The Most Important Word

Today we are beginning the season of Advent in which we Christians prepare for the birth of the Christ Child.  The question I have for you today is, “what is the most important word in this season of the coming of the Christ Child to be with us?”  Any guesses?  Of course there are lots of possible answers - Love? Mission? God? Sin? Mercy?  Which one is the one that resonates with you?

Well, if you look at the opening verse of the Gospel of John we have the answer, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”.  The Word was with God.  The most important word in the bible is ‘with’.  This idea doesn’t originate with me.  For this idea I must credit Samuel Wells, a theologian from Duke University and a priest currently working in England. 

I came across the question and answer in an article by Sara Miles on the web site Episcopal Café.  She notes that the idea of the Word being with God is based on the foundation of the Trinity.  ‘The Trinity is, at heart, about ‘with’: about what Christians call “perichoresis.” This is the dance in which Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one being, existing through their mutual relationship. And God is always gathering all humanity into that undivided relationship, bringing us all into life with God.  The Anglican worship service opens with, ‘The Lord be with you’.  The response is,…. ‘and also with you’.  That is the hope and promise that we Christians have.  It was promised to us by Jesus – staying with John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever” (John 14:16). 

What then does it mean to be with another person?  We are all on the journey to be reunited with the source of life when our time on this earth has run its course.  Part of the answer is to not come to someone with expectations about them.  This came home to me for the first time most clearly when I was doing my unit of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) during my seminary training.  I was doing it in a hospital, and my assignment divided my time between a General Medicine Ward and a ward for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.  I had – shall we say – quite a difficult making cold calls in the General Medicine ward.  I knew I was there to help the patient – probably whether they wanted help or not.  I was sure I probably wouldn’t say the right thing or do the right thing. 

The Alzheimer’s ward was an entirely different situation.  I arrived there not knowing who I would be or where I would be.  I might be someone’s father, brother, son or just a friend.  I might be sitting by a riverbank or in someone’s home.  It could be a year ago or five years ago or fifty.  All I had to do was show up and be with that person and be whomever they saw me to be.  I was able to let go and let God – sorry for the cliché - I couldn’t resist.  In any case, with the Alzheimer’s ward, I was able to be with the other person and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

Above all we need to learn to truly be with each other and to enable God to be with us more fully in that journey.  The Lord be with you. 

 

Removing the Blinders

Have you ever been driving along a familiar route – or walking for that matter – and see something, a building or something natural, like a distinctive tree that you had never seen before?  I certainly have and I think that it is a general experience for most people.  It is as if we do not have eyes to see certain things in certain places.  We have natural filters or lenses that only allow certain things to penetrate our consciousness.  This is true of more than the visual.  We are naturally open to sights and sounds and even ideas and who knows what else.  Richard Rohr addressed this recently in one of his Daily Meditations:

Everybody looks at the world through their own lens, a matrix of culturally inherited qualities, family influences, and other life experiences. This lens, or worldview, truly determines what we bring to every discussion. 

Rohr quotes theologian Brian McLaren who has identified the reason for this as Confirmation Bias:  

We judge new ideas based on the ease with which they fit in with and confirm the only standard we have: old ideas, old information, and trusted authorities. As a result, our framing story, belief system, or paradigm excludes whatever doesn’t fit. We must never presume that we see “all” or accurately. We must always be ready to see anew.

I think this also happens due to our personality types.  In the Myers Briggs Personality Types, I am an INFJ which is shorthand for Introvert Intuitive Feeling Judging type.  My weakest function is Sensing which is paired with Intuition. So, I am not attuned to the outside world as much as someone who is a Sensing Type.  I must make a conscious effort to take in the world around me. (sorry to get into the Myers Briggs weeds a bit but if you are interested you can find out more – there are many sites online)

 I believe that these biases we all have – to use McLaren's term – is also true for our awareness of the Divine in our lives.  We are attuned or open naturally to some ways that we connect with the Divine – however that is identified in your life.  There are many other ways in which the Divine is present in our lives which we are not aware of because of biases. 

If you want to deepen your connection with the Divine you can start out by becoming more aware of when this connection happens – it might be hearing beautiful music or reading inspirational writing such as the bible or other holy books, or walking in nature, or paying attention to your dreams.  Once you have a better awareness of what is natural to you, consider expanding ways which do not come naturally to you.  For me this is going on walks in nature.  It takes some effort, but it is definitely worthwhile.

