Lent for All of Us

 Sunday was the first Sunday of Lent.  Lent is not something that you will find in the bible.  There is no Lenten observance in the bible.  It was not and is not part of the Jewish religion, so it was not something that Jesus observed or even the first Christians who were all Jews. It is one of the seasons in the church year like Advent or Pentecost or Christmas or Easter.  Advent and Lent are similar in that they are times of preparation.  Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas and in the same way Lent is preparation for Easter. 

Lent began last Wednesday, and we marked it with the Ash Wednesday observances.  If you were at the Ash Wednesday service here or other places you would have received a cross in ashes on your forehead.  The ashes were produced by burning the palm crosses from last Easter. 

When the priest marks you with the cross, he or she states, ‘remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.’  It is a reminder that we are mortal and our time on earth is limited.  We must consider how we use that time.  We know that we do not always live the life God intends for us.  That is one way of looking at sin.  We sin when we separate ourselves from God and do not live God intends us to live. 

So, we are now in a time of preparation for Easter.   We have forty days in total to reflect on our lives, to repent those things that keep us from being in relationship with God.  We do this in two ways.  First we acknowledge that we have done things we should not have done and commit to not do them.  Second, we acknowledge those things we have not done that we should have done and commit to doing them.  We know that being human and imperfect we will not succeed all the time but we have the intention of making the effort to do just that.  Often in Lent we focus on giving up something as a sacrifice.  We will forego something that we desire as a way of following God.  We can give up a favourite food or some activity we enjoy as a symbol of our need to change our lives.  You could call this the way of negation.  You can also take the way of affirmation by doing something that you have not been doing previously.  This could be contributing time, energy, and financial resources assist those in need. 

Lent is, in its essence, a Christian practice.  However, it can be helpful for non-Christians.  Here is a quote from a Christian source, Anne Germond, the acting Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, which can be applied to everyone’s life in this time:

But what if we thought of Lent as a God-given time of disruption the normal flow of our lives, inviting us to re-examine them, laying bare and shining the spotlight on all that is wrong – the pathological unease or “disease” in our world?  In the context of global warming, greed, violence abroad and at home, and of our inability to seek peace with our neighbours…

 

I found the following on the internet which addresses both ways – giving up things i.e. fasting and doing something new i.e. feasting or feeding our souls:

Fast from fear; Feast on Faith
Fast from despair; Feed on hope.
Fast from depressing news; Feed on prayer.
Fast from discontent; Feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger and worry; Feed on patience.
Fast from negative thinking; Feast on positive thinking.
Fast from bitterness; Feed on love and forgiveness.
Fast from words that wound; Feast on words that heal.
Fast from gravity; Feast on joy and humour.

May we all find ways to fast and feast in this season of Lent. 

Jesus the Scapegoat

Rene Gerard, the great French philosopher who died in 2015, develop the theory of the scapegoat.  Gerard identified the process in human history and psychology in which someone or some group was made to carry all the problems of a society, or to put it in religious terms, the sins of that society.  The classic example of this is the literal “scapegoat” described in Leviticus 16, in which the sins of the people accumulated in the past year are placed on the literal goat by the priest.  The goat is then driven out into the dessert carrying those sins.  The fate of the goat is sealed by this act and its fate could be in the hands of God.  The people are then temporarily relieved of their sins.

Girard identified this process as the organizing principle for most societies throughout history which is, of course, still in operation today.  It is not a problem to identify this process in recent history with the Jewish people fulfilling that role in a special, some might say chosen way, by the Nazis   Today, it can be seen wherever antisemitism raises its evil head.  However, there are countless more examples of people or groups who have been victims of this phenomenon.   The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide was marked earlier this month in which an estimated 800,000 primarily in one ethic group, the Tutsis were massacred by another ethnic group, the Hutus, in an ethnic cleansing. 

The scapegoating mechanism operated on a personal level as well as on a group level as detailed at great detail by Girard in his ground breaking work Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World.  In effect, Girard has identified a meta-structure on which human culture operated.  

