COVID Rears its Ugly Head

I can hear in my head the theme music for the movie Jaws:  duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun…

Well, I can confirm that it is not necessarily safe to go into – well in this case not the water – but places where people gather – like churches – if you let your guard down about the reality of COVID.  I can hear the murmurs – COVID?! – that’s no longer a thing, is it?  After all, we have the vaccine for COVID and there are no reports in media or government press releases about COVID outbreaks, are there?

Well, let me assure you, or perhaps scare you, that COVID still is with us.  My wife Lorna came down with COVID after contact with someone – not quite sure who – in our church a week ago.  You know, church is where two or three or more are gathered in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Well, that’s just it, we are called as Christians to gather together.  That means if someone has symptoms of COVID and joins the gathering anyway or perhaps has no symptoms – they will likely infect others.  Our collective memories of COVID and the pandemic and all that we had to do, such as masking and hand washing and getting vaccinated have faded as time has passed.

Lorna came down with symptoms much like those of a cold – sniffles, cough, fever, and feeling lousy etc.  Due to unrelenting brain fog (her words), she suspected that it was more than a cold and dug out an old COVID test kit and, sure enough, the two lines appeared showing she tested positive for COVID – not a good thing in this case where you want to see a negative result. 

Now Lorna and I are fully up to date on our vaccinations.  Being vaccinated does not make you immune but will just lessen the severity of the symptoms.  I am symptom-free at this point and may have escaped.  Perhaps as result of being a special person; actually, just a matter of good luck.  However, that doesn’t mean I am free of COVID and have been lying low until I get a test kit and check it out.  These are not as readily available as they were at the height of the pandemic. 

There is also conflicting information online at government websites.  One site I checked said that if you are symptom-free you don’t have to isolate, but others say you should isolate if you are in contact with an infected person. 

We both stayed home from church last Sunday.  We have heard of a number of people with symptoms who have tested positive or suspect they have COVID - there may be more who are infectious but don’t know they are.  Our church – like many – has a demographic that skews to the older age – so they are in the vulnerable category, as Lorna and I are, and may be susceptible to symptoms that are more serious.  I believe it is a good idea that organizations where people congregate have policies that reinforce the necessity for people to stay home if they have symptoms that could mean they are infectious.  Also reinforcing rules around hand-sanitizing and providing hand sanitizing gel are good ideas.  We must not let our collective and individual guards down. 

Remember, the water may look safe – but who knows what lurks beneath the surface.  Blessings indeed. 

The Stations of the Cross (2) Adapted from www.preachingpeace.org

 It seems to be human nature that we want to leap over the challenging times of life and get to the good parts.  That is understandable.  However, I believe we need to not avoid the dark nights of the soul and embrace, or at least not deny those times.  How can we begin to know something of ourselves and of God when the dark times engulf us and threaten to overwhelm us?  What can we learn from those times when everything including God seems to have abandoned us?  We desire to quickly move from the despair of Good Friday to the joys of Resurrection Sunday.  I used an adaption of the Stations of the Cross on our Good Friday service. 

Last time I introduced the Stations of the Cross and looked at the first five stations.  This time I will finish our journey with Jesus to Golgotha. 

Station VI: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem 

“Weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children.” The women of Jerusalem want to weep for you as though your fate were unrelated to theirs, as though the violence you suffer did not own them as well. You turn their sympathy back on them; remind them that your fate is their fate, too.

How many times have we contemplated your Passion, Lord, and wanted to cry for you? How many times have we wanted to weep because of your pain, and not because we caused it? How often have we blinded ourselves to our complicity in violence by feeling sorry for the victims?

Station VII: Jesus falls Again

Jesus, you have done all that you can do. When you fall this last time, you entrust the remainder of what must be done to us. There is no more strength. You are utterly beaten, defeated, but we are not finished. Like the potter’s clay, we will now make you into what we need you to be.

How many times have we seen another’s weakness as an opportunity to shape them, to change them into what we want them to be? How many times do we take advantage of the fact that you are too weak to resist, Jesus, and fasten you to the Cross?

Station VIII: Jesus is nailed to the Cross

Hanging for hours on a cross is not cruel enough, Jesus. Watching you suffocate will not mollify our rage. Life has been so unfair to us, we have such rage that we have to use nails, instead of the traditional ropes. Rage bleeds away as nails, meant for wood, cut easily through human flesh.

How many times have we allowed our rage to drive us to cruelty? Cruel acts? Cruel speech? How many times has another borne the scars of our rage?

Station IX: Jesus dies on the Cross

We stand in stunned silence as we survey the result of our sin. The Lord of Life hangs dead from the tree. The peace we pursued as we chased you up the hill refuses to come. As we gaze upon you, Jesus, our victim, the realization dawns. Violence will never again bring peace, and we are terrified.

Mute with horror, we stumble to our homes, as though the earth were moving under our feet. The ground itself seems unsteady as we contemplate a world without violence. On what will we stand?

Station X: Jesus is taken down from the Cross.

We have all departed by the time the guards permit those who love you to bring you down from the Cross. Once the spectacle ended, we are compelled to leave. There is something horrible and fascinating about you as you hang there, and it frightens us. We leave the task of dealing with your body to those who are already unclean.

How often, O Lord, have we fled our own horror, left the care of the dead and the dying to others? How many times have we let our fear of the power of death drive us into hiding?

Station XI: Jesus is laid in the tomb 

In a tomb that you could never have afforded, those who did not abandon you, those who refused to join the mob, lay your body to rest with great tenderness. There is nothing divine in the torn flesh, nothing holy in the bloodied brow. There is only sorrow, deeper than the greatest trenches in the ocean. Sorrow.

You will breathe life once again into our deadened spirits, Jesus, but not on this day. Today we walk as those robbed of hope, shuffling from one place to another as though we belonged in the tomb with you. Perhaps, without the breath of your new life, that is precisely where we belong.