I will close with a prayer

 Source of all truth, help me to hunger for truth, even if it upsets, modifies, or overturns what I already think is true. Guide me into all the truth I can bear and stretch me to bear more, so that I may always choose the whole truth, even with disruption, over half- truths with self-deception. Grant me the passion to follow wisdom wherever it leads. Thank you.  (Adapted from Brian McLaren, Learning How to See, podcast, season 2, ep. 1, “The Big Ditch,” July 2, 2021).

 

The Cloud of Unknowing Yesterday, Today and Always

I have recently returned to a classic writing on Spiritual Direction - The Cloud of Knowing by Anonymous.  It is a 14^th century classic of Contemplative Spirituality by an unnamed author who was probably a cleric.  It is written to a 24-year-old novice whom he is advising.  It is an early classic in Spiritual Direction and was formative for such people as Julian of Norwich, Friedrick von Hugel, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.  It was also formative in the development of modern Centering Prayer by Thomas Keating. 

In reading it again. What strikes me about it is its modern feel.  This is in part probably due to the masterful translation.  However, it also seems to be dealing with themes that resonate with today’s culture.  Anonymous speaks of the desire by people to solve problems through intellect and advises that this approach is not going to work for spiritual issues and our relationship with God.  He (we know that anonymous was a man) notes, “The self-important, hyper analytical intellect must always and in every way be quashed.  Stomp it under foot, if you want to do the work of contemplation with integrity”.  In this I believe it is a wonderful tonic to the approach today which believes that intellect and the products of intellect can solve all the world’s problems. 

Anonymous has a very dim view of the problems caused by what can be seen today as people being ego-centric, “You’re human, so watch out for that enemy, pride. Never think you're holier or better than anyone else.  Never confuse the worthiness of your calling with who you are”.  The more I experience life and observe what is going on in the world the more convinced I am that ego plays a central role in many of the problems in relationships between individuals and groups.  To overcome our ego-centric position has been the challenge that people have faced ever since humankind was exiled from the Garden.  Anonymous certainly seems to have identified it as a significant block to our relationship to God. 

I will close today with the prayer that Anonymous uses to close the preface to his book:

Dear spiritual friend in God, examine your life.  Pay careful attention to the way you live your calling.  With all your heart, thank God for your blessings, and his grace will help you stand strong in the face or subtle attacks from within and without, until you win the everlasting crown of life.  Amen

 

 

Grumpy Old Man

As I get older or just plain old - probably 76 does qualify as old –- I seem to be getting grumpier.  The question arises – if not begged (I’m still not sure what exactly begging the question is) – am I grumpy because I am getting old – an internal thing - or am I grumpy because the world is imposing a lot of things on me that it shouldn’t?  Now don’t get me wrong, I have a lot to be thankful for – a wonderful wife who is very generous with her advice- particularly when we are driving somewhere; financial security; relatively good health and a great church community we are part of. 

That being said, I find myself becoming annoyed more easily than I used to – at least in my self-assessment.  I find annoyance is right there not too far under the surface and just lurking in wait for an opportunity to show itself.  There seem to be more opportunities for annoyance to raise its ugly head these days as life seems to be more complicated.  I struggle to deal with all the modern conveniences, particularly those which come with complicated ways of operating that don’t seem to make sense to me. 

Here are a few examples to help you understand what I am ranting about this morning.  We finally broke down and got a ‘smart’ phone a few years ago.   Up until then we had an old-fashioned flip phone which was used for emergencies.   We seemed to manage quite well but decided – for some reason I don’t really remember – don’t get me started on my memory challenges – to bite the bullet and get one.  I believe we were in Maisonville Mall in London trying to get a COVID shot and there was a booth nearby – so while we were waiting for our appointment, we decided to take the leap into the wonderful world of ‘smart’ phones.  Well, it has turned out that the phone is definitely smarter than me.  I dread to get a call on it – we don’t usually give out the number – as I find it is a challenge to answer the call – we did get advice on that from someone – I forget who – that we should swipe the phone and not tap it vigorously.  I can hardly wait to try this out, but I haven’t received a call yet.  There are lots of other challenges using this smarty pants device, but I hope this gives you a sense of where I speak. 

