Warning: Your Phone May be Hazardous to Your Spiritual Health!

 I suppose this is something of a follow-up or companion to yesterday's blog about silence and solitude. What if the "noise" is internal rather than external, an endless distraction that no one else hears? Isn't that the reality with our devices, particularly the so-called smartphones capable of addicting persons of all ages? I mean, what would any day be without a scroll, or two, or twenty, or...

We are communicating with family during this time on Haida Gwaii but we were informed that reception on islands well away from shore in the Pacific Ocean is sketchy to non-existent in a lot of places. We will have wifi in our various accommodations but how much time do to want to looking at our phones in the midst of such beauty? As I said yesterday, our intention is to connect with Creation and Creator, so our phones are the little devils distracting us from that desire. 

Just before we left last week the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, announced  that he would push for a warning label on social media platforms advising parents that using the platforms might damage adolescents’ mental health. Dr. Murthy wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he notes:

The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.

Let's be honest, it isn't only kids who need to be warned, even if the risk is greater for kids. This warning would be akin to the increasingly dire warnings on tobacco products. I can remember the push-back on that proposal more than 20 years ago. 

Wasn't it an apple that tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden, leading to their expulsion? Okay Genesis doesn't specify the fruit, but we do know about Apple and Samsung and all the other serpentine tempters. 

I also saw that there is a growing trend toward dumb phones, capable of being used as a phone (imagine that!) and for texting, but nothing else. For some this would be hell but perhaps it would be heavenly if we all stepped back from the little boxes that rule our lives, at least once in a while. To my mind any threat to mental health is a threat to spiritual well-being. 

Creator, Help us Quiet the Global Growl

  He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 

                                 1 Kings 19:11-12 NRSVue

The excellent Hakai Magazine recently published an excerpt from a new book, Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, written by Amorina Kingdon. It addressed the growing reality of underwater noise in the waters of our planet, affecting marine creatures and thereby reshaping ecosystems. Kingdon differentiates between sound and noise. 

The Hakai piece was titled, Quieting the Global Growl, a title that could apply to just about every nook and cranny of our daily lives. I've written often enough on the importance of silence and solitude to our spiritual and psychological well-being, yet it is so difficult to find those oases of silence because of the "Unwanted Sound of Everthing we Want." (book by Garret Kaiser.) Where can we go to experience the "sound of sheer silence", to quote from the story of Elijah in the book 1 Kings? Is it an unrealistic expectation in the 21st century and just a reflection of privilege for a few? 

We are currently on the islands of Haida Gwaii off the coast of northern British Columbia, seeking a degree of solitude and a taste of manageable adventure. We know that this will be possible at times although we aren't naive about the pernicious nature of noise. There are large ships that ply these waters and while we may not hear them they contribute to that global growl. 

We are intentionally attuning ourselves to all our senses while we're here as a sort of spiritual practice and by doing so become more aware of both Creation and Creator. Will we "stand before the Lord." Maybe!

https://hakaimagazine.com/features/quieting-the-global-growl/?utm_source=Hakai+Magazine+Weekly&utm_campaign=d344191ff5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_06_COPY_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0fc1967411-d344191ff5-121675990

Let Your Pride Fly Free

 

                                                                     Trenton United Church

Do you remember my blog entry about the theft of the Pride flag at Trenton United Church last November. The congregation gathered outside following worship a short time later and a new one was put in place, this time a little higher. Well, the flag was removed again, the third time, and plans are underway to put a new one in a more secure spot.

Why are people so mean-spirited? Why are some of them Christians? A lovely new couple to Trenton and the congregation ended up in conversation with a local resident who asked what church they were attending. When they said TUC the person responded "they have the gay flag, you don't want to go there!" They assured the person they did because of the support for the LGBTQ2S+ community and they have gotten involved with the inclusion team. 

I wondered if the Pride Parade in Belleville was smaller this year and whether it's because some people are more concerned about safety. We've heard about heckling and aggression at some parades, even here in Canada, while across the border the anti-LGBTQ backlash grows with hundreds of laws proposing restrictions. The frenzy of falsehoods and hysteria is bizarre. It saddens me and angers me and in no way reflects the gospel of love and acceptance Jesus came to offer to the world. 

