Journey Into Old Age (Part 2)

Last time, I offered the first part of the workshop based on the work of Helen Luke in her study of the journey into old age which draws on a number of classic stories.  Luke’s writing on this subject is found in her book – Old Age; Journey Into Simplicity.  Here is the second part of that material. 

Section 2 

In this section we will examine Helen Luke’s imagined epilogue to Homer’s Odyssey.  The epilogue was introduced by Homer in the middle of the story but never fulfilled.   Let us explore the final journey of Odysseus, which is his journey into Old Age.  I have summarized Helen Luke’s story and provided commentary on the different sections.   

I. The story: The peace and order ordained by Zeus has now been established for our hero Odysseus.  His reunion with Penelope long delayed is now enjoyed.  The hero watches his son gain manhood as Odysseus had these many years before.

Within Odysseus, rested but no longer at peace, restlessness stirs.  He yearns once more for the sea voyages of his years gone by where he once more would be the hero of years long gone.  Our hero falls into a sleep, which reveals to him a different journey now unleashed by forces stirring within him. 

The seer long absent to his waking life is now present once more.  Teiresias will reveal that fate, which has always been there waiting to be revealed.  The destiny revealed is no longer one of youth waiting to be lived out.  Rather it is one of completion to be fulfilled.

Teiresias reveals the journey that Odysseus now must make.  It is a journey unlike the others Odysseus embraced with joy and anticipation in his youth.  This journey will be by land not by sea.  It is his final journey he must now embark upon in his maturity.  It is a hero’s journey to be sure but not one for loot or conquest or glory.  Rather it is one of sacrifice and repentance.  

Teiresias, the wise old man, had appeared to Odysseus and revealed the journey that awaits him if he chooses.   This journey in his maturity will be unlike the one that he made as the hero in his youthful pride and exuberance.  It will be a journey by land and not the familiar sea, which he embraced, in earlier days.  

This different journey reveals the challenge of old age – particularly in our culture of eternal youth in which youth is prized and old age is devalued and ignored. The journey so tempting to our Ego will be one, “tempting us towards repetition of our life’s triumph, tempting us toward wreckage and the inferno, the other coaxing us towards the true journey of the soul that has lived long and well, and must turn away from mere continuation of accustomed efforts to new significant, perhaps painful, soul-journeys.” (Old Age viii)

Exercise: Imagine what it would mean for you to ‘Grow Old’ rather than succumbing into the aging process.  How will this journey be different from the journey of your youth?

 I will continue with the next part of the material next time  Blessings on you journey.

Journey Into Old Age

With all the hype about the latest phenomenon at the movie box office – the retelling of the story of the Odyssey – I went back to look again at a workshop that I had developed which involved the story of Odysseus.  The workshop is based on the work of Helen Luke in her study of the journey into old age which draws on a number of classic stories.  Luke’s writing on this subject is found in her book – Old Age; Journey Into Simplicity.  I would like to share the workshop material with you.  The material is too lengthy for this venue, so, over the next three week I will share one of the three sections of the material which deals with Odyseus’ journey into old age. 

Introduction

 

I shall say no more except that I already told you many years ago of the alternative journey you are now called to take – a journey which does indeed lie on the slopes of that mountain but holds no fame or glory for you; only loneliness and sadness.  The choice is yours.  Will you deceive yourself as Dante’s Ulysses did in a sin far worse than the deceit of the Trojan horse? (Old Age 12)

 

These words of the poet Teiresias, the blind poet, imagined by Helen Luke, to Odysseus resting from his toils and trials of youth, sum up the choice which all of us must make when we face the journey into old age.  Are we truly to continue ‘grow old’; to continue to grow in psychic maturity or will we simply succumb to the aging process – sinking perhaps not gently into that perceived not so sweet night fighting that inevitable journey every step of the way.

 

Helen Luke examines this journey as presented in some of the great heroes of literature who made that journey of growth rather than relentlessly sinking into old age.  In Old Age, Journey into Simplicity, Helen Luke examines the hero’s journey into Old Age presented in essays on classical works; The Odyssey by Homer, The Tempest and King Lear by Shakespeare, and Little Gidding by T.S. Elliot.  I will draw on two of these works for this workshop; The Odyssey and Little Gidding.

