New Again

I find this blog is following me through the different changes in my life and itself goes through those changes with me.  Now, that I'm preaching every Sunday, it's more difficult for me to find time to reflect and blog.  For a while, I was posting my sermons on this blog, but that didn't feel like it worked.  If people are interested in my sermons, they can go to the church website (www.stpaulsoakville.com) and read them or listen to them there. 

My blog will now reflect my personal thoughts, sometimes as it relates to my faith, but not always.  If anyone is interested in the thoughts of a middle-aged, female preacher, who likes to share her thoughts on life's joys and sorrows, life's difficulties and challenges, and life's quirks and questions, I'll be right here.

Blessings!

At-One-Ment

A week ago, I was at Canada's Wonderland, a nearby amusement park.  I was waiting for some friends to finish a ride in which I had no interest and I was reading a book.  The passage I was reading inspired this writing in which I want to talk about atonement, or, as some like to say, “at-one-ment.”  The words I read that day were so crystal clear to me that I had a moment when all else around me melted away, or maybe more accurately, it just all became a part of me and I a part of it.  I was very much in the moment with the ‘aha’ moment that I was having. 

            Unfortunately, after that day, I struggled to find that moment again.  My husband and I have been looking at buying a house, so much of our days have been preoccupied with paperwork, showings, and all the stress and nervousness that comes with purchasing a home.  I’ve had a lot of appointments, meetings, and obligations this week and it has been very difficult for me to get back into that moment, which caused me to struggle in my writing.  How do I write about “at-one-ment” when I feel so at odds within myself, and feeling more chaos than peace.

           The book I was reading is called “The Bible According to Noah: Theology as if Animals Mattered” by Gary Kowalski.  He

writes about the book of Job.  At the end of the book of Job, after many chapters of Job and others struggling with why God allows bad things to happen to good people, God responds.  God does not respond with answers.  God responds with image after image of the created world.  God asks, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?…Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?…Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?  Do you observe the calving of the deer?…Is the wild ass willing to serve you?  Will it spend the night at your crib?…Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane? Do you make it leap like the locusts?…Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south?  Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nests on high?”  God puts the majesty of the earth before Job and Job responds with, 

            I know that you can do all thing and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

            Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

            I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;

   therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

In the passage I had been reading at Wonderland, Kowalski talked about Jane Goodall, a well-known primatologist and anthropologist.  Kowalski refers to Goodall’s autobiography and I’m going to read this passage straight from the book, because I found it to be so profound and moving.  This story is from her autobiography and follows about a year and half after the tragic and difficult death of her husband.  She describes a time when hope once more entered her universe.  

She had traveled back to Gombe, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, after weeks of lecturing in America.  At home again with her beloved chimpanzees, she found herself caught together with them in a drenching rainstorm, then basking in the soft glow of sunlight that followed.  “It is hard – impossible, really – to put into words the moment of truth that suddenly came upon me then,” she says.  “Even the mystics are unable to describe their brief flashes of spiritual ecstasy.” 

            It seemed to me, as I struggled afterward to recall the experience, that self was utterly absent: I and the chimpanzees, the earth and the trees and air, seemed to merge, to become one with the spirit power of life itself.  The air was filled with a feathered symphony, the evensong of birds.  I heard new frequencies in their music and also in the singing insects’ voices – notes so high and sweet I was amazed.

            Each leaf on every tree seemed indescribably rich in shape and shading, with a delicate tracery of veins forming a pattern that was individual and unlike any other.  The fragrances of the soaking forest mingled in a heady perfume, yet every odor remained distinct: the scents of moist earth and the mouldering aroma of decaying, overripe fruits, the loamy smell of damp bark, along with her own wet tresses and the steaming hair of the chimpanzees.  The sweetness of crushed vegetation was intoxicating.  She sensed rather than saw another presence, then looked upwind to spy a magnificent bushbuck quietly feeding, with spiralled horns shimmering in the luminous air.  Goodall felt at that moment that she was a part of a natural order that “dwarfs and yet somehow enhances human emotion.”  She realized in a powerful and visceral way that she was connected to a Reality that held all life within its embrace, bringing her a sense of serenity and strength she had never known before.  The forest had given her, she says, “the peace that passes understanding.”

