(Ir)Reverend Ramblings

During much of my sabbatical I have been thinking about the church – Bracebridge United Church in particular. I have had many conversations with people – both those who attend regularly and those who used to come but don’t anymore. I also had a few converstions with some folks who grew up in the United Church but for whom church has never played a part in their adult life. It has been very interesting to hear what people have to say. I have been curious to hear why they come, why they don’t and if they did what made them stop.

I have also been doing some reading around this topic. One of the best books I have read is Diana Butler Bass’s book called “Christianity After Religion. It is both a comprehensive look at the past and what was formative for the Christian Protestant church that we have known and experienced for the past half-century and she pushes her readers to think about what the church will look like in future decades. She writes in particular about folks who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious”. This has become a descriptor for many people over the last number of years as people grow more and more disenchanted with organized religion but continue to yearn for a connection with God and the mystery and awe of spirituality.

As religion gives way to spirituality Butler Bass’s research leads her to conclude that “Christianity is moving from being a religion about God to being an experience of God… but most religious institutions act as if the gap does not exist and the questions have not substantially changed in recent decades.” This is certainly reflected in what I have been hearing from the folks I have talked to.

It is hard for those of us who love the church and are pretty comfortable with the way things are but there are others of us who long for change and a different expression. As we look forward to the future the one thing I know for sure is that God is doing something amazing and interesting and it promises to be an interesting ride over the next number of years!

As a minister I have had the privilege of ‘sitting vigil’ with families as a loved one dies. I also had the experience when my own mother died. She had cancer and as the disease progressed she made it clear that she wished to die at home. The hours were long. The experience was holy. That is why I say keeping vigil is a privilege – it feels like holy ground to be with someone who moves from this life to the mystery of whatever is held for us after death.

For the last few weeks not only his family but all of his country and perhaps even the world is ‘keeping vigil’ as Nelson Mandela lies in a hospital bed. Considered the founding father of South Africa’s democracy, Mandela has been hospitalized since June 8 for a recurring lung infection, a chronic condition triggered by his 27 years of imprisonment.

Mandela captured the world’s attention when, as a young man, he sacrificed all to stand up to the injustice of apartheid. I still remember the jubilance in a parishoners voice when she came to church and said, “Have you heard the news? Nelson Mandela has been released from prison.” That was 23 years ago. After that he rose through the democratic process to be the leader of his country. He governed his country with a sense of justice and kindness leading them through the Truth and Reconciliation hearings in order to face their troubled history. In fact, I believe that one of the attributes that endeared him to the world was his profound lack of bitterness as he moved from prisoner to government and world leader.

His daughter Makaziwe was interviewed recently. She asked people to let the family have their privacy and their time with their beloved father and grandfather. “After all” she said, “we did not have him with us for many years of our growing up. Please let us have this time.” When asked if the family are ready to release him she said, “It is only God who knows the end.”

There is a marvelous story that Jesus tells in The Bible. A person dies and when greeted in the after-life the person hears God say, “Well done – good and faithful servant.” Whenever Nelson Mandela moves from this world to the next, he will, no doubt, hear those words resounding.

One of the main challenges of my sabbatical time is trying to accomplish everything I put on my “To Do” list! My sabbatical team warned me that I was being too optimistic (or misguided!) in my ambitions. I have always been one of those people who want it all. This might be seen as a personality trait but somedays it feel like a character flaw! It becomes a challenge when, instead of appreciating where I am and what I am doing I am worrying about, or longing for, where I am not. Living in the moment is hard work for me some days.

In one of my sabbatical readings it said, “You make a life out of what you have, not what you are missing.” I wrote that down. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I can be balanced and clear-thinking … sometimes! I know I have so much to be grateful for and that my life is richly blessed but somedays it just seems that all I can focus on are the hardships and disappointments of my life and what I want.

Jesus often spoke of the challenge of riches – scripture verse counters tell us he spoke more about money and its usage than any other topic except love. He modeled living in the moment and responding to the people he was with. I want to be more like that.

Do you ever find it hard to sit in the present moment and just be grateful – regardless of what that present moment is giving you? Would you call mindfulness a spiritual exercise? Does being grateful draw you closer to God?

I am into a great book. “The Faith Club” is written by three women. As the sub title says the book is about “A Muslim, a Christian and a Jew – Three Women Search for Understanding”.

The background to the book is that after 9/11 these New Yorkers were drawn together when one of the women trying to explain faith to her young child decided that it would be good to write a children’s book about the commonalities of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. She invited two other women to work with her on this project but instead of quickly writing a book for their children they discovered that they needed to have a lot of conversation and find their own understanding about faith and inter-faith dialogue.