Silence

It’s a Good Life – Perhaps Not

The ambush that took place in the White House Oval Office last week on the President of the Ukraine by U.S. President Trump and Vice-President Vance, brought to mind one of the classic episodes of the classic T.V. 1960’s series the Twilight Zone.  The episode was, It’s a Good Life, which first aired on November 3, 1961.

Here is a partial plot summary from Wikipedia which give a good summary of why this episode was dredged up from the depths of my memory:

Six-year-old Anthony Fremont has godlike mental powers, including mind-reading. He has isolated his town of Peaksville, Ohio, from the rest of the universe. The people must grow their own food, and supplies of common household items, such as bar soap, have been dwindling. He has blocked television signals and caused cars not to work. He creates grotesque creatures, such as three-headed gophers, which he then kills. Everybody is under his rule, even his parents.

The people live in fear of Anthony, constantly telling him how everything he does is "good", since he banishes anyone thinking unhappy thoughts forever to a place that he calls "the cornfield." Having never experienced any form of discipline, he does not understand that his actions are harmful. He is confused when his father tells him that the neighbors are reluctant to let their children play with him after he sent several of his playmates to the cornfield.

This does seem to be prescient warning about what can happen when someone who has no moral compass and has not been taught no constraints about wanting everything and being given absolute – or almost absolute power.  The havoc that can be wreaked is almost beyond our imagination – but not completely - as shown in the Twilight Zone episode. 

The dangers and challenges of great/absolute power has been recognized since time immemorial.  The famous saying, with great power comes great responsibility, originated with French philosopher Voltaire and spilled into the culture by Uncle Ben's cautionary warning to a young Spider-Man’s altar ego Peter Parker. 

The danger of unchecked power even arose in the apocryphal stories about the life of a divine child i.e. Jesus the future Christ, with the potential for divine abilities.  One example shows him using his divine abilities to less than harmless results:

IV. 1 After that again he went through the village and a child ran and dashed against his shoulder. And Jesus was provoked and said unto him: Thou shalt not finish thy course (lit. go all thy way). And immediately he fell down and died. But certain when they saw what was done said: Whence was this young child born, for that every word of his is an accomplished work? And the parents of him that was dead came unto Joseph, and blamed him, saying: Thou that hast such a child canst not dwell with us in the village: or do thou teach him to bless and not to curse: for he slayeth our children.

So, you can see that great power does not necessarily lead to great irresponsibility and chaos, as in the case of the mature Jesus.  However, it can, as it seems to be manifesting in the current U.S. President.  It led to wonderful things in this case, but it seems less to have good results in the case of President Trump.  However, miracles do happen.

I hope your encounters with power may be a blessing for you on your journey. 

Where is the True Power?

Recently, I heard the sad news that the politics of J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate for U.S. Vice-President, was shaped by The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.  J.K. Granberg-Michaelson noted in his essay that, on hearing this, his reaction was, “JD Vance doesn’t get to claim The Lord of the Rings.”

Like that writer, I have been an almost lifelong fan of Tolkien’s trilogy of the imagined Middle-Earth and his other works.  It is not a surprise that Vance and other members of the right wing Maga hoard would glom onto this epic tale of the battle between good and evil.  It is very possible to have a superficial understanding of that as a battle between the quasi-European force of good represented by the loveable Hobbit sand blond beautiful elves and even the cave dwelling dwarfs who rallied to defeat the (non-white) dark forces of monsters lead by the ultimate evil of Sauron who had gone to the dark side of the force – to use an analogy from a different imagined world. 

Tolkien, in his epic work, depicts the struggle to resist the temptation to succumb to temptation to use ultimate power to defeat the forces of evil.  This is a theme that was also explored by the other members of the famous Oxford group of writers, the Inklings – including C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams - in their works such as the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Lewis) and Descent into Hell (Williams). 

In the Lord of the Rings, the humble Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is the one selected to take the ring of ultimate power to be destroyed in Mount Doom.  He was faithful in not succumbing to the temptation to use that power for his own purposes until the very end when it is his shadow (to use Jung’s term) the despised and conflicted Gollum. who, on briefly regaining the ring, meets his destruction along with the ring of power in the eternal fires of Mount Doom. 

Many, but not exclusively, on the right of politics fail to have eyes to see the message in the Lord of the Rings and other works by the Inklings, that ultimately power cannot be defeated by using that power even if with the best of intentions.  Granberg-Michaelson noted that, “Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), even used The Lord of the Rings as late as 2006 to endorse a continued U.S. presence in Iraq.”  More recently, Republican politician Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) recently declared in a statement that exposed a shocking ignorance of basic Christian doctrine, at a “Christian” conference no less, “Jesus didn’t have enough AR-15 rifles to “keep his government from killing him.”  Similarly, Donald Trump jr. recently declared, “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing.”

This, of course, misses the basic message of the crucifixion and Christianity.  As Jesus told Pilot:

My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.

Tolkien and the other Inklings were wrestling mightily with the all-too human temptation to want to use the same weapons used by evil to defeat the forces of evil.  They have shown us brilliantly that this does not work in the Kingdom that Jesus Christ proclaimed.  As much as it goes against our basic instincts, we must turn the other cheek, and go the second mile and, yes, even love our enemies.  That will be a true blessing on our journey.

  

Jesus Christ the Ultimate Scapegoat

 Happy April Fools Day and happy birthday to everyone who was born on this special day – as I was.  As my blog is entitled Another Fool for Christ, I want to explore, on this Easter Monday, a view of Jesus Christ that is somewhat different – a look at Jesus Christ through the lens of Rene Girard’s theory of the scapegoat.   I trust that this will not be too foolish. 

