Preparing for Advent

 We are about to begin the season of the church year which seems to be overwhelmed by secularism i.e. the Secular Christmas.  That would be the season of Advent which is a time to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child.  Christmas seems to be in full swing now with Christmas carols playing in the stores and Santa Claus parades in every corner of the land. 

I am proposing something which is probably way out in left field (to use a secular metaphor).  I am proposing that we spend a bit of time preparing for Advent.  In case you are wondering, Advent begins this coming Sunday.  We will be lighting the first candle in the Advent Wreath.  I also hope we will be singing some Advent carols – yes there are actually Advent carols such as O Come O Come Emanuel; or, Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming.   

So, what does it mean to prepare for the season of preparation?  The first thing is to understand, as best we can, what Christmas is actually about.   For me this is best summed up by the carol, Love Came Down at Christmas by Christina Rossetti.  Here are the lyrics:

1. Love came down at Christmas,
   Love all lovely, Love divine;
   Love was born at Christmas,
   Star and angels gave the sign.
2. Worship we the Godhead,
   Love incarnate, Love divine;
   Worship we our Jesus:
   But wherewith for sacred sign?
3. Love shall be our token,
   Love be yours and love be mine,
   Love to God and all men,
   Love for plea and gift and sign.

Here is the link for a beautiful reedition of the carol, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UodfFV3A3M

You may be protesting that I am doing just what I object to – jumping over Advent directly to Christmas with this carol.  However, what I am trying to show is that the essence of Christmas is love.  To get ready to prepare for Christmas we must prepare to welcome love within us.  We cannot be ready to receive the love that is born in a stable in Bethlehem unless we begin to truly love ourselves.  That is easier said than done. 

How do we, then, begin to do that?  I received a missive from Kathleen Wiley, a wise person who spoke about the qualities of love proposed by Erich Fromm in The Art of Loving. According to Wiley, Fromm states these are giving, care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge.  When I read this, I had not planned to connect this to Advent but that seems to be where the spirit has taken me this morning. 

What I would like to do is to explore each of these themes during Advent to see what they mean when applied to loving ourselves.  At this point, I am not sure what this idea will reveal as I have not tried to do this before.  So, I am very interested to see what this will reveal as I journey through Advent.  So, with this, I am preparing for the Advent season.  I hope you will join me.

Blessings  

 

 

 

The Peace of God That Passes All Understanding

Sunday, I preached on the bible passage, 2 Kings 6: 8-23.  In this passage, Israel is in one of the frequent battles with the soldiers of Aram.  The prophet Elisha, through the intervention of God, enables the army of the Arameans to be defeated.  He does this by means of sight being removed and restored.  First, he prays that God will send blindness upon the Aramean army.  Then he leads them astray into Samaria.  When their sight is restored, they find themselves in the midst of their enemies.  Rather than having the Arameans slaughtered – as would be the normal practice – Elisha tells the King of Israel:

‘No! Did you capture with your sword and your bow those whom you want to kill? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink; and let them go to their master.’ So, he prepared for them a great feast; after they ate and drank, he sent them on their way, and they went to their master. And the Arameans no longer came raiding into the land of Israel.

Here, Elisha shows that he is a prophet who is truly exceptional and one that has by some measures even surpassed his master, Elijah.  He does something that is probably unimaginable to the King of Israel and probably all the people of Israel, he shows mercy on the army of their enemies when the Arameans were completely within their power to utterly destroy them.  We have this account which illustrates the usual approach to conquered people:

When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. Then Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, ‘If you will indeed give this people into our hands, then we will utterly destroy their towns.’ The Lord listened to the voice of Israel, and handed over the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their towns; so, the place was called Hormah. (Numbers 21: 1-3)

Elisha’s action was toward the Arameans is radical and unexpected, showing them mercy and compassion.  We can only see this as a foreshadowing of what Jesus would be teaching the Jewish people so many years later.  Turning to the New Testament and Gospel theology, we have Jesus telling his disciples and telling us that we must follow the way of peace.  He does this both by his words and his actions.  In the beatitudes he tells us specifically that we must be peacemakers, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”  He tells us to turn the other cheek and not strike back when we are struck, “You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.”   