Kowalski writes that when Job has his encounter with God, Job became “a changed man.”  His response, as I shared before, was revealing, but the phrase he utters that is usually translated “I despise myself,” is misleading.  Kowalski writes that, “Job is not having a self-esteem problem or indulging in a bout of self-hatred.  He is describing something quite different.  His words would be better rendered as “I melt away”… or as “I melt away into nothing.”  Job’s old persona is dissolving.  

Last week, I talked about the Cosmic Christ.  The sermon is on the website if you would like to hear it or read it, but basically, I talked about how Christ isn’t just the man who walked this earth 2000 years ago.  Christ is in every thing, Christ is in every time.  Christ is in everyone, in you, in me, here and now.

Atonement is sometimes described as making reparation for a wrong.  In churches the meaning centres around reconciliation of God and humankind through Jesus Christ.  So might reconciliation of God and humankind through Jesus Christ look like these “melting” moments.  Might reconciliation be those moments when we are at one with the Spirit, at one with Christ, at one with all that is around us, “melting” or blurring the lines and the boundaries that separate us from each other, from other sources of life, from the very air we breathe.  Might “at-one-ment” look like those moments experienced by Goodall and Job, bringing “a sense of serenity and strength” and a “peace that passes understanding.”  

Now this may be a stretch for a lot of us.  Most of us don’t have the opportunity to be outside in a drenching rainstorm with chimpanzees, but how many of us take the time to pray, to sit with God, or to meditate?  How many of are able to find moments when we can be centred, grounded, and in the moment?  Especially in these days of constant distractions from cell phones, emails, flashing signs, and constant appointments, these moments of clarity or centredness are less common and more precious.  We really have to be intentional, make space, if finding those moments is important to us.  

These moments of reconciliation, of being one with all that surrounds us, are those moments when we feel God.  Those are the moments that some of us long for in our lives, to give us peace and healing, but they are also some of the most fleeting moments and the most difficult to find.  I promise you though, they’re worth it when they are found.  So take time to be.  This might happen in a number of ways.  It might happen when you are praying or meditating, practicing those moments to empty your brain of all the details of life.  It might happen when you are walking, especially in a forest, on a prairie, on a mountain, by the water, in the rain, in freshly fallen snow.  It might happen when you are connecting with another soul, whether it be a two-legged creature, or a four-legged one.  It might happen doing something you love, playing your favourite sport, drawing, singing or dancing, spending time with a child.  

My advice is to find more of these moments in your life, to include more of them.  God can be found in these moments.  The cosmic Christ, in all things, in you, in me, can be felt in these moments.  Atonement, reconciliation of the divine and humankind, and I might add, of the divine and self, is at our fingertips.  This at-one-ment is not a fairy tale or only reserved for mystics or the most holy of people.  It’s there for each one of us, if we can give that most precious of commodities, our time.  

Like Job, may your struggles and questions and doubts be answered with the profound mysteries of life.  May you find the cosmic Christ, oneness, the melting away of boundaries, the peace that passes understanding in moments of simply being.  May the Spirit be your guide as you reach for at-one-ment, not in all moments, but in those sacred moments, those moments of strength and unity with all creation.  Amen.

The Cosmic Christ

This week I wondered how I might be able to talk about Jesus amidst all this talk about creation.  Was Jesus an environmentalist?  Did he or would he have said or done anything about the destruction of our planet?  Hoes does Christ connect with creation?

In recent years, people have been talking about the “Cosmic Christ.”  If you google “Cosmic Christ,” you get 17,000,000 hits,

with Father Richard Rohr and his Centre for Action and Contemplation, being near the top of the list.  Richard Rohr is one of my heroes.  He has written many books on faith and spirituality that resonate with my own faith journey.  His most recent book is called “The Universal Christ” which I haven’t yet read, but it’s at the top of my list of books to read this year.  I found a promotion video for his book that uses language from the book and expresses this idea of the Cosmic Christ.  The Universal Christ

Many of us begin with an image of Jesus when we think about Christ.  One of Rohr’s goals is that we might rediscover Jesus and learn to experience Christ in every one and every thing, not just in the man who lived 2000 years ago.  In the United Church, we talk a lot about Jesus and his ministry; we study and explore his miracles and parables and how he advocated for justice and mercy for the oppressed and marginalized, but we don’t tend to talk about Christ and how Christ is with us now and a part of us and all life, at all times.  This is how some people interpret the resurrection.  This matters when we’re talking about our care of creation and our care for each other.  As quoted in this video, “God loves things by becoming them…By taking on physicality, the body of Christ is not somewhere out there; it’s in you, it’s in me, here and now.”