 

Section 1

 

Let us begin our exploration of old age as a state that we are approaching or have reached by first looking at Eliot’s thoughts on the subject.  Helen Luke identifies three ‘gifts reserved for age’ which Eliot has revealed (92):

 

First, changes which take place in our bodies, as our bodies age into maturity.  These can be sudden changes due to a loss of physical health.  Our bodies may begin to betray us.  We can no longer do as much or do things as well as we once could.  However, often it is a gradual lessening of energy in its different forms, which comes to us through the senses.  Our sight becomes dimmer and we need glasses for reading.  Our hearing becomes less acute, and we may need hearing aids to comprehend what people are saying to us.  Our taste, smell and even touch become dull as do those other things that give us pleasure.  What lies ahead is the prospect of an ever-diminishing horizon of the physical world. The ego depends on imaginings of future achievements.  We of necessity turn to the present moment for our satisfaction.  As Luke notes, the Self lives in and for the present.

 

Second, the helpless rage at the folly of people and the laughter at things in which there is no humour.  We see the folly of those in political power whose only concern is reelection and the things which will ensure that.  We see the arrogance and greed of business leaders and politicians who are enthralled to the acquisition of money and power.  We see idealism turn into intolerance.  Growing Old gives us the opportunity to find the place beyond rage, which is true compassion, and joy in all creation. 

 

Third, there is the gift of memories.  As we grow old, we are able to see the past with true humility and see what were once triumphs of the ego at the expense of others.  As Luke says, “the hypocrisy of the ego always at bottom (is) concerned with its own merit and comfort, and most dangerously of all, its own spiritual merit. 

 

Exercise: select one of these gifts which resonates with you most at this time.  Do you see this as a gift or as something less positive?  Has your understanding and perception of this gift changed in your life? 

 

I will continue with this theme next week. 

 

 

If at First You Don’t succeed – Perhaps You Shouldn’t Try Harder

The commandments of Jesus seem to be more than Christians could ask or imagine - not in a good way but, rather, they seem impossible.  Here is a summary of what is it that we must be and do?  Very simply:

• Love our enemies
• Bless them that curse you
• Pray for those who are spiteful to you
• Turn the other cheek if someone strikes you cheek
• Someone steals from you – give them something more to take
• Give to everyone who asks you

Here is a quote by G. K Chesterton that wonderful English writer, which is very applicable to this, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

However, rather than becoming overwhelmed by the thought of trying to follow these commandments, we can turn, instead the beatitudes which can be considered alternative or, as Richard Rhor puts it, paradoxical commandments:

The Beatitudes are paradoxical “commandments.” They don’t tell Christians what to do; they tell them what they will be like if they are living in the kingdom: They will be poor in spirit, pure in heart, merciful and gentle peacemakers; they will thirst for what is right and be persecuted because of it, and they will mourn.

Lutheran priest and author Nadia Bolz-Weber offers her own version of beatitudes for people who may not feel blessed today.  what if the Beatitudes aren’t about a list of conditions we should try to meet to be blessed? What if they are not virtues, we should aspire to?... Maybe the Sermon on the Mount is all about Jesus’s lavish blessing of the people around him on that hillside … who that world—like ours—didn’t seem to have much time for: people in pain, people who work for peace instead of profit, people who exercise mercy instead of vengeance:

Blessed are the poor in spirit. You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.

Blessed are they for whom death is not an abstraction.

Blessed are they who have buried their loved ones, for whom tears could fill an ocean.

Blessed are they who have loved enough to know what loss feels like.

Blessed are the mothers of the miscarried.

Blessed are they who don’t have the luxury of taking things for granted anymore.

Blessed are they who can’t fall apart because they have to keep it together for everyone else.

Blessed are the motherless, the alone, the ones from whom so much has been taken….

Blessed are those who no one else notices. The kids who sit alone at middle-school lunch tables. The laundry guys at the hospital. The sex workers and the night-shift street sweepers.

Blessed are the losers and the babies and the parts of ourselves that are so small, the parts of ourselves that don’t want to make eye contact with a world that loves only the winners.

