Job’s Wonderful life

 At the recent bible study in our parish, I made a reference to an angel getting its wings when someone’s phone rang.  I noted that the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, never fails to bring a tear to my eye.  This did not add to the discussion of Ephesians in which we were engaged, but later my wife, Lorna, mentioned that the plot of the movie resonated with the story of Job in the bible.  I realized that she definitely had a good point (which is not unusual) and decided to explore this idea in this week’s missive. 

It is fairly easy to see the similarities – at least those on the surface – between the two stories.  The two protagonists, Job and George Bailey, both, in effect, suffer the trials of Job, as the saying goes, and lose everything that they possess.  They lose all their ‘property’ i.e., that which is proper to them.  Job is described at the beginning of the Book of Job in glowing terms:

That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 

George was not as prosperous in material terms or property as Job, but he was prosperous in terms of what was ‘proper’ to a person.  He had established himself in the community and had made a difference to the people of the community in more ways than he was aware of.  He had enabled people, who would not otherwise be able to live the American dream of home ownership, to become men and women of property.  He was president of the Savings and Loan, stepping up to succeed his father and save the S&L by selflessly putting aside his ambitions.  He had married the woman of his dreams and had ‘lassoed the moon’ for her reclaiming their dream house.  He built what could be considered a classic American family.  As one review noted, “George Bailey's life, full of love and friendship, is as grand as one could ever wish for.” 

These grand lives are taken away from both Job and George.  In both cases this happens through no fault of their own.  Job is the subject of a bet between God and Satan.  In George’s case, “his selfless nature, by this point of the film, has landed him in a pretty terrible financial situation.”  All seem lost for both and, as noted by Lorna, both wish that they had never been born.  This is a critical similar circumstance for the characters.  In Job’s case, “Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. ‘Let the day perish on which I was born,’”. For George, his wish is granted by his guardian angel, Clarence, who notes, “You’ve been given a great gift George, a chance to see what the world would be like without you.”  Job does not receive this gift but George and Job each have received the gift of being made aware of what is to be true to whom he is in his essence beyond the trappings of his possession and persona.  Neither Job nor George stated he wanted to die – rather he wished he had never been born which is a critical distinction.

I should note that Clarence, who is an angel, second class, but definitely not a second-class angel, does earn his wings.  As a result, a bell rings at the George’s family Christmas signifying that Clarence has received his wings – a truly happy ending, if one with a tinge of Hollywood. 

Finally, both George and Job had their lives restored, or perhaps I should say, redeemed.  They were given back all that had been taken from them and more.  The conflict between who the world saw them to be and how they saw themselves to be, and who they were in essence, was resolved.  This was the gift given to each of them. 

As I noted two weeks ago in my first exploration of Job, I hope that you are blessed on your journey to find the essence of who you are.  

Grace for All

The bible study in our parish is currently delving into the book of Ephesians.  Being one of the epistles (letters) of Paul, it begins with a salutation, “To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

At our last meeting we decided to explore the idea of grace.  It is a term and a theological idea which we use regularly as part of the Anglican liturgy but we are perhaps not all that clear about what grace is.  As we were given homework to investigate the concept of grace, I thought I would share some of what I have found this morning.

First, as I noted, grace is used in our liturgy – indeed, in the opening of the service of Holy Eucharist, the presider greets the worshippers with these words:

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with you all.

You might conclude from this that grace comes from Jesus Christ and not from God the Father.  Let me explore this further to see if this is a correct assumption.  However, as the salutation from Ephesians notes, grace is from God the Father and Jesus Christ.  I checked a good resource I have on my bookshelf, Dictionary of Christian Theology, ed. Alan Richardson.  This was a gift from my father which I find to be very helpful in such investigations.  The entry for grace begins;

In general, grace (Latin: gratia: Greek: charis: Hebrew: chen) means favour freely shown, especially by a superior to an inferior.  In the NT, it denotes primarily the favour and kindness of God, freely shown to men (sic) in the incarnation and life and atoning death of his Son (II Cor. 8,9: Phil 2.6 ff). 