Those who wrote about Jesus after his death struggled with how to define Jesus the Christ, wanting to expand on the man and connect with the divine, exploring how Christ is still with us and has always been with us.  The author of John’s gospel tries to articulate this in the first few lines of his writing.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The Word was present in the beginning with God.  Through the Word, all things came into being and apart from the Word nothing came into being.”  In other words, Christ Jesus was always there.  When we read Genesis and read about the creation of the world, we read that “the Word” or Christ was present and that Christ was active in the creating.  The author of John continues.  “And the Word became flesh and stayed for a little while among us; we saw the Word’s glory.”  God became one of us and this is how God is made known to us.  When we learn about Jesus, when we pray and meditate and let Jesus into our lives, God continues to be made known.  This is all part of the great cosmic mystery that is Christ.  

When I think about the Cosmic Christ, I think about the universe.  I think about the stars, galaxies, and planets and the possibility of life, outside of this planet, in this ever-expanding universe.  I think about the billions of years it took to get us to this point and I wonder what a billion more years might look like.  I think about the astronomical odds against life beginning on this planet or any celestial body in the universe and I am in awe of the simplicity and the complexity in that life.  The cosmic Christ has been in it from the beginning, from the very first big bang.  Christ continues to be in all of it, in each new spring, in each moon and asteroid, in the wideness of this world, and in each new breath, and, of course, when breath ceases.  When we begin to see Christ in it all, in the “blueprint of all of reality,” everything becomes divine, everything becomes a gift, everything has value and importance, and everything is one, a “unifying heartbeat.”   As we heard in the video.  “Christ is wherever ordinary matter and spirit meet.  Christ is wherever the divine meets with the human.  To be Christian, to be one with Christ, is to see Christ in everything.”  

May Creator God be with all life as we learn to care for this planet.

May Christ be seen in all creation, on earth, in the cosmos, in you, and in me.

May the Spirit stir our hearts, our minds, and our bodies to act now towards the survival of this planet, to live with compassion for all life, and to be one with the cosmic Christ.  Amen.

The Prophet's Truth

Jeremiah was a prophet who lived 2600 years ago.  He was a prophet who didn't want to be a prophet.  He started out young, perhaps in his twenties, and his was an uphill battle.  His message, given to him by God, was to deliver a difficult message to the Israelites.  Basically his message, according to Robert Alter in his Hebrew Bible Translation and Commentary, was that "dark clouds of disaster lower over the kingdom of Judah [and that] in Jeremiah's understanding, this disaster cannot be averted, for it is the ineluctable consequence of the people's violation of its covenant with God…”

This, of course, was not a message the Israelites wanted to hear, especially when the Babylonians were besieging Jerusalem.  They tried to shut up Jeremiah by imprisoning him, exiling him, and throwing him down a pit to die.  Jeremiah, for his part, didn't want to deliver this message.  He felt ill-equipped, unheard, and unappreciated, but he couldn't seem to stop himself.  The most striking expression of this is in chapter 20 when Jeremiah states: "You have enticed me, O Lord, and I was enticed.  You are stronger than I, and You prevailed...I thought, 'I will not recall Him, nor will I speak anymore in His name.' But it was in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones."  Jeremiah's message and his mission were important enough that he just couldn't let it go, he couldn't not do what God called him to do.  

I think most prophets might express themselves in this way. It’s not easy to be a prophet.  A prophet is someone who points the way to God.  Sometimes that might mean pointing the way towards hope and new life; other times it might be pointing the way to an approaching crisis or impending doom.

In reading of Jeremiah, I was reminded of a modern prophet, Greta Thunberg.  If you haven’t heard of her, you really need to look

her up.  Take a look at this recent highlight from CBS news.

