(Ir)Reverend Ramblings

Yesterday the Pope conducted mass in Manger Square in Bethlehem but even more importantly he made a political statement. All the promotion for his visit to these Holy Lands said it was not a political trip, it was a religious trip. But it is impossible to go to Jordan, Israel and Palestine and not get political. While in Jordan he visited a camp filled with Syrian refugees. He flew to the Palestinian territory and Pope Francis stopped at the wall that circles around Bethlehem and said a prayer. He prayed that peace come to this divided land.

I have visited Israel and Palestine three times. First in 1995, when I fell in love with the country that is so filled with religious history, then in 1997 when I took a group from Bowmanville to see this historic land and then again in 2012 when again I had folks from the congregation with me. I would go again in a heartbeat. There is always more to learn and a deeper spiritual connection every time. On my last visit I was stunned to see the wall – or the security perimeter as the Israeli government calls it. It snakes across the countryside and is a blight on the landscape. I know, I know there is guilt on both sides of the arguement. Neither side is fully guilty or fully innocent but in the crossfire many, many are being hurt as anger and resentment roils in the streets.

I am glad that Pope Francis is not avoiding the political implications of his visit to this troubled and divided land. During his visit he has challenged the leaders to come together and work for peace. May this lead to small steps towards lessening this age-old conflict.

Some people have an image of the minister as one who goes around making genial visits over tea served in china cups. That does still happen but it is rare these days. Many seniors are too visiting volunteering to have someone come by and sit in their non-existent parlour and families are just too busy to have someone ‘come for a visit’! In fact, I do a great deal of pastoral care these days by email. Just this morning I have written several emails offering support during new grief, checking in with a family who are anticipating a move to a new community, supporting a young woman in our congregation who is planning an event for a cause dear to her heart and responding to a concern raised by a member of the congregation. It is such a different image of ministry than the one I started out with many years ago but it is still meaningful and provides a rich pastoral connection. The technological response is not the same as a personal presence but it serves a very important role in our modern world.

Jesus was a person who connected with people in various ways and through methods that suited the situation – when they were hungry he fed them, when they were ill he healed them, when they were grieving he wept with them. That is a model of ministry I have tried to follow while keeping up with the work associated with administering the workings of a congregation.

I like to balance actual one-on one conversations with computer connection but I think they each play an important role in how ministry happens. That includes writing this blog which means I connect in some way with an invisible audience but I hope that my meagre writings give you a moment of spiritual grace and inspire some reflection of the interconnection between your day-to-day and your faith. What do you think – has technology filled a spiritual place for you? Is your faith strengthened through what you read on-line? Do emails serve a positive purpose in your life?

Today we are hosting a “Volunteer Appreciation Dinner” to thank all the volunteers in our town who have facilitated the Out of the Cold dinners over this past winter. BBOOTC (Bracebridge Out of the Cold) offers two dinners a week through the winter, one at the Legion and one here at BUC, and weekly lunches at Knox Presbyterian church through the summer. It takes a host of volunteers to provide a weekly meal for up to 60 people. The BBOOTC Steering Committee tried to think of the best way to say Thank You and it seemed that a dinner would be a fitting way to say thanks for all the dinners that were provided for others through the winter months.

I know that many of the volunteers do not provide this service in order to be thanked – in fact being thanked is not a motivation at all. They do it because they believe in discipleship and service. In fact at church last week one of the regular volunteers thanked the church for providing this opportunity to serve. I also know from comments I have received from those who come to the dinners that these weekly meals are gratefully received not only because of the delicious food that is offered free of charge but also for the opportunity to eat with others and share a meal with friends. The diners are aware of the work required to shop, cook and serve a meal and they appreciate the effort of the workers who make the meals happen.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Life’s most important question is, “What are you doing for others? We serve ourselves best when we serve others.” Service is a basic tenet of our faith. Jesus, often encouraged his followers to reach out to others with love and care. Our community revolves around service – many of our congregation volunteer at the hospital, canvass for charities, drive for different agencies as well as give their time to church activities. Many people benefit because of their devotion to service and I know the giver benefits as well.

Where does the time go? The days seem to fly by. I endeavor to write a blog a couple of times a week but this whole week got by me without an entry!

