A Century of War

I preached this sermon this past Sunday for our Remembrance Day Service. The text is the Gospel According to Luke 8:26-39. Thank you to those who encouraged me to post this :)

One hundred years ago, a war that many believed would be the war to end all wars, and even called it the Great War. 100 years ago began the war that would create further un-rest, that would lead to the Second World War, which in turn created the strife that lead to the silent Cold Wars which included the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Afghanistan war of the 80s. In the last 100 years we have seen wars in Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, and that doesn’t include the almost constant rebellion in Southern Africa, and the Revolutions in South America, and uprisings in Asia, and the countless civil wars all over the world. The more I think about it, the War to end all wars, was instead the beginning of 100 years that would experience some of the largest number of casualties related to warfare.

-Jesus lived in occupied territory, the Roman Soldiers enforced Roman rule… violently. The people’s own leaders were a part of the domination system of the day; the Aristocrats and Priests of the temple taxed the people to the point of poverty, all in the name of God. In the Story Jesus asks the “evil spirit” for its name, the answer is a military charged word: Legion. In the War torn world Jesus was raised in, he had seen the devastation that war brought to the regular peasant people; bringing disease, famine, and mental illness. I wonder if today we might have a new phrase to describe this man’s evil spirit; we call it Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder, or PTSD.

-Everyone loses in war. Children lose out on childhood, many go hungry, most did not get the opportunity to go to school. After Canada dropped food for the Polish people after D-Day, a boy grabbed some food from the box and ran to his mother. “look mom, I got a cake” she smiled and said “that’s not a cake son, that is bread.” Civilians lose their lives, their dignity, their ability to take care of their family. Two Ally soldiers were trying to take advantage of a young German women, when two Canadian soldiers came along to send the conquerors away. And Soldiers in many ways lose their mind, the devastation that they witness, that they cause, breaks down the human spirit until fear and suspicion takes over in their mind.  Everyone loses in War, Children, Civilians and Soldiers alike.

-Jesus faced the war of his time with a non-violent manner, the most aggressive action He ever took was throwing tables. I wonder if he knew how broken the system he lived in was; because it’s as if he knew that he would die in the effort for peace, whether he lifted a sword or not. The reason we remember him, the reason our history continues to tell his story is because of this strange situation; his choice to fight with words instead of a sword.

I am proud of my grand-father, he answered a call to go and help liberate people. He did not see much action, and he never had to fight. He went to do what he could to help, and his strength did not include battle. He often tells me that this was a simple choice; Hitler needed to be stopped. So he followed the lead of others who knew more about the fighting part, while he fixed trucks and armored vehicles, for mechanics he knew.

In my mind, that war, the Second World War, as if one hadn’t been enough, changed something, for it was made clear that a few powerful people could cause great devastation, and that misdirection and manipulation of information could be used to miss-inform the people.  It is the poor who lose in war; for even if they survive the fighting, they will then be faced with the battles of hunger and disease. War kills soldiers and civilian alike, in sometimes surprising ratios. We now have the power to destroy the world 7 times over.

This is what a century of fighting as taught us… is it not time to stop.

For me, there are two camps of people, those who believe that the world will always have war, so there is nothing we can do about it and then those who even if it seems crazy believe in hoping for peace, real peace, true peace. This second group is the one I put Jesus in; the crazy guy who hopes for peace, calling the illness of war to come out of a madman. For only when we are all free, will any of us be truly free. Remembrance day for me is about hoping for the peace that those who went to war fought for, but I worry that the lesson hasn’t been learnt, for we have continued to war ever since.

For the sake of those who died, and those who lived to tell the story; let us learn how to better tell their story, so that the lesson of this century, this century of war; that this lesson will become a call to peace, instead of a remembrance of war.

Amen.

Parable of those in power and those caught up in their mess

I have been reading a lot about the Jian Ghomeshi over the last couple of days and I have been surprised over and over again.  I do want to share my opinion, but to be honest I am not ready yet. But I have been inspired to share a sermon a preached on October 13th of last year on Luke 18:9-14. I have been inspired by my cousin Teffer Ruth in her blog post she calls out religious leaders to start speaking out, so here is my start. As already stated I wrote and preached this sermon last year, so it is in no way connected directly to the current bad situation (which ever way you look at it, its bad).  It came from a reflection on the Parable about the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector, or as I like to say the Parable of those in power and those caught up in their mess. This sermon was original shared at the United Theological College in Montreal. Thanks for the Challenge Teffer :) 

The deepest stories of truth can only be told in story. Some truths are so real and important that boiling them down to one sentence in unfair, and leads to serious misunderstandings and repercussions. Like rape is wrong… it’s a true statement but boiling it down to this one small sentence as left society unsure of how to react when the wrong act occurs, just because it is wrong does not mean that that we know how to fix it.

