A Time for Lamentation

I always find occurrences of synchronicity – a term made popular by Carl Jung for significant coincidences – to be especially interesting.  As I was considering what to write about this week, I was thinking about lamentation in this time when so much of normal life has been disrupted by COVID -19.  When I sat down at my computer, I received a notification that Lorna had posted on Facebook an essay by N.T. Wright on the very subject, Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It's Not Supposed To.  Wright is the former Bishop of Durham and is a prominent theologian.  Now, the coincident is not that surprizing as this is truly a time for lamenting and I could also say that great minds think alike - but I can’t make a claim like that even in my wildest flight of fantasy.

That being said, it truly is a time for lamentation which is one of the things that Christians do not embrace easily despite a whole book of the bible being devoted to it.  As Wright notes, people want to find an explanation for why trouble besets us:

No doubt the usual silly suspects will tell us why God is doing this to us. A punishment? A warning? A sign? These are knee-jerk would-be Christian reactions in a culture which, generations back, embraced rationalism: everything must have an explanation.

It is natural for we mere mortals to want to make sense of what is happening – to cry out, “why me” in a loud demand for an explanation.  This was Job’s cry to God for an explanation for his troubles.  It seems to me that God gave him an answer that wasn’t truthful.  How would Job have felt if God had acknowledged that he was a mere pawn in a bet between God and Satan?  However, the answer that God gave him was true, if not the whole truth.  We cannot know the reason for everything and Job finally understood that, “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” 

Sometimes, the best and perhaps only response is to sit down and weep as it says in psalm 137 which was put to lyrics by Don McLane: 

By the waters, the waters of Babylon
We lay down and wept, and wept, for thee Zion
We remember thee, remember thee, remember thee Zion

Wright closes his essay which the possibility that lies beyond the lamenting:

It is no part of the Christian vocation, then, to be able to explain what’s happening and why. In fact, it is part of the Christian vocation not to be able to explain—and to lament instead. As the Spirit laments within us, so we become, even in our self-isolation, small shrines where the presence and healing love of God can dwell. And out of that there can emerge new possibilities, new acts of kindness, new scientific understanding, new hope. New wisdom for our leaders? Now there’s a thought.

That new hope is best expressed for me in that wonderful hymn, ‘How can I Keep form Singing’ by Robert Lowry;

My life flows on in endless song;

Above earth's lamentation,

I hear the sweet, tho' far-off hymn

That hails a new creation;

Thro' all the tumult and the strife

I hear the music ringing;

It finds an echo in my soul—

How can I keep from singing?

Blessings on your journey and keep on singing

Homecoming

One of my Lenten observances is following the Signs of Life from the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) https://www.ssje.org/.  They are, “a community of men giving our whole selves over to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”  The have a special ministry which shares that life through social media. One aspect of the Signs of Life during Lent is a weekly video which focus on different parts of those signs, Light, Water, Food, Shelter and Community.  On Sunday I engaged with the video on Shelter which explored the concept of home and being at home.

In the course of the video a number of things resonated with me.  There was the idea of coming home when you arrive at a place you haven’t been before and discover you have come home.  I had this experience when I first worshiped at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in London, Ontario.  I was not an Anglican and had limited experience or exposure to Anglican worship up to that point.  There was, for me, and experience of coming home and being in the place where I belonged.  I don’t believe I had ever had that experience previously.  I have had it at different times since then but that first experience of homecoming has stayed with me and I know that I have found my religious home in the Anglican Church. 

Another aspect of the video which resonated with me was the idea of seeking and finding your home on the journey in life.  Home, in this sense, is not a place but a state of being.  It seems somewhat contradictory to say that you can be at home wherever you are on your journey in life.  However, if you have found your home in and with God or your higher power, it does not matter where you are on that journey you are home.  There are numerous concepts for this such as sheltering under the wings of God or being in the palm of God’s hand or being carried by Jesus in times of trouble.  The relationship that you establish and seek to maintain and deepen with your higher power is what can sustain you in times of challenge and trouble.

Finally, during my participation in the video I was blessed to hear in my inner ear that wonderful spiritual Going Home in which combined wonderful lyrics by William Arms Fisher with beautiful music by Anton Dvorak.  It is one of those times when music and lyrics are a natural fit and were perhaps inspired by a higher power.  There are many wonderful versions of this spiritual performed by great singers.  However, my favourite is the performance by Paul Robson which moves me to tears whenever I hear it  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9smSP1dq-A.