On the positive side, the Roman Catholic school our Trenton grandkids attend was represented in the parade and the tee-shirts they wore had a logo created by our granddaughter. I am so impressed by the atmosphere of inclusion at the school. And once again Trenton United had a booth at Pride in the Park. 

As Pride Month draws to a close lets pray for kindness and acceptance for the LGBTQ2S+ community. 

Bringing Home Indigenous Artifacts

 

When Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada took part in the recent G7 Conference in Italy he had a brief meeting with Pope Francis, who addressed the gathered leaders. Trudeau made a specific request that the Vatican return Indigenous artifacts, many considered sacred, to their communities. When an Indigenous delegation visited the Vatican prior to the Pope's Canadian visit they made a similar request, apparently to no avail. Vatican Museum authorities argue that these artifacts were gifts to the Roman Catholic Church but this is contested. 

We are currently on Haida Gwaii, the islands off the northern coast of British Columbia, an archipelago where the Haida people have been involved in lengthy and successful negotiations with the provincial and federal governments to reestablish sovereignty. The Haida, as with so many other Indigenous communities, have also worked to repatriate works, such as totem poles, which were pilfered by colonial governments over time. This is happening around the world. 

Will Prime Minister Trudeau's conversation make a difference? We can pray that it will. 

Tempted by The Messiah Confrontation

 

ANNAS

How do we deal with a carpenter king?

PRIESTS

Where do we start with a man who is bigger
Than John was when John did his baptism thing?

CAIAPHAS

Fools, you have no perception!
The stakes we are gambling are frighteningly high!
We must crush him completely,
So like John before him, this Jesus must die.
For the sake of the nation, this Jesus must die.

ALL (inside)

Must die, must die, this Jesus must die.

from Jesus Christ Superstar -- This Jesus Must Die

I suppose I'm revealing my "hopelessly nerdy" status when I admit that I'm pondering the purchase of a book on the Sadducess and Pharisees, best known to Christians as the collective Bad Guys. They were the ones hovering around Jesus, the Blackflies and the Mosquitoes, intent on tripping him up and generally tormenting him. Then they were complicit in killing him. At least this is what we've been led to believe through the centuries, often resulting in a ant-Judaism taken to a deadly level. Add in the characterization of the Pharisees in he musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell musicals of the early 1970s and it's little wonder we boo and hiss whenever they show up in scripture.

This new book, The Messiah Confrontation, has been praised in a bunch of reviews and seems to offer a fuller, readable perspective on the change of scholarly outlook that has been building over the past few decades. Here is one description: 

2023 Top Ten Book from the Academy of Parish Clergy

The Messiah Confrontation casts new and fascinating light on why Jesus was killed.

Grounded in meticulous research on the messianism debates in the Bible and during the Second Temple period, biblical scholar Israel Knohl argues that Jesus’s trial was in reality a dramatic clash between two Jewish groups holding opposing ideologies of messianism and anti-messianism, with both ideologies running through the Bible. The Pharisees (forefathers of the rabbinic sages) and most of the Jewish people had a conception of a Messiah similar to Jesus: like the prophets and most psalmists, they expected the arrival of a godlike Messiah. However, the judges who sentenced Jesus to death were Sadducees, who were fighting with the Pharisees largely because they repudiated the Messiah idea. Thus, the trial of Jesus was not a clash between Jewish and what would become Christian doctrines but a confrontation between two internal Jewish positions—expecting a Messiah or rejecting the Messiah idea—in which Jesus and the Pharisees were actually on the same side.

Knohl contends that had the assigned judges been Pharisees rather than Sadducees, Jesus would not have been convicted and crucified. The Pharisees’ disagreement with Jesus was solely over whether Jesus was the Messiah—but historically, for Jews, arguing about who was or wasn’t the Messiah was not uncommon.

The Messiah Confrontation has far-reaching consequences for the relationship between Christians and Jews. 

Will I buy the book? Maybe this synopsis and the reviews are enough, but can we ever have too many books, even of the theological persuasion? 

