amplitude, and phase that are capable of exhibiting interference. 4. Of or relating to a system of units of measurement in which a small number of basic units are defined from which all others in the system are derived by multiplication or division only. 5. Botany Sticking to but not fused with a part or an organ of the same kind. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

coherent [kəʊˈhɪərənt]

adj

1. capable of logical and consistent speech, thought, etc.

2. logical; consistent and orderly

3. cohering or sticking together

4. (Physics / General Physics) Physics (of two or more waves) having the same phase or a fixed phase difference coherent light

5. (Mathematics) (of a system of units) consisting only of units the quotient or product of any two of which yield the unit of the resultant quantity

coherently  adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

The sermon for this week's installment in my Deep Spirit Sermon Series is entitled: "Deep Spirit: A Life That Is Coherent." Coherent is not a word that everybody uses a lot, unless they refer to someone who has had a stroke or is severely intoxicated: "They were totally incoherent." That phrase is illustrative and significant. The process of communication involves a logical construction of words in order to convey a thought or idea. This logical arranging of words in a specific order actually reflects the way our brains work. 

Brain researchers (neurophysiologists) tell us that there is a region in the brain that is involved with our logical thinking and decision-making processes. It specifically seeks to make logical sense of things. This brain center not only is involved in communication, it is involved in processing everything we experience about the world as well as help formulate responses and actions to those experiences. It is in our nature, therefore, to seek a way of life that is logically consistent, that hangs together. In other words, is coherent.

A coherent life needs to address at least these aspects of human life:

1. Our physical needs

2. Our psychological and emotional well-being

3. Our social interactions and place in society and in the natural world

4. Our intimate and interpersonal relationships

5. Our intellectual curiosity and the exercise of our minds

6. Our aesthetic appreciation and creative impulse

One of the most important things that religions do is to help people maintain a coherent life, a life in which all these elements hang together in a fulfilling and consistent manner.


The scripture I have chosen to serve as the Biblical grounding and springboard for the sermon is taken from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 6:19-34:

 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

So what does this section from the Sermon on the Mount have to do with a coherent life? Well, actually, the whole way of Jesus has to do with coherence, not just these passages.  These passages address the directions our lives take, and our mental and emotional states in life. 

1. Storing up treasure in heaven refers to what we make as our priorities in life, and what direction our life is taking. It refers to what governs our lives, and how our decisions are ultimately made. The things to which we devote our time, energy and thoughts not only demonstrate our priorities on life, they actually shape us according to those priorities. Jesus say, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." In other words, you can say your priorities are based in the Bible or are all about family or whatever you want, but I will look at how you spend your time, what you give your money to, what you do on the internet, who you vote for and support politically, what your decisions enable others to do, and so on. These will tell me what your true priorities are. These things tell the truth about our hearts. Jesus says "By their fruit you will recognize them" (Matthew 7:16-20 12:33; Luke 6:43-44)
2. What we bring into our conscious awareness will affect us psychologically, emotionally and intellectually. That is what he means by the eye being the lamp of the body. This relates directly to the previous verse having to do with what we direct our attention towards in life. Some social scientists have described our society as being an entertainment-driven society. Of course, humans have always sought to be entertained. But now we have so many avenues of entertainment: TV. movies, radio, CDs. DVDs, iPods, video games, concerts, theatre, dances, rodeos, sports events, monster car rallies, animal fights, gambling, the Internet, and the list goes on. It is possible not to seek entertainment as a source of refreshment, it is possible to become totally lost in our various forms of amusement and distraction. And that is the danger: becoming lost and distracted from the things necessary for our survival and for our fulfillment as humans. There is also the possibility that our distractions will lead us away from viewing other persons as precious beings into viewing them as commodities or objects of violence and consumption. What we continually fix our eyes upon shapes our inner world.
3. Worry and anxiety are common phenomena in life. So why does Jesus say not to do that which is most natural and characteristic of being a human? Once again, it has to do with priorities and direction in life. If all our attention and energy is directed at making a living, scrambling to get more stuff, battling to get ahead, then life is only about survival and competition. Jesus spars with the devil at the beginning of his ministry and renounces this sort of life: "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds form the mouth of God." Life is more than merely material existence. Of course, there is a corollary in this. The conditions for human life in this world should not be so severe that all of life becomes merely a daily struggle for survival. Extreme poverty, hunger, homelessness and lives devoid of loving human interaction or acts of beauty diminish and cripple human beings. If the coherent life addresses the six areas described above, then anything less is inhumane. Jesus is not telling us to ignore the material conditions in life, quite the opposite. What he is saying is that all persons should have what they need to live and thrive as full human beings, and that fullness is not ultimately measured in material terms, but in immaterial terms such as loving and joy-filled families, the production and appreciation of great works of art or music or dance, time spent in worship and spiritual devotion, meaningful human interaction and so on. Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

There we have it. That is what it is ultimately all about: a life lived abundantly and fully. That is what God wants and intends for us, and Jesus came to show us how to achieve it. That seems pretty coherent to me.




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