Rene Girard, a French philosopher, introduced the groundbreaking concept of the "scapegoat mechanism."  The basis of the theory is the idea that human societies often resort to scapegoating as a mechanism to alleviate social tensions and restore balance.  Girard’s theory holds that societies undergo a process of collective scapegoating, in which a particular individual or group is singled out as the source of a problem or problems in the society. This individual or group scapegoat becomes the target of collective aggression, blamed for the society's woes, and often subjected to punishment or expulsion. By directing hostility towards the scapegoat, society experiences a sense of catharsis, as internal conflicts are externalized onto a convenient target.  However, this equilibrium is only temporary and the cycle of scapegoating resumes.

Girard's theory held that scapegoating serves as a mechanism for social order and cohesion. By sacrificing the scapegoat, societies reaffirm their shared values and norms, reinforcing a sense of solidarity among its members.  Girard's theory sheds light on contemporary phenomena, such as mob mentality, political scapegoating, and ethnic violence. In times of crisis or social upheaval, individuals and groups are often demonized or vilified as scapegoats.  This is reflected in the biblical passage in Leviticus 16:21-22 in which the sins of the people are placed on a literal goat which is sent into the desert relieving the people of collective guilt and restoring equilibrium to the community. 

With this background, let us look at the crucifixion of Jesus as playing out the scapegoat mechanism which may be considered the ultimate example of the scapegoat mechanism.  Girard holds that Jesus' teachings and actions challenged the prevailing social order of his time, exposing the violence and hypocrisy embedded within it. Through his radical message of love, forgiveness, and compassion, Jesus confronted the mechanisms of scapegoating and offered an alternative vision of social relations based on mutual respect and solidarity.  The triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was the ultimate challenge to the religious and Roman authorities.

In Girard's interpretation, the crucifixion of Jesus represents a paradoxical inversion of the scapegoat mechanism. Instead of legitimizing the violence of the mob, Jesus' death exposes its irrationality and injustice, revealing the innocence of the victim and the guilt of those who perpetrate violence in the name of righteousness.

Moreover, Girard suggests that Jesus' resurrection signifies the ultimate triumph over the forces of death and violence, offering hope for redemption and reconciliation. By overcoming death, Jesus breaks the cycle of scapegoating and opens the possibility for a new way of being based on love and forgiveness.

On our journey may we be blessed to recognize where the scapegoat mechanism is playing out in our lives.  

Oppenheimer and the Little Rock Nine

Last week, Lorna and I saw the movie Oppenheimer which is in theaters.  This is the wonderfully told story of the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos in the United States led by Robert Oppenheimer.  This marked the beginning of the Nuclear Arms Race which is still being run by the world today.  I also heard an interview with one of the Little Rock Nine who were the children who broke the segregation of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.  These events both took place in the post WWII United States.  But beyond that I saw some interesting connections I want to explore. 

The development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos unleashed the unimaginable destructive effect of atomic energy, which unfortunately was not unimaginable for the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who were obliterated by the first and second (and hopefully last) atomic bombs used in war.  The Little Rock Nine also set off a different type of explosion in the battle for integration which is still being fought in the United States today.  With the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the nuclear arms beast has been awakened and has raised its monstrous head after slumbering in relative obscurity for many years. 

The specific issue that I want to explore in these two events is non-violence.  The actual and potential for violence in the atomic bomb is unfortunately crystal clear.  This is best demonstrated by the quote by Oppenheimer from The Bhagavad Gita, on observing the explosion of the test bomb at Los Alamos, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”    The development of the atomic bomb by the Oppenheimer team at Los Alamos was justified morally because the Allies and specifically the United States was in a race to develop one before the Nazis.  In effect, Oppenheimer believed that the ultimate effect of having the atomic bomb was uncertain but if the Nazis had it there was no doubt that it would be used in unimaginable ways.  There was, in his mind, no question that the United States had to develop the bomb first.  In this, as in the whole Allied effort in WWII, the use of violence was not an option.  The option was too horrible to imagine.

In the case of the Little Rock Nine and desegregation writ large, the use of non-violence as a strategy was employed by those working to bring about desegregation.  The member of the Nine who was interviewed worked to promote non-violence throughout her life.  On the other hand, those opposed to desegregation did not hesitate to use violence to fight against it and for segregation.  The leader in the non-violence approach was Martin Luther King Jr.  There was no question that this was a powerful moral force in moving the United States to be more desegregated and a more perfect Union that many believe in.  The question that arises from this is, when is it appropriate to use non-violence as a strategy and when isn’t it?

In considering this issue, which I have pondered over the years, I know that as a Christian I am called to uphold non-violence in my approach to others.  However, I believe that it has its limitations.  Gandhi is the example of someone who used non-violence in efforts to free India from the yoke of English colonialism.  This proved that non-violence can achieve its goals.  But I have also pushed back against this.  I, and I am sure many, have posited that Gandhi, and his followers would not have succeeded if they were opposing the Nazis or other totalitarian regimes which would have had no compunction against using every weapon available to them.  Would India ultimately have achieved independence in the long run in such a situation through non-violence means.  I don’t have the answer to that, but I am certain that it Hitler would not have voluntarily given India its independence because of a non-violent opposition.

As a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ who showed the power of non-violence, I can only conclude that we must give priority to non-violence as the moral option.  However, there are times when the violence must be used to resist evil.  The question is, when is it justified?  There is no easy or clear answer to that, that I can see.

May you be blessed to never face that choice on your journey. 

Who's an Apostle?

Early this morning – actually very early, I was visited by a memory of a time I was asked what an apostle was.  It is interesting and perhaps revealing what memories arrive unsought in the wee hours of the morning.   That time is often referred to as the witching hour for good reason.  They often seem to be memories of events that are not high on the agenda of things that you want the world to know about.  That was not necessarily so in this case.

