Remembrances of Hero's PAst

I want to begin with a note of clarification from last week’s edition.  In discussing my struggles with my shoulder, I mentioned that to add insult to injury I was unable to drive my new car.  To clarify it was a reflection of not having the pleasure of driving my new car due to the condition of my shoulder.  I should have added that I was very grateful that I had Lorna to drive me to all my appointment that have had to attend for treatment.  I am able to do some of the driving now but continue to appreciate sharing it with Lorna, especially the longer trips (she does have some reservations about my driving ability at the best of times but more so now with the physical challenges).

This week I want to reflect on Remembrance Day.  I have served as the chaplain for our local chapter 341 of the Legion since I came to Parkhill as Rector of the Anglican Church.  It has been a tradition that the Anglican priest serve that function.  When I retired from parish ministry I thought I should retire from that position as well.  My resignation was not accepted so I still fulfil the chaplain’s duties on Remembrance Day.  It has always been one of the most meaningful duties I have had as a parish priest. 

Usually the services on Remembrance Day involve an assembly at the local high school in Parkhill followed by the service at the cenotaph at the eleventh hour.  There is a lunch at the Legion for members which is followed by another service at the cenotaph at Lieury, a nearby community which is not marked only by a road sign, a few houses and a playing field.     The services this year did not follow the usual pattern as Remembrance Day fell on Saturday.  Consequently, the assembly at the high school was held on Friday.  I have always been very impressed with the amount of effort that has gone into these assemblies each year.  They are often different in focus but always done with sincerity and much planning and well executed by the students.  This year’s edition was undertaken by the grade nine students with the results being heartfelt and heartwarming if not as polished as other years when senior students took the lead. 

An interesting, if rather sad note, one of the Legion members noted that when he was in grade nine at the school the grade nine cohort numbered 240.  That would probably have been in the 1970’s.  Now the total student enrollment in the school is less than 200 and has been dropping for years.  The school has had the specter of closure hanging over it for a while and will probably close in the next few years unless something changes.  That would be a significant loss to the community.

The Remembrance Day services were moving as usual.  The weather was cold but with no precipitation and all went well.  I do find the day to be moving important in the life of this community and Canada.  When the day falls on a week day the children from the elementary schools (there is a Roman Catholic school in town) attend which swell the numbers.  The were noted in their absence this year but the ceremony was well attended by the communities in both places.

The final part in the Remembrance Day events was a concert to commemorate Remembrance Day by the South Huron Community Choir under the direction of Richard Heinzle.  This choir is based in the neighbouring community of Exeter.  The concert was entitled ‘Be At Peace’ an was comprised of a variety of compositions and included pieces preformed by the hand-bells.  The guest artist was wonderful oboist Katrina Lisa Liddell.  We attended with two friends from our church in Grand Bend and it was a moving, inspiring evening.  

We will remember them.

Where is God In This?

I have been dealing with some health challenges for the last few weeks.  Not serious – al least I hope and pray.  I woke up about three weeks ago with my neck badly out of adjustment.  I was not able to get to the chiropractor until the following day and the result was my left shoulder that was very restricted in movement i.e. I couldn’t lift my shoulder above thirty degrees.  There was also a lot of discomfort and pain – especially at night which makes sleeping difficult. 

The time since has been a round of chiropractic adjustment three of four times (I am adjusted well if not well adjusted), a visit to emergency, physio twice including acupuncture, visit to the orthopedic surgeon, x-rays and an ultra sound scheduled.  O yes, and a massage for good measure, not to mention an exercise regime begun. 

There has been significant lessening of pain which I am very thankful for but not much improvement in the strength or movement of my arm. I’m sure I will recover if I am diligent in doing the exercises.  I am thankful it is my left arm as I am right handed.  So, there is much to be thankful for including all the health professionals I have been utilizing and the Canadian Health Care System (note: a single-payer system for my American friends).  One complaint is that I was not able to drive my new car, which I took delivery of last week, until yesterday; Lorna has had that pleasure―talk about adding insult to injury.