Gratitude for Cliff Foster

                                                            Cliff Foster at his Belleville Market table 

This little light of mine I'm going to let it shine
Let it shine, all the time, let it shine

All around the neighborhood I'm going to let it shine
All around the neighborhood I'm going to let it shine
All around the neighborhood I'm going to let it shine
Let it shine, all the time, let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine...

 Last week I saw the obituary for Cliff Foster, a wonderful man, a farmer from Prince Edward County. He was at the Belleville Farmers Market every week although last year he admitted that his aches and pains were becoming more restrictive. He was in his 90s, so hardly a shirker, but he wanted to be there. This year members of his team have been selling the various Fosterholme Farms produce, including maple syrup, and we heard that he just wasn't up to making the trip or standing. 

I first became aware of Cliff when he was a youngster -- well, his early 80s. I was told as the minister of Bridge St. UC, a tomato's throw from the market, that Cliff was a generous supporter of the meal ministries of the church. He gave produce or sold it at a reduced cost, and he'd paid for a dishwasher in the kitchen. 

It was touching to see that the request for donations in his memory to area food programs.Cliff was a decent. compassionate human being who touched the lives of many people through the course of decades. He let his light shine without fanfare and didn't hide it under a bushel. . 

Thank you Cliff. 

Injustice and justice for Grassy Narrows

 

There has been a lot of coverage lately of the Grassy Narrows community in Northern Ontario.If the name of the community seems familiar, we heard a lot about Grassy Narrows in the 70s when it was discovered that there was a high level of mercury in fish eaten by the Indigenous population of the area. .This contaminent came from a pulp and paper plant at Dryden which dumped an estimated nine tonnes of mercury as part of its effluent into the English-Wabagoon River system. Mercury is highly toxic, causing a variety of illnesses and resulting in birth defects. 

You might recall that Japanese reserchers came to the area to identify Minamata disease, present in their country. The commercial fishery was closed, as were some tourist camps, although people continued to eat the fish so important in their tradition.

We lived in Sudbury from 1988 to 1999 and while we were there I became aware of what's described as the environmental racism in the North. Whether it was mining, or forestry, or pulp and paper mills, the traditional lands of Indigenous peoples were often degraded or essentially expropriated, regardless of existing treaties, in this instance Treaty 3. The concerns of those who have depended on their unceded lands for millennia have been ignored. 

I think Grassy Narrows ended up on my radar thanks to the Kairos coalition of faith groups. I certainly came to appreciate that there is an "out of sight, out of mind, " attitude about the North in Southern Ontario, except when it comes to resource extraction.  The current provincial government has made big, bold announcements about the Ring of Fire and mining development for metals necessary for the batteries in electric vehicles. Once again, this has happened without thorough consultation with First Nations. 

We're hearing about Grassy Narrows now because of a recently filed lawsuit. Promises to clean up the river system have not been realized and mercury contamination is still a serious health problem So,  the Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek First Nation — known as Grassy Narrows — filed a lawsuit in Ontario's Superior Court of Justice against the provincial and federals governements. According to a news release: Our mercury nightmare should have ended long ago, but it has been longer and worse because of the government's failure to live up to its obligations,"  

Even today medical specialists estimate about 90 per cent of the community of roughly 1,000 people experience symptoms of mercury poisoning and high mercury levels are evident in the umbilical cords of newborns. The mercury level in the water and fish is actually going up and the stories of suffering are heart-breaking. 

 We can ask whether the practical commitment to justice and reconciliation matters when a serious issue identified more than 50 years ago still hasn't been resolved. It's a sad comment on our society when it requires a lawsuit to get the attention of governments. This is a sin. 

“It’s still bad. They could say it’s going to make things greener, but in the long run, for us Native people, we always end up with the short end of the stick, and we’re always left behind. I don’t think it’s going to be any different now. So, until you show me otherwise, I might think differently, but right now I don’t.”