Well, let me give you one more example.  We recently had an electronic thermostat installed.  Boy has it been fun figuring it out.  We can control it – you guessed it – on the smarty pants phone.  After some trial and error – emphasis on the error – I have it figured out but the icon on the phone keeps disappearing.  Sometimes it is there and sometimes not.  I think the phone is just trying to remind me who is in charge. 

Another area of annoyance is parking.  I am old enough – see above – to remember when parking lots had attendants who would take your ticket and tell you how much you owed, and you could give them real money to settle up.  Now the attendant has gone the way of the dinosaurs – perhaps that is my fate as well.  We have the wonders of the machines where you get to pay your money by card – if you can figure out the instructions - and hope for the best.  Recently we were in Stratford to see a performance of Macbeth and parked in a municipal lot.  You had to put in vast amounts of information e.g. licence plate number, zone number (whatever that is) and pay for the time you think you will be parking.  Now, Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays but who knows how long we will be parked.   Well, we probably might have managed (with help from bad language) but we/I couldn’t see the screen as it was in bright sunlight.  We gave up and luckily found a spot on the street which- Hallelujah - had an old-fashioned meter which took coins.  Moving on from parking challenges we went to the theater and tried to find our seats.  The row numbers were cleverly hidden for plain sight, and we had to guess where row D was.  It was not the fourth row back as we discovered after we made our way to the seats in the middle – to the inconvenience of others seated.  It was apparently row DD.  We tried again with no more success.  Until we found an attendant – what do you call the people who show you where your seat is – words fail me again.

In any case, I am finding life to me more complicated and my annoyance more accessible as well.  I do feel more like a dinosaur as life becomes more complex.  I realize that my annoyance is partly because I want life to be the way I want it to be, and it is less that way.  There is a self centeredness in my annoyance – why can’t things be done the way they should be - or at least the way I think they should.  I’m afraid it has never been that way and is getting less that way all the time.  It just isn’t fair – but as someone – I don’t remember who – told me many years ago – life isn’t – and they were right.  I guess I will try to be a less grumpy old man – perhaps if I prayed to that Old Man in the sky it would help.  

 

To Be Blessed

Recently, I was reading the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 6: 20-31).  The Beatitudes are the address by Jesus to his disciples in which Jesus tells them who is blessed.  The address opens with, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”  Jesus goes from there to include others who are blessed – the hungry, those who weep, people who are hated on account of the ‘Son of Man’.  Considering this passage, I realized that I didn’t have as full a grasp on what it means to be blessed, as I would like.  Generally, I know that to be blessed is a good thing, but what does it actually mean for the person who is blessed?

Some versions of the Bible use happy in this passage rather than blessed.  However, to my mind, 'happy' does not capture the full meaning of blessed – happy sounds like a passing thing which is contingent on external conditions.  However, blessed seems to have a sense of a deeper state.

The earliest reference to blessing in the bible is in the creation story.  God blesses the living creatures and says, be fruitful and multiply.  He then blesses humans and tells them the same thing – be fruitful and multiply.  So, it would appear that to be blessed means you are going to be fruitful in life which at that time meant having many offspring.  Later we have the rather infamous case of Jacob – that patriarch of the church, stealing the blessing from his brother Esau – not great family values there.  One commentary noted that the meaning of the blessing that Jacob stole:

was to grant leadership to the one who received it, with Jacob becoming the head of a powerful family and nation, and with nations and brothers bowing down to him. This included not only material wealth but also spiritual significance and the continuation of God's covenant with Abraham, a legacy Jacob would carry forward. 

The covenant between God and God’s chosen people included God’s promise of land and offspring.   In effect, to be blessed, at least at that time meant to be fruitful and multiply as in the original blessing. 

So, in this case what does it mean to be fruitful?  This can have the meaning of receiving material prosperity i.e. having lots of material possession and material wealth.  This kind of meaning has led to the mistaken theology of the prosperity Gospel in my view. 

I believe that Jesus used the term blessed in the framework of the Beatitudes to describe the inner quality of a faithful servant of God. This blessedness is a spiritual state of well-being and prosperity—a deep state of peaceful contentment that cannot be shaken by external events such as poverty, hunger, or conflict because God is present with us through these difficult times.  We are blessed by God, therefore, we can be blessed by God in all things but not for all things.

