Mush!

I love watching movies! But there was one movie that I hadn’t gotten around to watching even though the dvd was sitting on my coffee table for months.  It was Call of the Wild, by Jack London and starring Harrison Ford.

I remember it being one of the first grown up books I read as a kid.  Call of the Wild is not always pleasant.  But the struggle to get dogs to pull a sleigh together is a vivid image. They go from a pack of snarling, growling individuals that snap and bite to a team that pulls together and gets everything from mail to food delivered across long stretches of cold northern territory.

The scriptures today remind me of the courage and hard work that goes into forming a dogsled team.  Jesus knew where he wanted to go, and nothing was going to steer him away from his purpose.  People who tried to get him to change course were left behind.  His fellow travelers, the team he had put together, were told in no uncertain terms that there was only one destination, and if they didn’t want to go in that same direction, they were not in the team.  The priority was on the destination, nothing else.  The destination was bigger than family connections, cultural traditions, or expectations of rewards.  The goal had to be at the centre of every decision along the way.  Even revenge on those who insulted him would not get to his goal. “Shall we rain down fire from heaven and destroy them like the prophets of old did to their enemies?"  Nope, Jesus had no patience for treating people like that, no time for violence.  He wanted his disciples to love their enemies.

He wanted team players who would pull their weight and let go of the need to be right, or the need for power or control.  To practice forgiveness of the wrongs others did and keep focused on helping people hear the good news of God’s redeeming love.

He wanted to pull people from their individual agendas into a team that could smoothly go the distance and be in it for the long haul.  Just like a dogsled team working together to travel the vast distances in the north.

Paul was focused on that too.  In his letter to the Galatians, he reminded them of the end goal they were working towards, and what stood in the way of them reaching it.  A goal of love, where everyone would know true freedom to live without anxiety, guilt, shame, resentment, depression, anger and fear. Paul’s phrase ‘Living by the flesh’ is better translated as ‘living by impulsive selfishness”, and the list of attitudes and behaviors that destroy teamwork as well as mental health is long.  Some seem odd to us today.  I’m not sure the last time I was tempted to indulge in some sorcery, for example, if I substitute superstition instead of sorcery, it has more meaning for me.  The rest, hostility, arguments, jealousy and the like certainly do tear us into pieces and keeps us all from moving forward.  Snapping at one another like dogs fighting over the lead spot in the dog team means that we are at a standstill.  The sled won’t budge and we won’t get one inch closer to Jerusalem!  But when we deal in healthy ways with conflict or selfish agendas, and substitute love and gentleness and the other fruit of the spirit, we can really get flying as a team.

How do we know we are using healthy ways?  When we have love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, the fruits of the spirit.  When we open ourselves to Christ’s vision, when we set our faces to Jerusalem, when we remember why we do what we do, the fruit reminds us and guides us to rise above our impulses, selfishness and self-destructive behaviors.  The fruit helps us to work together as a team and to stay focused on where we want to go.

Where are we headed?  On the road to freedom, and not just freedom for you and me, but freedom for all.  Can you imagine what it would be like to feel even a little freer from all the stress and challenge of your life?  5% less anxious about money or 5% less jealous of your partner’s friendships or coworker’s successes or neighbor’s car or family member’s vacation home or friend’s travel plans?  5% calmer, 5% more comfortable with prayer, 5% more courageous in talking about your faith? 5% more understanding of what triggers your emotions?  Now some of you who are new to our church might be thinking these are ridiculous claims, and maybe some of you who have been coming for a long time might feel the same.  But I bet if you think back to what brought you here, you might recognize a yearning to have that freedom.  And for those of us who have been here a while, if we look back to who we were a month ago, a year ago or even ten years ago, we might just be able to see that yes, we are that 5% better than we were.  I know that this congregation has helped me develop more resiliency when it came to dealing with all the craziness that Covid put us through.  I am definitely more prayerful than I was, and more focused on making our community a healthier place for all, a little closer to being the new Jerusalem that Jesus, Paul, Luke, John and more worked together to build.

The Call of the Wild was in the end a call to freedom.  We have a call to freedom too, just like Buck the sled dog.  The United Church of Canada says that we are called to be a bold, connected, evolving church of diverse, courageous, hope filled communities, united in deep spirituality, inspiring worship and daring justice. Here we say we are called to Worship, Inspire, Engage, and Empower. Together, with the Spirit, let us work as a team to journey to new ways of living with each other and the world in love and freedom.

Over, Under

 When I was a kid, the ultimate test of friendship was the teeter totter on the playground.  Unlike a swing that one person could power all by themselves, a teetertotter needed cooperation to make it work.  If you picked the right partner.