                                                     Chief Randy Turtle 

 

Hoping and Acting During the Season of Creation

 

 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor,  and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.  For in  hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8: 19-25 NRSVue

On World Environment Day (June 8) a coalition of Christian denominations released a Season of Creation guide for the period between September 1st and the Feast of St. Francis on October 4th. This included the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox communion, and the Lutherans, as well as a number of other  denominations. In the United Church we call it Creation Time and the Anglicans Creationtide (I love this name) but it's the same focus and time period.

This means that the vast majority of the Christians on Planet Earth will uphold the importance of our hope for Creation and a commitment to act. There are still groups of Christians, most of them theological conservatives who take an individualistic, "me n Jesus" approach to faith and salvation, but we will hope, together. I am glad to see that a growing number of evangelicals are realizing that humans must move from hubris to humility and into hope rooted in loving action. 

Here is one of the prayers for the Season of Creation 2024. It is Trinitarian and theologically balanced with both contrition and the vision we all need.

Triune God, Creator of all,

We praise you for your goodness, visible in all the diversity that you have created, 

making us a cosmic family living in a common home. 

Through the Earth you created, we experience love and nourishment, home and protection.

We confess that we do not relate to the Earth as a Mothering gift from you, our Creator. 

Our selfishness, greed, neglect, and abuse have caused the climate crisis, loss of biodiversity,

 human suffering as well as the suffering of all our fellow creatures. 

We confess that we have failed to listen to the groans of the Earth, 

the groans of all creatures, 

and the groans of

the Spirit of hope and justice that lives within us.

May your Creator Spirit help us in our weakness, so that we may know the

redeeming power of Christ and the hope found in him. May the groans of

the Spirit birth in us a willingness to serve you faithfully, so that we may

hear and heal Creation, to hope and act together with her, so that the

firstfruits of hope may blossom.

Loving and Creator God, we pray that you will make us sensitive to these

groans and enable us to have the same compassion as that of Jesus, the

redeeming Lord. Grant us a fresh vision of our relationship with Earth, and

with one another, as creatures that are made in your image.

In the name of the one who came to proclaim the good news to all Crea-

tion, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

 

The British novelist Sarah Perry is a wonderful writer whose books have the feel of another time in the best way. We really enjoyed The Essex Serpent and now there is Enlightment. The Guardian reviewer Beejay Silcox manages to capture the premise and essence of this latest Perry novel: 

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry review – cosmic strangeness

This article is more than 1 month old

This defiantly old-fashioned tale of two misfits, a ghost and a blazing comet showcases Perry’s unerring capacity to make the earthly new and strange

 This book is also about religion and the "can't live it, can't live without it" conundrum so many people experience, including one of the central characters who grew up in a stifling, judgmental Christian sect and can't just walk away despite choosing another way of life as a gay man.

I've read about Perry's fundamentalist upbringing from which she has moved away, yet not entirely. There are obvious resonances in the story with her own life 

Of Time and Turtles & a New Beginning

The day after I mused about turtles recently I received the library notice that a book I'd put on hold eons ago was available. This was Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shattered Shell by Shattered Shell, written by Sy Montgomery with illustrations by Matt Patterson. 

On one level it's an inspiring book about people who rescue turtles in quixotic, brave, and practical ways. Montgomery and Patterson wade into the weeds with them, literally, and take on the mending, hatching, and nurture of all manner of turtles. It's also about a specific couple who are partners in life and partners in rescue, bold and brave and practical. 

I learned a lot of practical stuff about turtles but I wasn't prepared for this to be a philosophical and spiritual reflection on the human relationship with these reptiles and other creatures. Montgomery is an award-winning writer who draws on a number of different spiritual traditions as she reflects on what relating to turtles brings to those who are involved with them from day to day. I am fascinated by the critters but I don't really consider them to be sentient creatures who can teach us about attention and patience. I will now. Montgomery is a Methodist herself but her eclecticism is refreshing.

Later in the book she shares that the turtle rescue couple is transgender, and makes connections between what they have learned about themselves and what they've learned from their reptile companions. 

It happened that I came to this part of the book on the day of the Pride Parade in Belleville. I cycled downtown and home, making my way along the waterfront trail. As I rode back I passed a number of turtles, some on the move to lay eggs. It seemed appropriate somehow. 