My response to the question was, “an apostle was someone who has seen the risen Christ.”  Now this is not what might be called the usual definition.  The word usually refers to the disciples of Jesus particularly those who were sent to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and evangelise.  The entry in Wikipedia notes:

An apostle (/əˈpɒsəl/), in its most literal sense, is an emissary, from Greek ἀπόστολος (apóstolos), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (apostéllein), "to send off".^[1] The purpose of such sending off is usually to convey a message, and thus "messenger" is a common alternative translation; other common translations include "ambassador" and "envoy"

My answer to the question of apostleship was one that I didn’t give much thought to at the time either before or after giving it.  It was based on the apostleship of Paul who claimed that he was an apostle based on his vision of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus which occurred after the resurrection. 

He makes this claim to being an apostle a number of times including the opening salutation in this letter to the Romans, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,”.  The criterion for seeing the resurrected Jesus is also address in the first chapter of Acts by Peter:

So one of the men who have accompanied us throughout the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.’ (Act 1:21-22)

My early morning musings led me to wonder if this is a good definition for Christians today.  After all none of us were there during the forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension.  And very few of us can claim to have has a Road to Damascus experience like Paul.  So, what can it mean to have seen the resurrected Christ in our lives today?

If we take St. Paul as a model or type of the modern Apostle, Paul had his life completely changed from a fervent persecutor of the first followers of Jesus, to someone who can be seen as responsible for establishing what became the Christian Church.  After all, Jesus Christ did not set out to found the new religion of Christianity.  Paul understood that his vision of the risen Christ was a call to metanoia - to repentance.   He followed that understanding with action and changed his whole life.  Actually, he didn’t change completely.  He was just as fervent and dedicated – you might say fanatical - after the experience as before, just in a good way.

We can see the risen Christ in our lives as a call to repentance – a call to change course in our lives when it goes off course and misses the mark.  When our lives run into roadblocks to becoming the people God created us to be, we can watch for those signs of the risen Christ who comes and set us straight – probably not in as extreme a way as in Paul’s case -- but perhaps it might just be in another way that is hard to ignore.  Above all we can put these experiences into how we live our lives as Paul did.

That will be a true blessing on your journey. 

The Paradox of Parables

One of the distinctive features of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ as recounted in the Gospels is the parable.  They are, in effect, stories that teach a lesson.  The parable is not unique to Jesus as noted by one source, “In all times in their history the Jews were familiar with teaching by means of parables and a number of parables also exist in the Old Testament.” 

Jesus used parables extensively as a method of teaching and can be considered the master of the form.  It has been calculated that one-third of the teachings of Jesus in the synoptic Gospels are in parables.  They are an effective way of making a point or teaching a lesson as people seem to be able to grasp them more easily that abstract concepts.  Indeed, everyone does like a good story and Jesus was a master story teller.  However, in some cases they do present difficulties in interpreting what exactly the lesson Jesus was trying to convey.

One of the most difficult is the parable of the dishonest manage.  This is the Gospel passage which I am blessed to have to preach on this Sunday and, I must say, is one that has challenged many preachers.  It is found in Luke 16: 1-13.  To summarize, a manager is dismissed for dishonesty.  He decides that he will discount the amount owed by his customers and falsifies the accounts to lesser give smaller amounts owing.  However, now comes the awkward twist.  When this is discovered he is praised by the owner because “he had acted with prudence”.  This is bad enough but to top it off Jesus adds the final coup de grace by apparently praising the actions of the manager by seeming to say that people who act this way will get their reward in heaven,  “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome be you into the eternal homes.” 

I invite you to see what you can make of this rather unsettling, lesson which seems to turn the usual order in Jesus’ world upside down.  It is probably the best example of an some of the parables which are difficult to interpret.  Thankfully we have many which are, to our ears and eyes more straight-foreword such as The Prodigal Son or The Good Samaritan.

Turning back to the parable as a literary form utilized by Jesus, there has been extensive writing on this didactic form and how to appreciate it.  I find it is best to approach the parable as a story- one which has an unexpected turn:

Like many good stories, the parables of Jesus often include an unexpected turn of events in the plot. They do so to make a point. As Henry Virkler explains, “Frequently the unexpected shock appears for the purpose of catching the listeners’ attention and forcing them to reconsider their perspective.” For this reason, identifying this unexpected turn of events often helps the interpreter determine the main point of the parable as a whole.

A good source for engaging with Jesus parables and delving into them more deeply can be found at http://www.biblicalexpositor.org/home/180007636/180007636/Audio/9-INTERPRETING%20PARABLES.pdf.  This gives a scholarly exploration of the parable and can be very helpful in getting a firmer grasp on Jesus’ mastery of the form.  Here are a few of these points which are developed to be most helpful in approaching the parables:

·          Each of the parables of Jesus was told in a context and was specifically aimed at addressing a particular need, question, problem, or situation… some parables were told in response to a specific question, a specific request, a specific complaint, or a specific misconception 

·         One of the most important steps in the process of determining the central point of the parable is to determine the specific points of correspondence. This involves taking the main characters/features of the parable and identifying the corresponding points of comparison in the spiritual realm.

·         Recognize that not every aspect in the parable has special significance. There is usually one main lesson to be learned.  The parable of the dishonest manager the final line is provides this for us, “You cannot serve God and wealth.“ 

Above all, I would invite you to explore the many parables of Jesus – there are fifty-five in the synoptic Gospels.  There is much wisdom contained in them which is valuable for us regardless of your religious or spiritual understanding of life.

Blessings on your journey.

Last week I began to answer the questions posed by one of readers in response to one missives Here are the questions:

Can you explain to me your grounding belief in the Trinity? I can’t explain internally the need for formal religion and rules and commitment. 

I agree that when you drill down to the bottom of all... be good treat people as you want to be treated..  try to correct wrongs when you can etc. 

