Finding Rest for the Weary

Isn’t it nice to rest on the Sunday after a busy Canada Day?  Volunteers make a good public holiday a great one, and it seemed that this year it was even more precious to have a peaceful celebration for everyone.  It was lovely to see so many people dressed in red and white and maple leaves. That felt restful too. 

Goodness knows there have been days that were anything but restful.  The manners and politeness between strangers seem to get forgotten in the political noise and strife that fills our conversations, our social media, and our news reports.  There have been discussions and debates that have been anything but restful, and sometimes downright ugly.  People are dug into their positions, and it’s hard to tell where folks stand unless they are sporting hats or t-shirts.  There are people who are losing sleep, tossing and turning about the state of the world.  Now that the letters about ADAP and AISH have been arriving, there are probably people losing sleep about that.  The stories of suffering that will result for some of our vulnerable family and friends who depend on AISH is causing financial stress.  And the industries who most desperately need employees are the construction industry and the restaurant industry.  However, are people put on ADAP likely to become those employees?  Both construction and restaurant are highly physical and need level-headed common sense under pressure.  Nurses and health care professionals also are in high demand, and again, not likely to recruit folks who are on ADAP.  I’m sure some doctors are losing sleep too with everything changing so fast.  In fact, there are probably a lot of people who are stressed out in this world that is facing what some folks are calling a polycrisis.  Impacts on our environment like flooding and heat bubbles, impacts on our economy with tariffs and trade deals, the loss of trust in systems like health inspectors or government agencies that are supposed to protect our data, and sleep may be the scarcest commodity in Alberta right now!

Humanity always has struggled with sleepless nights.  Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, lost sleep when he cheated his brother Esau out of the family business.  His guilty conscience was so intense that he described it like wrestling with an angel all night.  His attempt to reunite with Esau decades later was also another night of anguish.  Jesus, most famously, lost sleep on the last night of his life, scolding his disciples, saying, “could you not keep watch with me for one hour?”  Scripture says his prayers were so agonizing that he sweated tears of blood.  And Pilate’s wife had disturbing dreams and begged her husband not to condemn Jesus to death.

But then there’s Paul.  Doesn’t he sound like his mind was racing at 2 in the morning as he wrote this part of the letter?  He keeps repeating phrases in a different order, “I don’t do what I know is right, what I know is right I don’t do,” and on and on.  Sounds like a typical brain caught in an endless loop of guilt and self-loathing.  It also sounds like he’s struggling with an addiction of some sort, a bad habit, a broken pattern of behavior.

How many of us can relate to poor Paul?  I know the healthy thing I want to do, but I’ll buy that chocolate bar at the gas station even if I just had lunch 20 minutes ago.  Or I’ll reach for one more cigarette even though a carton of smokes costs more than I want to spend.  Or I’ll go into the casino for 5 minutes and stay 5 hours.  Or I’ll just have one beer at my neighbor’s barbecue, it won’t hurt.  Or this time I will keep my temper and not yell at my family members in public.  Or I’ll just watch one more episode on Netflix.  And the next thing we know, we’ve done exactly what we promised ourselves we would not do.  Whether we have a clear addiction to drugs or gambling or promiscuity or a less obvious addiction like being addicted to gossip or yelling or pity parties, it can keep us from having a full and joyful life.  The kind of life that Christ wanted for us, an abundant life free from fear and guilt and jealousy. A life that is not lived like we are prisoners to bad habits and fears.  A life that is not full of resentments and grudges.  A life free from power struggles where we strive to prove that we are right and everyone else is wrong or ignorant or lazy.  A life that does not take pleasure in calling people names like woke or libtard or fascist.  A life that does not lead to depression, resentment and paranoia. 

Paul’s words would not sound out of place in a 12-step recovery program.  Like AA, NA and other support groups, Paul admitted that he was powerless over the bad habits that he wrestled with.  That’s Step 1.  Then he said how he gave thanks that God set him free.  That’s Step 2, believing in a Power that can free us.  Paul then said that he set his mind on serving God instead of himself.  Step 3 says to make a decision to turn our will and lives over to God however we understand God. That sounds what Paul wrote about when he decided to live by God’s way.

When we obsess over other people’s behaviors instead of our own, when we let addictions to anger or self-centeredness or bad habits of body, mind or spirit, we can end up struggling with sleepless nights, broken promises, destructive behaviors.  But when we hear Jesus inviting us to lay our burdens down and sing a new song to God, we will find indeed that Jesus sets us free from all broken ways.  Now, more than ever, may we as Canadians set our ways to ways of peace and love for all our neighbors not just on Canada Day but every day. May it be so for us all. Amen.