Blessed are the forgotten.

Blessed are the closeted.

Blessed are the unemployed, the unimpressive, the underrepresented….

With that thought, I wish you blessings this day and every day.

 

Responding to Disaster part 2

Last week I introduced a summary of an address from a few years ago.  It was given by Rev. Dr. Lizette Larson-Miller, Professor of Liturgy at Huron University College.  Larson -Miller was the keynote speaker at the 2018 National Anglican and Lutheran Worship Conference.  As the “leader of the free world” has more than two years remaining in his term in the country directly south of us, a term which is defined by disasters, I believe that it is worthwhile offering this today.   Here is the conclusion of the summary of the address. 

At times, what is needed after disaster is a time of healing. However, Larson-Miller warned, “there’s a huge difference between Christian healing and ‘curing.’” While curing addresses symptoms, she said, healing is “always about wholeness”—mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.

Larson-Miller cautioned against blurring the lines between pastoral counselling and therapy. “Therapy, of course works towards diagnoses and treatment to solve [a] problem; prayer is not, first and foremost, problem solving…Therapeutic counselling is a separate field. Training in pastoral care does not automatically include expertise in psychiatry or psychology,” she said.

As Christians, she said, “What we have to give…is our presence, our time, our listening with the ear of our heart, the naming of the sorrow or the violence, praying to God for those who hurt, sacramental ministry and referral to other experts when that is needed.”

During a time of worship before the plenary session, conference attendees prayed through lighting candles and other activities. “Not all prayer is verbal,” Larson-Miller said.

One of the reasons theology can often be sidelined when responding to a tragedy is a reticence to talk about sin, said Larson-Miller.

Larson-Miller challenged conference attendees to identify and name the sins that lead to disaster. “The ancient tradition of the church of Christianity…is to talk about the solidarity of the suffering of Christ with the suffering of those who have been sinned against…who have been caught up into disaster.”

As an example, she led an ELCA prayer that names racism as a sin with tragic consequences.

“You can see, actually, the theological movement,” she said of the prayer, which begins by calling on God to forgive sins of racism and ends with asking God to “Empower us to speak boldly for justice and truth and help us to deal with one another without hatred or bitterness.”

Responses should still vary by context, Larson-Miller said. “Public rites of penance may be what’s called for. Sometimes…patience is called for. Sometimes claiming personal responsibility is what’s called for. Sometimes naming complacency in sin is called for.”

She also challenged churches to name “not just the evil we’ve done directly, but what’s been done in our name.” Like sin, evil has “fallen out of polite conversation,” Larson-Miller said, “But it is in the centre of many disasters to which we respond.” As an example of this complacency, Larson-Miller played a video showing the dire working conditions in mines where cobalt is extracted for use in smartphones.

Larson-Miller also reflected on a recent trip to visit the Swampy Cree in northwestern Manitoba. In a community plagued by suicide, poverty and violence, Larson-Miller was struck by how Indigenous Anglicans responded to these disasters. “I think one of the things that I learned, I’m still processing, is the hope that in all of this, it is God who gives us the ultimate victory over death, over suffering, over tragedies.”

A gospel jamboree, which Larson-Miller described as “not unlike an extended wake,” featuring songs, silence and testimony, is one response used by the Swampy Cree, which is intended to help heal the community. Another is a “Walk to Remember,” a “stational liturgy of mourning” in which sites of violence or suffering are visited. At each place, Scripture and prayers are read and Holy water is used. “Each place is restored, and in each place, evil is banished,” said Larson-Miller.

“Walking and praying and extolling God. It seems like a perfect response—a perfect Christian response—to disaster.”

At the root of all responses, Larson-Miller said, is “our hope in Christ.” All Christian liturgy must point to hope in God, “trust and faith, embedded in the love of God.

“This is not the same as resolving everything into a neat package…we often have trouble leaving things open. But the worship of God is always an acknowledgment of God as God; God with us, in whom we rest.”

May God be with us and walk beside us not only in times of disaster but also every day. 

