Choosing Paths

We’ve been inundated with water these past few weeks.  The Athabasca River has been rising, Edmonton has seen severe flooding that has flooded basements and freeways.  Our Pastoral Relations Minister at Northern Spirit Region, Rev. Adam Hall, has been on the news as the mayor of Tofield, when he declared a state of emergency.  Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

We in Canada are blessed with an abundance of water.  In the 2020 novel “Watershed”, Calgary author Doreen Vanderstoop wrote of what Alberta might be like in 2058.  She imagined the province losing glaciers and the southern part of the province becoming a dry desert worse than the Dirty 30’s. Up in Fort McMurray, there are lush green forests and crops, because it still has water.  The politics and quality of life is impacted in a Mad Max scenario where survival and vigilante behavior is unchecked.  All because of a change in water.

It’s easy to take water for granted.  Living in the arid lands of the middle east, Jesus knew how precious it was.  Rivers were few and far between, wells were the centre of a community, and Abraham and Sarah, travelling through the wilderness, depended upon finding springs for their survival.  Living Water was water that moved.  Water that was still and stagnant, like a certain reflecting pool in Washington, would grow algae and be unsafe to drink.  Water is essential to life, and everyone following Jesus knew it.  Offering water was more than playing nice and being welcoming.  It was the gift of survival. It was radical hospitality.

Hospitality can be as simple as offering a glass of water.  Hospitality is something that can lay the groundwork for community and friendships.  Hospitality can be an invitation to a new way of life.  One of our challenges in the United Church is that we struggle with how to invite.  We think we should invite people to church, but what we are really called to do is invite people to this odd and wonderful lifestyle and philosophy that we call Christianity.

Inviting is not easy if we are unsure of what Christianity is, or why it makes a difference.  It is not easy when the brand of Christianity that gets the most attention is seen as full of judgement and hypocrisy.  When the bible is used to oppress people, we have a difficult time selling it.  When Christian leaders meet with politicians to support legislation that discriminates against people, we have a problem.  The trends that start in the US trickle into Alberta rapidly, fueled by social media that knows no borders.  The Southern Baptist Convention backed away this month from officially ordaining women preachers, and many tictoc influencers, even women, are promoting the idea that women don’t need to vote.  That they can let their men decide on politics for the household.  And this is justified in the name of being a good Christian.

It’s an uphill battle.  No wonder so many people are cautious of churches.  When we develop a culture of invitation and hospitality, we need to be aware of that.  We need to be aware that some people are rejecting Christianity for strong reasons.  Lillian Daniel talks about how people who say they have no religion tend to have four attitudes.  There are the “No ways”, “No Longers”, “Not Yets” and the “Never Haves”. She describes them this way:

The No Longers have drifted from church. Sometimes they return for a big life event like a wedding or a funeral, but not until they feel a lack in their lives.

The No Ways made a conscious choice to leave, often after being seriously hurt by a religious community. Sometimes they find a different kind of church...  When we do welcome newcomers, we do a pretty good job with the No Ways. We're good at telling people what kind of church we are not, and sometimes they like what they hear.

But the Never Haves and the Not Yets have never experienced religious community before. Never Haves are often the grown children of the No Ways, inheriting their parent's anger or pain, nervous about showing up to any church.

The Not Yets are open and curious, and may wander in. Unfortunately, we often treat them like No Longers or No Ways, by answering questions they are not asking. "We're not like this or that kind of church," we say. Meanwhile the Never Haves and Not Yets are simply wondering who we think we think we are talking to during all those prayers.

How we talk about our faith needs to keep these different kinds of folks in mind.  And the translation we heard of the Romans passage is helpful.  It takes the word ‘sin’ and translates it as ‘the path of broken ways’.  Sin has become a weaponized word, full of judgement and condemnation, used to justify taking away human rights, especially for the 2sLGTBQIA community.  Sin is the word that many churches use to try to recruit newcomers, it is a word that pushes fear as the motivation to join their communities of faith.  But the original meaning of the word was “missing the mark”.  A path of broken ways is a fresh original way to think of what keeps us from full life.  A path of addictions to all kinds of things that block us from beauty and harmony. 

We still struggle with our addictions to everything from drugs to temper tantrums.  But our faith and our community help us with that struggle.   We thirst for peace and love and joy and hope.  We are blessed with an abundance of water to quench our thirst, not just water we physically drink, but spiritual water that helps us on our right path to beauty, peace and love.  God’s love has quenched our thirsts for community, thirst for acceptance, thirst for justice, thirst to make a difference.  May God inspire us to listen for the thirsts of our neighbors so that we can offer them living water.