And at the conclusion of the book Montgomery makes an "eggs-estential" observation I found to be rather profound. Here it is:

The Importance of Pilgrimage

 During the COVID pandemic so much activity around the planet shut down, including the on-person life of faith communities. Even the Haj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, was reduced to a token number of Saudi Muslims for the sake of continuity.

This year the number of pilgrims will be about two million with participants arriving from every part of the planet. Pilgrimage is an aspect of different religions including Hinduism and Christianity. We know from the gospels that Jewish Jesus made the journey to the temple of Jerusalem for the Passover where observant Jews from many nations were gathered. In Christian tradition there are a number of history pilgrimages -- think Canterbury Tales and El Camino. 

It occurs to me that it is Islam that includes pilgrimage as one of the five pillars of faith, with the expectation that every Muslim will undertake the Haj, if financially able and physical health allows. 

Pilgrimages are transformative for many participants because of the intention and physicality and time for spiritual reflection and renewal. I'm aware that Malcolm Little, who became Malcolm X was changed by his experience of the Haj. He left the Nation of Islam organization in the United States with its militancy and hatred of Whites in large part because he saw people from many cultures and skin colours participating in a communal act of devotion. 

There is an effort this year to make the Haj "green", or at least greener in terms of the massive waste generated by so many people. 

We can pray that this year's Haj is meaningful and safe for its participants. 

Here again is a portion of a letter written by Malcolm X about his experience: 

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.

I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca, I have made my seven circuits around the Ka’ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad, I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam. I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al Marwah. I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat.

There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.

Embracing the Indigenous Day of Prayer

 

The United Church has both a troubled and hopeful relationship with Indigenous peoples in this land we call Canada. We were complicit in the genocidal Residential School system and have acknowledged the sinful reality of that system intended to extinguish the light of Indigenous culture and spirituality. 

We have also been involved in the long process of reconciliation and entered into this with apologies, compensation and a commitment to a different, respectful relationship. Our United Church crest was changed to reflect "All My Relations", as well as the colours of the Four Directions and the Medicine Wheel. We recently voted nationally to establish an Autonomous Indigenous Organization.

We certainly aren't where we need to be but I hope we're moving in the right direction. Today is the Indigenous Day of Prayer, connected to National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21st. There are worship resources for this day and so I'll share this Call to Worship. 

A Call to Worship

To situate ourselves into this moment in the life of the church

One:    To those of us for whom it feels only recently were lighting a tiny candle of incarnation into that longest night of winter, we find grace here, unfurling.

All:       As these longest days bring light upon light, we find grace here too, unfurling as well.

One:    In rain coaxing into dry earth,

All:       The golden green ready to receive,

One:    The resplendent light calling us to unshackle ourselves into connection,

All:       The truth-telling vulnerability of unending evening, here is grace.

One:    To those of us whose grandparents were missionaries, who have settled here amidst golden greens not our own, we find grace—undeserved—unfurling too.

All:       There is grace in this—that some, at least, of those of the Nations here have opted to journey beside us after all that’s been done and all that still is.

One:    Not in the same shoes, nor always close beside, but—after all of this—on the path Christ makes. This summer, we get to witness what that journeying together might now look like.

All:       To all of us, the followers of Christ, here on Turtle Island, in this moment, there is an unexpected grace unfurling,

One:    As light makes its way back into the world, we are invited into new relationship,

All:       Unshackling ourselves, and one another,

One:    That we might walk alongside one another, into summer’s light.

Give Me a Sense of Humour, Lord!

 

Did you hear the one about the Pope and a roomful of comedians? Okay, when I first saw the headline yesterday I thought it was a joke. Pope Francis giving an audience to American comedians, at the Vatican? Really? Turns out it happened yesterday and a good time seems to have been had by all. 

Some of those present are known for their potty mouths, but it's interesting that they all showed up, and Francis was obviously in a forgiving mood. When pope comes to shove, every comedian wants a forgiving audience. 

There are scholars who assure us that when Jesus speaks about a camel going through the eye of a needle he's inviting a chuckle from his audience and that there are other moments of humour in the Gospels. 