So, it is very clear that as Christians, we are commanded by our Lord and Saviour to be peacemakers.  Israel is once again in a state of war with one of its neighbours.  It is responding to the horrendous and vile attack by Hamas as they have throughout its history by stickling back to defend themselves in what seems to be absolute terms.  As Christians, we are called to do what we can to strive for peace in this terrible situation.  Almost fourteen hundred Israeli citizens have been slaughtered or taken as hostages.  Many thousands of citizens of Gaza have been killed or wounded and the infrastructure has been devastated.  The residents of Gaza have had little relief from the embargo of water, food, medicine and fuel by the Israel government.  We can support the call for a ceasefire or at least effective humanitarian pauses to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered to innocent residents of Gaza.  We can support the call for a true two state solution for the two nations, Israel and Palestine, where there is security and justice for all.  

Following the commandments of Jesus is not easy.  It is human nature to strike back and not turn the other cheek.  Indeed, the situation in the Middle East seems to be beyond the possibility of peace.  The peace of God is beyond our understanding at this moment.  But with God all things are possible.  We can and we must pray for the peace of God even if it is beyond our understanding.  A prayer from The Most Reverend Hosam Naoum, Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem.

O God of all justice and peace we cry out to you in the midst of the pain and trauma of violence and fear which prevails in the Holy Land. Be with those who need you in these days of suffering; we pray for people of all faiths -- Jews, Muslims, and Christians, and for all people of the land. While we pray to you, O Lord, for an end to violence and the establishment of peace, we also call for you to bring justice and equity to the peoples. Guide us into your kingdom where all people are treated with dignity and honour as your children for, to all of us, you are our Heavenly Father.  In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.

May we be peacemakers on our journey. 

 

 

"Growing” Old; Growing Aware

 I shall say no more except that I already told you many years ago of the alternative journey you are now called to take – a journey which does indeed lie on the slopes of that mountain but holds no fame or glory for you; only loneliness and sadness.  The choice is yours.  Will you deceive yourself as Dante’s Ulysses did in a sin far worse than the deceit of the Trojan horse? (Old Age 12)

 These words of the poet Teiresias, the blind poet, imagined by Helen Luke, addressed to Odysseus resting from his toils and trials of youth.  They sum up the choice which all of us must make when we face the journey into old age.  Are we truly to continue “grow old”—to continue to grow in psychic maturity or will we simply succumb to the aging process—sinking, perhaps not gently, into that perceived, not so sweet night, fighting that inevitable journey every step of the way.

As we baby boomers continue our journey into old age, the question of “growing old” or succumbing to the aging process becomes one which is looming larger in our lives.  I originally explored the questions raised by Helen Luke in her work, Old Age, about ten years ago when I was approaching the traditional retirement age of 65 (although I had retired for the first time quite a while before that).  Although, at the time, that age seemed to be appropriate for exploring the issue, I have realized that I was not truly able to appreciate the journey into old age that lies ahead of me.  I am beginning to appreciate the wisdom of Helen Lukes words to a much greater extent than when I began that exploration.  The question of whether I will “grow old” or succumb to the aging process is one that stares me in the face every morning when I regard the old man who stares back at me in the mirror.  It is one that I struggle with as I decide what I will do each day.  

Richard Rohr addressed this in one of his Daily Meditations this week:

It’s true that the second half of life is a certain kind of weight to carry, but no other way of being makes sense or gives us the deep satisfaction our soul now demands and even enjoys. This new and deeper passion is what people mean when they say, “I must do this particular thing or my life will not make sense” or “It is no longer a choice.” Our life and our delivery system are now one, whereas before, our life and our occupation seemed like two different things. Our concern is not so much to have what we love anymore, but to love what we have—right now. This is a monumental change from the first half of life, so much so that it is almost the litmus test of whether we are in the second half of life at all… Aging can be either a life of nostalgia or a wholehearted engagement with the future.  (Richard Rohr)

 I believe that what we face in our journey into old age is call to be aware, aware that we are created in the image of God for a purpose that can only be revealed throughout our lives.  The purpose is different at differ times in our life and can only be revealed if and when we are awake of the path that inner voice is calling us to follow.

May we be blessed to hear that voice on our journey.