May you be blessed on your journey. 

 

MAID’s Slippery Slope

I received information recently from a friend sharing the news that a friend of hers had ended her life through the Canadian program of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID).  As advised by my friend, her friend had decided to end her life because she was faced with a future where she would be blind due to macular degeneration.  I was shocked by this and the whole MAID program of MAID has been in my thoughts ever since.

When MAID was made legal in Canada 2016, I was generally in support of this move.  There had been many examples reported at the time of people suffering from incurable illnesses who had no prospect of relief and whose death was imminent.  It seemed to be a compassionate response to such a situation.  I did not and do not believe there is any virtue in people suffering in such situations.  It seemed to be a compassionate response to intolerable circumstances.   

The law was brought in by the Federal Government of the day in response to the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada which found the previous Criminal Code provisions against assisted suicide to be unconstitutional.  The law allows a person to end their life through assistance of a medical professional if the person has a grievous and irremediable condition and experiences unbearable physical or mental suffering from an illness, disease, disability, or state of decline that cannot be relieved under conditions that the person considers acceptable. (information from Dying with Dignity Canada https://www.dyingwithdignity.ca/)

There were warnings at the time of the law being a slippery slope to increase access to MAID for people in less severe conditions and in non-terminal circumstances.  It would appear there are significant indications that Canada is well on the way down that slippery slope.  If the circumstance described by my friend whose friend used MAID because of macular degeneration, and the prospect of blindness is accurate it is truly a dangerous sign.  Coincidentally, I received information recently from another friend who shared concerns about where MAID is heading and shared this site with me, from Inclusion Canada https://www.inclusioncanada.ca/post/do-better-inclusion-canada-welcomes-un-committee-s-concluding-observations-on-canada-s-disabilit.

The site notes that Canada has received a critical review from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities regarding MAID.  Among the key recommendations, the UN Committee has urged Canada to:

Repeal Track 2 Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), including the planned 2027 expansion to persons whose “sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness,” and reject proposals to expand MAiD to “mature minors” and through advance requests.  

These are serious indications that the slippery slope is definitely engaged and becoming steeper.  I believe the intentions behind MAID are worthwhile and commendable.  However, the application of MAID and the direction it is heading needs serious reconsideration.  There need to be ways and means of ensuring that the law as it stands is applied by medical professionals as is intended i.e.  people suffering from grievous and irremediable condition and experience unbearable physical or mental suffering as noted above. 

To find God’s will in this is a challenge which should not be taken lightly.  It is a matter of life and death on our journey.

Seeing Around the Corner

 

Last time, I wrote about giving thanks in all things.  This was in contrast to giving thanks for all things.  There are, of course, many things that I cannot give thanks for, but I can still give thanks to God in all things.  It is all a matter of perspective – of how we look at the world.  In this regard, there is an approach proposed by author Charles Williams, a contemporary of C. S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot, who proposed that we sometimes see good as evil in our limited perspective.  This seems counter intuitive and raises the question why we would ever see good as evil. 

On reflection, I can think of the ultimate example for Christians when we consider that the followers of Jesus must have viewed Jesus’ crucifixion as the ultimate evil and the defeat of all their hopes and dreams.  We can often, given the perspective of time, look back on events and see the good which came out of some event that seemed very bad at the time.   We can think of people who were not able to be at work in the twin towers on 9-11 or someone who was delayed getting a flight to a vacation in an exotic location only later to be informed the plan crashed and none on board survived.  We don’t see the bigger picture at the time. 

Charles Williams understood "seeing the good as evil" as the human predicament of experiencing good things in a way that makes them seem evil, primarily because of our divided consciousness and our ego centered understanding of things. The solution, for Williams, was not to simply separate good from evil, but to transform evil into an "occasion for love" by understanding it as an opportunity for good and love, thereby integrating both into a higher understanding of God. 

I don’t want to be Pollyannaish about this and be like Dr. Pangloss of the novel Candide, "all is for the best" in "the best of all possible worlds."  There is such a thing as evil and there are many manifestations of evil in the world.  However, with our limited understanding and perspective, there are times when we can’t see what the outcome of an event will be.  I believe that we should keep an open mind about the possibility of a good outcome of a bad event.  After all you we can’t see what is around every corner all the time.  It does put things into perspective.