So, we are beginning to get a handle on what grace is.  It is freely given by someone – in theological understanding from God through Jesus Christ to all of God’s people or perhaps even all of God’s creation.  Being freely given by the kindness of God as an act of love, we do not need to earn it through our acts or deeds.  However, that raises the question, what does it mean to receive God’s grace.  Also, the definition indicates that grace can be given from anyone to anyone else – traditionally a superior to and inferior which fits well in the case of God's grace.  However, in these times of democratic ideals, surely it can be given from anyone to anyone else.

It might be helpful to consider how we think of grace in respect to ourselves and others.  A gracious person is one who treats others with respect and kindness.  A person may also be graceful (full of grace).  A graceful person moves and acts in ways that seem to fit the circumstances i.e., their way of being in the world is in sync with what they are doing.  As an online definition puts it, “If a person's behaviour is graceful, it is polite, kind, and pleasant, especially in a difficult situation. 

How then do we live out our lives in a way that is graceful?  Perhaps the key to being graceful is to know that we are the recipients of grace and in turn can share that grace with others.  I happen to have been sent recently a podcast which discusses how we can have grace to others.  It is part of a series entitled, The Bible for Ordinary People.  The episode is, How Grace Saves Us which can be found on-line at https://overcast.fm/+cZ2vFThW4.  I found this to be a good exploration of the challenges of grace in the world today and how it is a challenge to show grace to others who do not always seem to be worthy of grace.  These days there seems to be no shortage of people in that category.  But that is the principle of grace: the person does not have to earn it.  In this way it is perhaps simply following Jesus’ commandment to love one another. 

As it happens, Richard Rohr happened to touch on this recently in one of the Daily Meditations and I will close with what he says, in effect, we can be gracious even though we don’t necessarily feel that: 

I must be honest with you here about my own life. For the last ten years I have had little spiritual “feeling,” neither consolation nor desolation. Most days, I’ve had to simply choose to believe, to love, and to trust. In this, I know I stand in good company with Teilhard, John of the Cross, Mother Teresa, and countless other mystics and saints, and maybe some of you.

But God rewards me from letting God reward me:
This is the divine two-step that we call grace:
I am doing it, and yet I am not doing it;
It is being done unto me, and yet by me too.
Yet God always takes the lead in the dance, which we only recognize over time.

May you be blessed to be graceful and gracious on your journey 

The Trials of Job

I have recently been attending a Zoom discussion group at St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in London, Ontario which is using lectures by Northrop Frye on the Bible as Literature.  The lectures can be found here https://heritage.utoronto.ca/content/video/bible-and-english-literature-northrop-frye-full-lecture-1, and I highly recommend them.  Northrop Frye was a great literary critic who explored the impact of the Christian bible on Western Art and literature in his works, The Great Code and Words of Power.  The group is using video of his lectures at the University of Toronto in the early 1980’s in the discussion.

The current lectures are on the Book of Job in the Christian Old Testament.  The Book of Job describes the account of a man, Job, who is the subject of a bet between God and Satan to see if Job, a man who, “was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil,” can be turned from loving God.   Satan bets that if everything that Job possesses is taken away from him, he will curse God.  Satan is, in effect, betting that Job is just a fair-weather friend to God.  With the agreement of God, Satan is allowed to take everything away from Job, his vast possession and his children.  The only caveat is that Satan must not harm Job physically, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!”  Even this condition is renegotiated and God gives Satan permission to attack Job’s health and he is, “inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.”

