Jesus of Nazareth: Zen Master

I am currently rereading a book which I have had for many years. I’m not sure when I bought it – it cost $5.00 new so that is a hint.  It is Eastern Paths and the Christian Way by Paul Clasper described on the blurb on the back cover as, “an introduction for thoughtful people concerning the quality of Christian faith as it encounters the great traditions of the Asian Paths.  Perhaps I bought it because I have for a long time thought of myself as a thoughtful person. 

The date of first printing is 1980 so it was written in a time when the interest in Eastern Religions was stirring strongly in Western culture.  In any case as a baby boomer who came of age in the 1970’s, I have had an interest if not an attraction to eastern religions like so many of my contemporaries.  This has faded somewhat both personally as well as culturally but the interest has not entirely gone away on either front.

One of the passages that caught my interest was an example of a story from the Old Testament which, according to the author, exemplified the essence of Zen Buddhism.  It is the account of the shepherd boy, David’s fight with Goliath.  To recount the story, King Saul wanted David to wear his armour rather than meeting the giant with his shepherd’s garb and weapon of a sling.  Putting on the armour David quickly realized that he could barely move much less fight effectively.  He wisely decided to revert to his accustomed way in which he had successfully defended his flock from all attackers.  Of course, we know the story; David defeated Goliath with a stone from his sling and beheaded Goliath with his own impressive sword.

To quote Clasper, “In short order he had done in his own way, what the conventional of his day never accomplished.”  Zen teaches that the authentic way, “gets buried, stifled, warped, and smothered by the overlays of artificiality which society early begins to heap on us.”  Clasper maintains that the essence of Zen is to provide the shock treatment that is necessary to pierce the armor of the respectable and complacent life in which we are indoctrinated by society.  This is the purpose of the Zen koan.  The best known of these in the West - if not the best actual example - is the Zen master’s question to his disciple, ‘what is the sound of one hand clapping?’ 

It strikes me that this is exactly what the parables of Jesus does.  They are more detailed than the typical Zen koan, telling a story in many cases.  However, they shock his audience out of their complacency and provide a different and radical way to perceive what the truth and meaning of the Kingdom of God and a hint of what it means to live the authentic life that God intends for us.  It was the despised Samaritan who was the true neighbour.  It was the sinful tax collector and not the Pharisee who humbly asked for forgiveness and whose prayer was authentic. 

The Eastern Paths can give us in the West a glimpse of the Kingdom and there is value in exploring that path as a complement to the path shown us by Jesus Christ.  However, the Way of Jesus Christ that will lead us most assuredly to the Kingdom of God – if we choose to pick up our cross and follow that path.

Blessings on your journey and listen for the sound of one hand clapping. 

Love Can Save Us All

This morning I shared on Facebook a video by the Most Rev. Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States; https://www.facebook.com/WNCathedral/videos/1179124769119484/

It is a short video in which Bishop Curry is imploring people to wear a face mask and as a way to minimize the spread of the Corona Virus and as a demonstration of our love for others.  As he states, this is an act of love that makes room for others in our lives and others can make room for us in the lives of others.  He closes by saying that “love can save us all.” 

This is true in a universal sense beyond the small symbol of wearing a mask in dealing with the Corona Virus.  Although, this is front and centre as a demonstration of love for others in this particular time.  My Facebook comment on this video was that this theme, “love can save us all” sums up the message and meaning of Jesus Christ.  Jesus responds to the Pharisee when asked which is the greatest commandment, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” (Matthew 22:34-40)

We can say it musically if that would help.  All of us baby boomer could turn to those musical  saints (or sinners, depending on your perspective), The Beatles, All You Need Is Love; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xMfIp-irg.

This seems to be pretty clear and should, therefore, be the primary duty of all Christians.  Unfortunately, I must admit that this commandment is honoured more in the breech than the observance.  There is a reason for this – in my experience although it is a very clear message - it is, shall we say, less than easy to accomplish.  Consequently, I believe that many Christians decide that there are other things we are called to as Christians than loving others, or at least loving those who are not easy to love.  Jonathan Swift summed it up very nicely, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” 

So, if Bishop Curry is correct that love can save us, how are we Christians and I hope for the sake of the world, all humankind, actually love one another?  This does seem more than is possible for most people who are not saints.   I guess the answer is, one step at a time.  We can use something that seems a bit more self centered which may appeal to us, treat others the way you want to be treated.  If that sounds familiar it also goes by the name of the Golden Rule.  Specifically, as someone else said, “just do it”; wear a mask.

Blessings on your journey and don’t forget to wear your mask.

The Wind Blows Where It Chooses

“The wind (spirit) blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

Saturday night, I was having a bit of a time questioning my faith.  I was awake a lot of the night – which seems to happen more frequently as I age – and was wondering why God seems to be most difficult to connect with at times when it would be most beneficial to make that connection.  To put it more clearly – where the heck is God when you need Him?  I could put it in non-gendered language but it feels rather right to give God a masculine pronoun in this instance.  

