Saturday, March 21, 2015

Experiencing God 207 Advent, A Time of Rebirth

"Come to me all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest."
Gospel of Matthew

In 1994, when I first came to my new church in Dartmouth, the pastor asked several parishioners to give a short three minute presentation on our most memorial Advent and Christmas. The purpose was to make everyone aware, as far as possible, as to what this season was all about.  He asked me to speak on Sunday evening.  After some thought, I decided to speak on the Advent of 1988.  Why then?  In the advent of 1988, my mother was admitted to the Amherst hospital for a minor operation on her gull bladder.  During the operation, it was discovered that she had advanced cancer, not only in her gall bladder, but also in her liver. She was give a maximum of six months to live.  

I recall how much of a shock this was for the whole family. The rest of Advent with Christmas coming in a few weeks took on a much different flavor for all of us.  All of the normal, and perhaps "busy" type of activities that would normally consume our time suddenly lost their significance.  We all began to focus our attention on the care and concern for our mother, and how to celebrate this last Christmas with her. 

For myself, this was an Advent and Christmas that I looked at more closely through a lense of faith.  As a result, it became for me a most memorial Advents and Christmas. I never before felt as close to my family as we shared deeply our common concern.

The Gospel quote above from Matthew is very appropriate for Advent.  "At that time, Jesus exclaimed: Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.  Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Advent, if it is experienced in the manner intended, must always be seen as an invitation to draw closer to Christ.  So often, it reflects only the illusions of busyness as we attempt to make it fit in with our sometimes unreasonable expectations.  Sometimes it takes a shock to bring us into the realization of what it is really all about. 

When we are drawn to the realization that we really are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and through His Spirit He unites us as that family of faith, then we are moving towards the true meaning of Advent.  We are moving towards a true celebration of the Christmas event.

The readings from Isaiah during this time attempt to bring that realization to a people who were separated by war.  "Young men who hope in the Lord renew  their strength.  They put out wings like eagles.  They run and do not grow weary, walk and never tire."

The Advent of 1988 brought us together as a family, gave us strength to deal with our sadness, to prepare for what was to come.  It helped me personally to discover the birth of Christ and His message of consolation in a new way.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Experiencing God 206 The Generous Sower

"Then he told them many things in parables, saying: A farmer went out to sow his seed."
Gospel of Matthew

A few years ago, Catholic Christian Outreach published a little booklet called "the Ultimate Reality".  In it they showed three diagrams.  These diagrams represented the different levels of commitment in one's relationship to Christ.

The first diagram represented someone who did not have a relationship with Christ.  It is an image of a person who has all kinds of different interests - work, family, hobbies, friends, etc. but a relationship with Christ is not among them.  As far as this person is concerned, Jesus is outside of their life.

The second diagram showed an image of someone who acknowledges Jesus as part of their life, but is not completely committed to Him.  Jesus is included among the many other things that make up this person's life, but is not the centre.  Jesus is one aspect among many.

The third diagram represents a Christ-centered relationship.  All the other aspects are still there as in the other two.  Nothing is missing, but Christ is at the centre.  Christ is primary, influencing all decisions and every aspect of the person's life. 

The little booklet then makes this statement:  "If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful, and great."  And it ends with the very familiar quote from Revelations:  "Listen, I am standing at the door knocking.  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you, and eat with with you, and you with me." 

In the parable of the seeds, Jesus is telling us that God is a generous sower, and He scatters His seeds everywhere. They fall into different types of ground - some on the trodden path, some in the rocks, some in the thorns, and some on fertile soil.   So much of our understanding of the parables, of Jesus' word, depend upon our relationship with Him.  When Christ is found at the centre of our lives, we have attentive ears, we have hearts that are willing to learn, we have (what you would call) fertile soil.  And of course, if God is not a part of our lives, then Christ's word will often go unheard, bearing little or no fruit.   

Christ' invitation is always open to us. 

As we read in Hebrews: "This is a covenant I will make with you when those days arrive.  I will put my laws into your hearts and write them on your minds.  I will never call your sins to mind, or your offences."

When we come to Christ, then His word speaks very personally to us and we discover that His word is life.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Experiencing God 205 Are Our Perceptions In Line With the Gospel

"Peter insists: Lord, you will never wash my feet. Jesus responds Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”
Gospel of John

Have you ever heard the expression: “Perception is reality”. 



Perception has to do with how we see the world. And because, as individuals, we often see things differently, then reality often gets expressed differently, depending on how we perceive it. 

In our World Day of Prayer, the Women’s Inter-church Council of Canada are asking us to focus our pray and support for the people of the Bahamas, particularly to the women there who have assumed a leadership role in their communities, and who share that special affiliation with the women in our own community and country.

The question that came to mind as I was preparing for tonight was: “what is my perception of the Bahamas and where does it come from?” And If I am going to fully embrace this task of of supporting the people of the Bahamas, then maybe my perception needs to change.

I’ve never been to the Bahamas, but when I think about it, what comes to mind is a vacation spot, or maybe a great place for a cruise. I imagine beautiful beaches, resort hotels, and long walks in the sun or in moon light along the ocean. I imagine a place where I would be served great food, and enjoy good entertainment.

Where does this rather biased perception come from? I would say that it has been developed over time from what I’ve heard from people who have visited there, from what I’ve read, from pictures and brochures in travel magazines, and probably from my own imagination. Is this perception reality? Probably not.  So we must be careful with our perceptions, how we see things, because it can create something that may be “reality” for us, but fails to project the true picture.