In Luke we find the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector, Jesus is telling a story to show people that when they think too highly of themselves, in the process they put other people down.  It is possible that this parable holds a catch-22, for if we try and create modern categories of who is in this full of yourself Pharisee group, we might be building ourselves up creating in ourselves the very problem Jesus is speaking of. Today instead of placing ourselves into this story I ask for us to remain viewers, allowing the story to demonstrate a real truth that our world is facing today.
Now I will proceed with caution and please know that I have no desire to offend anyone or be too graphic, but as I read the prayer of the Pharisee words that I heard a few weeks ago out of the mouth of a teenage boy came back to haunt me.  Last year a picture started going around a high school in North Carolina of two high school students engaged in sex, when the girl who was in the picture saw it she went to police with her father. She had been invited by a boy she liked to a party, but when she got there realized she was the only girl, with 4 boys. Not having a way home she stayed, and after a couple of stupid comments from the boy that invited her, she began drinking. After enough shots to get her drunk two of the boys began trying to take off her clothes, she resisted, left the room and passed out on a couch in the basement. She woke up and one of the boys was on top of her, but the picture brought back some of the fuzzy memory she had. One of the boys’ parents was a police officer and the boys and their parents were quick to  hit the news, saying that the 3 of the boys had had consensual sex with the girl that night, one of the boy’s mother even said that the only thing her son was guilty of was pre-marital sex. The ring leader within the boys group said:   “I'm not a rapist. I had consensual sex with a girl and she wanted to. I've never apologized to the girl because I haven't done anything wrong. In the Bible it says to forgive, but it's hard because she isn't telling the truth.” We have a similar story on our side of the boarder; Rehtaeh Parsons committed suicide last April after 17 months of harassment from both the 4 boys who had raped her at a party and their parents. The boys were convicted of nothing and were allowed to taunt her for months, at her funeral the boys’ parents were seen putting up “support the boys” posters, still claiming that she had wanted and asked for the sexual exchange.

Jesus told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else. Lk 18:9. Now I know I am on a slippery slope, because my metaphor means placing the victim in the place of the tax collector which might insinuate blame, but the sad part is that this is exactly what our society does.  We read headlines Ann was raped by Joe, or Ann was raped, or Ann is a rape victim, so quickly our society drops the actual subject in the situation, making sure we seldom hear the words Joe is a rapist. Our world turns these victims into the tax collector, forcing them to put their head down in shame. ‘she asked for it, she shouldnt have had alcohol, she should not have even gone to the party, just look at what she is wearing, my boy shouldnt be blamed because she is a flirt.’ (Julia Penelope). And for our Pharisees we have high school boys and their parents saying, He is a good boy, he is a good student, he gives back to the community, he has universities who want to give him scholarships, he goes to church, he is not a liar like her. So sure of their own goodness they despised everyone else. This case of building self-up at the expense of another is an extreme example, and it is to you I give the task to balance it back out. Looking at an extreme can give us a new perspective. Things are changing, new laws are being created, we to can make a change.

“I tell you” said Jesus “For those who makes themselves great will be humiliated, and those who are humiliated will be made great.”

The Golden Rule... something about compassion

This is a very edited version of a sermon I gave at Christ Church United this past Sunday, October 26th 2014.

Matthew 22:37+39

So he said:

you will love the Lord your God

with your whole heart

and with your whole self (life/soul)

and with your whole mind (understanding/thought)

and the second, is just as great

you will love your fellow-human just like yourself

This is Jesus’ answer to the question; what is the greatest commandment?

Do unto others as you would want them to do for you.

Compassion is central to many, if not all of our world’s religions, and even many of our human philosophies. Many religions have their own variation of what is sometimes called the Golden Rule, and I thought I would share some of these with you.