After a debate with friends who seem to embody the expression, ‘with friends like these, who needs enemies’, Job demands and receives an opportunity to appear before God and demand the justification for what has happened to him.  God does not answer Job directly but justifies himself by declaring that Job, in effect, has no right to question him as Job was not present when God created the world:

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
   Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

God seems to come off looking like a bully and a tyrant – at least at first glance – and this has been the debate among theologians and biblical scholars probably since it became part of the canon of scripture. However, engaging with the scripture as part of the study group I have seen another possibility.  Frye gave me an appreciation of the meaning of property.  He noted that it means what is proper to a person.  Drawing on this, I believe that the Book of Job can be understood as an exploration of what it means to be a human being in its essence.  What is being demonstrated by the author of the Book, is what it means to be a human being.  Is the essence of a person the things which the world identifies with that person – his or her job, his or her possessions, his or her achievements?  Or does the fact that humans are created in the image of God the essence of how the person is?  Humans will identify with the image they present to the world.  Carl Jung calls this their persona.  If that is taken away, they are in danger of losing the identity, their self-image.  Job had all that made him valued to his world.  Even his wife told him to “curse God, an die.”  However, he showed himself to be true to whom he was in his essence.  This was the trial of Job in which he was found to be not guilty.

I do not know if I would pass the trials of Job but I might just take the advice of Job’s wife.  I hope that I will never have to face trials anything like Job’s.  I know that my journey has been an attempt to find out who I am in my essence. 

I hope that you are blessed on your journey to find the essence of who you are.  

Sacred Reading

Sunday, I presided at St. James, Parkhill and St. John’s Strathroy. The subject of my homily was, The Road to Belief.  In my homily I led the congregations in the practice of Lectio Divina as a way of engaging scripture which can help people to experience how it speaks to them as a living word.  Here are the steps in the Lectio Divina method.  As I noted in my homily, don’t be put off by the official name of the practice, Lectio Divina.  It simply means sacred or holy reading.

There are four steps in Holy Reading.  The first is to read the passage – the Lectio.  During the reading the intention is to be non-judgemental – just be open to what the passage is speaking to you.  Is there something especially in the passage that catches you attention – a phrase or a word?  Make a mental note of this.  You can use any passage from scripture or an inspirational work that is meaningful for you. 

The second step is meditation – meditatio.  Here we reflect and ponder on what we have read or heard.  Remember that Mary pondered these things in her heart.  Ponder and see how Jesus is speaking to you in the passage of phrase or word that resonates with you.  Ask yourself what does this mean for my life today?  Direct it to God at work in your life. 

The third step is Responding – Oratatio.  This is a prayer – a prayer which is unique and personal to you and comes from the heart.  This may lead to response in your outer life but it is an inner response initially.  It may be surrendering your will to God – not something we do easily but something which is important if we are to follow where Jesus leads us. 

Finally there is Rest – Contemplatio.  This is resting in the presence of God.  It is a knowing that God is with you and that you are in God’s hand.  As it says in the Isaiah passage:

For I, the Lord your God,
   hold your right hand;

it is I who say to you, ‘Do not fear,
   I will help you.’

Dreams, God’s Forgotten Language

 

Today, after Easter Sunday, we are in a time when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.   One may ask, how are Christians to know what God is calling us to do and be in the world today?  One way is to listen to what God is telling us in our dreams.  

 

Dreamwork Canada is offering three opportunities via Zoom to explore our dreams as one of the ways God speaks to us. Each session will enable participants to explore dreams from different approaches within a Christian context using the concepts of Carl Jung. We will be offering an opportunity in learning how indigenous communities relate to their dreams. Our first workshop will feature an opportunity to explore an indigenous approach to reconciliation through dreams.

 

Workshop Opportunities

 

Tuesday, May 10, 2022, 6:30 PM—8:30 PM  ET

Dreams and Reconciliation-Hope for the Future of us All.

Led by Dr. Wendy Whitecloud

 

Tuesday, October 25, 2022  6:30PM—8:30 PM  ET

Movement, Body and Faith in Dreams

Led by Alexandra Caverly-Lowery, MDiv, ThM.

