Doomsday. It’s like a car crash on the Anthony Henday freeway. We slow down to watch the disaster or because the emergency response vehicles are flashing their lights, and it’s hard not to rubberneck as we crawl by. Or it’s like hearing about a tornado and power outage in Vancouver. I immediately texted my son only to find out he had not even known that the power was out for some of his coworkers. Or like the time we were on our honeymoon in Queensland in 1987 and heard that Mill Woods, where our brothers lived and our wedding presents awaited our return, had been destroyed by a tornado! Time stands still for a moment, disbelief is expressed, adrenalin kicks in and we do what we can to connect with our family and friends. Our home in Mill Woods didn’t even lose a leaf off a tree that day. But the anxiety that we endured while we scrambled to find out what had happened took a while to wear off, and we were lucky compared to some folks in the trailer park.
Now we are in times that have left many feeling anxious and
isolated. It feels like we are all
holding our breaths waiting for things to go back to the way they were. Yet so much has happened and is still
happening that it is hard to picture what back to normal, or forward to new
normal, will look like.
Mark was writing his gospel at a similar time of great change. He remembered the ‘good old days’ when Jesus
was teaching the disciples, inspiring, empowering and engaging them. The times Jesus comforted them, the times
Jesus provoked them. When we hear Mark’s
story, there is a lot of Jesus provoking and challenging everyone he met. The scribes and Pharisees, the temple
officials, the keepers of the status quo.
And he provoked his disciples too, much to their discomfort. Imagine standing in a beautiful,
awe-inspiring building that was the centre of the faith, and Jesus saying, eh,
it’s not so great. And Jesus was right
to warn them not to worship the building.
Only 30 or so years later, it was destroyed so badly by the besieging Roman
army that it would never be rebuilt and the western wall is all that’s left of
what was once a glorious symbol of Herod’s ambitions.
The trauma of having the temple, with the holy of holies
destroyed alongside much of the city, was devastating for the faithful. They struggled to understand why God had
allowed it to be destroyed. Leading up
to this, charismatic leaders were recruiting people to wage war on the
Romans. They had some success and wiped
out 6000 Roman Centurions in one ambush.
But as the Romans started taking the insurrection more seriously,
pushing the various groups into Jerusalem, the leaders started fighting amongst
each other in a bloody civil war.
Jerusalem was destroyed, with a death toll of over a million, according
to the Roman Historian Josephus. So
Jesus warning his people of the different leaders who would be vying for their
loyalty was making an important point.
Jumping on a bandwagon because it’s led by a charismatic speaker is not
what God is calling us to do. It can
lead to death and destruction. The world
is full of earthquakes and wars and famine, but we are not to be dismayed. We are to stay focused on our purpose.
I am proud of this congregation. We have been very steady in our focus. When DJs urged us to protest public health
legislation, we did not jump on that bandwagon.
When friends and family started sharing conspiracy theories or recommended
veterinarian medication for Covid, we resisted.
When people thought it was okay to make racist comments in public and
talk about making Alberta great again, we challenged those attitudes. We wore orange feathers and orange t-shirts,
we wrote letters to the editors, we started petitions to save parks, and other
initiatives. We started saying a land
acknowledgement long before it was popular to do so. I was surprised and impressed that the
Remembrance Day ceremony this week started with a land acknowledgement.
Here are two stories from this week of how we make a
difference when we stick to our vision of God’s Community. One was a family of four who came because the
Friendship Centre thought we might have some winter coats to give them. There was an eight-year-old, a mum, an auntie
and a kookum, and they told me that Covid had been a real struggle for
them. They saw our basket of socks and
their eyes opened wide and they were so happy to know that they could take some
home. They also took some of the food
and clothes from our donation baskets.
Next time they come they will take our Jiggs Dinner that we
froze for families in need. There were
other people who were treated to new socks and food this week. People struggling with mental health or with
developmental challenges. But I will not
forget the look on the RCMP officer’s face who came to collect socks for the
Detachment. I told him we had a lot, but
I don’t think he believed me; he told me he’d take as many as we could
spare. Boy, was he surprised with the
basket filled to overflowing! He said
that socks would go out in the squad cars so that if they had to deal with someone
who was in the bush, they would have warm dry feet because of us. And he wanted me to thank you for your
generosity.
We may help prevent frostbite,
gangrene, or even death amongst people who have lost hope that they deserve to
be treated with care and respect. Paul
wrote, “provoke one another to love and good deeds”, and we have done just
that. Having a vision that stays the
course, inspires generosity, empowers our community and engages the ones who
are seen as least among us, is what we as Christians are called to do. When we keep that vision in mind, walls are
broken down, chains are thrown aside, and we all live in Christ’s vision of
freedom and liberty for all.
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