I give thanks to God for my life and health even when life throws me a curve if not a cure yet.  However, I must confess that I have not been very diligent and faithful in being open to God and seeking God in all this.  I am finding it a challenge to maintain my daily and nightly prayers and reflection and meditation.  So any neglect in that area has been on my part in all this and not God’s. 

Of course, it is not a cure that I can expect from God.  Rather, it is healing which is not what my ego wants.  My ego wants God or someone to kiss it and make it better and get back to my regular life post haste.  But healing is not the same as a cure.  Healing restores our relationship with God and perhaps even strengthens it.  That is what Jesus offers us and I give thanks for that.

Blessing on your journey whatever it may bring you,

Sermon, Dream Workshop

1 Corinthians 12: 1-11

Which Spiritual Gift have you been given?  We are told in the Epistle today that there are diversities of Spiritual gifts which are given to every man—and I would add every woman in today’s inclusive language. 

We are also told the form in which these gifts can take:  the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy, discerning of spirits, divers kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues.  That is quite a list.  Do any of them resonate with you?  Surly you have one of them.  After all the scripture does say the Spirit is given to everyone.  You may be saying to yourself, well I certainly don’t think I have received any of those gifts despite what the scripture says. 

Here is what I believe.  I believe that each of us is given the gifts of the Spirit.  However, we have not been taught how to recognize them.  Let me tell you a secret.  I believe that we are given gifts of the Spirit every night.  We are given the gifts in our dreams.  You might say that I don’t dream.  Well, what if I told you that science has confirmed that we all dream every night and if we don’t dream, due to disruption of sleep patterns, for a while we will become mentally disturbed.   You could reply, well I don’t dream very often and anyway when I do, I they don’t seem to be about anything that makes sense.

That is true for many people but the problem is that our culture have for a long time not believed that dreams are important or meaningful and we have believed what our culture has taught us.  Here’s the thing, we often do not remember our dream because we do not believe they are important.  When we start to pay attention to them you will be surprized that you will remember many more of them.  And when we ever work with them by writing them down and considering them we remember even more. 

I believe that dreams are God’s forgotten language.  We have consequently never learned the language of dreams.  Friday night and Saturday some of us have been exploring how to begin to understand the language of dreams.  Dreams will usually occur in the native language of the dreamer—English for us.  Not always as in the case of King Nebuchadnezzar.  You may remember the story in the bible where he had a dream of a hand writing a message on the wall in the plaster; mene, mene, tekel, parsin.  Daniel was able to interpret the meaning for him—he translated the language of the dream:

Mene^[e]: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

²⁷ Tekel^[f]: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

²⁸ Peres^[g]: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

With a few exceptions, dreams are usually in the language of the dreamer. However, that doesn’t mean that we will naturally understand them any more than King Nebuchadnezzar.  We need to learn how to interpret and understand what the message is in the dream.  Dreams speak to us in the language of symbols and we need to learn how to discern the meaning of symbols which is often not easy. 

Dreams can tell us if our lives are on the path that God intends for us or if we have gone astray.  In the same way I believe that God speaks to us in many different ways.  In addition to my work with dreams and in dream groups, I work as a Spiritual Director primarily with theological students at Huron University College in London.  My goal with my Directees is to help them identify how God is working in their lives—how God is speaking to them. 

In addition to dreams, here are a few other examples of how God speaks to us.   One way is through what we are naturally drawn to, for instance are there ways in which you feel connected to something bigger than yourself?  It may be when you are in nature, I must admit that is not a big one with me but I know many people that feel that connection.

God speaks to us in prayer.  I find it works better if it is a two-way conversation and not just talking to God; although that can also be effective. 

One way that I’m sure all of you are aware of is through scripture.  The regular reading of the bible is a way many people connect with how God is speaking to them.  There are ways in which it can be even more meaningful.  Reading a passage out loud is more effective that reading it silently.  Also, there are methods such as Lectio Divina (which is just a fancy of saying Holy Reading) which help us to find the meaning for us in our lives at the present moment.