Does it come down to blind faith? What drives you to continue?  Do you ever feel that your energy would better placed in just straight up social justice?

Last week I tacked the issue of my lived experience of the Trinity.  This week I will respond as best I can to the comment on the need for formal religion. 

Often people will reject the formal structure of religious organizations.  There is much to criticize and reject in the actions of religious leaders and organizations.  Things have been done and, I daresay, continue to be done which, in my view, are not what Jesus had in mind when he taught and healed and was crucified because of who he was and how he lived. 

Many people will say that they are spiritual rather than religious.  There is much to commend being spiritual.  Indeed, I work as a spiritual director and encourage people to explore and deepen their spiritual lives.  However, I believe that unless we live out our lives within the larger context of a community of faith it is very difficult to have a structure in our lived which provides the means of keeping me on the course which God has prepared for me.  Richard Rohr, one of my go to guys in these matters addresses this, “Our Western culture leans toward self-sufficiency and independence, and we often need to be reminded that we are part of a greater whole, that we are not alone in our longings and efforts for peace, justice, and healing. This is one of the great gifts of what we usually mean by “church”—a gathering of people in solidarity of purpose, praying and seeking God’s presence together.”  (Daily Meditation September 20, 2014)

Being part of a religious community does not mean that you will not take a wrong turn and go off course.  That is guaranteed to happen just as it happens to the organization.  However, being part of a community provides the opportunity to get back on course and try again.  Indeed, it is very foundation of the practice of religious worship that provides the regular opportunity to acknowledge where you have gone astray and missed the mark i.e. sinned, to repent and ask forgiveness.  We have the assurance by our doctrine that when we do this we will be forgiven.  Again, there is no guarantee that people will seek forgiveness in their heart of hearts, but the possibility is given to us through the grace of God.

Jesus Christ has promised that where two or three (or more) are gathered in his name he will be with them, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20).  Again, there is no guarantee that those gathered will make an effort to understand what Jesus is directing them to do, but that is what we are called to do.  Religious organizations are comprised of fallible, imperfect, flawed human beings.  However, Jesus, being fully human as well as fully divine, knew that very well and understood that we would make mistakes and go astray.  However, despite this he calls us to be together.

Blessings on your journey will all its mistakes and missteps  

The Christian Family Tree

With Palm Sunday being celebrated last Sunday, we are now in Holy Week with the anticipation of the Great Triduum; The Great Three Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, The Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.  I know this actually is four days but that Religion for you.  But actually, it is counted from the evening of the Maundy Thursday service, with the foot washing, to the end of the Great Vigil Saturday evening in which the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour is celebrated with the return of the light of Christ to the world.  It recalls the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. This is the foundational story of Christianity. 

I was reminded of how important this is to us when I attended a session on a class on Luther a few weeks ago.  Lorna is taking that class at Huron University College, Luther: Love Him? Loath Him? Learn from Him, which commemorates the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation.  I audited the class on that occasion being April 1^st as we were in London to celebrate my birthday (yes, I am an April Fool and am proud of it). 

The professor, Murray Watson, who is a very engaging teacher, provided a hand out entitled, The Christian Family Tree compiled by Rev. Nathan L. Bostian.    This diagram has Jesus Christ as the “root and foundation” with all the major branches of Christianity which have sprung up in the two thousand years since then.  It has all the main branches which we are familiar with including the Anglican dated in 1536.  It gives the Denomination rating with such things as “T” for Use of Tradition, “W” for Style of Worship and “S” for Structure with a scale from 1 to 10 for each.  Anglicans are rated T4 with 1 begin conservative in tradition and 10 being liberal; W2 for with 1 being sacramental and 10 experimental; and S2 with the range between hierarchical and congregational.  This seems to be fairly accurate for Anglicans.  Of course there is a great range of difference between Anglo-Catholics and whatever the opposite is within the Anglican Church.  But overall it is a reasonable rating.  I can’t speak for the rating for other denominations but I sure there is similar variation within each denomination similar.

The thing that strikes me as I look at the chart is the diversity that has developed in the way we humans can decide to worship our God or gods.  We all believe we have basically the correct understanding of whom and what God is and the way God should be worshiped.  This is true for atheists who have their own god in my view (I leaned in grade 9 math that even a null set is a sub set of a factor) i.e. even non-belief is belief in something.

I am not absolutely certain of many things about God but I am sure that Jesus Christ did not have any idea, despite being fully divine (I’m not absolutely certain about that), that what he started would end up where it is today.  Being a good Jew he likely did not anticipate there being a new Religion named after him or at least after his title of Christ. 

I believe if we are to be at all true to what Jesus wants us to be we must focus on the root of who we are as Christians which is Jesus Christ.  If we all have this in common we should not worry so much about the differences in doctrine and liturgy.  That being said I am glad I have found the “one true faith” of Anglicanism which can worship God along with the other true Christian faiths. 

 To all my brothers and sisters in Christ have a blessed Holy Week and Great Triduum.  

Mazes and Labyrinths; Perfection and Union

Some time ago I wrote about the difference between a maze and a labyrinth.  I would like to continue my exploration of these to paths in the perspective of the goal of union rather than perfection.

Both the maze and the labyrinth are ancient forms which appear in antiquity.   To review, the maze which people are more familiar with, presents the person who enters it a puzzle.  The maze does provide a route through it.  It has many twists and turns and there are dead ends if you take a wrong turn.  You cannot see the path from the ground when you are trying to navigate it.  The maze often has a different entrance and exit and it you are successful you will travel through the maze.  Mazes have become very popular in recent years using various materials to create them.  The corn maze is a particularly popular form.

The labyrinth, which is often confused with the maze, has a similar lay out of a path to follow without seeing how it is going to end.  However, in the case of the labyrinth a path is provided which, if followed, will being you to the destination which is in the centre.  On the outward journey you follow the same path and if you stay the course you will be brought back to the place where you began. 