It is a fascinating read and unpacks the emotional and spiritual dimensions that are involved as people explore the faiths that shape the world. The women quickly confront their concerns, stereotypes and misunderstandings. After hours of conversation they move beyond what divides them to what draws them together.

This is a thoughtful and hopeful book that offers a coming together of faiths in a world that desperately needs to hear this message. I recommend it.

Have you ever spent times talking with someone of a different faith? Did you find you had to deal with your stereotypes? Was it helpful to learn from someone who experiences their faith in a different way?

Yesterday, June 10th, marked the anniversary of the formation of the United Church of Canada. We turned 88! I have been part of the United Church since my birth and have always felt comfortable in, and proud of, my denomination.

At 88 we are starting to show signs of aging. We are struggling to connect with an ever-changing world. The United Church has always felt (or imagined) the admiration of much of the society for our forward-thinking and inclusive ways. But we are not as robust, proactive or bold as we once were. Many in our society see the institutional church as irrelevant and outdated and The United Church is no exception to this view.

Currently the United Church is putting itself through a Comprehensive Review. On the UCC website (www.united-church.ca) under the tab marked Comprehensive Review it begins by saying: “The world still needs Jesus’ message of love and hope. Yet our church is facing demographic, cultural, and financial shifts that are challenging our ability to share this good news. How are we called to live out God’s mission in a changing world?” With that in mind the General Council has invited Conferences, Presbyteries and congregations to consider our church and how we might move faithfuly into the future.

As part of my sabbatical reflection I have been having conversations with people about why they go to church (specifically Bracbridge United Church) and why they don’t attend. It has been interesting for me to talk with people and come to an understanding of the various pushes and pulls that draw people into a faith community or cause them to leave one.

I love the church and it pains me to think that it is going through hard times. That said, I am not naive and I know that the church done things that have contributed to its current situation. Just the same I am encouraged by the theme that runs through all of scripture reminding us that God is always actively calling something new from the old. I am confident that God is not finished with us yet!

How about you? Did you choose the United Church as a place to express your faith? Are you hopeful or worried about our future?

It seems I have spent an inordinant amount of time in my sabbatical doing maintenance! God did a good think creating the human body – it really is amazing, but at a certain age a fair bit of time goes into keeping it in top form … hmmm, maybe that should read keeping it going! So, during my sabbatical I have had a physical and then a couple of follow-up appointments with a couple more to come, an eye exam (need glasses now, real glasses, can no longer get by with cheaters from the drug store), dental work, and, well, I have treated myself to a couple of massages.

While I complain about the inconvenience and indeed the need for this kind of attention it does give me pause to realize the amazing facilities we can avail here in Canada – well educated docotrs in fully equiped offices and (for the most part) freely available to me. I found myself whinning because one prescription I need isn’t covered by my health and benefit plan forgetting how fortunate I am to have ‘a plan’!

These exercises in maintenance have caused me to pause and count my blessings. The fact of the matter is, I have reached this age without ever having spent a night in a hospital or having any major kind of medical attention. I guess after my body has served me so well all these years it is time I gave it a little attention in order to keep it going well for the next decades. I hope to have quite a few yet.

At the beginning of the year I started making my way through the book “Fragments of the Ancient Name” by Joyce Rupp. In this book (she has written many) Rupp offers a daily reflection and each day the reflection is based on a different name or image for God. It is remarkable and thought-provoking.

As the month of June began she included a quote from Elizabeth Johnson. It said, in part, “The first expression of the unknowability of God is the proliferation of names, images, and concepts, each of which provides a different perspective into divine excellence. For if we were able to see into the very essence of God and wrap our minds around this, we would be able to express the divine by only one, straight-as-an-arrow name. As created beings, however, we can never do this. Instead, the diversity of the world offers fragments of beauty, goodness, and truth, both social and cosmic, facets of reality that point us in different ways to the one ineffable source and goal of all.”

The book, with it’s many images, has stretched my imagination and my faith. The image for today is “Force of Life”.

When you think of God what are the images that spring to your mind? Do you always refer to God by the same name? Could you come up with 365 names … one for each day of the year?

I often feel frustrated and disappointed in our celebrity-seeking culture. The impact of television and the movie industry is such that North Americans often seem more interested in the fashions and marital status of movie stars than most anything else. At least it seems that way when one looks at the magazine racks in stores. Currently though, I am grateful to celebrities for their truth-telling.