I admire Pope Francis for this initiative.  I figure there should always been room for humour in our Christian faith, including during our times of worship. And face it if we don't laugh we'll probably cry over the state of the world and the destructive nonsense that goes on in God's name. 

                                                                Jimmy Fallon with Whatisname

Here is part of the Reuters report:

VATICAN CITY, June 14 (Reuters) - It's OK to make fun of God as long as the joke is not offensive, Pope Francis said on Friday in a special audience with about 100 comedians, actors and writers from around the world.

Those meeting him at the Vatican included US showbiz celebrities Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O'Brien, Chris Rock and Stephen Colbert. Around two thirds of the guests were Italians.

"Can we also laugh at God? Of course, it's not blasphemy, we can, just as we play and joke with the people we love," Francis said, speaking in Italian."Humour does not offend, humiliate, or put people down according to their flaws," he added, holding up "Jewish wisdom and literary tradition" as an example of good comedy.

The pontiff made the remarks after himself coming under fire, and apologising, for the use of an insulting word towards gay people.

"What I am saying now is not heresy: when you manage to draw knowing smiles from the lips of even one spectator, you also make God smile," Francis said.

Both Jim Gaffigan and Stephen Colbert are practicing Catholics (we all need practice) and Colbert is knowledgable and open about his faith. The Catholic News Agency offers: 

[Magaffigan], who performed stand-up at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in 2015, joked after the papal meeting Friday that assembling a group of comedians is “like the ultimate ‘Hail Mary’” for the world’s ills. “[The pope’s] like, ‘What if we just call in all the clowns? What if we just get the court jesters …’” he told CNA. 

In his remarks, Pope Francis referenced a prayer, mistakenly attributed to St. Thomas More, to “give me a sense of humor, Lord,” saying he has prayed it every day for more than 40 years.

Southern Baptists at Their Worst

                                                          Southern Baptist Women Protesting  

I spend way too much energy being infuriated with the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States. I should just ignore them or pretend that they are a figment of my tortured imagination. The do take up a lot of space as one of the largest Protestant denominations in the US.and we have family members who are Southern Baptists.

This week thousands are gathered for their annual convention and a biggie on the agenda is a motion that women can't be pastors in any way, shape, or form. They have already booted a number of congregations for giving women significant pastoral roles, some of their largest such as Saddleback,  but this was meant to clarify that women aren't just barred from primary leadership, they shalt not be uppity in any aspect of church life that a presumably male God has magically bestowed upon the chosen gender. 

Despite always beings theologically conservative it wasn't always this oppressive. Jimmy Carter left the Southern Baptists in 2000 after a lifetime of involvement, in large part because the denomination was moving to the theological right of anti-intellectualism and patriarchy. Any seminary professors who were considered left-leaning were turfed. Now congregations which were given leeway in leadership are being disciplined or expelled.

The glimmer of hope from Wednesday is that this strangulation motion was defeated but some of the conservatives vow they'll be back next year, even more determined. Jesus wept. 

I could smile when a former Southern Baptist member said he knew he had to leave when he realized that it was okay for the cucumber of Veggie Tales to preach but not a woman. 

Oh Lord, Give Me Patience...Now!

 

1 Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me;

place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free.

Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.

Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!

                                                VU 371

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. 

It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.

 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

I've noted before that I won't be remembered as a patient man. I've joked, somewhat ruefully, that I have trouble waiting for the microwave timer to get to zero. I sometimes watch in wonder as Ruth methodically figures out just about anything. She cleverly, patiently, figures out how to address knitting problems, put together barbecues, resolve computer issues. She actually enjoys assembling stuff while I view it as a necessary evil. 

I've seen a couple of articles about patience as a Christian virtue lately and realize that it probably should be a spiritual topic for our time. 

Social media is training us to assume that impatience should be the default mode of our lives, expecting everything to happen yesterday. I sense that our ability to focus, to attend to and ponder the important aspects of life is diminishing. During the COVID pandemic there was a sense that our enforced slowdown was making us more thoughtful but we emerged with a level of testiness that is evident all around us. We hear of temper tantrums on planes and see aggression on the roads. 