An article on August 28^th from BBC reads, 

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who inspired the now-global [school climate strike] movement, has become a primary target. On Wednesday, the 16-year-old arrived in New York after completing her voyage across the Atlantic aboard an environmentally friendly yacht. 

She faced a barrage of attacks on the way. "Freak yachting accidents do happen in August," Arron Banks, a businessman and prominent Brexit campaigner, tweeted. While Mr. Banks said the tweet was a joke, many were outraged.

Ms. Thunberg is not the only eco-activist under fire, though. Four young climate campaigners told the BBC of the abuse they have been subjected to. One was compared to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels while another said she had been racially abused.

These environmentalists have asked difficult questions of politicians, and been ruthlessly derided for doing so.

Being a prophet is no joy ride.  Most people don’t want to be challenged.  Most people don’t want to hear hard truths that will force a change in a their way of life.  This is exactly what climate activists are asking of us.  And not just by composting and recycling.  Greta Thunberg has made a commitment not to travel by air, so in order to get to New York for a UN Climate Summit, that occurs on September 23, she spent 15 days on a solar powered sailboat to get from Europe to North America.  That’s dedication and she is making a powerful statement about the extent to which we all need to try to eliminate our carbon footprint.

I admit that I find it difficult sometimes to speak out.  I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make them feel like they are being judged or feel like I’m forcing my own beliefs on them, but I think that sometimes, certain issues go beyond a set of beliefs and become issues of justice.  The prophet Jeremiah didn’t worry about hurting anyone’s feelings.  He knew the matter at hand was urgent and time was running short.

I think Greta Thunberg might have a similar message for us.  She is not telling us about a crisis that might happen but a crisis that is happening.  Like she say, "Our house is on fire!" When she talks, she’s talking to us adults, those who can vote, those who are running the corporations, those who are turning a blind eye to our climate crisis, those who can actually make a difference in the fight to protect this earth for future generations.  As a sixteen year old, she can’t do a lot except influence others with her words, at which she’s doing a pretty good job, but she needs others to act.  I think words from Jeremiah could be put in the mouth of Greta Thunberg.

I saw the earth, and look, welter and waste,

the heavens, and their light was gone.

I saw the mountains and, look, they quaked,

and all the hills broke apart.

I saw, and look, there was no human there,

And all the fowl of the heavens had gone away. (3:23-25)

This passage expresses an undoing of God’s creation, of the story we heard last week from the first chapter in our bible.  Jeremiah spoke of a nation coming apart; Greta Thunberg is speaking of a planet coming part.  

I promised last week not to harp on the climate change and to focus more on celebrating the wonders of creation, but I just don’t think I can do one without doing the other.  Truths need to be spoken and heard.  Like Jeremiah and like Greta Thunberg, I can’t stay silent.  

But I also do want to celebrate this wonderful world in which we live, this beautiful and life-giving planet that provides us all we need for our physical, and spiritual selves.  I think that we need to love this planet, be grateful for its bounty, respect all life, and know that we are a part of the very elements of this planet that is sick and suffering, which therefore means we are sick and suffering, along with all life on this planet.  

So I’m going to share with you a beautiful video that I ran across this week.  The song in the background is called “Creation Calls” and it was written by Brian Doerkson, a Canadian Christian, singer, songwriter.  Enjoy the wonders of this earth.

Video on Vimeo

May you always feel awe in the wonders of this earth.

May our prophets like Jeremiah, Greta Thunberg, and our saviour, Jesus Christ, inspire us to speak out for justice.  

May the Spirit of this earth flow through our bodies and connect us to all life on this planet and in this universe.  May it be so.  Amen.

Care of Creation

Recently, I’ve been trying to  catch up on the new United Church magazine, Broadview, and this week I read a June article called, “New Dad find Finds Reason for Hope Amidst Climate Change” by Mark Mann.  He and his wife had been trying for a long time to conceive a child, so when they found out they were pregnant it was cause for a lot of excitement and joy. 

Amidst the excitement though is a huge concern about what is happening to our earth.  Did you know that many young people are deciding not to have children because they are either afraid for any child being born into this age of impending climate disaster or they don’t want to add more burden to the planet with another human?  The decision not to have a child has more of a carbon footprint impact than deciding to go without a car.  