Turning to the personal aspect of scapegoating, I am sure that no one will have a problem coming up with examples of people who have served as a scapegoat for others.  I dare say that if we are honest, we can identify times when we have scapegoated someone else for our failures.  It is, apparently human nature to try and blame others for our shortcomings not wanting to admit or even recognize them in ourselves.

As we approach Easter the great example of Jesus as scapegoat looms ahead of us.  The scapegoat mechanism was fully on display yesterday in the Sunday of Palms and the Passion.  We Anglicans celebrate both the triumphant entry of Jesus in Jerusalem as well as the Passion of the cross.  The foretaste of this event was seen in Jesus being driven or led (depending on which Gospel you read) into the wilderness to face the temptation offered by Satan.  Unlike the situation in the Jewish tradition where the scapegoat dies, Jesus survived the dessert experience and returns to bring the Good News to the world.

In a similar way Jesus defeats the power of sin and death and is resurrected on Easter Sunday.  Unlike the all other cases of scapegoating, the willing sacrifice by Jesus defeats the power of the scapegoat mechanism.  He is a guiltless victim just as the scapegoat in Leviticus is guiltless.  However, the scapegoat mechanism is overturned and defeated by the triumph of Easter.  For Christians and the world this frees us from the chains of sin which imprison us in the need to blame others.

This Easter season, I invite you to reflect on how you scapegoat others and who are the scapegoats around us. 

Blessings on your journey.

Of Holidays and Holy Days

Happy Victoria Day to those of you who celebrate today as a Holiday.  Holiday originally meant holy day but it has lost much of that meaning for many people.  There is not too much that is holy about the 2-4 weekend in today’s society except for those who worship beer at the cottage. Of course many of our holidays originally had a religious connotation being connected to Christmas and Boxing Day, Good Friday and Easter Sunday and even Easter Monday.  But even those have taken on a secular connotation in modern culture.  I recently bemoaned that fact that the Easter Egg hunt in this part of my world is held on Good Friday morning.  I had a letter to the local paper publish those remarks to which I received some positive response.  There is also the new custom of wishing people happy holiday instead of Merry Christmas.  People obviously are oblivious to the fact they are wishing people a happy holy day.  However, the secularization of our Holy Days cannot be denied.

Perhaps this is why my thoughts this morning have turned to prayer even though Victoria Day is one of those holidays which does not have religious connotations.  I have been in a couple of discussions recently about why we pray.  I am reminded of the reflection I used for a Diocesan Council meeting some years ago which follows:

Dean Alan Jones of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco has noted that there are only two prayers: ‘Help’ and ‘Thank-you’.  Everything else is just a footnote or variation and expansion on the basic theme—whether it is praise, adoration, confession, supplication or thanksgiving.

I believe that the essence of those two prayers ‘Help’ and ‘Thank you’ can in turn be summed up by ‘O God’ depending on how you speak that phrase.  ‘O God!!!’ which could be followed by ‘what was I thinking’ or ‘what were they thinking’ or ‘what were you thinking God’.  Or ‘O God!!!’ which could be followed by ‘isn’t this wonderful’ or ‘aren’t you wonderful’.    These true prayers probably should always followed by exclamation marks. 

Whether it is ‘Help’ or ‘Thank you’, to pray is to strive to place ourselves more closely in right relationship with God and with God’s creation.  We need our God-given imagination to apprehend what that right relationship is or can be.  The poet Mary Oliver tells us that the world gives us an invitation to right relationship through our imagination every day: 

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

The world offers itself to your imagination,

Calls you like the wild geese,

Harsh and exciting,

Over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

In today’s meeting let us pray ‘Help’.

Gracious and loving God help us to open our imaginations to all that you are offering us.  Help us to imagine and see the path to our right place in the family of things—in God’s family—in our lives as God’s children, in our parishes and especially in our work today for the part of God’s kingdom that is the Diocese of Huron.   In silence let us open our hearts and minds and bodies and souls and imaginations to the help that God offers us.  Amen.