 

 

AI and the Preacher

I am not what you would call an early adopter in terms of technology.  I do have a Facebook Page and a blog – neither of which could be called new technology any more – and I have never Tweeted (I do know Twitter it is not called that now), and I can send a text if I absolutely have to.  In effect, I can get by in the electronic age when push comes to shove, but that is about all.

All this said, I have recently become a stranger in the strange land of Artificial Intelligence (AI). With the encouragement of a friend, last summer, I signed up for ChatGPT.  In case you are not aware of this popular manifestation of AI, it is a system which can answer many complex and detailed questions and requests almost immediately.  Interestingly, I asked ChatGPT for the number of users and it wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me, “I don't have access to real-time data or specific user statistics, including the number of people who have signed up for the service.”  This is likely because I haven’t signed up for the paid service that is up to date.  The one, I signed up for, which is free, is limited to data from a few years ago.  I used the now old-fashioned way of finding out, and googled the question.  I was told that there are 180.5 million users of ChatGPT, “according to the latest available data.”  It is a real time example of why you shouldn’t blindly accept the information on social media.  It should be treated with care. 

However, with that caveat, my exploration of this strange new land has given me results which are quite impressive.  There has been much speculation about the future impact of AI will be.  It may bring about a new revolution as earth shattering as the invention of the printing press or the development of the assembly line.  The industrial revolution of the 20^th Century eliminated many manual labour jobs.  The impact of AI is going to be revolutionary according to most experts.  AI is predicted to eliminate many professional and white-collar jobs with mind numbing speed. 

What inspired me to write about this topic today specifically was the potential from ChatGPT to be used for composing sermons.   It is a temptation which I believe will be hard to resist by at least some many of my fellow clergy.  It likely has been used for this purpose already.  I tested out the potential for ChatGPT to produce a sermon – no, I didn’t use it. I asked my new friend Chat (for short) to give me a one-thousand-word sermon on John 11:32-44 – the account of the resurrection of Lazarus.  The results were what I would call competent but not inspired or inspiring.  I won’t reproduce it here given the limitations I have placed on the length of these missives.  I can supply the results to anyone that requests it. 

To give you a taste of what it can do, here is a short introduction to one of the readings from last Sunday, 1 John 3:1-3.  I asked Chat for 20-25 word summary of the passage.  In our parish there is an introduction to each of the readings. Here is what Chat gave me almost instantaneously:

In 1 John 3:1-3, the apostle emphasizes God's incredible love, portraying believers as His children. Despite worldly confusion, the promise of transformation into Christ's likeness offers hope and purifies hearts.

This use is just a small example of the ways AI can be used.   Perhaps if Jesus was to be tempted by Satan today, this would be one of the temptations.  There is no doubt what we are facing is a wilderness of potential uncertainly and possibly chaos, about a future which includes AI.  It is something we need to be concerned about and pray for guidance and wisdom on our journey into that strange land.

Blessings.

 

God’s Pronouns

There is a trend – perhaps it can be called a movement – for people to identify the pronouns that they prefer to be used for themselves.  If I was going to identify which pronouns I prefer, I would out (he/him) after my name.  To be clear I am using this to illustrate the issue and not to indicate that I will start  doing this.  This probably means I am not ready to begin doing so at this time.  I may start doing this at some time in the future but I am not at that place yet. 

That raises for me, the issue of what pronoun we should use when referring to God?  It has been the practice throughout the history of Christianity to refer to God as him (sometimes capitalized Him).  This use is, of course, supported by Jesus Christ himself (note the pronoun), when he referred to God as Father (at least in translation), or his heavenly Father, especially in the prayer that he taught us – the Lord’s prayer. 

I raised this issue in a sermon I preached this past Sunday when I raised the issue of our tendency to put restrictions on our idea and understanding of who and what God is.  To think of God as Father, and use the pronoun He for God, is to put God in a box and to restrict our understanding of God.  As I noted in my sermon, God is beyond anything that we can do to describe or identify God.  We are limited by our humanness so; however we think of God, God is beyond our definitions or descriptions.  Theologians have been exploring this for millennia in more ways than most of us can imagine.  Indeed, if we look to the Bible, we will find innumerable ways in which the people of God have described God.  Here are only a few examples: Abba, Adonai, El Shaddai, Elohim, El, Yahweh.  Of course, we can describe God as The Force a la Star Wars to move beyond the bible.

