Great Fear to Great Joy?

"How is everyone doing?"   So often when we are home for the holidays, that’s the question we want to ask and sometimes that’s the question we dread answering.  Sometimes our answer is great, we have lots to celebrate, new job, new home, new friends, new opportunities.  Sometimes the answer is “busy,” lots of tasks and plans and events to check off our schedules.  And sometimes the answer is “doing okay”, and sometimes the answer is “I’m fine”.  Which can often be  shorthand for, “If I didn’t need to be polite and if you were a friend of mine, I’d tell you the real truth which is that I’m freaked out, insecure, neurotic and exhausted.” 

No one likes to admit that they are freaked out, insecure, neurotic and exhausted, and who could blame them?  We live in a society that looks down on people who don’t have their act together.  Obviously, they haven’t worked hard enough, had their priorities straight, or taken responsibility for their mistakes.  And some folks for sure are the makers of their own drama, the creators of their own chaos.

Others, however, find themselves dealing with things they didn’t plan for, or ask for or anticipate.  They never expected the twists and turns life would throw at them, and for many in Canada and around the world, they are one paycheck from bankruptcy, one visit to the foodbank away from starving at Christmas, one pair of socks away from frostbitten toes that will end them up, if they are lucky, in hospital. 

Palestinian Christians, the ones whose ancestors were the first to follow Jesus, are asking for the support of fellow Christians to pressure governments of Middle East countries to put the needs of children first.  Especially the children in Gaza who are being targeted by military from both sides.

It’s not just children in Gaza that we are worried about. At the end of 2023, the United Nations estimated that there were 117 million forcibly displaced people in the world and that 47 million of them—40 percent—were children! In Canada, 1.8 million children go to school hungry because their families can’t make ends meet. Moreover, StatsCan reports that seven in ten children reported being bullied in the past year because of who they are or what they believe.

Far from Canada, a, tradition of the Masai people of Africa. They don’t ask, “how are you” like we do, they ask “Kasserian Ingera,” which means, “And how are the children?” 

The reply is “All the children are well.” Even those without children of their own answer with this assurance, because the well-being of the children is understood as a collective responsibility. If the children are safe, nourished, and thriving, it means that the community is healthy.”

Children don’t care where they are born, what has been planned, what is expected, whether it is an opportune time or not.  Mary and Joseph probably would have wished that the baby would have come in a time and place of their own choosing, but they lived in an occupied country with an army that patrolled the streets looking for troublemakers.  Mary and Joseph may not have had to fear drones overhead or contrails or conspiracy theories or antivaxxers, but they had their own worries.  They had no say in where they had to go for the census, they had no way of knowing if their journey would be interrupted by bandits, and they certainly couldn’t phone ahead to make a reservation.  The extended family in Bethlehem was supposed to take care of them, according to tradition, but for whatever reason, the in-laws and second cousins and great aunts couldn’t make space for a pregnant young mom. How could they neglect her so?

Neglect is easy when we are struggling with bills and taxes.  There’s a lot happening and things get forgotten.  Maybe the letter Joseph sent to his relatives got lost.  Maybe It was his great grandfather’s home, and he hadn’t been there before. Suddenly a baby comes into the world and the only place for it is in the feeding trough.  Poor Mary must have been beside herself in fear and Joseph may have felt embarrassed that this was the best his family could provide.

And yet, despite feeling freaked out, insecure, neurotic and exhausted, there was something special that night.  Maybe it was that first precious meeting between parent and baby. Maybe it was the unexpected visitors, shift workers doing the grubby jobs that were so essential that they were exempt from the census, those smelly shepherds who came to see what the neighbors and family missed.  Maybe it was the sense that there would be a time when corrupt politicians would no longer be able to hide their greed and selfishness from the world.  Maybe it was the idea that even though the worst could happen, a refugee couple with no hope of finding a roof over their heads could still have a warm place to be in their time of trial.

When we are feeling exhausted or lonely or run off our feet, when we feel hopeless or helpless, when we are worried about the children, it’s easy to lose sight of the good news that came to us so many years ago in Bethlehem.  Every year, we remember that what we do matters, how we act matters, and especially how we care for children matters.  Jesus reminds us that all children are gifts, and to be taken care of.  And that even when things seem dark and hopeless, hope comes in the midst of chaos, hope comes when we least expect it, hope comes even when we are freaked out and fearful. The good news is that however we greet each other, whatever language we speak, whether we are fine or good, whether the children are well, God is with us, and keeps gifting us peace, hope joy and love when we least expect it.  Thanks be to God for this wonderful gift!