I spent the first part of the week ‘birding’ at Point Pelee. This has become an annual trek for me. It is not that I am at all skilled when it comes to identifying the birds – thankfully I go with friends who are very good at identifying the birds and they are kind to coach and assist me. We saw over 50 different species of birds – the little warblers are the hardest one to differentiate for a novice like me. I was ever so happy to see a Screech Owl high in a tree and a small flock of a dozen or so Cedar Wax Wings. It was a great week. I must admit I also like the time away as we stay in a Bed & Breakfast so our host makes our breakfast and we go out for dinner each night. A week without cooking – that’s a treat!

Friday was consumed with catching up on emails and phone calls. Yesterday was spent cutting dead branches off the shrubs and rooting out the bushes that were damaged beyond repair by the brutal winter we had. The high banks of snow and the ice that fell off the roof broke many branches and damaged the shrubs. And then we discovered, when the snow melted, that the rabbits and other little critters had used our garden shrubs as a salad bar under the snow cover!

This morning was a typical Sunday morning – set up for Faith Trek, re-read the scriptures for the day, greet people before the early service, share the leadership with Kevin, off to the second service sort out a few details with folks as I go, lead the Senior class at Faith Trek and then chat with folks at coffee time and reflect as I drive home – I love my job!

So, here it is Sunday night and another week has whizzed by. When I sit down and look back over the days I am always so grateful for what has come my way. The people, the experiences, the opportunities, the busy times, the quiet times, life can be a roller-coaster and seem out of control, or it can be a steady stream of blessings. That is the kind of life I enjoy and am grateful for – even if it is fleeting.

The Canadian Mental Health Association has declared the first week of May to be Mental Health Awareness week. What a great idea. As they say on their web page, “We all have mental health, just as we all have physical health. Mental health is more than the absence of mental illness. It’s a state of well-being.” I think creating a culture where we can talk about mental health and mental illness is so important. As a minister I so often see the grief and shame that people bear because they, or someone in their family suffer from mental illness and feel they cannot talk about it. I once said to a parishioner, “If everyone in the congregation who has experienced mental illness or has a family member who did, turned purple we would be a beautiful, purple people.” But when caught in the throes of the struggle it is hard to admit to others what is going on. That’s why I am glad there is a Mental health Week.

Clara Hughes, six-time Canadian Olympic speed-skating and cycling medalist is the national spokesperson for Bell Let’s Talk. Right now she is on her “Big Ride”. Clara’s Big Ride for Bell’s Let’s Talk is a 110-day national bicycle tour through every province and territory. It began in Toronto on March 14th and will conclude in Ottawa on July 1, 2014. Today she is midway between Inuvik and Whitehorse. As part of Clara’s Big Ride, she will cover 12,000 km and visit 95 communities along the way. It is her goal to help grow awareness, acceptance, and action to create a stigma-free Canada.

She can talk because she herself experienced depression and has been open about her struggles to maintain good mental health. She is an inspiration.

Many of the stories that tell of Jesus’ healing show us people who faced mental health concerns. He reached beyond the illness to touch the person. I believe this is a calling for the church – to be a safe and welcoming place where people can feel support and experience healing. But I know that some days we are better at it than others.

Jesus spent a lot of time talking to women. He apparently enjoyed their company and he inspired them to be followers of his new ideas. The Bible doesn’t tell of their missionary work but I can’t help but think that women played as important a role as Peter, John, Thomas, Philip, Paul and all the others. Jesus valued women. That has always meant a lot to me in my faith walk. I wonder what Jesus would do in the situation we face in our world today?

Last week the RCMP gave an early look at a document that will be released later this year regarding the missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada. Over 1000 women have gone missing since 1980. NDP status of women critic Niki Ashton said the newly confirmed number is shocking.”If you put it into context, it means that over the last 30 years, 40 aboriginal women and girls didn’t — every year — did not come home to see their families,” she said to Rosemary Barton on CBC News Network’s Power & Politics.”

On the same program, Liberal health critic Hedy Fry added that it isn’t about how many women there are at all.”The fact is, at that rate, if there were other kinds of women, other than aboriginal women, missing or murdered in this country, there would be an outcry. There would be an inquiry, there would be something,” Fry said.

According to the RCMP statement, the newly confirmed data was compiled with the assistance of Statistics Canada from close to 300 individual police jurisdictions in Canada and shows an over-representation of missing and murdered aboriginal women in police databases. It also included the point that while aboriginal women make up four per cent of Canada’s population, they represent 16 per cent of all murdered females between 1980 and 2012, as well as 12 per cent of all missing females on record.