Michael Douglas, shocked anyone who was paying attention when he said in a recent interview that the throat cancer that he battled in 2010 was caused by having contracted HPV (the human papillomavirus) through performing oral sex on women who have the sexually-transmitted disease. This surprising admission is being ‘corrected’ by his agent who claims that this is not exactly what Douglas said even though the newspaper stands by its story.

Despite the moral issues and whether he actually said this is what caused his cancer or not, the fact remains that oral sex can be linked to the rise in occurence of this kind of cancer. That a famous celebrity would name it and claim it brings it out into the open. A doctor being interviewed on the news said he was grateful to Douglas for making public a concern that most people won’t talk about.

All of this follows hard on the heels of Angelina Jolie’s essay in the New York Times explaining why she had both breasts removed after being diagnosed with a rare mutation of the BRCA gene that put her risk of developming breast cancer at nearly 90%. (Like her mother and aunt who have both died from the disease.)

In revealing her situation Jolie instantly created global awareness for genetic screening and preemptive medical procedures.

Catherine Zeta-Jones (married to Michael Douglas) has been pretty open about how her life is impacted by bi-polar disorder. She lives proactively with the disorder – refreshing news for the many people who struggle with bi-polar, a mental health issue that many try to hide.

So, I must today say thank you to those celebrities who use their celebrity status to bring to our attention those important issues that many of us would rather not talk about. These individuals have brought personal health struggles out into the open and by doing so likely have saved lives.

Today is June 1st. Today marks the half-way point in my sabbatical/holiday time. To remind you, I was given a three-month sabbatical from BUC to combine with my one-month of holidays. This gives me four months away from regular duties for reflection and renewal. It is indeed a privilege and the first time I have had such a break in my 32 years of ministry.

The first two months have flown by. During this time I have had numerous conversations with people as to ‘why they go to church?’ and/or ‘why they don’t go to church?’ I have been able to do some reading and reflection on the changes occurring in the Christian church as we move into a secular society and an interfaith world, and how this is impacting local congregations. All very interesting. I have attended a couple of Continuing Education events.

On a personal note, I have had the time to connect with friends that I just never get to see. One of the challenges of ministry is that usually we get one day off a week and that day is Monday. Well, we also have some down-time after the Sunday morning rush is over but by then I am too pooped to do much! While most people are able to catch up with friends or have time away on weekends that is just not an option for a minister… we do have that Sunday morning gig! One of the blessings of my ministry has been moving from community to community over the course of my vocation. This means I have met and befriended many interesting people, people I like to keep in touch with even though I have moved on to a new community. It is hard to keep up with friends and so yesterday, after some careful planning I drove for an hour-and-a-half to meet a friend who drove equal distance so that we could have lunch together. We couldn’t remember how many years it had been since we had actually seen each other. It’s been a few. I was the minister who baptized her daughter. I stood by as she tried to make sense of an unexpected and painful marriage break-up and divorce. And I celebrated with her as I co-officiated at her second marriage 15 years ago. We had a lot of catching up to do so we warned the waitress it was going to be a long lunch. It was three-hours long in fact, and well worth the planning and driving. These kinds of reunions restore my soul and keep me grounded in the preciousness of relationship.

Sabbatical means many things, one of them is to find restoration – a good lunch, a glass of wine, refreshing conversation and happy reminiscing – I felt restored as I drove home.

One of the most riveting scenes in the Bible is when Jesus stands before Pilate. Pilate is trying to get Jesus a reprieve, even freedom, and so asks him a series of questions, almost riddles, hoping to find a way to free him. The encounter ends with Jesus saying, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate responds “What is truth?” (John 18:38)

This scene was replicated in the movie, “A Few Good Men” when the trial scene of the chracters played by Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson climax with Nicholson yelling at Cruise, “You can’t handle the truth.”

Hanging in the balance of what is truth and handling the truth are the situations unfolding in our daily news. The scandal of Rob Ford’s unravelling leadership as Mayor of Toronto is upstaged only by the scandal of Senator Mike Duffy being given a cheque to cover his unexplained double-dipping from the public purse. I am finding it hard to keep a fair and open-mind about either situation. Granted, I am hugely influenced by the media’s spin of each situation but the lack of transperancy and the apparent cover up leaves me saying, “Just tell me the truth.” Could I ‘handle the truth’? Right about now I would like to be given the opportunity to try! I am less exercised about the Toronto Mayor as I am about a once-respected news reporter ripping off the Canadian citizenry with the PMO aiding and abetting. I feel that an honouralbe person would speak the truth. Gentlemen, I am waiting … I believe I can handle the truth.

What are your feelings about these political scandals?
Do you think there is a need for honour and truth in our political leaders?
Does your faith inform you in any way concerning these situations?