It is a truth
universally acknowledged, that a minister in possession of a sermon, must be
in want of a congregation to preach to!
One of my
mentors in PEI who loved helping us work on sermon topics before he retired,
founded a Jane Austen book club in his congregation. Not only did he get them reading Pride and
Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and the rest of the Austen books, but he had them
reading other novels from the time period, The Count of Monte Cristo, Frankenstein
and so on. Rev. Dawson was also seen on
several occasions in full dress that would have rivaled Mr. Darcy at the
grandest of balls. He’s not the only
Canadian to be a fan, there is a yearly ball in Edmonton where ladies and
gentlemen have been preparing for months by sewing and taking dance
lessons. Young people like my daughter
are watching Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on YouTube for free, or the Lizzie
Bennet Diaries, a modern version where Liz is making a vlog on the
internet. That was so well done that it
took me three episodes in to realize it was based on Pride and Prejudice and
not just some young thing talking about life and the stresses of modern living.
It took a while to convince my daughter,
who first showed it to me, that it was based on a real book, then she was
hooked! There’s many new versions and
retellings, even one from the point of view of the servants slaving away in the
Bennet kitchen. What an eye-opener that
was, back before unions pushed to reduce the work week below 58 hours!
One of the
characters is the indomitable Lady Catherine De Bourgh. She is domineering, elegant, refined, and
quite frankly a nasty snob who discriminates against Lizzie Bennet when she
fears that Liz might marry her nephew Darcy.
She knows the lineage of everyone worth knowing, and judges people based
on how well they can follow the rules of proper etiquette. Her way of living is not that dissimilar to
what we saw in Downton Abbey.
That society
Jane Austen described was the contemporary culture in 1813, a mere 206 years
ago. And it wasn’t much different than
the time of Jesus, or dinners of high state at today’s G7 events or tea at
Buckingham Palace. Choosing who we sit
next to based on our sense of status is a very natural human habit.
Things have
changed tremendously since 1813, of course, and in Canada especially, there is
less chance of someone being judged by who their parents are. But there are still times where is a sense of
class structure. The epidemic of drug
overdoses is occurring primarily in young men in blue collar industries between
the ages of 20 and 29, a trend that is in both Canada and the US. No one is sure why ? In construction and mining, men are six times
more likely to die of overdoses than all the men of their age together.
Wage
disparities are still an issue, with Canadian women earning 84 cents for every
dollar earned by men in 2017, in 2015 the average income for 90% of Canadians
was $33 thousand dollars per year, and the average income for the top 10% was
more than ten times that much, $500 thousand dollars, with over $2 million for
the top .1% of the population.
So as much
as we might like to think we have become a democratized society of equals,
there is still the same snobbery and discrimination that Jane Austen liked to
take pot shots at. The same sense of
entitlement that Jesus challenged. The
same kind of misplaced loyalties that Jeremiah pointed out. The same kind of arrogance that the psalmist
described.
Today we
still struggle with pride. We think that
modern society has all the answers, that science can solve all our problems,
that independence will be the ultimate character trait that we should celebrate
and honor. That pride is not helping
us.
Everywhere
we turn, we can see how our human arrogance is leading us into troubles. Whether it’s shootings in Texas, protests in
Hong Kong, melting glaciers in Greenland and Canada, we see where human
arrogance and pride has led us. But it’s
not just in the Lady Catherines of the world that we can see pride and
prejudice. The Lizzie Bennets, the
average Canadians can also be living egotistically without even knowing
it. We forget the people behind the
scenes that help us have a good life, the ditch diggers, the garbage truck
drivers, and yes, even the street people who want love and hope for something
better.
When I feel
overwhelmed by all the disasters we face, I remind myself that amazing things
happen when I start with the only person I can change, myself. Every Thursday, there are people in our
church basement telling amazing stories of transformation when they chose to
look hard at their attitudes and their pride.
The ones who are humble about their stories are the ones who inspire me
the most. They remind us to start one
day at a time. I started this summer
with a metal straw from Paddymelon and a bamboo toothbrush that is completely
plastic free. I have a travel mug in the
back seat of my car that I use for those impulse trips to Tim Hortons. It is a baby step, but it’s also a way to
remind myself that change starts here at home.
Liz Bennet has to re-examine her beliefs about herself and it’s only
when she let go of her own pride, her own prejudice, that she could get help
from Darcy and bring about the changes she and her family needed in their hour
of shame.
More than
ever we need to recognize, repent and turn back to our God of mercy, who
provides us living waters to drink from instead of polluted, plastic-filled
waters that fail to heal. God loves us
and wants us to have abundant life. I
hope that we can all come to find the joy of true humbleness that turning to
God can bring to our lives and even the whole world.
Just as we
no longer live in a world where marriage is the only status a female can have, and
a world where most children quit school to go to work at the age of eleven, one
day may we live in a world where we live with respect in creation, where we
love and serve others, seeking justice and resisting evil, proclaiming that God
is with us, we are not alone. Thanks be
to God.
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