With all the emphasis on kindness these days maybe we can make the connection with patience the apostle Paul wrote about to the Christian community. There are lots of other New Testament passages about patience as well, reminders that if we are in it for the long haul of Christian discipleship we need to practice it. 

I've never forgotten the poster (above) which was in the chapel office of Kingston Penitentiary when I was a chaplain intern there years ago. 

I hope you have the patience to get through this blog entry and read these intriguing words about the subject. They offer hope to the impatient among us. 

Pastor and author James Howell has a memorable phrase about patience. Mindful of negative resonances like Vladimir and Estragon and Agnes Wickfield, he says that patience isn’t about passivity or frenzied distraction: it’s about “being impatient about one thing for a long time.” That’s true patience. Not idle waiting. Not absurdly sacrificial selflessness. It’s being impatient about one thing for a long time. That’s what a long obedience in the same direction truly is.

Reflection on patience is, in the end, a meditation on God’s patience.  God doesn’t wait idly. In Jesus, God is proximate with us, tells us a different story, gives us reason to hope, and finally bears in his own body the scars of his commitment to us. Jesus is God’s long obedience in the same direction. God’s patience is exactly this: God is impatient—passionately impatient, crazily impatient, devotedly impatient—about one thing for a long time. That thing is us. 

Samuel Wells is the vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London and author of Humbler Faith, Bigger God.

A Lament for the Loss of St. Anne's

 I don't that think I've ever used the phrase "audible gasp" in a blog entry before but I expelled one early Sunday morning on news that the early twentieth century St. Anne's Anglican church in Toronto had been destroyed by fire. The destruction of a place of worship is usually cause for sadness but St. Anne's was a designated National Historic Site because of its artwork,as well as its architecture. The ceiling was painted by three members of the Group of Seven group and several other celebrated Canadian artists contributed paintings and sculpture works during the 1920s. 

Just before the turn of the millenium a major project took place at St. Anne's after various sources ponied up more than a million dollars to fix the leaky roof and restore the damaged murals. I remember thinking I wanted to visit the church to see this uniquely Canadian decoration of a sanctuary but never got there. 

Should Christian places of worship be beautiful, knowing that this can be costly?  I served several congregations whose sanctuaries were architecturally lovely and I never took that for granted. One of them, St. Andrew's in Sudbury, was relatively modern and striking both in architecture and artwork. While the Methodist heritage of the United Church frowned on extravagant adornment I feel that art, whether musical or visual, is a reflection of the glory of God. In a day of neo-Costco design for many modern worship spaces I hold fast to the "Architecture of Immanence"to borrow the title of a book by Mark Torgerson. Most of the "big box" churches that are built at the edges of cities and towns won't be remembered in a generation or two. 

Did Jesus have any interest in art and architecture? It would seem that he didn't, yet at as a boy and into adulthood he, his family, and later his disciples journeyed to the temple in Jerusalem, one of the architectural wonders of the ancient world.

We can offer prayers of lament and comfort for the small congregation of St. Anne's as they come to grips with their terrible loss. May the Creator of beauty, and the immanent Christ, and the imaginative Spirit give them solace and hope. 

Here is a excellent video explaining how the murals of St. Anne's came into being offered by one of the guides who gave tours of the sanctuary. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4onMbUNvQ7A

Why Didn't People Watch Origin?

  There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28 NRSVue

The other evening we finally watched the film Origin. We intended to see it in the movie theatre but ended up streaming it. It is a biopic of sorts, telling the poignant story of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson whose husband and mother died within a year. It also gives us the back-story of her journey of discovery into the differences between racial prejudice and a caste system. The result was the brilliant book Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. 

Caste is a cultural construct created to separate groups of people within a society through laws and taboos. They are not necessarily based on skin colour, but they can be, as was the case in the United States during centuries of slavery followed by segregationist Jim Crow laws. Wilkerson, a Black woman, also explored the caste system in India and Nazi Germany, where leaders studies American laws as a model for the systemic isolation, persecution and murder of six million Jews. 