I believe that we naturally have a longing to find our home.  This can take many forms and happen at different times in our lives.   One of the best expressions of that journey is by T. S. Eliot:

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Blessings on your journey

Procrastination in the Time of COVID

People who know me well know that I am prone to procrastination.  Well, that came home with a vengeance yesterday.  My birthday is coming up being April 1stt – no bad jokes about being a fool please but perhaps my procrastination was foolish in this case – but fortunately not too serious.

At the beginning of February, I had received notices about the renewal being required for my drivers licence and vehicle licence – they expire on my birthday.  But no problem – or so I thought – I could go to the Service Ontario office a few blocks away and renew without any fuss or muss before that date.  One of the benefits of small-town life is the usual absence of long line-ups and busy offices.  With my schedule being rather free due to cancellations because of the COVID-19 restrictions on meetings and gatherings, I decided I would do the renewals the next day i.e. today.  Lorna and I were going for a walk yesterday and I noticed that the Service Ontario office had closed because of the pandemic.  What to do.  Well, no problem, I decided to renew on-line which was an option which I don’t usually avail myself of. 

Before going on-line, I thought I better check the expiry of my health card as well.  And, you guessed it, it was expiring as well.  You could say that this was a case of unharmonic convergence as they were all valid for different periods – one year, three years and five years.  In any case, no problem or so I thought - I could renew all of them on-line.  The computer age is wonderful isn’t it.  Well, I did just that - went on-line and managed to eventually get the drivers licence and vehicle licence renewed without too much difficultly.  The health card was a different matter – I was informed that I was not eligible to renew on-line.  What to do?  Apparently, I couldn’t renew on-line or in person.

I tried phoning and the line was busy – probably lots of procrastinators like me wanted to know what to do.  After a few more tries I got through and after not too long a wait on hold under the circumstances, I was able to talk to a real person.  I was informed that there would be no extensions to expired health cards.  However, not all of the Service Ontario offices were closed.  The one in Strathroy – about 20 minutes drive away was open.  It closed in about an hour i.e. five o’clock.  I thought, well no harm in waiting until tomorrow.  Then the outside voice of my conscience i.e. Lorna perked up and said I better go right then as that office could be closed tomorrow as the COVID-19 restrictions were increasing and becoming more real every day.  So, I decided perhaps more procrastination was not a good idea and headed off to Strathroy.

Well, to make a long story short – if it’s not too late, I got the renewal with no delays and no line-ups of any kind and found out that I was not eligible to renew on-line because my renewal notice had been returned as undeliverable.  As rather strange occurrences as I usually don’t have trouble receiving mail. 

In any case, all’s well that ends well as someone said.  Procrastination sometimes does not pay.  Some would say usually it doesn’t pay but I’m not sure I’m quite ready to accept that unconditionally – even in the time of COVID-19.  However, in general I could say that procrastination in the time of COVID is not a good idea. 

Social Distancing Then and Now

Growing up, my concept of lepers in the bible was probably shaped by movies as much as the bible itself  People running away from a leper shouting ‘unclean, unclean’ or the image of Judah Ben-Hur’s mother and sister being thrown out of prison because they had developed leprosy certainly made an impression on my youthful mind. 

Until I was studying theology, I had always had the impression that this was very sensible because, after all, leprosy was and is a communicable disease which can be caught through contact with a leper.  That was not the case for a number of reasons.  First leprosy, while being contagious, is not highly so.  Second, leprosy in the bible was not the disease today we more acutely know as Hansen’s Disease or technically Mycobacterium lepromatosis.  Rather, biblically, it was a skin condition which separated the afflicted from the community. 

What really came as a surprize was being informed by my New Testament prof that, of course, lepers in biblical times were not isolated because of the possibility of the infection being passed to someone.  Biblical people had no knowledge in infectious diseases or even the existence of bacteria.  This should have been obvious to me but was it hadn’t dawned on me until that time. They were kept at a distance because they were considered unclean.  That condition could be passed to others by contact. 

That being said, what impresses me about the treatment of lepers in the biblical accounts is that they had social distancing, which is now front and centre in this time of COVID-19, down to a fine art.  It is made very clear by the account in the Gospel of Luke:

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ (Luke 17:11-12)

The people of the bible knew the importance of social distancing.  Of course, as I noted, they did not do it for the same reasons as we are encouraged to do now due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  However, there is a lot to be said by following the biblical example in this.  We can probably stretch the analogy to consider self isolating to be the modern example of keeping people in leper colonies.  I am not suggesting that we should put people in put people infected with COVID-19 in the equivalent of leper colonies.  I am suggesting that we do need to take this as seriously as the took lepers in biblical times. 