Rebel Mary full of?

Louise Penny writes of a portrait that one of her fictional characters paints.  It is of an old woman who looks out, bitterly, cynically and tired.  It is a painting of the foul-mouthed, rude and irrepressible Ruth Zardo, a main character in the Three Pines books, and she is painted to be Mary, mother of Jesus, a more unlikely portrait of Mary to ever be made.

It makes sense to see Mary as a woman who will know the harshness of life.  Anyone who has gone through Good Friday knows how incredibly hard life can be.  It’s one thing to have the hopes and joys that new moms have, it’s quite another thing to sustain that confidence for the long haul.  The flush of innocent hope, the excitement of justice restored and equality being proclaimed to all, would have been heady.  No wonder Luke wrote her singing of the world being turned upside down.  And no wonder this is the only speech Luke reported from Mary.  She doesn’t make a speech at the foot of the cross, she doesn’t make a speech on Easter Sunday or Pentecost Sunday.  No, she kicks off the birth narrative, and we never hear of her again.  

Which is sad, when you think about it, because Mary understood Jesus better than his disciples, from this reading.  Jesus wasn’t meant to be a candy-coated, sugary sweet elf on a shelf kind of figurehead.  He was meant to be a real rebel, someone who would turn the power structures of his day upside down with his calls for justice in the name of a loving God who wants widows and orphans to be taken care of and treated with dignity and respect.  Mary understood that.  She understood God’s plan would mean afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted.  She knew that love of those who are weak and powerless is not easy.  It’s more than collecting jellycats to fill an emotional vacuum, it’s more than trying to prove you love your family through expensive presents, it’s more than trying to decorate the house better than Martha Stewart or pack amazing activities into the winter holidays guaranteed to make the kids misty-eyed when they remember it in years to come.  We often get love wrong despite our best efforts.

One United Church person had a habit of writing songs about getting love wrong.  He was an active member of the same United Church all his life.  In fact the first time he ever sang in public was when he was 5, and the Sunday School class performed “I’m a Little Teapot” for the church.  That same church was where his funeral was held, far from the pomp and circumstance of many other famous Canadian musicians.  In fact, if he wasn’t touring or playing in Massey Hall, he was usually found singing in their church choir on a Sunday morning.  His songs of love were memorable, intense, poignant and often full of pain.  He had numerous marriages and relationships, and several children by different womeMan, and sometimes those complex relationships ended up inspiring his music.  Songs of heartbreak, anger, betrayal and also humbleness; one of his most famous songs talked about him being the hero but heroes often fail.  He sings, “I don’t know where we went wrong but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back.”  Love was a complex mystery to him, relationships were hard and family dynamics were not straightforward. He was married three times altogether, but the last time seemed to work out finally.  In fairness, he did a much better job loving Canada.  When other Canadians moved to the United States to become famous, he moved back to Canada after only a few years in California.  That didn’t stop his songwriting, nor his growing fame.  His music was covered by all kinds of people: Neil Young, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Barbra Streisand, and Johnny Cash to name a few.  Even in his 80’s he performed across Canada. People remember him as being kind and humble and compassionate; he was so loved that there is a sculpture of him in his home in Orillia Ontario.  He even was the celebrity captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1991–1992.  He was a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Country Music Hall of fame, and even had a Canadian stamp!  CBC thinks he is the fifth best Canadian Song Writer, better than Bruce Cockburn but not quite as good as Leonard Cohen.  He inspired countless young people to make music and keep loving our country.  Some people said he was the first person that ever got them excited about Canadian history when he wrote songs about trains or shipwrecks.  And when Gordon Lightfoot died, the legacy he left was one of love and respect. 

Interesting that Lightfoot who knew first hand the challenges of love, never gave up on being a caring and kind person despite his personal heartbreak.  Through all the ups and downs of grief and health issues, premature reports of his death, a stroke that had him having to learn to play guitar all over again, Gordon persisted in being humble and compassionate to the end.

