Talk of Love and Hate

A couple of weeks ago I quoted from one of my favourite Leonard Cohen songs, Passing Through.  I want to start by doing that again:

Let's talk of love not hate, things to do: it’s getting late, there’s so little time and we’re only passing through.  

That line, “talk of love not hate,” has been on my mind a lot in the last two weeks.   I have struggled with my response to the Trucker Convoys that have taken over our national capital and other significant places in Canada.  I have found myself responding in an unusually strong reaction to the events that are taking place.  These thoughts and feelings are not how I am called to as a Christian; they are ones of hate.  I am called to love my neighbours and even my enemies and the people involved – at least some of them - are feeling more and more like my enemies and the enemies of this land which has always striven (though sometimes not succeeded) for peace, order and good government. 

As a Christian, I know I am called to strive to love and not hate as Leonard Cohen says so beautifully in that poignant song.  However, at times I find that hate is winning – and I do not like that or myself when that happens.  I am coming to the conclusion that I cannot love if I do not acknowledge the hate within myself.  Carl Jung identified the aspect in ourselves that is the unacknowledged or undiscovered part of our self which he called the shadow.  I know from sad experience that when I do not acknowledge the shadow and its content it comes up and bits me on the backside when I can’t see it coming.  Therefore, what I need to acknowledge today is to talk of love and hate. 

To hate is an aspect of human nature and is something which the world has had too much of, and is having too much of right now, not just in Canada but in the world in so many different places.  I am reminded that the opposite of love is not hate but is indifference.  When we hate we are in relationship with the person or thing that we hate.  It is not a good or healthy relationship but it is a relationship and one which can easily take control of us just as love can when we are in its thrall.  If we are to move beyond hate to love we must first acknowledge it and accept that it is a part of us and recognize that it is not what Jesus Christ lived and promises us.  We need to know in our hearts and minds and souls that Jesus did talk of love and not hate.  Coincidentally (if you believe in coincidences), the word today from SSJE is love:

Love is of God’s very essence. And love does not exist unless it is given away. God needs you, because God is love, and love can only be realized and expressed in relationship: the give and take of love.  -Br. Curtis Almquist, Society of Saint John the Evangelist

I will close with a prayer that I wrote a few weeks ago for our parish sessions on prayer.

Collect for Coming together, for healing, and for leaving in love.

Heavenly source of all healing, we have gathered as your faithful people who are in great need of healing.  The challenges that we face form the COVID pandemic have left us ill, in body, mind and spirit.

We ask that you open our hearts to those who approach the pandemic with differ attitudes from ours.  We know that many are fearful of the restrictions imposed by governments and institutions.  We are also fearful of those dangers which loom over us.  We ask that you calm our fears and let us know that you are always with us and you are our support and defend us.

We ask that you bind the wounds that have been inflicted on all during these dark days.  Let your light shine forth in the dark places of our souls.  Help us to see you in everyone that we encounter as we go forth from this gathering.  May the glory of your holy name ring forth in the world to bring love, peace, hope, and joy to all who hear it.  All this we ask in the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Blessings on your journey this week.  

 

Love God or Else

 I want to open with a quote from Lorna Harris – someone with whom I share my life every day:

I completely sympathize with those who are done with Covid. I am done with winter. It’s been miserably cold here for days. And it is freezing cold like this every single year. I ‘m not able to go out. Well, I can go out, but I have to put on my winter coat, a scarf and hat, my winter boots, maybe long johns and/or snow pants and of course mittens. This is just too much. I have a right to my freedom from winter. I am going out today and wear just a T-shirt and shorts. It's my personal choice. Winter doesn’t exist for me. And no one gets to order me around on this issue, but if I get frost-bite or pneumonia, I do expect, as my right, the best in medical care.

This was a comment that Lorna made on a Globe and Mail on-line article which talked about people who had, “had enough of COVID.”  Lorna was worried that people would take what she said literally and not as a satirical comment on this laissez faire attitude to COVID restrictions.   These people just want to get back to a life without restrictions such as wearing masks, or showing proof of vaccination status or whatever.  Lorna skewered that reasoning – if you can call it that – beautifully by showing how illogical that way of thinking is.  Just because we are tired of all the restrictions and constraints on our day to day lives, it doesn’t change the situation we are in.  To put it another way, “COVID doesn’t care.”

I must admit that I find that I have very little patience for people who take that attitude.  On the one hand, I can understand that people want to get their lives back and to be able to live without these constraints and restrictions.  Many people have been affected by the COVID pandemic rules to a much greater extent than I have been.  Indeed, as a strong introvert there are aspects of staying in my small corner that I enjoy.  I do not have young children that are being home-schooled at times.  I don’t know how I would cope with that.  I am retired so I haven’t had to deal with COVID restrictions at work.  So, on reflection I can sympathize with people who are completely fed up with the restrictions.

However, this desire to escape regardless of the impact on others and society in general are what I see as dangerous indications of what is becoming a much more prevalent attitude in our culture today – me first and foremost and to hell with others.     It is one that goes completely against the great commandment of Jesus Christ, to love your neighbour – or to give it in full:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.

The challenge for this commandment – and it is definitely a challenge – is that it seems easier to hate than to love.  It seems natural for us to hate the Other – whoever is different from us and whom we see as a threat to our way of living.  I can only say that as a Christian, I am called to follow that Great Commandment and love not hate. 

In closing, I will turn to my go-to guy in song, the saint of song, Leonard Cohen:

Let's talk of love not hate,  things to do: it’s getting late, there’s so little time and  we’re only passing through.  

Let us be blessed to talk of love on our journey.  

Talk of Love Not Hate

 

I saw Jesus on the cross on a hill called Calvary
"Do you hate mankind for what they done to you?"
He said, "Talk of love not hate, things to do - it's getting late.
I've so little time and I'm only passing through."
Passing through, passing through.
Sometimes happy, sometimes blue,
glad that I ran into you.
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.