The theme of the Gospel account from John Chapter 13 is Jesus washing the feet of His disciples.  Its message is clear: “For I have set before you an example that you also should do”. During Holy Week, on Thursday evening, this Gospel will be the focus of many of our Christian services. But in this Gospel reading, there is a line that can be easily missed. Recall the point where Jesus and Peter are in discussion. Peter confronts Jesus: “Lord, are you going to wash my feet”, and Jesus says: “You will later understand what I am doing”. But Peter insists: “Lord, you will never wash my feet”. And then the line I would like to focus on: “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” He does not say: Stick with me Peter, I’ll explain later. No. He tells Peter: “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me”. So what’s going on here. What is Peter’s perception that causes him to respond in the manner that he does?  And do we at times have this same perception? 

In Peter’s time, there was an ingrained perception that slaves washed the feet of their masters, that servant washed the feet of their benefactors, that children washed the feet of their parents etc. etc. This was the natural order, and you might say an established paradigm. People just could not imagine that reality could be any other way. So it was firmly entrenched as the mindset of the people. So when Jesus Master and Lord approached Peter to wash his feet, it did not fit in with Peter’s mindset. It was not a part of his reality. Peter could wash Jesus’ feet, but not the other way around. 

At first, it seems that Peter was acting in humility by refusing to have his feet washed by Jesus, but it’s really not. Peter is acting out of the conditioning of his culture. In Jesus’s response: “Unless I wash you, you have no share in me”, He is really saying to Peter that his perception is disordered. It does not reflect God’s true reality, therefore, if you cannot change, then you are offside with God: “You can have no share in me”.

Now this presents to us a grave challenge. It challenges us to look carefully at our own perceptions of how we see things. It challenges us to examine where they come from, what created them, and ask ourselves; do they conform with Christ and His teachings. It provokes some serious questions: Questions concerning our attitudes in respect to the leadership role of women in our communities, the proper interaction and dialog between Christians from different denominations, between Christians and those of other religions, between Christians and those who oppose our faith. Does Jesus’ example of washing the feet of others apply in these circumstances?

There’s a gospel from Matthew which I believe ties in with this. “While Jesus was talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside wanting to speak to him. Some told Him: Your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you. Jesus replied: Who is my mother, and who are my brothers. Point to his disciples he said: Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father is my brother and sister and mother.”

The washing of another’s feet is a symbolic action. It’s not to be taken literally. It’s focus is towards an expression of service to others, but it runs much deeper than this. It implies an attitude of the mind that is free from our own self-constructed perceptions. It’s an attitude that goes beyond the cultural norms to which we may have become attached like slave serving master. In the Kingdom of God, there are no hierarchical structures of importance. The commission is clear. To share in Christ, we must serve one another, and the service we render goes beyond our ingrained perceptions of what this might be.


This service is the offering of Christ’s love to all whom we meet, regardless of their status, regardless of the religious affiliation, regardless of their moral standing in the community. In fact, the mission aspect of this very unique commission implies that our service be explicitly given to those who may fall outside of our communities, and outside of our cultural norm.

In order to meet and serve the people of the Bahamas as brothers and sisters in Christ, to share in their joys, their sorrows, their needs, I must let go of my perception of the Bahamas as being a vacation spot to entertain and serve my needs. I must see the people there as being seemingly connected with me, with my own joys and sorrows; with my own struggles. I must see that we are both called to carry out that great commission given us by Christ: “I have set before you an example, an example that you also should do to others as I have done to you.”

I would like to conclude with a quote from John Vanier’s book, Community and Growth.



“A community is only a community when the majority of its members is making the transition from “community for myself” to “myself for the community”, when each person’s heart is opening to all the others, without any exception. This is the movement from egoism to love, from death to resurrection; it is the Easter, the Passover of the Lord.”

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Experiencing God 204 - I Will Never Forget You

"Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the child of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you."
Isaiah

When you hear the news today from the Near East, one would almost believe that you are hearing about biblical times.  Some of the same players involved in our current day disputes in the Near East are the very ones present when Isaiah wrote his powerful prophecies during 740-690 BC.  

At that time, Assyria became the principal threat, particularly to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  So Northern Israel made a coalition with Syria to brace themselves against a possible attack.  This coalition of Northern Israel and Syria wanted Judah, the Southern part of Israel, to join them.  But Judah refused.  So they attacked this Southern Kingdom.  Judah called upon Assyria to help them.  The Assyrians came to the rescue, overthrew the coalition to the North, and tore a great part of the Northern Kingdom away from Israel.  But Assyria did not stop there.  They later invaded the very one who called on them for help, Judah.  

It was during this very turbulent time that Isaiah, a prophet from Judah, began his proclamations. When all hope was lost, Isaiah comes forth as a person to restore hope to a defeated people. 

The People cried out: "The Lord has abandoned us.  The Lord has forgotten us."  And Isaiah's encouraging words:  "Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the child of her womb?  Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you."  Words of hope for a desolate and defeated nation. Words that even today bring us consolation when we are at our wits end, and everything around us seems to be falling apart.

We find the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecies in Christ.  "Even if these other forget, I will never forget you.  I go and prepare a place for you so that where I am, you may be also."  One of the purposes of John in writing his Gospel is to let his readers know, to let us know, of the connection we have with a loving Father through Christ, a connection that is not broken even at death, a moment that may seem to be the time of our greatest loss.  

Even death is conquered through Christ.  God continues to embrace us at our most troubling and desperate moments to restore our hope.  "Thus the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to anyone He chooses.  I tell you solemnly, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life."  

Of course we know that this requires a little more than a superficially listening with our heads.  This listening requires us to embrace the truth of Christ with out hearts, to encounter this Spirit residing deep within the recesses of our own being, to know in that personal way that we are saved through Christ.

This is the Good News of Christ, news that fills us with a joy that we wish to share.  May that joy of the risen Christ be with each of you this Lent.