I believe that we have generally forgotten how to understand the Language of God however, God speaks to us.  We need to learn and relearn how to listen to those many different ways and to learn how to understand them as we would a foreign language. 

I invite you to pay attention to where you find God connecting with you.  The most important first step is to be open to the possibility of God in any and all aspects of your life.  St. Paul tells us that the manifestations of the Spirit are given to all of us.  Try it out and see what happens.

I will close with the prayer that I use at the beginning of my dream groups. Let us pray:

Holy Dream Maker, Creator of All,

Be with us as we open our hearts and minds to the divine wisdom in our dreams.

We thank you and honour You.

As you guide us in the way to health and wholeness,

may we be open to the blessings of your message                      

Amen  

Dreams, God's Forgotten language

For those of you who noticed and may be wondering why I did not send out an edition of the News and Views last week, there were a few things which got in my way.  The main one is that I was poorly adjusted―in a chiropractic sense of the meaning.  My I woke up one morning with a pain in the neck which progressively got worse before I could see my chiropractor.  I subsequently developed a frozen left shoulder which I am dealing with.  I will be seeing a physiotherapist today and see how it goes from there. 

Two weekends’ ago Lorna and I were leading a workshop at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Alliston.  The title of the workshop was Dream, God’s Forgotten Language.  The goal was to introduce the participants to an approach to working with dreams as a way that God is speaking to us today. The workshop was held on Friday night and Saturday and I preached at the Sunday worship services.  A copy of the sermon is attached.

 I was trained to facilitate dream groups through the Haden Institute and Lorna and I have led a number of workshops to introduce the approach to people.  We are currently involved in an ongoing dream group at Elmwood Presbyterian Church in London, Ontario which came out of a workshop we held there a few years ago.  We are also involved in a dream group that meets by Skype which has recently been joined by a member who is based in Abu Dhabi. 

The title of the workshop is based on a book by the same title written by John Sanford, an Episcopal priest.  As the title suggests we need to learn or relearn how God is speaking to us in our dreams.  As shown in the Bible, both Old and New Testament, the people of the bible understood very clearly that God spoke to them in dreams and they treated them that way.  However, for many reasons, today dreams are generally not understood as being from God or even having much significance in our post-modern culture.  The post-modern approach prejudices the scientific method which requires proof to be weighted and measured.  The approach we use draws on the work of Carl Jung which, along with Sigmund Freud, reclaimed the importance of dreams in the inner life of individuals.  This approach is enhanced by a theological understanding that dream help us to become the people that God intends us to be.

As a teaser on the process used let me give a brief description which I hope will give you some idea of how the process works:

·         One of the group members presents that he/she has had by reading it or reciting it from memory. 

·         The group members clarify the dream content to obtain as clear as possible a picture of the dream content.

·         The dreamer gives the dream to the group and withdraws from the activity but listens to the comments of the group members.

·         The group members give their associations to the dream content prefacing their remarks with the phrase, “if it were my dream” or “in my dream e.g. “if it were my dream the 12-year-old boy in the dream would represent something that happened to me 12 years ago.”

·         Once the associations are complete the dreamer is invited back into the group as given the opportunity to share their experience hearing the associations of the group.

·         The other group members are given the opportunity to comment on their experience working with the dream.

In the process, the dreamer will often, but not always, hear something which is relevant to their life and enhances the meaning of the dream for them.  This will often be experienced by an “aha” realization of the message in the dream for them.  It is a rule that only the dreamer can decide if anything said in the group is meaningful for them.

Aha

You may be saying to yourself, “well, that is very interesting, but what is that to do with God speaking to the dreamer”?  When you work with your dreams you will begin to understand that they are giving you information about where your life is on the path that God intends and where you have gone off course.  Above all, it reveals much of the person God created what you are not conscious of or have chosen not to acknowledge. 

I hope that this very brief introduction has given you a sense of how dreams can help you.  Indeed, one of the rules of this dream work is that all dreams are sent by God in aid of the health and wholeness of the dreamer. 

Blessings on you journey,