This article brought up a lot of my own fears and sorrows around what humankind has done and is doing to our earth.  I went to a conference at St. Andrew’s College a few years back when I was living in Saskatchewan.  I don’t remember who the speaker was and on what she was speaking.  I only know that she was an environmentalist and that I cried almost the whole way home, a four hour drive.  She didn’t leave us with a lot of hope for the future of our earth.

My own love for this planet runs deeply.  As some of you already know, a lot of my decisions are affected by my environmental beliefs.  My car currently has two non-plastic drinking containers, one for cold drinks and the other for hot drinks, for when I go out for a drink where only disposable containers are used.  I have a metal straw and metal spork in my purse.  Bicycling is partly for my health, but I also know it’s better for the earth than driving my car.  In fact, I’m currently warring with myself whether to replace this car, when the need arises, and whether I can do what I need to do by bike or by bus.  I avoid flying as much as possible.  I feel guilty putting out bags of garbage that will end up in a landfill.  I’m considering becoming a vegetarian, not because I think eating meat is bad, but because I know that more vegetarians are better for our earth.

Mark Mann, living with this anxiety and fear, decided to talk with Dave Courchene, an Anishinabe elder and knowledge-keeper to whom he often goes for wisdom.  Courchene said, “We will never change out of fear.”  Instead he said we need to start from a different position.  That means going back to the beginning and teaching our children to align with the Earth.  It will provide what we need to survive, he said.  “The earth will never betray those that have reciprocal love and respect for her.”

This first chapter of our bible tells us that all life is good.  We hear this mantra over and over, as each day finishes, when God says, “It is good,” and on the last day, when God looks at everything that had been created and says, “It is very good.”  Not only was it good then, but we continue to share this awe and wonder today when we view the sky during a sunrise or sunset or feel the sun on our bodies, when we see a full moon, when thunder is so loud it shakes the earth, when flowers begin blooming in the spring, when we turn a corner and see a beautiful landscape that takes our breath away.  We all have different nature stories that affect us in different ways, and not always in good ways.  Sometimes we don’t appreciate appreciate some of the creepy crawlies or scavengers that we encounter, but, we remember that God professed all as good, even the parts we may not like so much.

Gary Kowalski, in his book called, “The Bible According to Noah: Theology as if Animals Mattered,"a writes that one of our

problems is how Genesis 1, verse 26 has been interpreted.  “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth.”  Especially for Western Christians, this verse has been interpreted as meaning that human beings alone resemble God, and that this resemblance sets them over and apart from all other creatures, giving us dominion over the rest of the earth.  Kowalski writes:

"Perhaps the only way to save our world is by recognizing that this is not our world at all.  Other living beings are not our property.  The precept that we possess no title deed to the soil or air or water is prevalent among modern environmentalists but this is also a rule articulated repeatedly in our bible: Psalm 24:1 - The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.  Isaiah 66:1 - All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the Lord.  Exodus 19:5 - Indeed, the whole earth is mine…Scripture teaches clearly that the earth belongs to God.  It is a goodly world, not ours to desecrate or despoil or grind up for profit, but a gift held in trust.  Will we ever learn to behold the beauty of all creation and treat other beings with the respect they deserve?" (pg 28)

In his book, Kowalski imagines how different stories in the bible might be written differently, and he shares with us a re-imagined story of Genesis. 

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void and darkness covered the face of the deep, and a mighty wind swept over the face of the waters.  Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  And called called the light Day and the darkness Night.  And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”  So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome.  And it was so.

Days passed into years.  And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.”  God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together God called Seas.

Millennia came and went.  And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”  So God created the great whales and every living creature that moves.  And God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds and animals multiply on the earth.”

And where the waters poured down from the dome of the sky, like a waterfall from heaven, the chimpanzees danced.  And as the morning broke over the forest, filling the canopy with soft green light, the gibbons sang with joy.  For all creatures looked upon the work of God, and saw that it was good.  

Then God said, “Let us make humankind, who shall be a mirror of my creation.”  And so God made  human beings, female and male, and within their souls placed the light and the darkness, and within their veins God placed the seas, fashioning their bodies from the tissue of every living thing.