These lyrics by Leonard Cohen came to mind as I was reading an article in our Diocesan newspaper, The Huron Church News.  The article, A brighter Spiritual awareness, by Rev. Jim Innis, noted a signboard he had seen in London which read, “May Love Always Be Stronger Than Hate.”   This is a value and understanding that is deeply needed in these times, and possibly every time since people began to walk on this earth.

However, as St, Leonard (the saint of song as I fondly think of him) states in his song Passing Through, it seems to be getting late and the need to speak of love seems all the more urgent that we not only speak of love but live out love as we pass though this time we have on earth. 

When I think about loving versus hating it can seem that hating seems to be easier to do than loving.  Can it be that it is more natural to hate others than to love them?  It is natural to find scapegoats for the things that are wrong in this world.  Rene Girard developed a scapegoat theory of how this mechanism has been at work in the world for time immemorial.  We unconsciously can collectively find an innocent victim or victims to carry the guilt for the sins of the world.  Individually, we can find ourselves consumer with hatred for someone who’s only crime is to be different than us – different in behaviour or appearance or even their attitudes and beliefs.  We can think of the strong negative emotions - okay let’s just call it hate – for people who may refuse to be vaccinated against COVID or against officials who are setting rules that appear to force people to be vaccinated against their will. 

 

It seems much easier to hate these people than love them, but is that actually the case?  Theologians and philosophers have proclaimed that love is the foundation on which the universe rests and is bound together.  Jesus Christ based his understanding of the Kingdom of God on love being the ruling principle.  He proclaimed that the commandment could be summed up in love, “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.”

You might suppose that this was a commandment because it was not something which came naturally to people.  Therefore, we had to be commanded to do and be loving despite ourselves.  However, that is not the case.  When we consider all that love has inspired in the world – great art and poetry, love sonnets and romantic novels, and the accounts of the love between people, we know that love is a great force in this world.  IS love stronger than hate as the hope expressed in the billboard?  I have to believe it is despite some of the signs to the contrary.  Love can choose us and we can be swept off our feet and lose ourselves in the depths of love but we can also choose love.  This choice was addressed by -Br. David Vryhof of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, “Why would we choose to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us? Because that is the way of God. God never stops loving, never stops blessing. Only God’s love abiding in us can love in this way, only God’s strength at work in our weakness can make us God-like in our words and actions.”

So, let’s talk of love not hate as the song proposes and let us all choose love and not hate.  After all there are things to do and it is getting late on our journey. 

Blessings. 

Be Careful For Nothing

Last weekend – actually Friday and Saturday, Lorna and I adventured into the urban wilderness of Toronto.  We traveled by VIA rail going business class which, I discovered, is well worth the extra cost.  You and pampered and plied with drinks and good food and all in all was a very pleasant experience.

We were in Toronto primarily to see ‘Come From Away’ which is the dramatization of true events when planes were diverted to the small community of Gander Newfoundland on 9-11.  Gander is a small community with, ironically and opportunistically, a large now much unused airport.  We also had a visit with family which made the experience extra pleasant.  I found Come From Away to be a wonderfully moving experience.  It made the story of those unintended refugees in commercial airlines, which most of the world heard about at the time, come alive and gave, what was to me a true experience of the challenges and triumphs of the people involved in dealing with a completely unexpected experience.  There were, unbelievably, about nine thousand passengers and crews for planes from many different countries which were diverted to the airport in Gander NFLD which had a population of a similar number.  The magnitude of the challenge was very dramatically represented in the play. 

The drama and anxiety and boredom of those passengers who had no idea what was happening as they landed in an unknown land and sat on the tarmac for up to twenty-eight hours without being told what was happening was made crystal clear to the audience.  The challenge of a relatively small community to meet the demands of the situation and response by the Newfoundlanders who are legendary for their hospitality made it also crystal clear that those planes were in the best place in the world.  A larger centre such as Toronto might have had more resources to respond to the emergency but the warmth and welcome and ingenuity of the Newfoundlanders could not have been duplicated elsewhere. 

One scene which stood out for me was the response to the challenge of the many different languages spoken by the refugees.  It could have been a scene out of the Tower of Babel.  However, those people had something the people of Babel didn’t.   The initial response was a true epiphany as one of the residents realized that many of the people had bibles in their languages and was inspired to find a verse which would help in availing their fears.  It was Philippians 4:6-8.  In the play it was translated “Be anxious for nothing.”  I prefer the translation from the King James version, “Be careful for nothing”.  The whole verse sums up the beauty of the response:

⁶ Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

⁷ And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

In this case I must concede that “anxious” was more appropriate in the circumstances. 

There was much for those refugees to be anxious and afraid about.  Some of these things were lived out as revealed in the play but in the end the care and hospitality and, yes, love shown by the Newfoundlanders and the response by the refugees gave the truth to the wisdom of Julian of Norwich, “all shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

I cannot help be compare the welcome received by those refugees on 9-11 to the fear that is being Trumped up (pun intended) in response to the ‘caravan’ of refugees currently making its way o the southern border of the United States.  I will close with a quoted from a source that I often turn to, the lyrics for Leonard Cohen which seem to be an appropriate response:

I saw Jesus on the cross on a hill called Calvary
"do you hate mankind for what they done to you? "
He said, "talk of love not hate, things to do - it's getting late.
I've so little time and I'm only passing through."

Passing through, passing through.
Sometimes happy, sometimes blue,
Glad that I ran into you.
Tell the people that we all are passing through.

Let our response to the refugees in our lives be one of love and not hate.  Time does seem to be short and it seems to be getting late these days. 

Blessings on your journey.