I certainly haven’t suffered like Job but I can certainly understand Job’s demand to make his case face-to-face with God.  In any case, as it so often happens, things seemed much more positive in the light of day.  As the dessert fathers and mothers discovered, the night does bring demons and challenges in many different forms.

Being Sunday morning, Lorna and I were off to St. James Anglican Church to ring the bell at 9:00 and attend the Morning Prayer service following.  As I have written about previously, we started ringing the bell at church on Easter Sunday morning at the request of our Primate, Archbishop Linda Nicholls, who had asked that all Anglican churches ring their bells to let people know that Jesus Christ has risen even in the midst of Corona Pandemic when churches were not open for public worship .  We decided that we would continue to do that every Sunday morning during the Corona shutdown until we were able to worship together again. 

Some time after Easter Sunday, our priest-in-charge, Rev. Sherry De Jonge, decided to hold Morning Prayer services of the Word to be recorded and broadcast on Facebook following the ringing of the bell.  These followed the Diocesan guidelines and were not open to the public.  Following the bell ringing the doors would be closed.  Yesterday was rather humid and the church was on rather stuffy so when I was closing the front doors, I decided to leave them open as a very nice breeze was blowing into the church.

As the service progressed, I went up to the lectern to lead the prayers of the people and was surprized to see a man I didn’t know sitting at the back of the church.  One of the regular attendees was absent so fortunately we did not exceed the permitted number of attendees in this time of Corona-19 which is five.  I’m not sure what the protocol would have been if we did but, in any case, all was well on that front.  Following the service, we engaged in a discussion with the visitor with all attendees including the guest wearing masks.  It turned out that he was interested in having some members of his family baptized in the church and was passing by and saw the open door so decided to join us and was able to discuss the baptismal process when public worship services resume – hopefully in September. 

Now St. James is a very small congregation and this doesn’t usually happen even in non-corona times.  So, I have to ask myself if the convergence of unusual events had something or someone directing things behind the scene.  All the circumstances coming together can, of course, be put down to coincidence, however, I must ask myself if there wasn’t a connection with my questions of the night before.  I’m not saying there is cause and effect at work here but you have to wonder.  The Spirit blows where it chooses as we are told. 

Blessings on your journey and watch out for those coincidences. 

A Parable for Our Time

I have had a book sitting next to my computer for three or possibly four months now.  I have intended to reflect on many of the ideas in that book in this venue.  However, the Corona Virus pandemic has shoved it to the back burner – at least until this morning when it feels right to explore it.  The book is, The Dignity of Difference by Jonathan Sacks.  I reread this book just prior to the pandemic and all its consequences that has taken all of our attention in recent months. 

Jonathan Sacks is a theologian who was the Chief  Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and, as such, brings a unique perspective to the idea of there being dignity in  differences which has been a concept which has been more honoured in the breech than the observance in the history of humankind.  The subtitle of the book is, How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations.  I believe that what we have been experiencing in the current pandemic is just that, a clash of not only civilizations but a clash or race, creed, colour, and class especially within our civilization.  This has always been there and has been brought to the fore by the impact of the Corona Virus.  So perhaps it is just the time to explore the ideas which the author puts forward in this book.

When I read a book–particularly one of substance rather than one read for pure entertainment – I am in the habit of noting in the back cover or any other blank pages at the back of the book, ideas which are noteworthy and ones which I possibly want to return to in the future.  On turning to the book this morning, I found all the available spaces filled with annotations of things of note – a true embarrassment of riches and an indication of how valuable I found this book.  The first notation that caught my eye was page 65 “the Good Samaritan Parable expanded.”  Turning to the source, I found that it did not refer to the parable directly.  It was the following passage:

Nothing has proved harder in the history of civilization than to see God, or good, or human dignity in those whose language is not mine, whose skin colour in different, whose faith is not my faith and whose truth is not my truth.

This truth, which I believe is so important for us today, is the essence of the message in the Good Samaritan parable.  The priest and the Levite – both ‘holy men’ were not able to see any of those qualities in the man who was lying mugged at the side of the road.  The person who saw, “God, or good, or human dignity” in that person was the despised Samaritan, who could have been excused for walking by on the other side, was a person who had been treated as ‘the other’ by the Jews of that time. He was the true neighbour as Jesus forced the lawyer to recognize. 

I believe that the Good Samaritan parable is, more than ever, a parable for this time of Corona Pandemic.  We have been faced with the reality that collectively we have not seen many people as the Other - the old, Canadians of colour, the poor, migrant workers, and xxx (fill in the blanks for yourself) – and our society has passed by on the other side. 

Blessings on your journey where you never know who might by lying on the side of that journey.