God blessed them, and said to them, “Love the earth and preserve it, for you are related to every living creature: the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and those that creep upon the ground and the wild animals of every kind.”  And it was so.  Then God saw everything that had been made, and indeed, it was very good.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.  And on that day, God celebrated, saying to humankind, “Honor creation and keep it holy.”  And God rested, placing the world in our hands.

Maybe instead of dominion over the earth, God has placed this holy creation in our hands, in our care.  I don’t think we’ve done so well but I haven’t lost hope.  Many people have become aware of how our past and current actions have affected this planet and many are fighting for its life and our lives.  Will you join them? 

May we mirror our creator God, caring for creation and keeping it holy.  May we always see this created world as good and be thankful for its abundance, beauty, diversity, and mystery.  May we remember that God became one of us, entering into this creation, giving us the wonder of knowing that our bodies are holy and sacred, as well as the earth and all that lives upon it.  May we see the Spirit in all of it, moving, playing, dancing with joy at the awesomeness of this created world.  May it be so.  Amen.

Tolerance versus Whole-Hearted Acceptance

When the Israelites were exiled to Babylon, I imagine they hated the Babylonians.  The Babylonian army had destroyed their nation, destroyed their temple, probably killed many of their people, and had then dragged a large cohort to be exiled Babylon.  In our bible, especially in the book of Psalms and in Lamentations, there are many words expressing the anguish and the grief at so much loss and at being so far away from home.  They had every reason to hate the people of Babylon with whom they were being forced to live.

In a passage from the bible in the book of Jeremiah, there was a letter sent from Jerusalem to the exiles with a message from God.  (Jer. 29:4-7) Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Build houses and live with them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give daughters in marriage, they they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

I can only imagine this letter contradicting much of what the people were thinking. Not only were these enemies but they were different.  Living and working with people who are different and not like you, in the best of times, is difficult.  It’s not just about different foods, different clothes, and different religions.  Differences would include the way people greet one another, the way they have arguments, the way ideas are shared, and even, the way people think and feel.  Living with diversity means always being open to ideas and practices that are not like yours.  

Let’s be honest.  It’s much easier not to do this work.  It’s so much easier to hang with people that are similar.  There is less conflict, your thoughts and ideas always feel smart and true,  and you don’t have to worry about offending anyone or hurting anyone’s feelings.  So if one way is more difficult and the other is easy, why choose the more difficult path?  Why would God want these Israeli people to mingle with these Babylonian people, marrying them, having children with them, and seeking their welfare.  Why?

Sunday was the last day of our summer series, “You Asked For It,” a time when the congregation suggested the topic on which I preached. Our last suggested topic was, “Tolerance versus Whole-Hearted Acceptance. Elaborate please!”  OK.  Let’s look at definitions first.

Tolerance: Definition 2 in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary - “a sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own or the act of allowing something.”  So you may not agree, you may not like it, but you sympathize with the belief or practice and “allow” it.  

Acceptance in the same dictionary is the act of accepting someone.  Accept, definition 1, is a favourable reception or approval.  So you are receiving someone or approving their belief or practice.

Tolerance versus acceptance.  Acceptance seems to be the better way to go.  To tolerate is is to simply indulge or allow a belief or practice, which kind of sounds begrudging, but to accept, to favourably receive or approve, especially whole-heartedly, would be that much better.

Let me challenge both words though.  With both actions, to tolerate or to accept, one group is being tolerated or accepted by another, which implies that one group needs to be tolerated or accepted; and that another group, usually the one with more power, does the tolerating and accepting.  That is the issue with a lot of these words.  If one group is always tolerating, accepting, welcoming, including, even affirming, they are always the group that gets to the decide who is in or out.  The other group that is always tolerated, accepted, welcomed, included, and affirmed are always waiting for people to be good enough to do so. 

In the 14th chapter of the gospel of Luke, Jesus is at the house of a Pharisee having been invited to a

meal.  Now, like most societies, where you sit at a meal is important.  At weddings, the bridal party gets the head table with close family and friends close by.  Even in the family home, parents usually are the head of the table, and in some places, it’s the father.  In Jesus’ time, there was always an order to where people sat, especially at a large dinner party hosted by a leader in the society.  We are told specifically in this story that this was a leader.  