The approach to navigating these two forms is very different.  The maze is seen as a puzzle to be solved.  You can figure it out by trial and error or often by trying to be clever enough to solve the puzzle.  In this it is a challenge for the ego.  In many ways it reflects how we approach life—as a puzzle to be solved and a challenge to be met and won.  That unfortunate saying that was popular some years ago sums it up nicely; the one who has the most toys wins. 

The labyrinth can be understood as the representation of the spiritual journey.   It is found in many ancient cultures and has been revived in modern times and is now walking the labyrinth has become a well know spiritual practice.  It is considered a moving prayer in which we follow the twists and turns of our spiritual life to the centre and back.  Sometimes it seems we are getting close to the centre and then there is a sharp turn in our lives and we seem to be moving away from our goal.  However, if we follow the path that our savour prepares for us we will reach it even though at times it might seem as if we have reached a dead end in life. 

One way of looking at the different approaches offered by the maze and the labyrinth is the difference between perfection and union.  The maze offers us way that holds up a goal of perfection.  However, the labyrinth offers us the way of union.  Richard Rohr gives a very clear distinction between the two approaches to life:

The path of union is different than the path of perfection. Perfection gives the impression that by effort I can achieve wholeness separate from God, from anyone else, or from connection to the Whole. It appeals to our individualism and our ego. It's amazing how much of Christian history sent us on a self-defeating course toward private perfection. Union is instead about forgiveness, integration, patience, and compassion. The experience of union creates a very different kind of person.  Richard Rohr Daily Meditation July 20, 2016

Western culture has bought into the ideal of perfection to its great detriment.  Unfortunately, Christianity has walked arm in arm with our culture and encouraged Christians to try and achieve perfection.  We need to relearn again the message that Jesus showed is at the last supper that we are called to serve and not be served.  That message is truly counter cultural and radical.  It is a difficult one for us to truly learn but it is the way.  Blessings.  

Sermon October 18, 2015 Mark 10: 35-45

Has anyone every asked you to do a favour for them?  Did they do that without telling you what the favour was?  Well if they did you realize that was a set up.  It is an open ended request that could be for anything.  You could blindly say “yes”, but it could be for something that you find you can’t do or don’t really want to do.  That is the set up that James and John try on Jesus.  You think that they would know better.  They are Jesus’ close companions.  They knew him and what great insight he had about human nature and the foibles and follies people sometimes tried on other.  After all, he had been having mental duels with the Pharisees for quite a while. So here we have James and John, trying to pull a fast one on him.  They ask Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 

Of course we are not surprized by Jesus’ response.  He does not fall into the rather obvious trap they have set for him.  “What is it you want me to do for you?”  They go ahead and tell him what it is they want.  What they want is quite the request. They want to be seated in the place of highest honour in God’s kingdom, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”  This does not put them in a very good light when we step back and take a look at it. 

They are thinking quite highly of themselves—not something you think of as being good disciples.  I guess they were absent for the lesson on humility.  The parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew gives it an interesting twist.  Matthew reports the mother of James and John doing the asking.  Matthew, in his Gospel, which was written later than Mark and based much of that Gospel on Mark’s, appears to realize that James and John are not put in a positive light and try to put it on their mother.  After all, what are mothers for but to do it all for their sons. 

What we have is a misunderstanding concerning will.  James and John believe that it is their will that should be in charge.  They want, understandably, that they should be rewarded for all their faithfulness and sacrifice.  After all, they had dropped their nets and left everything to follow Jesus when he offered to make them fishers of people. They had stuck with him through thick and thin, through the hard times and the good times.  Why shouldn’t they have the place of honour in the Kingdom Jesus was proclaiming.  It is only right and just.  If not them, who else? 

Unfortunately they had forgotten one of the key lessons that Jesus tried to get through their seemingly thick heads, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister”.  He reiterates this lesson, albeit in Matthew’s Gospel when he teaches them to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.  Your will be done—not theirs or ours—but God’s will.  

That is one of the greatest challenges that we face as Christians.  We need to figure out what God’s will is for us and for the world.  That is indeed sometimes hard but we can turn to Jesus as our guide and he will show us quite clearly what God’s will is.  The even harder thing is to truly put God’s will in place of ours.  We humans are will-bound and we believe that what we want should be what we get.  We want to have the place of honour in God’s kingdom and here on earth.  We can even convince ourselves that God’s will and our will are actually the same.  They can sometimes be the same but unfortunately that is not often the case. 

Our ego, which is one of the greatest gifts of God, is also one of our greatest challenges.  Each of us has an ego which wants to be in charge.  It wants to maintain the status quo.  It believes it is the centre of everything in life.  Richard Rohr notes, “The ego wants to eliminate all bothersome, humiliating, or negative information in order to "look good" at all costs. The ego wants to keep you tied to your easy and acceptable levels of knowledge.”  Ego is a Greek word that means literally “I”.  The ego wants what it wants and will try to do everything in its power to get it.  Now the ego is not all negative. 

As I said it is one of God greatest gifts to us.  Without an ego we could not be in the world.  It enables us to strive to learn; to strive for success and for things it believe will make us happy.  However, if we let the ego run us and the world, we are and will be in deep trouble.  Just look at the world.  Many of the problems in the world are due to people’s desire to be in control; people wanting power, and doing whatever they need to do, to gain it.  In our personal lives we can be self-centred and egotistical to the detriment of ourselves and others.  Think for a moment of the last time that you wanted something that you knew in your heart of hearts was not good for you or someone else; and did it anyway.  The ego must find its proper place—which is in service of God. 