I thought we should start with Judaism, for this would have been known by Jesus. It is from the Talmud, which is a Jewish holy book that would have been familiar to Jesus. The Talmud says; “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.”

Unconditional love is not black and white love, it’s more complicated than that.

Love them as if they are your very own, means to love them as if they were your family. Now in family there comes a time for some tough love. It is an important part of growing. Also, just as within a biological family, abuse, whether emotional or physical, is simply unacceptable. You see it is not always straight forward when trying to figure out what would be the good for another, but we do know what we would not want to suffer ourselves.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters have their own version, growing out of both the Hebrew and Christian idea; they have this to add to the conversation “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” I am surprised at how often I still hear people saying that Islam is violent and therefore Muslims are dangerous. My response, No, their religion is not violent, for their practice, just like all other pious religious practices, is centered on compassion.

But fundamentalism, extremism, does exists in Islam, just as it does in Christianity. Hitler claimed himself a Christian, made sure his army had “god is with us” on their belts; the KKK was a Christian organization doing the will of god; and my Christianity, being a lesbian minister,  is nowhere close to the Christianity professed by the Westboro Baptist Church.

Fundamentalism, extremism, is not pious practice.

The second thing that surprises me is hearing:  “you see they are indoctrinating our youth.” If they are our youth, then it is our responsibility to share the depth of our Gospel message with them; in their own language; on their own terms; within their own context. For if they find meaning for their lives within our stories then they will not go elsewhere looking for Gospel. ‘Hope for others, as you hope for yourself.’ This is Islam, this is Good News.

Now back to the Gospel according to Matthew. I would like to share with you my version of this Golden rule, it include my interpretation which is based on text (translation) and context (Exegesis).

Love our Creator God, Serve the universe that God creates,

with all that we are, all that we hope, and with all of our special and unique selves

Just as you

Love the stranger, the one who is different than you,

Love them as if they are your very own.

And I would argue that we don’t need to believe in God to believe that humankind is compassionate. Here is an explanation of the Golden rule by a Humanist Philosopher.

“Trying to live according to the Golden Rule means trying to empathize with other people, including those who may be very different from us. Empathy is at the root of kindness, compassion, understanding and respect – qualities that we all appreciate being shown, whoever we are, whatever we think and wherever we come from. And although it isn’t possible to know what it really feels like to be a different person or live in different circumstances and have different life experiences, it isn’t difficult for most of us to imagine what would cause us suffering and to try to avoid causing suffering to others. For this reason many people find the Golden Rule’s corollary – “do not treat people in a way you would not wish to be treated yourself” – more pragmatic.”

Saying it in the negative is the way most eastern religions say it. I think this gets at something that the positive can’t. We do not always know what the other would like done to them, but we do know what we don’t want done to us.

Don’t do to someone what you wouldn’t want done to you, don’t say something about someone else that you wouldn’t want to be said about you… don’t even think things about someone that you wouldn’t want thought about you.

I couldn’t find a direct golden rule in Sikhism, but I thought these two sentences would do, just fine.

“Whom should I despise, since the one Lord made us all.”

 “I am a stranger to no one, and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend to all.”

When you believe that God is one, when you believe in one Creator, you therefore believe that every living being is made by God, whether plant, animal, fish, bird, or human. There is no us and them within humanity, all division is created by man… we are One in God.

Love our Creator God, Serve the universe that God creates,

with all that we are, all that we hope, and with all of our special and unique selves

Just as you

Love the stranger, the one who is different than you,

Love them as if they are your very own.

You see, there is no more us and them, no other. We are one humankind.

Do not do to someone what you wouldn’t want done to you,

Love the stranger as if they are your own,

And Hope for the other as you hope for yourself.

This is compassion, this is pious practice, this is religion, and to me… this is Gospel. 

The Parable of the Good Dishes

Parables are awesome... ok maybe I should explain that... I find that often parables have 2 meaning, or two lessons to share. They are told in story mode so that it is easier to remember. And parables in a way are 'truer' than some other forms of story telling, but that is because a parable doesnt even try to claim historical authenticity, for it is meant to be timeless, a timeless lesson, one that is good for all the ages and all the generations, even to come. My personal favorite of Jesus' parables in of the Two Sons (also known as the prodigal son), it's double meaning comes from learning both the lessons of the younger child and the lessons of the older child. Jesus is not the only Teacher to use parables; the prophet Nathan told King David a parable; and we also have modern parables too. 