I can imagine that Mary also persisted.  Her vision of what the world needed was so crystal clear and compelling that it must have survived all the challenges of losing her beloved and gifted son.  Maybe when Mary heard Luke ask her about her son, her soul again cried out with joy. The painting Louise Penny imagined of the old, embittered woman?  She wrote that there’s a dot of white in Ruth’s eyes, the moment when her bitterness is transformed into hope. When she is reminded once again of her powerful vision and conviction and how they are turning the world towards justice.  God is still at work, bringing change and love into the world. May we too feel our spirits sing as we remember God’s promise of justice to all!

Snakes Alive!

John is at it again.  Lecturing, name calling, telling people off.  Calling them snakes!  He doesn’t pull any punches.  He lets them know in no uncertain terms that God is not happy with the way humans are living their lives.  They need to make some changes, he demands.  They are not living up to God’s expectations and are letting down their part of the Covenant between the people of Israel that came into being when Moses first showed up, that was behind the story of why there are rainbows in the world.  God makes covenants, enters into partnership, wants to be in relationship with troublesome humans who keep breaking their side of the bargain.  Then God connects with Isaiah and sends a message that these broken covenants are not what God wants!

Today’s passage of Isaiah about "the wrath of God" which results from these broken covenants, is pointing to what all the scriptures have in common this Sunday. That many people believe in the wrath of God. And while there are some folks who probably should take this more seriously, like certain politicians, leaders of organized crime syndicates, murderers, billionaires with their mega yachts who complain of rising wages, people who start wars, scammers that phone at 6 in the morning claiming that you need to pay a speeding ticket and the like, who could do with a taste of God's wrath, most people are doing the best they can to get by. The postal workers, the teachers and nurses, the cleaners and the cooks, the typists and the professors, the car washers, the truck drivers and the grocery clerks. How does the wrath of God help them when they are more afraid of the wrath of their bosses? It's stunning to learn that those bosses are earning in a single year what their average employee will earn in their lifetime. The CEO of Tim Hortons earned $151.8 million dollars in 2022, including benefits and other compensation. That's quite the gap between him and the donut server earning $15.64 an hour, according to CBC reporting. So much so that when you crunch the numbers, he is earning the same salary as about 5000 of his employees combined. A poisonous snake who exploits humans as resources. Still feel like having a double-double? What would John say about it? Probably what he said to the tax collectors; stop with the greedy exploitation!

Believing in the wrath of God is surprisingly common.  Many people grew up with the story that God has so much wrath towards us that God killed Jesus, torturing his innocent son to death.  The idea of original sin or looking at images of Jesus bleeding on the cross, just emphasizes this image of a wrathful God. 

Too much anger though, and people shrivel inside.  Too much negativity leads to stunted growth.  Too many put downs, accusations and guilt trips leave people stuck in apathy and anxiety.  Many hurting souls give up hope.  They turn to selfish ways, caring only about themselves and their families. Or they turn to addictions to numb the pain of never being good enough. People who are trapped in this kind of self-hatred live in constant fear of God’s wrath.  They turn to gurus, psychics, televangelists and charlatans but they do not find comfort.

If only someone would read the words of Isaiah to them.  Isaiah, who heard God saying, “Comfort, oh comfort my people, speak tenderly to them, and tell them that their day of pardon has come.”  This is not an angry God.  And in today’s reading, God is the one to turn away from wrath.  God is the one that provides comfort.  God is the one that saves the people, God is the one that protects and strengthens.  God is the one who helps refugees sing a new song in a strange land, and God is the one who brings joy.

Joy comes in surprising ways.  The amazing and prolific writer, C. S. Lewis, talked about this surprising nature of God’s comfort and joy.  In his book, “Surprised by Joy”, he wrote about being a dyed in the wool atheist happy to focus on only the things he could touch or taste or smell or hear or see.  And yet, when he heard music, when he recited a poem, when he saw a sunset on a walk, when he read a fairy tale, when he saw a work of art, he would get a joyful emotion that he couldn’t explain away.  The surprises slowly and surely baptized his imagination and seduced him into rejoining the faith of his childhood. He abandoned religion because of the hypocrites and snakes he met in the church.  Joy brought him back. And little did he know as he was writing it, that his friend and proof reader, Joy Davidman, would a few years later become his wife, adding to even more surprising Joy.

John knew that same surprising joy, and he wanted his followers to know it too. And he told them simple concrete things that we can do to live in right relationship with God and each other.  He tied it into our livelihoods.  Don’t hurt others, share what you have and don’t get greedy.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  And he told them that he was not the messiah, that one was coming who makes him look like an amateur in comparison.  He was right in that, for a very simple reason.