Afternoon Session

This morning I noted that there are two prayers ‘Help’ and ‘Thank you’.  We ended with the prayer ‘Help’ that God would enable us to open our imaginations to right relationship with God for ourselves, our parishes, and the Diocese.  Let us pause and reflect on where we have been this morning.  Let us reflect on where have we had difficulty in opening our imagination to see where that right relationship could be?   Let us reflect on where we have opened our imagination to what the right relationship with God is. Let us reflect on where we have seen but not followed the path of right relationship.   Let us reflect on where have we have moved to be more in right relationship with God and God’s creation.

Let us pray.  Gracious God we thank you for all that you have given us this morning. ‘Thank you’ for all that you will continue to give us this afternoon and when we return to our homes and parishes to continue to seek the right relationship that God intends for us as God’s Children and God’s Church.  Amen. 

Easter Thoughts and Rants

The current edition of my local Parkhill newspaper, The Gazette, has nicely juxtaposed the conflicting approaches to Easter that exists in our culture.  Although the culture in and around Parkhill is quite traditional in many ways there is a conflicted and conflicting approach to  how Good Friday should be celebrated.  The front page had a large colour picture of the Procession of the Cross celebrated in a joint service of Parkhill United Church and St. James Anglican Church.   The tradition of a joint service was started about ten years ago when I was the rector of St. James (prior to my retirement) along with the United Church minister, Rev. Doug Wright, who is still serving that church.  The service begins at one church and midway a large wooden cross is processed to the other church where the service concludes. 

This is a service that is appreciated by members of both congregations.  In past years we used an adaption of the Stations of the Cross at various points between the two churches.  This is very appropriate for the solemn occasion marking the crucifixion of the founder of our faith; all well and good.  However, the interior of the paper reveals a competing celebration.  The caption over a picture of a group of little children and supervising adults read, “Chocolate galore as Parkhill youngsters enjoy Easter Egg Hunt”.  Of course tradition of the Easter Egg Hunt has been long established in Canada and elsewhere.  The Easter bunny leaving eggs has been a part of Easter celebrations which with its symbol of new life and breaking the Lenten fast and other symbolic aspects tied to Easter.   Some of these include the Eastern Orthodox tradition of abstaining from eggs during Lents and there was (according to Wikipedia) an ancient belief that the hare was a hermaphrodite and “The idea that a hare could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary, with hares sometimes occurring in illuminated manuscripts and Northern European paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child”.  I could go on but the point is that The Easter Egg Hunt is a well-established Christian tradition. 

Now the problem with the ‘Easter’ Egg Hunt in Parkhill is that it occurs (I won’t say celebrated) on the morning of Good Friday.  This of course is completely in opposition to the meaning of Good Friday when Christians celebrate the death of Jesus Christ and Easter Sunday when the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is Celebrated and where the symbol of new life belongs.  Now only that but with Good Friday services being celebrated the same time as the Easter Egg Hunt it means that families must choose between the celebration and the activity.  The secularization of Christian symbols is well established with the materialistic excesses of ‘Christmas’ gift frenzy so I should not be surprized that secular ‘Easter’ celebrations occur.  However, it might be considerate on the part of the organizers at least to celebrate it at a time which doesn’t conflict with the traditional Christian celebration.  The Gazette notes that a neighboring community holds its Easter Egg Hunt on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I believe that it would be a good idea if Christianity separated the celebration of Christmas from the secular in some more specific ways.  This obviously applied to Easter as well.  Just a reminder of how secular and Christian Easter differs from secular Easter, we are still celebrating Easter as we Christians are in the season of Easter which celebrates the period in which Jesus Christ was on earth following his Resurrection.  I will end with the Easter acclamation which is used during the Easter Season:

Celebrant:      The Lord is risen!

People:           The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Celebrant:      May his grace and peace be with you.