So today I share with you a parable I wrote. It is inspired by the true story of my Great-Grand-Mother (who I never met myself). My grand-father has taught me a lot about the care and love that he received from his mother, and now I am happy to share her life lesson in "The Parable of the Good Dishes"... ok if you have a better title idea... let me know :) I hope you enjoy.

She set out the good dishes and smiled…She thought of her past, thought about what brought her to this moment. 30 years had past since she watched 4 little talcum coffins being lowed into the ground. Disease took all four of the children in 28 days. Those were dark days, some disease show no mercy, especially on children. They spent no more than a few weeks, in a state of living dead, until gracious death arrived bringing peace to broken and disease battered bodies. Talcum was needed to contain the disease and the heavy burden of cost was the responsibility of the parents alone.

The now middle aged woman looked at the special plates through blurred vision; some wounds leave deep and painful scares. She turned and moved around the kitchen putting some final touches on dinner.

It had been over 30 years since she came to Montreal, although she had little education she had taught herself to communicate in a second language; she learnt English, although her heart always spoke Gaelic.

She returns to the present to see a young man in his early 20s walk through the door, coming in from work. She smiled as she looked up and saw her youngest child. For just like Job, she was blessed with 4 more children to love and to raise. All of them could read and write English, something this mother was proud of. Seeing the good dishes on the table the young man asked: 'Who is coming for dinner?'

She thought of the days events; she remembered placing the last couple of coins down on the counter, Mr Bunnier smiled graciously as he accepted the money and put a zero in a little black book. It had been more than a couple decades since the corner store master started her tab, but now she smiled at her son, and said 
“No one is coming for dinner son.” 
“Then why the good dishes.” 
“Today, son, we owe no one anything.”

After a joy filled meal with her family, the woman is in the kitchen drying the good dishes when her cousin drops in. 

“Sorry, I didn’t know you had company.” 

“No it was just me and my boys.” 

“what is the occasion then?” 

“I paid off our tab at the corner store today.” 

“Congratulations! You know, now that you have paid off your tab, you should go to the STOP and SHOP, the prices are much better there.” 

“I will not!” Said the woman in a stern voice, “When I didn’t have he took care of me, and now that I do have, I will take care of him.”  
She never did go to the STOP and SHOP.

Teaching Prayer

I do not think that the Our Father is some type of magical incantation, but I do believe that it has become a traditional way to pray. Even 2000 years ago people wondered at how one communicates with something that is invisible. In the Our Father, or Lord's prayer, Jesus offers more than words to help us engage with the Invisible, but also a structure in which to do this. 

This is my extrapolation of the Our Father that I shared with my congregation a couple weeks ago.

Teacher, please teach us how to pray…

 Our Father in heaven, O Creator God, Guider of the Cosmos, Mover of the Universe, a God who calls humanity; God’s own, the people of God, the children of God.

Hallowed be your name, Reveal who you are, we come here trusting in your ways of justice and compassion, you alone are God, always creating, always loving.

Your kingdom come, Set the world right, help us to be apart of the solutions to the problems here in this world, help us to show others the possibility of truly living in joyful, creative peace.

Your will be done, Do what’s best— We trust in something bigger than ourselves allowing us to continue to live a life of positive thinking and right action, through the good times and the hard times.
On earth as it is in heaven, help us to bring your way of hope and joy through love to this world, for peace is true paradise.

Give us today our daily bread. Keep us alive with three square meals, help us to make good choices, in how we care for our physical bodies.

Forgive us our sins We know that we are not perfect, help us to do better everyday, help us to be kind even when its hard, and patient even when it is difficult, Keep us forgiven with you.

As we forgive those who sin against us. Remind us to be kind to others, not everyone has learnt the same lessons in the same ways. Help us to let go when someone truly demonstrates the desire to make amends. And help us to know when we must ask for forgiveness too.

Save us from the time of trial, Keep us safe from ourselves, give us the support we need to face any adversary that might come our way.

And deliver us from evil We face difficulties that hold us down, help us to better understand what it is that we are facing so we can better react and finding solutions to the problems, both in our own lives and for people all around the world.

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, You can do anything, our hope is in you, You are our creator, we are Your people, You are that which is too great to be named.
Now and for ever. Amen. Yes. Yes. Yes.