 

Tuesday, February 21, 2023  6:30 PM—8:30 PM  EST, ,

Six Magic Questions, led by Rev. Greg Little

 

For more about the workshops and the leaders please visit our website: www.dreamworkcanada.squarespace.com

 

To register, follow this link: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/bloor-street-united-church/events/dreamworks-exploring-gods-forgotten-language-2/

 

Far From the Madding Crowd

Sunday marked the Sunday of the Passion with the Liturgy of the Palms.  This was what used to be Palm Sunday when I was growing up.  Certainly, the entry in Jerusalem to the adulation of the crowd and the shouts of Hosanna in the Highest was important enough to have its own day in the church year.  The Passion was marked on Good Friday as it also is with our present liturgy and we will share in that story this coming Friday.  I have had difficulty with the combination of these two significant parts of the story of Jesus Christ.  I believe that each should be marked on their own as significant times in the Church year.   

However, there is value to marking both events.  An important part of both events in the life of Jesus, is the reaction of the crowd.  On Palm Sunday, the crowd is upholding and celebrating Jesus as the Messiah, the new king who was going to re-establish the glory of King David’s Kingdom of earth.  Good Friday shows the dark side of the crowd when they call for his execution.

Both of these events illustrate the danger of the crowd or the masses.  This was addressed in an interview with Eugene Peterson, the author/translator of the popular Message Bible.  The interview was an rebroadcast of an episode of On Being on NPR with Krista Tippett https://onbeing.org/programs/eugene-peterson-answering-god/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=6470d2a3-3ab7-498a-b281-88aaee187cde:

You wrote in The Pastor, your new memoir, I think you spoke to the phenomenon I’m talking about, which — we’re talking about how the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible bring every human aspect into the light, even the worst. And so that is a way of — you talk about crowds. And you said, “Classically, there are three ways in which humans try to find transcendence … through the ecstasy of alcohol and drugs” — chemically induced transcendence — and “recreational sex, and through the ecstasy of crowds.” And you said, “Church leaders frequently warn against the drugs and the sex, but, at least in America, almost never against the crowds.” And there’s something about the moment we inhabit, I think even globally, that that feels very resonant and psychologically astute.

This raises the issue of the danger of crowds.  When someone is part of a crowd, they are not themselves.  They are taken over by the identity of the crowd.  There is little of no consciousness by people who are part of a crowd.  I recall reading somewhere year ago that the average IQ of people who are part of a crowd decreases significantly.  Crowd psychology has been studied by many with the conclusion as noted in Wikipedia, “Crowd behavior is heavily influenced by the loss of responsibility of the individual and the impression of universality of behavior, both of which increase with crowd size.” 

This behaviour is very clearly evident in the violent storming of the United States Capital in January 6, 2021 because of an unfounded belief that the Presidential election was stolen, as well as the occupation of Ottawa in Canada by the so-called Freedom Convoy by individuals who believed that freedom not to be vaccinated or wear a mask trumped all other freedoms of the people in Ottawa if not Canada. 

So, in the Christian year we have crowds in both these significant events demonstrating the sin of crowd psychology where we are no longer the individuals that God created us to be.  The irony is that Jesus Christ was demonstrating that his relationship with his heavenly Father was a unique one which so frequently went against the popular way of acting and being.  He was often followed by crowds such as at the sermon on the mount or when he pissed off the crowd at the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth.  Jesus frequently angered the Pharisees by doing things such as healing people on the Sabbath.  He finally pissed off the authorities - both sacred and secular, which resulted in his execution.  Jesus called his followers to pick up their crosses can follow him.  This cannot be done as part of a crowd.  We each have our unique crosses to bear as Christians and we must find what it means to follow Jesus Christ.  We can only do that if we follow him consciously being aware of what we are called to do.

As Christians begin their journey with Jesus to the agony of the cross and the glory of the Resurrection, may each of you be blessed to know the path you are called to follow.

There’s No Fool Like and Old Fool

 Sunday, I preached at the Nairn Mennonite Church on the subject, From Scarcity to Abundance.  Here is an excerpt of that sermon which deals with being an old fool as I now qualify in both my age and my status as an April Fool. 

