Refuge in the Silence on Change Islands

 

                                  Our refuge is the house  to the upper right of the photo

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to mount Horeb, the mountain of God.

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.

Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up."

When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."

Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground

     Exodus 3:1-5 NRSVue 

A week ago today I was sitting on the deck of the 100+ year old house we stay in just about annually on Change Islands, Newfoundland. These islands have a little over a hundred year-round inhabitants and while they are busier in the summer they aren't a tourist destination like the nearby Fogo Island. 

Last Sunday I went outside to sit and ponder in the relatively windless calm, a rarity in Newfoundland. I was almost overwhelmed by the absence of human-made noise which is omnipresent in our world. We are inclined to be up early at home and go out to our deck before the often-time strident hum begins. We hear the dawn chorus and the breeze in surrounding trees. Even still, we may also hear trains being shunted on tracks a kilometre away, or a siren, or air-conditioning units. None of these sounds were evident last week. No one was heading out fishing or cutting grass. 

                                                        A sunset from the deck on Parson's Lane 

                                                     My re-read while on Change Islands this year

Ruth joined me outside last week as I was reading resources for the Feast of Creation in Christ which will be celebrated ecumenically on Tuesday, September 1 or next Sunday. As we looked out on the sea we agreed that the silence, other than the cries of gulls and terns and crows. was an almost palpable presence. There was the profound sense that we were on the "holy ground" of Creation and Creator we hear about in one of this week's lectionary passages. 

There were once four churches on Change Islands but the United Church is now closed as is the Pentecostal building. The tiny "Hanglican" and "Harmy" congregations gather intermittently as their priest and officer is able to include them in the schedule. Last week there was no service on the islands at all so we were a congregation of two, giving thanks for the solitude and beauty. 

We did visit the beautiful old St. Margaret's Anglican while we were there and I opened the 175-year-old King James Version bible to the theme "Living Water" verses for the Feast of Creation from Ezekiel. It seemed appropriate to do so for this "out to pasture pastor".

Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish once these waters reach there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes. People will stand fishing beside the sea from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a great many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 

 On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”

Ezekiel 47 9,10,12 NRSVue 

Congratulations to Amy-Jill Levine!

 Dr. Amy-Jill Levine has been elected president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America. This is an honour and one that took her off guard when she was nominated. Levine is a Jew and the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, in Hartford, Connecticut. She is also professor emerita at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. 

In an article in the National Catholic Register she offers:

"I have been carrying on a love affair with the Catholic Church since I was 7 years old, and that hasn't stopped," Levine said. "It's chaste, and it continues."

Levine said she values the association because its members connect rigorous historical research with theology and pastoral life. Rather than asking only what a biblical passage meant in the world in which it was written, she said, the association's scholars also consider how it has been interpreted through history and how it functions today in churches, classrooms, Bible studies and catechetical programs.

I've led several study groups at Trenton UC based on Levine's books including: Entering the Passion of Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, and Short Stories by Jesus. All of them are remarkable and provided insights from a Jew who has a deep respect for Jesus who was, of course, a Jew.

Kudos to the Association for taking this appropriate ecumenical step 

I hope a hearty "mavel tov" to Amy-Jill Levine is in order! 

The Sox, the Pope, & the Mitre Head

 Pope Leo resides at the Vatican and he is claimed as a beloved Peruvian where he served as bishop. Sometimes I forget that he was raised in the United States although he had taken a quiet but firm "you're not the boss of me" stance with the American president who thinks he's a supreme ruler.

Leo grew up a Chicago White Sox fan and I find it delightful that the baseball team recently honoured his allegiance not with a bobblehead but with what I suppose is a mitre head. After planning to give away 2,500 pope's hats management  distributed 40.000 to the sold-out crowd. Apparently the original plan was to do a papal bobble head (say that three times fast) but the Vatican wasn't thrilled.

The Sox are surprising leaders in what is admittedly a weak division. Divine intervention? 

I think this is fun, but does Leo share that sentiment? My sense is that he enjoyed this and I look forward to hearing about his reaction. 

Anticipating the Feast of Creation in Christ

Creator, you have wonderfully fashioned the heavens and the earth and us in your own image. 

Teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your breath in all creatures that we may be of service in the healing of the earth, 

through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, through whom you breathe all creation into being. Amen.

 In a few days many Christian denominations around the world will enter into the Season of Creation/ Creation Time/ Creationtide. The different terms for this liturgical period from September 1 to October 4 reflect the different approaches to this period, even as the commitment to observing a time of reflection and celebration has grown. 

This year the first day of September or the first Sunday of the month will be observed as the Feast of Creation in Christ as an even broader ecumenical celebration and the United Church of Canada will join in: 

At the 2026 annual meeting of the Consultation on Common Texts (CCT), held April 20–21 at the headquarters of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Decatur, Georgia, an ecumenical working group’s vision came to fruition of a new festival celebrating God’s role in Creation in the church calendar. The feast, which would be added to the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), is the fruit of an ecumenical process convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), and various Christian world communions in recent years. 

I really like the scripture passages chosen for the three years of the lectionary cycle and the titles given for each of those years. I have included many of these readings in blog entries over the past 20 years:

Year A Holy Trinity, Creator’s many faces 

Proverbs 8:22-31 Psalm 33:1-9 Colossians 1:15-20 John 1:1-5 

Year B Creator and Creation, Genesis to Revelation 

Genesis 1:1-5 or up to full chapter or Genesis 2:4b-14 Psalm 148 Rev 22:1-5 Mark 1:9-13 

Year C Creator’s economy of abundance and web of relationships 

Job 38:4-11, 39-41 or Isaiah 40:12-17, 21-26 Psalm 104: 1-4, (10-13), 14-24 Romans 8:18-27 Luke 12.22-34

Since the 7th century, September 1 has symbolized the day of God’s creation of the world in the Byzantine tradition and has been the opening feast and "the beginning" of their liturgical year (in a parallel with the feast of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year). 

A series of ecumenical conferences, known as ‘The Assisi Process,’ has explored that rich theological symbolism and the potential of the ‘Feast of Creation in Christ’ to enrich the Christological nature of non-Byzantine liturgical calendars. In short, the feast contains four interrelated themes: (1) Creation as God’s creative act, (2) Creation as Christological mystery, (3) Creation as Trinitarian mystery, and (4) Creation as sacramental and covenantal. 

A Forgiveness Funeral?

 

It was perhaps 30 years ago that evangelical pastor Max Lucado was everywhere. He was and I think still is the pastor of a large congregation but he had a wide influence through his books and speaking engagements, I never read one of those books but through quotes and perhaps an interview I ended up with the sense that he was a person of deep Christian faith who wanted others to share that faith. Today there is so much loony evangelicalism, a lot of it wolfish Christian Nationalism in sheep's clothing that his approach is missed.

I came upon an article from Relevant magazine in which Lucado reflects on forgiveness, strangely a profound Christian tenet rooted in the cross and resurrection that doesn't seem to get much air time these days. We hear more about smacking both cheeks than turning one of them, as Jesus taught. 

Yet through the years I offered study sessions on Forgiveness in a number of congregations and they were generally the best attended groups I led. I often discovered after the formal session was over how deeply participants were struggling with forgiveness, for themselves or in extending it to others. Some were really angry and others were alienated from loved ones. Often individuals felt defeated by the unforgiveness they were experiencing, unable or unwilling to move forward. I have a shelf of really good books on the subject as well as an excellent video series that folks found meaningful. 

Here are a few paragraphs from Lucado's piece. He includes six steps to forgiveness and I've included the last one Mull over what he says and consider whether it rings true for you. I like the notion of a forgiveness funeral. 

he question is not, Did you get hurt? The question is, Are you going to let the hurt harden you? Numb you? Suck up all your joy?

Some people abandon the path of forgiveness because they perceive it to be impossibly steep. And it can be. So, let’s be realistic.. Forgiveness does not pardon the offense, excuse the misdeed, or ignore it. Forgiveness is not necessarily reconciliation. A reestablished relationship with the transgressor is not essential or always even possible. Even more, the phrase “forgive and forget” sets an unreachable standard. Painful memories are not like old clothing. They defy easy shedding. 