We can also should consider the rest of the story of Jesus and the ten lepers:

When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’

I am not suggesting we turn to faith healing to address this crisis.  However, we need to pray for those affected by the virus in small ways and in significant ways.  However, we can turn to our faith in God to be with us in our times of struggle and challenge.

Blessings on your journey and keep praying. 

Love in the Time of COVID

The news cycle has been taken over by what is happening with the spread of COVID-19 which is the designation for the current corona virus replacing the news of the blockades which had its turn and has become yesterday’s news.  It is a pandemic by any common sense measure.  It is unlikely that COVID-19 will become yesterday’s news any time soon despite how fervent our prayers might be or the actions of our governments.

The people who know these things state that what the financial markets want more than anything else is certainty.  Well, by the reaction of the markets we have confirmation that there is no certainty where COVID-19 is concerned.  Lorna and I are dealing with our own challenge of uncertainty, having booked a grand tour to Western Canada beginning in the middle of May by VIA Rail.  We have put down a substantial deposit and have to pay the not unsubstantial balance by the end of the week.  In effect we have to fish or cut bait and decide if we will go ahead with what could be a trip at the height of a viral emergency.  It could also be that the outbreak has become yesterday’s news by that time as the warmer weather mitigates the spread.

At home, organizations large and small are facing the issue of what to do about gathering in groups.  Our bishop has issued a pastoral letter which is reassuring regarding worship with the passing of peace which is usually done by shaking hand and the receiving the communion elements.  Basically, it calls for common sense and no need for extraordinary measures at this time urging parishioners to stay home if they are unwell and above all wash hand frequently and thoroughly.  The advise is to sing Happy Birthday for the duration of washing but I think What a friend we have in Jesus would also be appropriate  The stress implied here is “at this time” as circumstances develop. 

The letter opens with the call that we “take appropriate precautions and also that we respond as faithful and caring Christians.”   The unstated implication is that we are called to love one another as Jesus Christ loves us.  We can best do that in this situation as in all others by showing our care for others.  In this case it might mean that we need to take extra caution about trying to ensure that we do what we can do to minimized the risk that we might spread the virus before we experience symptoms if there is any reasonable chance we have been exposed to the virus.  This is particularly the case if we have been travelling to area where there are cases of COVID-19.  Many faithful Christians will want to attend worship services after being away on a trip but perhaps the best way to show our love to the community is to stay home in such circumstance. 

This is only one example of how we have to rethink our daily activities in the coming days and weeks ahead.  As the hymn states, “they will know we are Christians by our love.”  Let us love one another at this time as we should at all times.

Blessing on your journey even if it is a journey staying home.

Driven or Led

Last Sunday, we had the Gospel reading was the account of Jesus going into the wilderness following his baptism.  This was a time of preparation to begin his public ministry.  For those of us who are Christians, it is also is a summation of what we do in the season of Lent which is modeled after Jesus’ forty days and nights in the wilderness.  There is much which we can explore around this including what does it mean to be in a time of wilderness in our lives or what does it mean to do the traditional exercise of giving up something for Lent which, again is modeled on the forty-day fast that Jesus experienced before he had his encounter with that tempter extraordinaire, Satan.

What I invite you to consider today, whether or not you observe Lent, is the concept of following the spirit in your life.  Jesus was led or was driven – depending on which account in the Gospels your read – into the desert by the Holy Spirit after his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.  Do you have a sense that your life is being influenced or guided by what could be considered a spirit or force in your life?  You may not identify this as the Holy Spirit or God by any other name.  It can be considered as something which has guided you in following a path which seems to have been laid out for you at an early stage in your life.

Whatever that influence is, there may be times when it seems to take you to places that you don’t really wan to go.  This was the case, I believe, for Jesus when he was – according to the Gospel of Mark – “driven” by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness rather being “led” according to Matthew and Luke by that same Spirit into that very unwelcoming environment.

There are times when we are led or driven or encouraged to go places by that influence - be it conscience or guilt or whatever – that we don’t really want to go  to do things or go places that we know we should be that are not going in our mind to be all that welcome or welcoming.  It is helpful to reflect on these experiences and try to understand why we are being encourage to go there and what it is that benefit we might receive by following that encouragement.  If we are honest with ourselves, we will probably know in our hearts that this is what we are intended to do. 

I would encourage you to follow that influence and see what happens.  You may find that you are blessed on your journey.