The Good News in the Gospel it that James and John’s desire gave Jesus the opportunity to give us the true message of God’s will, “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  This is not an easy lesson and it is not one that we will be able to undertake and accomplish without effort.  However, Jesus tells us that with God’s help it is possible.  The next time you desire something, take a moment and reflect on whether it is what God wants for you.  Stop and say the Lord’s Prayer—the prayer that Jesus taught us.  Let us do that together

Ecce Homo; "Beast Jesus"

Yesterday afternoon I was driving home from doing a service with the little congregation of faithful Anglicans in Georgetown PEI and was able to listen to CBC Tapestry.  This is a wonderful CBC program on religion and spirituality which I don’t listen to often enough—basically because I am not mindful enough about it. 

Yesterday’s program didn’t disappoint me.  It was on the subject of the “Beast Jesus”.  If you aren’t aware of this phenomenon, as I wasn’t, it involves an early 20^th century fresco in a church in Borja Spain.  An attempt to restore the painting in 2012 by, an 83-year-old widow and amateur painter Cecilia Giménez had disastrous results—at least that was the initial assessment of the work.  The well-intentioned effort turned out to be less than intended and the result was, shall we say, interesting.  The restored face of Jesus has a definite animal or bestial appearance.  I have copied a before and after picture of the fresco from the Tapestry website.

The “restoration” was halted when the church officials saw what was happening to the work.  However, as you may have guessed that is not the end of the story.  The fresco has become something of a sensation and has attracted many curious people.  It has apparently become a significant tourist attraction and has revitalized the economy of the small town of Borja, Spain. 

The subject of the work is Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), a depiction of the Jesus presented to the    crowd by Pontius Pilate after the scourging (John 19:5) shortly before his crucifixion.   It is an interesting case of intentional fallacy—the literary criticism which addresses the issue that often the intention of the author or artist is not the most important meaning.  In this case the intention of the restorer was to restore the work to its original glory.  However, something unintended was created with unintended results.  The results are interesting in a number of ways.  First the popularity has had apparently positive economic results for the town.  In addition, a comic opera is in the works, which was the subject of the Tapestry program. The intention is to have the world premiere in Borja and an annual performance thereafter which will help the positive impact on the town to continue. 

There is also another unintended consequence which I find as interesting.  As pointed out in the CBC program the impact of the new image of Jesus is more dramatic than the original.  As can be seen in the pictures below, the original face of Jesus has the eyes looking up to heaven.  The new face of Jesus is looking at the viewer with the eyes engaging the viewer eyes.  In the view of the interviewee on Tapestry, the librettists of the opera, the eyes on Jesus seem to be asking, “What is it that you are doing in world”.  To that I could add, “What are you doing to follow me”.  

   

That is where the subject connected to me yesterday.  My sermon took the passage from Luke 7: 11-17 in which Jesus raises the widow’s son from the dead in the town of Nain (a copy is attached).  I compare this to the miracle he performs and casts out the unclean spirit “Legion” in the country of the Gerasenes (Luke: 26-38).  In the case of both miracles the reaction of the crowd is to be afraid; however their response in very different.  In the case of the people in Nain, they praise God for sending them a great prophet.  In the case of the Gerasenes, they, in effect, run him out of town on a rail.  They were afraid because the people knew that Jesus could change their lives in radical ways—a valuable herd of swine were destroyed in the town of the Gerasenes.  If we take Jesus seriously we are going to be faced with Jesus asking us what are we doing in the world?  Are we going to run him out of town or are we going to rejoice that God has sent us a Saviour and Messiah.  If take Jesus seriously our lives will be changed radically and we know what happens to radicals in our society; It is often not pleasant.  

Sermon September 13, 2015 Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity What, Me Worry

Do you remember Mad Magazine from the sixties and seventies?  The character on the cover was usually Alfred E. Neuman who was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, at east in appearance.  In my memory he appeared on the cover of every edition of the Magazine.  He would often have words of “wisdom” when he appeared on the cover.  These are a few of the pithy sayings:
• We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.
• You can be on the right track and still get hit by a train.
• In retrospect it becomes clear that hindsight is definitely overrated!
• Most people are so lazy; they don't even exercise good judgement!

Alfred was a bit of a clown in appearance.  If you aren’t familiar with him, he was a rather gormless looking character with ears that stuck out, a missing front tooth, and hair that was never quite combed.  He looked a bit like Alfalfa from the Our Gang Comedies of even longer ago.   He might be considered rather a fool to look at him.
But like the classic fool in the king’s court he was able to speak the truth if you get below the surface appearance.  The classical fool was there to keep the king from getting too high and mighty.   He would remind the king that he wasn’t infallible.  He was mortal and in the end he would have to answer to God.

Alfred E. Nueman’s tag line was, “What, me worry?”  Now when he said this, you could easily dismiss it as being foolish.  If Alfred didn’t worry it seemed it was because he didn’t quite get it.  However, if we dig a bit deeper the truth in his statement is exactly what Jesus is telling us.  “Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his or her stature”?  Why are you anxious concerning your clothes? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in his glory was not arrayed as one of these.”  

Worry and anxiety are the curse of the 21st Century.  There is no shortage of things to worry about.  As our society becomes more complex the number of things to worry about piles up until it is a mountain that is impossible to scale and conquer.  Coincidentally (if you believe in coincidences) Huffington Post had a headline last Sunday about high paying jobs that are low stress.  Some of the jobs listed were fork-lift operator, lab-technician, tenured professors, librarians, tailors and jewelers.  The reasons given for the low stress included job security, being able to set you own pace, and not having to deal with demands of co-workers. It is interesting that the things that cause stress are insecurity, and demands placed on you by others.  However, there was no mention of jobs that provided fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment or even jobs that are meaningful.  

We often think of the ancient times, the olden days as being idyllic and worry feel.  Life was simpler so there were fewer things to worry about.  However, as Jesus confirms, even in those simple times there were things to worry about.  People were anxious about many things.  From what Jesus said they were worried about their appearance i.e. what cloths they wore, or their appearance i.e. not tall enough, or having enough to eat.