 

Responding to Disaster part 1

After another deep dive into my files, I discovered this summary I wrote of an address from a few years ago.  It was given by Rev. Dr. Lizette Larson-Miller, Professor of Liturgy at Huron University College.  Larson -Miller was the keynote speaker at 2018 National Anglican and Lutheran Worship Conference.  As the “leader of the free world” has more than two years remaining in his term in the country directly south of us, a term which is defined by disasters, I believe that it is worthwhile offering this today.   I am dividing this into two parts because of its length.  I will share the second part next week. 

After a disaster, Christians fall back on their faith, which Larson-Miller said is the key to offering a response that aims not simply to comfort but to confront those fundamental questions about why disasters happen and how to deal with them. “Rather than beginning with a collection of created rituals,” she said, “we need to start with asking ourselves…what do we know of God?”

During the session, Larson-Miller offered several examples of prayers and litanies that demonstrated a theological depth, including a prayer for a hurricane from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) collection of prayers and a version of the Great Litany from the online Anglican Church of Canada resources (Book of Alternative Services).

“When creating worship rituals, it’s important to know who will be gathering,” said Larson-Miller.  “Not everybody prays with words, especially words printed on a page,” she said. “If you’ve got many languages, they’re not going to be able to read them. If you’ve got kids under the age of five, they’re not going to be able to read them. If you have people who can’t see well, they can’t read them. Not all prayer is verbal.”

In these instances, she suggested, the repetition of a litany may be a helpful tool.

Similarly, Larson-Miller asked attendees to consider the ways in which people outside an immediate church community can be incorporated into the church’s spaces and rituals.

“How is liminal space created so that those who do not ‘go to church’ can enter, to a certain degree?” she asked.  Larson-Miller cited as an example a church in a suburb of Los Angeles, Calif., that has the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia. Inside the church, an area with Armenian icons has been set up in the narthex. “The Armenians will come to the narthex and light candles and pray, but don’t always go all the way in,” said Larson-Miller. In addition to this, the church was gifted a statue of Jesus carrying the cross, which they have installed outside.

The church’s Armenian neighbours, Larson-Miller said, “come with a bucket of water, and they wash Jesus’ face…That image of the suffering Christ is, for them, where the kind of liturgical response to disasters begins. Often it never goes inside the church. It stays there, with the washing of Jesus’ face.”

In addition to considering who is gathering, it is important to consider the purpose of the gathering, she also said. “Is it to lament and to grieve together? Is it to comfort in solidarity? Is it to name what has happened and to who?”

 The purpose may also be to “repent and commit to transformation,” Larson-Miller added, noting that liturgy can lead to a political response. “Another way to ask this question: what is the purpose of the ritual liturgy? Where are we going with this—what is the desired ethical response?”

This is a good place to stop for this edition.  There is much here that is food for deep consideration and pondering. 

 

All this and More - So You Want to be a Parish Priest

I was going through some old files a while ago and came across a document; Ministry Description, Priest/Rector.  This was a job description of what is expected for a parish priest in the Anglican Church which was provided for me when I became a full-time parish priest some years ago. 

There is a very old joke about clergy only having to work an hour once a week i.e. Sundays.  This job description buried that canard.  Here is a summary which, I hope, will give you a general idea of all the things expected of someone who assumes the role of parish priest.  There are ten areas of responsibilities giving a summary of each one.

1.    Pastoral Ministry – pastoral care/visitation of the sick; marriage, baptism and confirmation preparation, pastoral counselling.

2.    Worship – preparation for worship services including sermons, hymn selection, children’s focus, maintain prayer lists, bulletin preparation; lead worship in long term care facilities.

3.    Parish Education – provide for families preparing for baptism, confirmation, funerals; provide seasonal education programs e.g. Lenten and Advent; lead bible study.

4.    Parish Administration – participate in preparation of parish budgets; manage parish office, lead council meetings; chair vestry meetings.

5.    Encourage Lay Leadership – identify, train, equip and commission lay leaders within the parish.

6.    Spiritual Guidance – provide spiritual counselling to individuals and groups,

7.    Ministry Beyond the Parish – involvement in Diocesan meeting and groups; attend Synod (annual Diocesan meeting).

8.    Community Involvement – attend community clergy meetings; lead/participate in ecumenical community services; serve as Legion Chaplain.