Beyond names, God is also given characteristics that can be seen as feminine (I found these on the internet):

• God comforts his people like a mother comforts her child (Isaiah 66:13)
• Like a woman would never forget her nursing child, God will not forget his children (Isaiah 49:15)
• God is like a mother eagle hovering over her young (Deuteronomy 32:11)
• God seeks the lost like a housekeeper, trying to find her lost coin (Luke 15:8-10)
• God cares for his people like a midwife that cares for the child she just delivered (Ps 22:9-10, Ps 71:6, Isa 66:9)
• God experiences the fury of a mother bear robbed of her cubs (Hosea 13:8)

It is not wrong to describe God as masculine and use the pronoun Him and all its derivations.  God can be described as masculine.  However, in doing that we need to remember that we are limiting God just as we do if we describe God as feminine (Her) or in any other way.  God is beyond any description we can use for God.  He/She/It…and so on, is perhaps necessary for us limited people to try and understand God.  However, let’s try not to put God in a box and limit God for convenience or any other reason.  It’s not fair to God or yourself or others.

Blessings 

 

 

I am one of the performers at this event - local talent as we are dubbed - please join us if you are able to and support the PArkhill Carnegie Gallery.

Humility

I have been thinking about the state of relationships in our community both our local communities and our larger communities.  This has been in response especially to what is happening in politics in Canada as it seems to be importing many of the divisions and antagonism which is permeating politics in our neighbours to the south.  This can be extended to the devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas.

I believe that what is desperately needed in all these relationships is humility.  I recall once reading a definition of humility as being a state in which one sees clearly.  This surprized me when I first read it but on reflection, I came to understand what was being said is that if you see yourself clearly you will understand where you belong in relation to other people and the world that God has created.  If you see yourself and others clearly, you will realize that the proper response is humility.  This is regardless of what God-given gifts you possess or what you have accomplished in life.

In reflecting on humility, I checked into what has been said about it in one of my go-to sources, the daily reflection by the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) which is entitled, Brother, Give Me a Word.  I found that there were a number of daily offerings about humility.  I want to share a few of them with you to give you a flavour of the brothers’ thoughts on this subject.  The first is in line with that quote that I referred to:

Humility

Humility is not about self-abasement. Rather, it is about living into the truth of who we are, recognizing both our gifts and our shortcomings, our abilities and our limitations, our righteousness and our sinfulness. Br. David Vryhof, SSJE

 

Here are a couple of other of the brothers’ thoughts on the subject:

Humility

Making a right estimate of ourselves involves appreciating the natural gifts that have been given to us by God, but also realizing that we are beneficiaries of God’s undeserved, redeeming love. The humble person knows he cannot exalt himself, because all that he has and all that he is proceeds solely from God’s generous love. Br. David Vryhof, SSJE

 

Humility

One of the easiest things in the world is to be clearsighted when it comes to others, and to know exactly what another needs to do to address their shortcomings. It is not so easy to address, or even admit, our own shortcomings. Real humility is about knowing ourselves as God knows us: imperfect creatures, whom God loves. Knowing ourselves loved by God means first recognizing that we are loveable. To do that, we need to be clear sighted, not about the other person, but about ourselves. -Br. James Koester SSJE

 To be humble is a challenge for different reasons especially because of our egos.  The ego demands that we are in charge of all that we do and all that we are in relation to others.  The ego compares itself to others and judges our worth on that basis.  This means that we are put in situations where we judge the outcome on the basis of whether we believe we have won or lost and consequently whether we are better or worse than the other and whether we are worthy of being loved.  There are, of course, other factors such as anger and hate which will drive our response to situations and events.  In the worst situation we will want to humiliate the one we see as our foe.

I will close with one more quote form my friends at SSJE on what is required to be in community with others.  It does not refer to humility but if we are humble we will be thankful for what we have been given in life by others and especially by God:  

Community

We depend on one another for support. As we Brothers know well, community is a fragile organism that can only survive where thankfulness and reconciliation are allowed to thrive. Br. James Koester, SSJE

May we be blessed with the gift of humility on our journey.