There was also worry about not fulfilling the covenant and being isolated from the community.  Anxiety and worry seem to be part of being conscious.  Human beings have been given the gift of consciousness.  We know that we are separate from the world.  We are aware of the world and the possibilities for what lies ahead of us and the knowledge that we are going to die unlike the rest of creation.  That awareness allows us to plan and come together to work cooperatively and to develop cultures.  It also made us aware that there is a God and the need to worship God.

If anxiety and worry are a result of our being conscious, could not God have given us consciousness without anxiety?  Now it may be that anxiety is an inevitable outcome of being conscious—you can’t have one without the other.  However, it can also be that worry can be beneficial.  If we worry about having security we can strive to be more secure. Our ancestors knew they had to protect themselves from wild animals and enemies. If we worry about disease we will make an effort to develop ways to protect ourselves against disease.  If we had just accepted that we would die from different diseases scientists would not have striven to find cures.  Ironically, people today seem to be eschewing vaccinations which have done wonders in protecting us from disease because of exaggerated worries that the vaccines themselves will cause harm.  This is where worry can lead to negative results.
If we allow worry to control our lives then we are falling into a state that Jesus is warning against.  If worry gives us the incentive to do something about what we are worried then it is a positive thing.  However if we are worried about things about which we can do nothing then we are letting the anxiety take over our lives.

Jesus tells us to consider the lilies of the field; they neither toil nor spin.  Jesus is not telling us that we do not need to strive to live full lives—to work and to harvest and to reap the benefits of our labour.  He is telling us to have faith in God and to give those pointless worries over to Jesus.  
We worry about the things in our lives we cannot see; and yet faith, according to St. Augustine, "is believing what you cannot see, and the reward of faith is seeing what you have believed in."  If we believe in Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer, then our hearts will not be troubled and we will be able, if not to give up our pointless anxieties, then at least help us to bear them.  Jesus tells us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Gretta and Me (2)

Last week I wrote about my reaction to re-encountering Gretta Vosper in the media.  Gretta Vosper is the noted United Church of Canada minister who is a self-declared atheist.   I was surprized by the intensity of my reaction to her as her position does not have a direct impact on me as an Anglican Priest. 

I also admitted I had to admire her honesty even if I didn’t agree with her decision to stay within the United Church.  I had hoped she would explain what she did believe in.  She did proclaim that she could not believe in a theistic being in the sky who answered prayer.  Vosper noted she did not use scripture or the word “God” in her church services or if she did she went on to clarify “by God I mean…”  However, in my investigation I was never able to discover what she did mean by “God”.  As I noted she calls herself an atheist and she believes in a church which has a “new and wholly humanistic approach to religion” as noted on her web-site.

With that said, I thought it is only right to elaborate this week on what I believe when I use the word “God”.  I believe that part of the intensity of my reaction to Vosper is that I have travelled what may be something of a similar road that she has only it appears I have ended up on a different path.   Religion has always been a significant part of my life.  My father was a United Church of Canada minister and I was part of the United Church for the first half of my life before ending up where I am now i.e. an Anglican.  I went through a time of self-declared atheism/agnosticism.  I came back to the a place of belief in a long circuitous journey that went through Process Theology al a Henry Nelson Wieman (my father’s influence) and on to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Carl Jung.  There have been many other influences which are more main-line and currently include Allan Jones and Richard Rohr.  As you can see from these influences, my theology is not orthodox and I have had struggles with the orthodoxy of the church and how to incorporate all this into a practice as an Anglican priest and be forthright in my preaching and interacting with parishioners. 

Like Vosper I do not believe in a theistic God figure in the sky that acts as “God the Butler” and is called up conveniently when we need “Him”.  I also do not believe in scripture as the inerrant word of God.  I believe it is divinely inspired and is a reflection of people struggling to understand God in their time and place and responding to God in their lives.  I believe that God does speak to us today in those scriptures and can reveal God’s intention for us.  I believe that whenever we try to define God we will be mistaken in that we can never catch more than small aspect of who and what God is.  To call God, the Father, or He, or She, or It or Process is wrong in that it is incomplete and puts God in a box which must, of necessity, be less that God is. 

I do believe in a Trinitarian God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  This may seem paradoxical but I believe that paradox is essential in our relationship to God.  God the Father of the Trinity is shorthand for that which created all and holds all of creation together.  I believe that  creation is in process which can bring us closer to God.  As noted by Richard Rohr:

in Teilhard's view, Christian life is essential to the progress of evolution. He emphasized that the role of the Christian is to divinize the world in Jesus Christ, to "christify" the world by our actions, by immersing ourselves in the world, plunging our hands, we might say into the soil of the earth and touching the roots of life. 

Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, is the “Omega Point” of Teihard and the “Self” of Carl Jung and similar concepts which is the divine revelation of what that evolution can be for humankind.   

The Holy Spirit, the third Person, is the power which moves over creation and moves us to respond to God in our lives.  However, we are called to respond to that.  However, there is no guarantee that people will respond. That is what we are called to do as Christians—be in relationship with “God” and respond to God working in our lives. 

It is my projection that Vosper may believe in a divine power that that may have some similarities to what I believe.  However, I also believe she has decided not to use “God” or the Bible and to call herself an atheist because this language has been so misused by people in unchristian ways.  However, that is truly throwing out the Divine baby with the religious bathwater.  We need to reclaim the language of God and scripture and determine God’s truth that is here for the world.    

I will end with words of wisdom by Simone Weil, quoted recently by Richard Rohr, “There is, as it were, an incarnation of God in the world and it is indicated by beauty. The beautiful is the experimental proof that the incarnation is possible. The beauty of the world is Christ's tender smile for us, coming through matter.”

Amen