Reviewers liked Origin and in January Barry Hertz of the Globe and Mail said:  “It is one of the most purely fascinating films of the season – demanding of discussion – yet hardly anyone outside a small group of critics seems to be talking about it." Origin didn't do well at the box office and received no nominations for Academy Awards. I realized as I watched that it was may have been too thoughtful and complex to be popular. We both appreciated the film and I certainly felt that having read Caste was helpful. I wrote about the book in this blog a couple of years ago. 

As I watched I was reminded that religion is often coopted as an ally in creating and sustaining a caste system. In the United States and Germany Christians (not all) somehow twisted Christ's gospel of inclusion to institutionalize exclusion. In India the caste system became integral to Hinduism, and continues to this day.This brings to mind the observation of Martin Luther King Jr:  “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning.”

Do Wilkerson's distinctions between racism and caste also apply to the way Indigenous peoples have been characterized and oppressed in Canada and around the world, again with religious institutions as allies? It seems to me that the answer is a shameful yes.

 If you subscribe to Prime you will be able to watch Origin for free and I encourage you to do so.

The Gospel According to On the Waterfront

 ...for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing?And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 

 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’

Matthew 25:35-40 NRSVue

 Were you aware that this is the 70th anniversary of the acclaimed, classic film On the Waterfront? It was released first in Japan in June of 1954 -- who knows why. Ah yes, 1954 was a great year in so many ways. Here is a succinct description of the plot: 

Dockworker Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) had been an up-and-coming boxer until powerful local mob boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) persuaded him to throw a fight. When a longshoreman is murdered before he can testify about Friendly's control of the Hoboken waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man's sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint) and the streetwise priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) to testify himself, against the advice of Friendly's lawyer, Terry's older brother Charley (Rod Steiger).

Malloy "coulda been a contendah" but Brando actually won the Oscar for Best Actor. The performance by Karl Malden, an actor with a nose like a califlower, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. His Father Barry offers one of the most powerful "sermons" you'll every hear in a film. It is about The Incarnation and our incarnation, injustice and crucifixion. We even hear a phrase from Matthew 25 which is so appropriate in our time about "the least of these." Could this possibly be included in a film today? 

 I came down here to keep a promise. I gave Kayo my word that if he stood up to the mob I’d stand up with him. All the way. And now Kayo Dugan is dead. He was one of those fellas who had the gift of standing up but this time they fixed him oh they fixed him for good this time. Unless it was an accident like Big Mac says.

 Some people think the crucifixion only took place on Calvary. Well they’d better wise up. Taking Joey Doyle’s life to stop him from testifying is a crucifixion. And dropping a sling on Kayo Dugan because he was ready to spill his guts tomorrow – that’s a crucifixion. And every time the mob puts the puts the crusher on a good man, tries to stop him from doing his duty as a citizen? It’s a crucifixion. And anybody who sits around and lets it happen, keeps silent about something he knows has happened, shares the guilt of it just as much as the roman soldier who pierced the flesh of our lord to see if he was dead. 

Boys this is my church! And if you don’t think Christ is down here on the waterfront you’ve got another guess coming. Every morning when the hiring boss blows his whistle Jesus stands alongside you in the shape-up. He sees why some of you get picked and some of you get passed over. He sees the family men worrying about getting the rent and getting food in the house for the wife and the kids. He sees you selling your souls to the mob for a day’s pay. What does Christ think of the easy money boys who do none of the work and take all of the gravy? And how does he feel about the fellas who wear a hundred-and-fifty dollar suits and diamond rings on your union dues and your kickback money? 

And how does he, who spoke up without fear against every evil, feel about your silence? You want to know what’s wrong with our waterfront? It’s the love of a lousy buck. It’s making love of a buck, the cushy job more important than the love of man! It’s forgetting that every fella down here is your brother in Christ. 

But remember Christ is always with you. Christ is in the shape-up, he’s in the hatch, he’s in the union hall, he’s kneeling right here beside Dugan. And he’s saying to all of you: “if you do it to the least of mine you do it to me.” And what they did to Joey and what they did to Dugan they’re doing to you. And you, you, all of you! And only you, only you with God’s help have the power to knock ‘em out for good.

                                                                Karl Malden as Father Barry