Let’s take a trip – let’s get into the way back machine to channel an old cartoon -- and go back – not far - just a few days.  Friday was April 1^st – April Fools’ Day.  I will tell you something about myself.  I am an April Fool.  I was born on April 1^st, 1949.  I have secretly – or not so secretly - enjoyed being an April Fool.  The day of my birth is significant in Canadian history – or almost was.  It is a little-known fact that NFLD was going to join Confederation on my birthday – April 1, 1949. 

But then Joey Smallwood – who led the country of NFLD into Confederation and became its first premier, realized that NFLD would become a perpetual April Fool’s joke and moved the day back to March 31^st. 

Now you might be asking what this has to do with today’s subject of scarcity and abundance.  Well, don’t worry I will get to that.  Because of my birthright of being and April Fool, I have always been fascinated with the concept of the fool.  Being a fool or foolish has generally had a bad reputation.  There is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.  The foolish ones did not have oil in their lamps when the bridegroom arrived and missed out while they were away buying oil.  However, there is another way of looking at a fool.  One of my favourite bible passages is 1 Corinthians 4:10, “We are fools for the sake of Christ.”  I actually have a blog with the title, Another Fool for Christ.  The full passage gives a more complete picture of what Paul is saying:

We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

To be followers of Jesus we are going to do things that are foolish in the sight of the world.  We are going to live in ways that are counter intuitive – we are going to bless those that revile us, we are going to speak kindly to those who slander us.  We are in effect going to love our neighbours and even our enemies.

Richard Rohr wrote about this way of being recently:

For Paul, the code words for nondual thinking, or true wisdom, are “foolishness” and “folly.” He says, in effect, “My thinking is foolishness to you, isn’t it?” Admittedly, it does not make sense unless we have confronted the mystery of the cross. Suffering, the “folly of the cross,” breaks down the dualistic mind. Why? Because on the cross, God took the worst thing, the killing of the God-human, and made it into the best thing, the very redemption of the world. The compassionate holding of essential meaninglessness or tragedy, as Jesus does on the cross, is the final and triumphant resolution of all the dualisms and dichotomies that we face in our own lives. We are thus “saved by the cross”! Does that now make ultimate sense?

The fool is someone who can give us a different perspective on the world. The fool is the one who is going to show us the world as the way it should be.  The fool is the one who will tell us the truth.  In ancient times the king’s court had a fool who would tell the king the truth.  He would whisper in the king’s ear – figuratively - that he was mortal and would one day meet his maker. 

He has a secular version of Ash Wednesday – remember you are dust and dust you shall return.  In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the fool was the only wise man left with King Lear on the heath.  Carl Jung identified the archetype of the Fool who Jung describes as being a “potential future,” meaning that, through various attempts and failures, the Fool gains experience. As the Fool gains experience, he builds his character and eventually develops into the archetype of the Sage or Savior.

So, what can the fool or the Fool bring to our understanding of scarcity and abundance?   The fool is the one who speaks the truth.  So. What is the truth about abundance and scarcity.  Let me explore another part of psychology to see the truth of this.  The ego is that part of us that enables us to get on in the world.  It is the I that is who we are in the world for better or worse.  I consider the ego to be the greatest gift of God but it is also the greatest curse or perhaps challenge would be a better way of putting it.  The ego wants to be in charge, to be in control – the great danger to the ego is change.  It believes that if it has possession, material things that make it feel in control, then more possession are even better.  One of the symbols of the ego is the dragon who sits at the mouth of its cave and hoards its wealth – the precious jewels it has acquired by hook or by crook throughout its life.  It will breathe fire and burn up anything that threatens to take any of its wealth.  The ego is the basis for the prosperity Gospel which believes if you are successful in terms of money and material goods and power it is a sign God is on your side or God is pleased with you.  The Fool on the other hand can show us a different truth – the truth of being a Fool for Christ.

May you have the blessing of the Fool on your journey.