Too big and you would end up suspended up in the air, looking a little silly, and not able to pull your weight in the game of up and down.  Too small and you would end up on the ground and the other person would be the one looking silly. Then there were the extra long teetertotters that could accommodate more than one rider.  We didn’t know we were learning physics or even math in trying to end up with balanced sides.  And wasn’t it wonderful to have a kind teen or adult that would be at one end who could bring us up and down single-handedly?  Teamwork, co-operation, equality and trust were all required.  I remember feeling sad when I got to be too big for my dad to single-handedly lift me on the teetertotter, but by then he was introducing me to the mysteries of catching a ball in a big leather glove.

Teetertotters are often how we view our relationships with others.  Are we on top?  Are we higher than everyone else?  Who has got the power? Anti-bullying educators talk a lot about power and how there are a lot of people striving to have power over other people.  And there are a lot of people who are in situations where they feel like they have no power and feel bullied and depressed.  We know of children who die by suicide because the only power they feel they have left is the power to take their own lives.  Anorexia can be an attempt to find power and talking to addicts and alcoholics I hear the same kind of language, “no one is going to tell me what to do!”  There was a story this week of a Calgary Heart Surgeon who is retiring and has filed a complaint against Alberta Health Services. Why the complaint and why only once retirement is happening? Well, she is the only female heart surgeon in Alberta, and has faced microaggressions, gender bias and outright discrimination throughout her career simply because of her sexuality.  No wonder other female doctors are avoiding becoming heart surgeons!

It's easy to blame toxic masculinity for the competition over power that some say has been with us since the overthrow of mother goddess worship in ancient Europe.  Jean M. Auel, author of the Clan of the Cave Bear series, hypothesized that once men realized that they had something to do with the babies being born by women of the tribes, they became possessive and controlling over who had access to the women.  But I think it’s even more universal than that.  Women can be just as invested in the battle for power, and the worst bullies I had as a child were the girls who made some pretty cruel comments, or even worse, jumped off the bottom of the teetertotter when I was up high in the air.  I came crashing down, bruising my ego and my trust as well as my tailbone.

Toxic lust for power can be seen everywhere we look.  It’s at the heart of the invasion of Ukraine and the January 6 insurrection at the White House, and the Ottawa Convoy where protestors made noise and garbage for over three weeks.  It’s at the heart of the current run for party leadership of the United Conservatives in Alberta.  It’s at the heart of family violence, abusive relationships, racism and homophobia.  It is even at the heart of how we talk about the homeless in our community in Athabasca.

We want power over because we want to feel safe, to feel in control, to feel competent or important.  And we have historically done whatever we could to feel that power.  We put people like my great-grandmother in Bedlam under horrific conditions or locked them in chains in a graveyard to deal with their chaotic mental illness.  Is there a better, more humane way in which to address this toxic culture we live in?

Some folks have traditionally thought all that was needed would be to give power to the powerless, to give guns to victims or karate lessons to scrawny children.  Give a radioactive spider bite to a weak teenager, or a magic wand to a boy forced to live in a closet under the stairs.  From Spiderman to Karate Kid, the theory has been to give power to victims and that will fix society.  However, studies of bullying in classrooms show that when a bully and a victim are separated without any other interventions, the bully quickly finds another victim, but surprisingly the victim will often find another kid to become a bully!  Or the victim becomes a bully themselves, taking a turn on the teetertotter.

Jesus sidestepped the power over-power under teetertotter completely and frequently.  It’s seen very clearly in his approach to the Gerasene. He didn’t respond by bullying, putting more chains on the man, or responding like a victim, reacting with fear.  He connected with engagement and respect.  With questions to learn more.  And with authority and confidence.  But not with intimidating, controlling, blaming or shaming.  And he rid the man of the power that was bullying him, driving him to drastic behaviors. 

When people say that the world does not change, they are wrong.  I drove around Athabasca looking for a teetertotter in a playground and couldn’t find a single one at WHIPS, LTIS or the riverfront.  The world changes.  We can change too.  We may not send demons out of people as dramatically as Jesus did.  But we can face our own inner demons, the urges that demand we grab power over, or even the fears of being dominated by others power, and claim our identity as children of God who called to be freed from the tyranny of our own bullying and victim urges.  We can become sensitive to power dynamics at the root of sexism, toxic masculinity, racism and homophobia.  We can be healed and healer, committed to balancing the teetertotter of power with everyone we meet.  We do this with God’s grace and love; knowing that healing is real, change is possible and new life in Christ will make the world a better place for all!