9.    Continuing Education – attend clergy conferences; participate in Diocesan clergy days; undertake continuing education.

10.   Spiritual Development – annual retreats; meet with Spiritual Director; maintain regular prayer life; regular study of scripture.

The call to priesthood is sometimes summarized under the categories of priest, pastor and prophet.  However, as you can see for this it involves a lot more than fits into those three categories.  The challenge, as I see it, is that the parish priest is called to be all things for his/her parish.  This is particularly true in small and medium sized parishes where there is only one priest.  It would be an executional person who could do all these things well, or perhaps, even adequately.   

If there are larger parishes which have a clergy team there can be clergy that have strengths in certain areas and other areas can be undertaken by other members of the team.  Most Anglican parishes are small to medium sized in Canada.  This puts the responsibility of all these areas on one person. 

Even Jesus had a group of twelve and more to undertake his ministry.  Perhaps there needs to be a recognition and acknowledgement that one person cannot do all these things well.  As a result, some areas are going to suffer.

The next time you are tempted to criticize your priest/minister, bear in mind he or she is only human and can’t perform miracles.  Praying for them is always a good idea as is seeing where you can assist in the life of a parish/congregation. 

Songs from the Tower

Recently, I have been singing and playing many of the Leonard Cohen songs that are in my repertoire.  This has brought home to me how many of the lines/phrases are truly wonderful and memorable.  Unlike many lyrics by other composers, many of Leonard’s are poetry which stand on their own, and which resonate with me, as I know it does with so many other people.  I thought I would share some of my favourite lyrics with you.

I have just been starting to learn to play Tower of Song.  There are a couple of the lyrics which are on my list:

Well, my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day in the Tower of Song

This may not be the best known of Leonard’s lyrics, but it came to mind recently as I was contemplating my stage of life.  Many friends are no longer in my life and my hair is gray – what’s left of it, and I certainly ache in places that I no longer play.  I’m not sure I’m crazy for love thank God and perhaps my rent is overdue in the Tower of Song – where I have spent countless hours of the life.

Another verse for this Tower may surprize those who don’t think a lot of Leonard’s vocal abilities:

I was born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice
And twenty-seven angels from the Great Beyond
They tied me to this table right here in the Tower of Song

Yes, Leonard’s singing is an acquired taste – it does grow on you.  On the live performance on his last tour, this verse was met with thunderous approval.  For me his voice is exactly what it should be for his songs.  They go together – hand in glove – a cliché but I don’t know a better description.

Turning to something in a different vein, there is the song Passing Through, which opens with someone watching Jesus on a cross on Calvary:

I saw Jesus on the cross on a hill called Calvary
"Do you hate mankind for what they done to you?"
He said, "Talk of love not hate, things to do, it's getting late
I've so little time and I'm only passin' through."

Leonard was not, as far as I know, a Christian being Jewish and studying Buddhism for many years.  However, he was able to draw on Christianity as a source for his lyrics as he did for so many sources of inspiration.  For me, this sums up the message of Jesus Christ and the meaning of the cross.  We should talk of love and not hate.  It is what the world needs now – love sweet love, to borrow from a song by a different composer.  We are all only passing through and it is getting late.

The next song, Coming Back to You, says a great deal about the challenges of relationships which many people have experienced:

Maybe I'm still hurting
I can't turn the other cheek
But you know that I still love you
It's just that I can't speak
I looked for you in everyone
And they called me on that too
I lived alone but I was only
Coming back to you

The last song I want to reflect on today, has, undoubtedly the most poignant and wise line of all; Leonard’s song, Anthem:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

I suspect, without checking with AI, that this is probably the lyric from Leonard that is most quoted.  It says so much about the human condition and the struggle and challenges that people have in becoming more fully human.  These four lines sums it up perfectly.

I could go on delving into the depths of that deep well that Lenord has shared with the world.  I invite you to drink from that well as often as you are willing and able.

Thank you, Leonard, for all your songs from that Tower you inhabited so well.  As he predicted, we are hearing from him long after he has gone to take his place with Hank Wiliams in that Tower of Song. I will give Leonard the last word, as he deserves:

Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back
They're moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track
But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone
I'll be speaking to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song.