I was stunned when I heard this report last week. This week I am learning about the more than 200 girls that were abducted from their school in Nigeria. Taken by the extremist Islamic group Boko Haram, their leader Abubakar Shekau, spoke in a video to claim the group’s involvement and said that the girls would be sold. As he put it, “There is a market for selling girls.” In the video, Shekau also claims God commanded him to sell the girls.

I feel such despair for those young women, caught in violence, cut down for seeking an education, seen as worthless except for the money they might bring in their selling or for the momentary release they might bring in a rape. It sickens me. How could some men so distort the balance between gender? How could they attribute such perversion to God?

Sometimes it feels like the world is spinning towards destruction and not only will the women be killed first they will also blamed for its demise. It is a sad, sad situation and I find it hard to reconcile.

When in Turkey last month one of the towns we visited was Konya. In New Testament times this town was called Iconium and it was one of the places that Paul preached -see Acts 14. Konya is more popularly recognized now as home of the Sufi mystic Rumi (1207 – 1273). Rumi, among other things, developed the spiritual practice of Whirling Dervishes as a form of prayer and meditation.

We were privileged to experience the Sufi Whirling Dervishes in a presentation they offer for tourists. It was much more than a presentation, it was, for us as viewers, a time of quiet reflection and I found it to be very spiritual.

A couple of year’s ago at our December Book Club one of the women brought along a favourite piece of poetry. There was a time when I put a poem on my blog every Friday. I got away from that practice but was reminded of it this morning. I have been following the blog of a friend who is now touring Turkey with a tour group – taking the same tour route that we did in early April. He included this poem on his blog for today and I thought it was too good not to share with you my dear readers. This come to us from poet Rumi …

THE GUEST HOUSE
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
— Jelaluddin Rumi, trans. Coleman Barks

I decided yesterday I would write a blog about billionaire Donald Sterling and his banishment from the NBA following the publicity around his racist attitude. But as I read about Sterling and the situation that brought about his basketball demise I was so filled with disgust that I was not sure where to begin. I am still not sure what to say about a man with such a history of racism. Then there is the fact that the scandal broke because his girlfriend secretly taped him in order to incriminate him probably in order to build a smokescreen to protect her from a likely lawsuit from his estranged wife. It goes on and on and for the most part shows depravity, lust and greed.

The revelations forced the NBA to discipline a man who has been know to be racist but who until now was not censored for it. The ban and the $2.5 million fine will probably mean little to Sterling – what’s a couple of million to a billionaire? But the players have spoken positively, and with gratitude, for the action taken and claim that it has taken a stand against racism. Yes, but the NBA also needed to protect the game and the franchises from a scandal that could have had a serious financial impact. I am skeptical. True, the NBA stood up against racism but it was only when it hit the headlines. It seems everybody knew Sterling was repellent from the get-go.

If there is anything good that can come from this it is that racsim is in the headlines and that people have seen one person punished for statements that were reprehensible. Let’s hope the tolerance is contagious.

Last year I was introduced to a new-old custom. Centuries ago the Christian Church would spend the week after Easter caught up in fun and hilarity. They played practical jokes on one another, they had picnics, they danced. All this was to celebrate the greatest joke ever – Christ outwitting death!The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. The early theologians called it “Risus paschalis – the Easter laugh”. The new part to the custom is that many churches now call the Sunday after Easter ‘Holy Humour Sunday’.

This Sunday we will be celebrating “Holy Humour’ so I have been having fun this morning as I put together the bulletin and try anticipate what will work on Sunday morning to make the service light and humourous while still meaningful.

I think it is a great idea. So often people assume that ‘church-goers’ are boring, staid and lacking in any sense of humour. I love to laugh and think one of the best attributes a person can have is a good sense of humour. In fact, I know myself well-enough to know that I have been working too hard and am in need of a rest when I have lost my sense of humour.

So now I have a few days to think of some good jokes to tell on Sunday and stories that will make us laugh while we celebrate the cosmic joke that is Easter.

Today is Earth Day. I had intended to write a post at some point over the Easter Weekend but I was pooped! Having spent most of last week recuperating from my Turkey jet-lag I found the round of special services to celebrate the many dimensions of Easter tired me out all over again. So I took yesterday to sleep in and the just do some easy and mindless tasks around the house. But it is a happy coincidence that this day, when I now have time to write, is also Earth Day as the poem I wanted to offer you for Easter reflection also works for Earth Day.

I was first introduced to this poem by Michael, a member of our congregation who, to my grief, passed away a couple of years ago. He shared this at a Book Club gathering one December. I have loved it ever since. Enjoy!

“i thank You God for most this amazing”