Locking Horns

Can you imagine Joe Biden coming to Justin Trudeau to get baptized?  That’s an odd image, isn’t it, two leaders coming together and one, the leader of the bigger country, asking for a blessing ritual from the leader of the smaller country.  This is hard to imagine, but I think it’s close to what actually happened in this story.

When we remember the baptism of Jesus, it points to how Jesus leaded in ways that respected and honored the leadership of others.  

Many times when two powerful leaders get together, it becomes a battle over who has the most authority or skills or money or followers.  It can become a fight over who is the best.  Like two big horned sheep fighting over a ewe, they lock horns and butt heads and crash together. Two bulls in a pasture, two stallions in a wild herd of horses.  You just know that fireworks are going to ensue.  Leaders often lock horns.  Jesus and John didn’t lock horns, they didn’t do anything that suggested that a power struggle was going on.  Luke’s version omits John’s question to Jesus, “Why are you coming to me to be baptized?” which is in Matthew and Mark.  

Jesus didn’t come as someone wanting to take over from John and steal all his followers.  Jesus didn’t come to push John out of the river and start his own baptism show.  Jesus came with respect, honoring the leadership and ministry John had, and recognizing John’s God-given authority to baptize.  And John was clear with his followers, a better spiritual authority was just around the corner.  John didn’t claim to be a messiah, and he didn’t let anyone call him such.  He knew that Jesus was the one people had been waiting for, who would fulfill the promise that no one need live in fear.  Who would share the message that God claims us all and sees us all as precious. God created us for glory and not for locking horns in power struggles.  

Baptism is meant to be a sign that reminds us of this love.  It’s meant to remind us that God is with us, we are not alone.  All too often, baptism has been corrupted and turned into a ‘get out of hell free’ card.  Although that idea was started in medieval times, it has had a long history of being used abusively. The ticket out of hell idea was originally supposed to assure people, and lower their anxiety.  Instead it increased people’s shame and fear. It was abused to show who was an insider and who was not.

United Church Stewardship leaders say that “Baptism is about the affirmation that there is something sacred about life and that a piece of that sacred goodness is found deep within us. Baptism affirms the inherent worth of each of us and is a physical sign of a spiritual reality—that we belong to a loving God and that the goodness that comes from God is deep within us and serves as a communal symbol of God’s unconditional love.”

It’s easy to brush off this idea or pretend it doesn’t mean much in this world of discrimination, political turmoil, horrendous forest fires, and divisive conspiracy theories.  But the reality is that we need to be reminded of the love God has for us just as we are.  Baptism is not what we do for God, anyone looking at a newborn baby knows that they don’t need to be cleansed of any thoughts or deeds, they are too busy learning what the world looks like and what language sounds like and what food smells like.  They are truly innocent.  And we need regular cleansing of our need to be competitive, of our need to put ourselves down before others do, or our need to hide our flaws, or our need to be right.  And this is something we wrestle with, in community as a collection of flawed but beloved human beings.  Like God’s love, baptism isn’t something earned, or something bought or something won, it is a gift bestowed on us and recognized by a loving community as precious in God’s sight.  It helps us remember that we too are gifts of God to the world.  We are enough as we are.

So how do we respond to this astonishing claim that we are gifts of God to the world?  I think that Jesus and John also model a response to that knowledge.  Instead of locking horns, they looked each other in the eye, and treated each other’s gifts with deep respect.  John acknowledged Jesus and his ministry with profound awe.  “One is coming who will baptize you with fire”, he said, anticipating not just Pentecost, but the burning passion his disciples developed for sharing the healing and compassion that Jesus gave them.  The fire of compassion for one another that would send them around the world with their message of hope and healing and love.  And Jesus acknowledged John by coming and asking for baptism.  Jesus didn’t put on any airs, he didn’t say, “Thanks, John, it’s time to tie up my sandals now and be my personal butler,” he said, “baptize me like you have baptized all these other people.”  

What humbleness, what servant leadership that showed!  Instead of us locking horns with those around us, what if we too looked our neighbor in the eye and saw them as also a beloved child of God, one to cherish and support.  Just as if Biden came, looked Trudeau in the eye and said, “I want to become a Canadian citizen”, we can remind ourselves and each other that we are to see each other as a beloved child of God.  Let us honor and respect the leadership of each other the way Jesus and John honored each other, as God loves us, and as we are called to love one another.