Our story tells us that Jesus notices that the guests choose the places of honour.  The places of honour were probably those closest to their host.  Jesus first offers some helpful advice.  You may not want to sit in the places of honour right away.  It might be very embarrassing for you if your host asks you to move so someone more important than you can sit in your place.  It’s better to sit in the lowest place and then have your host come and move you to a higher place of honour.  Jesus says, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  

But Jesus doesn’t stop there.  He has a message for his host.  When you invite people to dinner, don’t invite your friends, you family, or your rich neighbours, hoping for an invitation in return.  Instead invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  They cannot repay you, but you will be blessed and gifted in other ways.  

Imagine this scenario.  A wealthy and important leader in the community has a dinner party.  A few family and friends are invited, but mostly it’s the outcast that are invited, maybe the poor, lame, the blind, but also the homeless, the transgendered person, the gay couple, the illegal immigrants, the schizophrenic, the Muslim family, the atheist, someone just released from prison…those people who aren’t always tolerated or accepted in a community.  Not only are these people invited, they are given the places of honour, for the other invited guests have chosen to sit in the lowest places.  In fact, maybe these guests are the servants, the lowest of the low, the ones hanging up jackets, serving food, and cleaning up.  In this scenario, the host is not just welcoming all to the table; the host is giving up the place of honour and giving the places of honour to those who are usually offered the back of the room.  

This is our struggle: to not only whole-heartedly accept, but to step down from the places of honour and let others fill them.  When this happens, there will be change.  This is scary for those with privilege and power.  It’s not just about a loss of that privilege and power but it could change lives, change routine, change beliefs and practices, change the way things have always been done, and we might not like it.  Do we then abandon ship or do we continue to support this changing community?  

I asked earlier, if one way is more difficult and the other is easy, why choose the more difficult path?  Why invite all these outcasts and give up our space at the table?  Why would God ask of us to live and work with people who are so different from us, whose thoughts and ideas and practices are not understood by us, and clash with what we think and feel?

An article was shared with me from the President of the American Guild of Organists, Michael Bedford.  He shared some powerful quotes in this article I want to share with you.

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr - “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Automobile manufacturer, Henry Ford - “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” 

Poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou - “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and strength.”

Minister and longtime peace activist William Sloane Coffin Jr. - “Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.”  

My friends, living and working with diversity is hard, but it is so sorely needed.  Diversity is beautiful.  It’s why the LGBTQ2 community uses the image of the rainbow.  In the midst of the storms, the dark clouds and the rain, beauty, in all its diversity, can shine through.  Diversity helps us all to learn and grow and only through open hearts and minds can we build the kingdom of God on earth, which, as Christians, should be our ultimate goal.  

Tolerance is not enough.  Whole-hearted acceptance is definitely needed but just doesn’t go far enough.  We need to move from the places of honour and let others move up.  “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  I believe that this is what needs to happen first before we can all sit as equals with no places of honour.  I believe God’s kingdom has no places of honour, but, unfortunately, we can’t start there.  We have to start with the exalted being humbled and the humbled being exalted.  

May God give us the strength to step down and move out of the way when needed.

May Jesus be out guide as we learn when to be strong and courageous and when to be humble.  

May the Spirit always be with us as we build God’s kingdom on earth, brick by brick.  Amen.

What is the Meaning of Life?

During the summer, I have been choosing sermon topics out of a box that have been suggested by people in the congregation.  Last week, the topic chosen was “What is the Meaning of Life?’

My first thought was, “Seriously? Really?” Either someone thinks a lot more of me than they should or they’re pulling my leg. How do I answer a question like that, a question that has been asked throughout the ages and asked of much wiser people than I?

Then, after church, someone talked to me about my sermon that morning, which was about what music is appropriate for worship. In summary, I basically said that any style of music is appropriate if it praises God and encourages us to love our neighbour. This person asked me about his favourite band, Iron Maiden. Could their music be appropriate? I hesitated.  I wasn’t sure. So this person went home and found an Iron Maiden song called, “For the Greater Good of God” and sent me the lyrics. Serendipitously, the lyrics to this song inspired my sermon this week about the meaning of life.

Iron Maiden is a heavy metal band from England.  You decide if you would like to hear the song or just read the lyrics.