John was mired in the wrath of God. Isaiah and Jesus were not; both saw God differently, acting in love, God doing the comforting.  God doing the surprising.  God bringing Joy.  Even to people like you and me, struggling with our own moments of snake-like anger, even when we too know we are hypocrites, preaching love one moment and raging the next, God is with us, we are not alone.  Thanks be to God for this gift of good news of salvation and surprising joy for all of us!  Amen. 

Drop Your Burdens!

There’s an interesting book that came out in 2021.  It’s called “First Nations Version - an Indigenous Translation of the New Testament".  It uses cultural metaphors and language for the old biblical story that we know very well.  Jesus is called “Creator Sets Free” and John is known as “Gift of Goodwill”.  Their version of Luke 3 says, after all the historical stuff about who was in power:

“It was during this time that Creator’s message came down from above like a burden basket and rested on John.  His message was for all to return to Creator’s right ways of thinking and come to the river to perform the purification ceremony to be released from their bad hearts and broken ways.  John was like a voice howling in the desert, ‘clear the pathways! Make a straight path for the coming of the honored one.  Then all people will clearly see the good road that sets them free.”

Wow, what different images these bring up.  Being released from bad hearts and broken ways to follow a good road sounds pretty enticing.  All too often the old language that we are used to, “Repent and turn away from your sins” sounds like an invitation to browbeat ourselves with guilt, shame and blame, tell ourselves how awful we are, and come to God groveling and embarrassed.  Not at all appealing.  That might have worked at one time, but most people today recognize that guilt and shame do not grow healthy souls.  Psychologists and counsellors do not spend time insulting and bullying their clients into better behavior.  It just doesn’t work!  But being released from broken ways, who wouldn’t like to be set free to walk along a better path?  Sign me up for that!

How do we do that?  Now, this is not the time to go down to the river to pray and wander into it up to your waist for a baptism.  Too cold these days for sure.  But it was curious that John’s message of repentance and redemption was described as a burden basket.  What is a burden basket?  Why is it mentioned as part of this scripture on the second Sunday of Advent when we focus on peace?

Turns out the burden basket is known as a tool for building peace.  It was traditionally used by women to gather firewood for their homes, and it was worn on their backs like a backpack.  When a woman got home, she would hang it by her entranceway.  The women were only supposed to put as much wood in it that they could carry, so as not to hurt themselves or burden themselves more than was healthy for them.

They hung their baskets outside their homes as a reminder that their homes were sacred and they were to leave their burdens at the door and not bring them inside.  This was also a metaphor for how they were to behave when they went to someone else’s home.  Visitors would touch the baskets and remember not to bring their burdens into someone else’s living space.  They were not to add their burdens to their hosts.  If they were visiting with anger or hurt, jealousy or fear, those feelings were to be set aside.  One does not add one’s burdens and problems to someone else without permission.  One deals with their own issues outside the sacred space first, and does what they can to recognize and be responsible for dealing with their own loads. It’s called accountability.

What a kind and peaceful way of living!  What a way of to be responsible for and then released from the things that weigh us down.  There is a time, of course, for asking for help, but knowing when that time is, and who the appropriate person is to ask for help is also a way of building peace.  Laying down our emotional burdens is a way of reminding us to purify our intentions and our words and our actions.  And be accountable for our own burdens so they won’t hurt someone else.

What burdens would you put down if you had the chance?  There’s so much to choose from.  The world right now feels like it isn’t very peaceful.  South Korea is under martial law one moment and then not the next.  I’m unsure if the ceasefire in the Middle East is a thing or is it off again, Ukraine is still at war and North Korean soldiers are fighting for Russia, and what’s happening in Syria? I don’t understand the Tariff thing with Mexico and the States, and the whole situation in the world seems anything but peaceful.  We teeter between anxiety and apathy, neither of which are healthy alternatives for us as humans or as a society.  Where is peace found in all this fear?

People are lonely, people are anxious, people are struggling, people are hurting.  They don’t know where to turn to and they don’t know that peace is possible.  And maybe we don’t have control of what happens in the bigger world, but we can choose to commit to being bearers of peace.  And only carry as much as we can manage.  The rest gets left.  Drop that burden.  Right here, right now.  In this burden basket we call Christ’s good news.  Release our broken ways, our hurting hearts and our wounded path for the good path that purifies us so we can all walk the good road that leads to peace.  Amen