People:          May he fill our hearts with joy.

New life indeed!  Alleluia! 

 

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Sermon Easter Sunday 2014

Christ is risen – Christ is risen indeed – Hallelujah

Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This is the most important day of the Christian year.  The resurrection is the most important – the central tenet of our faith as Christians.  In this service as with other worship services we will join in saying together our statement of faith – today we will join in the Nicene Creed – “on the third day he rose again according to the scripture”.

Recently a Roman Catholic priest – Father Michael - said to me in a conversation that he was continually surprised at how many Christians misunderstood the resurrection.  There is truth in that but I also sometimes it seems   that there are almost as many ways of looking at the resurrection as there are Christians. That of course is an overstatement but I believe there is truth in both statements.

What is it then that we believe when we say he is risen – Jesus has been resurrected?  Father Michael believes that most Christians believe that Jesus was magically resuscitated.  I believe there is confusion between resurrection and resuscitation.  To be resuscitated means to be brought back to life – our old life.  This is what happened to Lazarus.  Jesus brought him back to life.  Jesus called him and he came out of his tomb wrapped in his burial cloths.  John’s Gospel calls this one of the signs that Jesus performs – one of the signs of what the kingdom of God will be like when it is established.  In fact it is the seventh and final sign in John’s Gospel.  By implication the resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate sign – sign of new creation as one source calls it.  But what happened after this miraculous event? 

As I noted the raising of Lazarus is resuscitation and not a resurrection.  From the Gospel account Lazarus was the same person that was buried in the tomb that held his body.  He came out wrapped in the burial cloths.  They had to be unwrapped from his body to set it free.  Scripture does not tell us what happened to Lazarus after the act of Jesus.  We are told that some of the Jews who had seen this miraculous act of Jesus believed in him because of it.  Others did not.  The Gospel also tells us that the authorities were plotting to kill him along with Jesus but we are not told if they carried through with the plan.   However, we do not know anything specifically about Lazarus’ life after this miracle.  We know from the description of him coming out of the tomb he appeared the same as when his body was buried.  This is a critical point.  To be resuscitated mean to come back the same as when you were clinically dead – worse for wear but the same.

We know from scripture that Jesus was not the same after the resurrection.  The accounts are rather confusing.  Some people recognized him while others did not – such as the women at the tomb who mistook him for the gardener or the believers on the road to Emmaus.  Jesus had a physical body – the disciples could touch the holes in his hands and his feet.  Jesus act with the disciples.  However, he could seemingly pass through a closed door into the room where the disciples where cowering in fear.  He appeared to many people in many places.  He had what could only be called a spiritual body which scripture tells us ascended into heaven. 

So what are we to make of these accounts according to scripture as the creed states?  What do we believe?  Do you believe that Jesus was resurrected?  Or perhaps you believe it was resuscitation.  Some Christians I know do not believe in a physical resurrection.  My father who was an ordained minister did not believe in the bodily resurrection.  He believed it was symbolic for the resurrection that occurred to the disciples.  After the crucifixion they were cowering in the upper room and they found the courage to become apostles and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.   He also believed it was symbolic of the transformation that is possible for each of us.  I have struggled with what I believe in many areas including the resurrection.  I can say at this point that I do believe in the resurrection. 

What are we as Christians to believe?  I think we should cry with the father in the Gospel of Mark who asked Jesus to heal his son of unclean spirits.  Jesus told him all things can be done for the one who believes.  He responded, “I believe, help my unbelief.”  I believe that what Jesus wants of us is not absolute certain unwavering belief in the resurrection or anything else.  He wants us to be faithful in our struggles to follow him. 

“I believe, help my unbelief.” 

He desires us to acknowledge that at times we may not believe but we still ask ourselves what we believe and what kinds of lives we should live.  If we are honest with ourselves and with God Jesus will be with us and we will find the new creation which John points to in his Gospel. 

The Lord is Risen – he is risen indeed.  Hallelujah.