Forgiveness is simply the act of changing your attitude toward the offender; it’s moving from a desire to harm toward an openness to be at peace. A step in the direction of forgiveness is a decisive step toward happiness. 

Here is one final idea: 

6. Conduct a funeral. Bury the offense. I don’t mean to bury it in the sense of suppressing it. Nothing is gained by shoving negative emotions into your spirit. But something wonderful is gained by taking the memory, placing it in a casket (a shoebox will suffice), and burying it in the cemetery known as “Moving On with Life.” Take off your hat, cover your heart, and shed one final tear. When the anger surfaces again, just tell yourself, “It’s time to walk boldly into a bright future.”

Forgiveness is the act of applying your undeserved mercy to your undeserved hurts. You didn’t deserve to be hurt, but neither did you deserve to be forgiven. Being the recipient that you are of God’s great grace, does it not make sense to give grace to others? 

Sugar and the Last Supper

 

We have watched two full seasons of the noir series called Sugar about a suave private detective played by Colin Farrell. John Sugar loves classic movies, he wears bespoke suits, and drives a 1966 Corvette Stingray. He's cool and he's an alien. You need to watch the series to find out more about that twist. 

In the second season a villain who should be a good guy sneaks into a hospital to eliminate a drug dealer who is comatose and on a ventilator. These things happen in detective shows. As he moves in for the kill he intones words which were immediately familiar to me because I've used them often in funeral and memorial services. They are from John's gospel: 

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

This is not a series containing much or anything else in the way of religion. How many viewers would have a clue they were Jesus in his farewell address to the disciples during the Last Supper? So, why these phrases, here? Who was the writer who decided to throw them into the scene?  I imagine I'll never know. 

What I do know is that religious and spiritual stuff finds its way into a fair amount of popular culture even though we live in an increasingly secular age. Some of it mocks religion or paints it in a negative light. There are also positive uses and some such as this one that are just perplexing. Here for a moment and then gone. 

I recommend Sugar, as an entertaining watch, although I'll refrain from suggesting that it's out of this world. 

Spiritual Neutrality in the Canadian Military

The evangelical magazine Christianity Today offered an article with this headline not long ago: 

Canadian Military Chaplains Can’t Mention God in Public

Adam MacInnis

A new directive bans members of Canada’s military from using religious language at events.

While Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seeks to make US military chaplains more explicitly religious, the Canadian government is heading in the opposite direction as new directives ban chaplains from using religious language at public events.

Released on July 29, the instructions noted that members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) making public remarks at any type of public or semi-public event “shall uphold the principle of state religious and spiritual neutrality by not using words, actions, or symbols that are specific to a particular SFT [Spiritual or Faith Tradition] on the part of the Government of Canada.”

It also instructs chaplains not to offer prayer at official events, including military ceremonies or commemorations. If chaplains are asked to pray at a public event while serving as a representative of the CAF, they are told to instead offer a spiritual reflection without religion-specific language.

This is correct, not something we can take for granted from American sources writing about Canada. This directive has been in the works for a while and met with resistance by lots of people in this country. There have been assurances that this doesn't mean that there won't be chaplains anymore. They will continue to provide worship opportunities and counsel related to faith, and this is important. They'll just be offering spiritually neutral uplift, I suppose. So why bother? And what chaplain of any faith wants to do this? Will respectful repatriation processions such as the one shown above now exclude chaplains?

                                     The first Buddhist chaplain in the Canadian Military

I've had mixed feelings about this change over the past couple of years. I have attended many Remembrance Day services over time where there were specifically Christian prayers and hymns and even homilies. In one community our congregation printed up copies of the hymn sung every year because the crowd tended to mumble through it without the lyrics. It seemed disrespectful not to sing with assurance. 

Still, we know that in our pluralistic society that members of the military and those who gather for events are of different faiths or none. Why should they be expected to endure Christian elements that are often represent theology from another era anyway? 

I would prefer this rather lame neutrality to the exclusive nonsense emanating from the Pentagon these days. Even Roman Catholics are being pushed aside by Hegseth's directives. 

We'll see what happens in the days ahead. 

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: THE GLOBE AND MAIL. Stained Glass, Riga CATHEDRAL: Getty Images. Pete Hegseth: AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES.