(Ir)Reverend Ramblings

Dr. Donald Low was a physician who provided a voice of calm and leadership during the 2003 SARS crisis. He is back in the news but for a very different reason. Dr. Low was diagnosed with a brain tumour in February and he died on September 18th. In his dying days he made a video appealing for the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide. He died 8 days after he made the video.

Dr. Low – a leading microbiologist, knew that, given his condition, death was inevitable. In the video he said that were he able to, he would have preferred the adminsitration of a lethal cocktail, thereby choosing when he would die so that he could have death with dignity.

This is not a new discussion in the Canadian public forum. Sue Rodriguez, who died in 1994, suffered the debilitating, terminal illness, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. As the disease progressed and her conditioned worsened she pushed the right-to-die debate into the spotlight.

Canadians are reluctant to embrace this notion. Today MP Steven Fletcher spoke in favour of doctor assisted suicide. At the same time those advocating for the rights of the aged and the disabled quickly spoke out challenging the notion. Currently in BC and Quebec there is legal action in the courts as people challenge the laws that makes doctor-assisted suicide against the law.

This is one of those questions that has a theological and faith component. As Christians we believe that life is precious and a gift from God. Do we have the right to choose our own death? Is doctor-assisted suicide at the time of terminal illness acceptable? Is it a slippery slope or a humane act? I think it is easy to make it a philosophical debate unless one is terminally ill, then it is a pressing concern.

What is your feeling on this discussion? Do you think there is a time when we should take the power of life into our own hands?

We have our second Annual Christmas Market Place coming up in November. Everyone in the congregation is being encouraged to think about how they can become involved. I have been making jams and jellies and pickles – all with the idea that it might sell in the Market Place Christmas Pantry. Yesterday I spent my day off making one more batch of jam and a batch of salsa.

Last week my Spiritual Director asked me what I was doing for fun these days. It took me a minute to think of what could be considered fun in my last few weeks of activities. Then I mentioned that I have been making preserves. While it is a lot of work I do get a great deal of satisfaction out of looking at the line up of jars at the end of the day. She commented on preserving as a kind of meditation and I had an ‘aha’ moment. It is a kind of meditation. Finding or picking the produce, preparing the fruit or vegetables, stirring while it slowly cooks to just the right consistency, watching the boiling hot-water ‘bath’ that seals the jars, checking them as they cool and listening to hear each lid pop, then washing and labeling and storing the jars away for winter. It is a labour intensive and gratitude inducing process. Taking the raw gift of creation and turning it to a treasure for winter dining.

Work as meditation is not a new thought for me but one I have not considered for a while. I remember a mentor years ago saying her best meditations often happened once the kids had gone to school and the house was quiet and she washed the dishes. Standing with her hands in warm, soapy water, staring out the kitchen window, as she did the routine repetetive process of washing, rinsing and drying an hour could pass while she talked to God and let her mind drift to holy moments. When her meditation was over her dishes would be done too!

Last week I visited a home and a young woman told me she loved sweeping the floor. She finds it relaxing. The other woman chimed in, “That’s why I love to rake the lawn it gives me time to think.”

Jesus spent a lot of time walking around Galilee. I suspect that many of those walks were times of meditation for him.

Do you have a task that some would consider work but that you experience as a time to meditate?

9/11. Up until twelve years ago those numbers were little more than a date on the calendar. Today as I sat at a meeting the Chairperson said, “Do you remember where you were twelve years ago?”. Without hesitation everyone could answer exactly where they were and how they remembered 9/11, a date that is now seared into history. 9/11 was a day that changed the course of history in North America and had global repercussions.

It is important to hold in prayer and with respect the fammilies of those who lost their lives in this cruel and tragic act of terrorism. At the same time we need to be mindful as to how we move forward in a way of healing and strength.

Phyllis Tickle, author of ‘Emergence Christianity’ points to 9/11 as a watershed moment that has forced Christians to consider how we will live faithfully in a multi-cultural, multi-faith world. She says the bomobing of the twin towers became a flash point for Muslims, Christians and Jews to confront prejudice as well as consider how to keep faith while living as neighbours.

It is easy to fall into pointing to those things that divide us and build walls between us. How better it would be if we could embrace those facets of faith that draw us closer together and use those to strengthen one another rather than fall into suspicion and accusation.9/11 was a day that changed how religions encounter one another and how we will forge a way to live together on our fragile globe.

How do you remeber 9/11? Did it impact your faith in any way?

The G20 is meeting and the meeting is shadowed with dispute as to how to respond to the bloody civil war that is raging in Syria. While the world leaders play politics and beat the global drums of war, the men, women and children of Syria are being killed in alarming rates through violent conflict and chemical attack.

I cannot even begin to imagine the nightmare that is stalking the terrified citizens of Syria. Thousands have fled their homeland and crossed the borders into Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Refugees have been with us since Biblical times. When Moses led the people out of Egypt they wandered as refugees looking for a land to call their own. When Mary and Joseph had a new baby boy, whom they named Jesus, they were forced to flee their homeland as refugees for a couple of years before they deemed it safe to return. While there is comfort in knowing the Biblical story reflects life it is also frustrating to think that millenniums have come and gone and we still haven’t figured out how to keep people safe in their homeland.

This is a time for bold diplomacy within the global community not this gridlock of political opinion. The world needs to draw closer together not become subject to political divisions and the economics of warfare. It is time for the world leaders to step up and offer negotiations that will lead to peace.

Well, that’s what I think. Where are you on this complex global situation?

I know it is not the beginning of the year but September always seems to bring that feeling of starting fresh. I guess it is years of patterning when Labour Day signalled the beginning of the school year that prompts me to think of this time of year as a new beginning. Indeed here in churchland we are often starting new programs in September and dreaming up new activities for the season ahead as the summer holidays draw to a close.

I like the feeling of a new start. As someone said in an e-mail to me this morning “There is something about September that stirs the blood and moves us out of summer slowness”. And it is moving out that summer pace (which I also absolutely loved) into a space of purpose and meaning. It is like moving from rest to action.

As the kids spend today settling into a new school year I am spending the day dreaming and planning ways that our faith community can deepen our faith and grow in our spiritual journey. It is going to be another fantastic year here at BUC and as we begin all I can think to say is “Happy New Year”!!

This is the last long weekend of the summer. The next time people breathe a sigh on a Friday and get ready to enjoy a three-day-weekend will be Thanksgiving. These three days give us that last opportunity for the long sit on the dock (if the weather cooperates), putting together a puzzle into the late night hours, sleeping in, relaxed cooking at the bar-b-q, or leisurely catching up with friends. It is a holiday weekend and these three days feel like a gift of time that spares us from our regular work schedule.

The very first chapters of the Bible speak of the importance of rest from duty. Even God, after 6 days of creating needed a break! The recognition of Sabbath time, or rest from labour, is peppered throughout the Bible. Jesus often got himself into trouble for working or healing on the Sabbath. He had several arguments with the powers-that-be as to what was appropriate for Sabbath activity but he too knew the importance of taking a break to have a rest, to pray and to meditate.

Labour Day weekend has its origins as an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. It was initiated by the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. We have been marking it since the 1880’s. It was in 1872 when a strike by Toronto Typographical Union’s took place as they fought for a 58-hour work-week. The leaders of the strike were arrested as there were laws in place that made union activity against the law. These laws had already been abolished in Britain but were still on the books in Canada. Leaders of the Typographical union were arrested. In response to this Labour leaders decided to call for a demonstration. On September 3rd seven Unions marched in Ottawa. This resulted in the Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, calling the anti-union laws ‘barbarous’ and promising to repeal them. The Trade Union Act was passed the following year and soon all unions were seeking a 54-hour work-week.

So enjoy your long weekend knowing that it is brought to us by workers who fought hard for the right to have a break from their labour.

Last night I was a member of the sold-out audience in Huntsville where Bruce Cockburn was playing his second night at the Algonquin Theatre. Cockburn is both a Member and an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame. He has received 6 Honorary Doctorates and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. A prolific song-writer he has dozens of albums to his credit. To call him a Canadian icon is an understatement.

Bruce Cockburn’s musicality is outstanding. He can make the guitar weep in one song and rage in the next. Even more impressive are the lyrics. Cockburn has the heart of a poet and a burning passion for justice. His songs reflect the global struggle for freedom and peace and he faces with honesty the inequalities both in Canada and around the world.

It was a real privilege to hear him and to be taken on a global ride of music and issues. Bruce Cockburn richly deserves every honour he has been given and more. It reminded me of the value of the arts and how the artist can touch the soul of the nation.

Thank you Bruce.

On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. spoke with passion and conviction to the over 250,000 civil rights supporters that had gathered in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. They had come to Washington to march for Jobs and Freedom. His speech that day was a defining moment in the American Civil Rights Movement. This week marks the anniversary of that speech. Fifty years later the phrase “I have a dream” still brings to mind his powerful words that resonated with a people who were tired of being treated as second class citizens.

This week the movie “The Butler” is showing here in Bracebridge. I think it is a brilliant movie. It takes the fact that an African-American man named Eugene Allen served as the Head Butler in the White House for thirty-five years. From this the screenwriters create a story that encompasses the years that passed through 8 presidencies. It includes the rise and influence of the Black Panther movement and the Civil Rights movement. It portrays the changes wrought by the decades of struggle for equality and justice. It is fitting that the showing of the movie coincides with the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

People are called into leadership in various ways. Eugene Allen quietly but doggedly encouraged change towards the treatment of the Black staff at the White House. Martin Luther King Jr. provided encouragement from a high profile and public place. I believe that God calls each of us to offer leadership in the place where we are and with the people that are around us. You and I will never make the kind of speech that Martin Luther King Jr. made but we are each given opportunity to exercise leadership and to encourage change for justice.

What do you get when you combine an army of volunteers, heaps of cookies, crackers, fruits and vegetables, catchy songs heard over and over and over again, craft supplies, Bible stories galore, hoola hoops and a parachute with 50 kids? That’s right … Vacation Bible School!

We had a terrific week last week – the weather was, for every day but one, absolutely glorious (one leader e-mailed me this morning, this very wet and rainy morning to say aren’t you glad VBS was last week?, to which I say an emphatic “Yes”!).

Our resident creative decorating genius Joanna turned the barn at Kerr Park into a castle as the theme was a medieval kingdom. Our story teller Betsy mesmerized the kids with tales from the Bible followed with science experiments to underline the learning. Joan had a delightful new and interesting craft every day. Mary patiently and enthusiastically sang the songs over and over each morning until they were permanently embedded in everyone’s mind (still can’t get one tune out of my head!). Each day we had a different games director who offered fun and active games that reinforced the lesson of the morning. All the while Nurse Helen bandaged scrapes, cooled overheated foreheads and sympathized with anyone missing their mom at the same time managing to put out snacks and glasses of water to keep everyone fueled. And I must mention the other leaders – the 12 adults and teens who shepherded the kids from one activity to the next while calmly smoothing out disputes (children can be quite disagreeable with one another!) and insuring that the activity leaders had their full attention.

Many of the children who made up our hoard are ‘repeaters’. They have come to our VBS year after year. Some are grandchildren who combine this week of VBS with a summer holiday at their grandparents.For some this is the only time they get community teaching about the stories of faith.

I said several times this week, “I have the best job in the world.” I just phone up or e-mail 46 adults and teens to ask for their help and they happily say, “Sure, what do you want me to do?” It is amazing. It is a blessing. I am grateful.

I have been watching the sky a lot this week. I have been keeping an eye on daytime weather predictions because it is our Vacation Bible School week. We hold the annual Vacation Bible School (which is really much more like camp) at a local park. Most of our activities are outside so it is very helpful when the sun is shining. Each year I spend a great deal of time during the week prior to VBS hoping that it will not rain.

But for the last couple of nights I have been watching the night sky too because the moon has been HUGE and brilliant. It was a Blue Moon last night. Traditionaly, a blue moon is an extra full moon that appears in a subdivision of a year meaning a fourth full moon in a season. Recently the term has been applied when a second full moon in a month. Last night’s full moon was an extra full moon for this summer season. Apparently we won’t see another seasonal blue moon until May of 2016. You have heard the expression “Once in a blue moon” – now you know why that saying came to be.

As I watched the earth bathed with moolight last night I was reminded of some of the Psalms which make reference to the sky. The poets of old were also transfixed by watching the amazing show that comes to us in the night sky.

I hope you are able to do something special or meaningful today. The opportunities you have, the experience you will be given today will never come back. This day won’t come to you again. It is a once in a blue moon kind of day.