The meaning of life will be different for each and every person. We all have to come to our own conclusions and that’s why this question is difficult to answer. I do believe though that our faith and the bible offer us some direction on this meaning. I believe that the whole bible pushes the idea of creating a heaven on earth. From the very beginning of the bible, we have two people living in Eden, a kind of heaven on earth, but as we progress through the stories of the bible, humanity seems to move farther and farther from this Eden. The bible and our history books carry stories of jealousy, competitiveness, greed, and thirst for power that bring about murder, war, and all kinds of violence. Unfortunately, much of this has been carried out in the name of god, not just the Christian god, but Christians have carried a lot of power for the past 2000 years, so the damage has been that much more.

Steve Harris expresses this in his song for Iron Maiden. There is a repeated chorus that goes like this: “Please tell me now what life is. Please tell me now what love is. Well tell me

now what war is. Again tell me what life is.” Throughout the song, the violence of the world is questioned and he questions the presence of this almighty god. He writes, “They fire off many shots and many parting blows. Their actions beyond a reasoning, Only God would know. And as he lies in heaven Or it could be in hell, I feel he's somewhere here, Or looking from below, But I don't know, I don't know.” Iron Maiden is often accused of being a satanic band, but I hear someone who is struggling with a god and those that follow this god that would allow, and even cause, the pain and suffering of the world to happen.

“Please tell me what life is,” he cries out. What is the meaning of all this violence, war, innocent people suffering and dying? Amidst the carnage, amidst the bloodshed, what really is the meaning of this life?

Many have attempted to answer this question, including the prophets of our bible. The prophet Micah spoke some of the most well-known verses of the bible about, of a future where all nations will come together and:

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more;

but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,

and no one shall make them afraid. (Micah 4:3b-4b)

This is a vision of ‘shalom,’ of peace on earth. Is it only a vision though, a pipe dream?

And then from the Christian scriptures, from the book of 21st chapter of Revelation, we have another grand vision, not of people going up to heaven but of heaven coming down to earth, of God making a home among mortals. God with us; not us with God. It makes a difference. We are not meant to all go to heaven but for heaven to come to earth. Death will be no more, mourning and crying will be no more. It’s a new heaven and a new earth. All things will be made new.

I believe this is the direction our bible is taking us. Yes, there are some horrific stories of humanity in that book, just as there are in our history books, but I believe the bible and history are moving us, pushing us towards a just and merciful world, if we would but listen and learn.

Every Sunday, we recite the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. Every Sunday, we say,

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” People have been reciting this for 2000 years, but, unfortunately, there have been too many people working against this vision and doing it in the name of God. I think this is what Steve Harris from Iron Maiden is critiquing.

He ends his song with, “He gave his life for us. He fell upon the cross, to die for all of those who never mourn his loss. It wasn't meant for us to feel the pain again, tell me why, tell me why.”

2000 years later, we are still struggling to know the meaning of Jesus’ life, much less all life. What did Jesus die for? Steve Harris seems to wonder out loud if it was in vain. Has anything changed? He was put on a cross by an empire that was threatened by his teachings and his wisdom, threatened by the number of people who followed him. Only a few hundred years later, Christians were doing the same thing, silencing people that threatened them, ruthlessly gaining power, becoming more political than spiritual.

As Christians, I think we have to work doubly hard at promoting and advocating for peace, partly because we have to make amends for the hurt the church has caused over the years.

Maybe, as Christians, if our meaning of life could be to bring heaven to earth, to beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, the visions of the past, of the prophets, might be realized. We might bring about a new beginning to humanity, a new heaven and a new earth, bring us back to Eden, when God walked on the earth, amidst humanity, and where the death of Jesus was not in vain, but actually helped create a new heaven and a new earth. Pipe dream or a hopeful future if we work towards it?

In the meantime, we continue to wonder about the meaning of life in sermons, in books, in song. We ask questions. We push back against the norm, against the status quo. We read the bible and find new interpretations that help us to grow in our faith and love our neighbour and our enemies. It’s only a start but we can get the ball rolling, rolling towards that beautiful vision, where every tear is wiped away, death is no more; mourning and crying and pain is no more, for the first things have passed away.” May it be so.  Amen.