November 21, 2021

There’s been a couple of black bears in our park lately, especially down by the stream, so I was pleased to find this joke:

A priest, a minister, and a rabbi want to see who’s best at [their] job. So they each go into the woods, find a bear, and attempt to convert it. Later they get together. The priest begins: “When I found the bear, I read to him from the Catechism and sprinkled him with holy water. Next week is his First Communion.” “I found a bear by the stream,” says the minister, “and preached God’s holy word. The bear was so mesmerized that he let me baptize him.” They both look down at the rabbi, who is lying on a gurney in a body cast. “Looking back,” he says, “maybe I shouldn’t have started with the circumcision.”

But don’t worry – I can assure you that I am not trying to convert the bears in our park!

Our first reading from Daniel 7 is an apocalyptic or end-times reading telling a story from about 500 years before Christ. As you know, people have been envisioning the end times for countless millennia. Earlier in Daniel 7 he receives a dream-vision from God and envisions a ‘great sea’ stirred up by the ‘four winds of heaven’ and from the waters emerge four beasts (Wikipedia). Well, there you have it – big winds stirring up extra heavy rain waters, and new ‘beasts’ or levels of destruction emerging – isn’t that roughly what we experienced last week? Most of us have likely seen many shocking images or videos of major highways and railroads undermined and washed away, and of flooded farmlands and quite catastrophic destruction that one would hardly imagine possible without that big earthquake this region has been concerned about for so long.

Our psalm also mentions floods three times and the thunders of mighty waters – one of our parishioners mentioned having a spectacular walk along Ogden Point during the storm, and that the sea spray was amazing. Perhaps others saw similarly beautiful things despite the destruction that was taking place elsewhere. As mentioned last week a big Douglas Fir fell over near where I live -- it took several trucks and other heavy equipment and numerous workers five full days to clear away that tree. Five days for one fallen tree, so I can’t imagine what it will take to repair and rebuild so much more major damage wherever the storm wreaked greater havoc.

Humans are always taken aback when the solid things they build end up being more fragile or temporary than they had hoped or assumed. This is also true of our dear and beloved Anglican Church, which has lately suffered more setbacks with some of the skeletons coming out of closets, or the ground, to haunt us. We may be celebrating the Reign of Christ, but we’re also keenly aware of both our failings in indigenous relations and in responding to human-caused climate change destruction. While today we are called to a posture of considerable humility in response to these pressing matters, it’s hard to ‘deconstruct’ the arrogance upon which our Christian church tradition was built. As I said in Friday’s email: by around the year 400 Augustine of Hippo convinced the church that no one could go to heaven without Christian baptism. Yes, he believed that unbaptized babies went to hell, and as a result of that church belief, Christian leaders of residential schools forcefully baptized indigenous children without their or their parents permission. The huge arrogance behind this 1600 year old idea is hard to fathom – that churches believed that God could not freely choose who gets into heaven or was saved. Instead God was bound by whether these children or adults had undergone a certain human procedure called baptism. Can you just picture the angels having to peak into every baptismal registry book in every parish to check which souls could be let into heaven? Maybe that’s what goes on at night in church offices, who knows. Anyways this is just one example of the astounding arrogance that Christian churches have practiced over time, and as Rabbi Heschel said: God is everywhere except in arrogance.

In our gospel Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world. If it were – if the world was running more according to the teachings of Jesus, what would it look like? We discussed this at Thursday Bible study and thought that the Beatitudes would have to be at the heart of such a Reign of Christ. Blessed are the poor in spirit – not the super successful or the super-rich, but rather those who are suffering in various ways. Blessed are the meek – not the proud and arrogant who have no room for God. Blessed are the merciful – those who live a self-sacrificial life, so as to be merciful, encouraging the sharing of life’s benefits with all of God’s creatures. Blessed are those who hunger for justice and thereby become peacemakers. And a good one for us laptop warriors: blessed are those who are persecuted because they stand up for justice.

So as mentioned in my Friday letter, I’d like to invite you now to please come forward to the microphone – let’s hear some of your thoughts on any of this -- your ideas about how the church can better live the Beatitudes and other core teachings of Christ. And how it can further dislodge itself from that old colonial arrogance – both for our indigenous relations; and also for our pressing needs to advocate for stronger climate change mitigation. Any of your thoughts on this are welcome, including your fears or concerns – we won’t debate them or ask you questions – you can just step forward, say a few words, and return to your seat.

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Gracious Creator God, Jesus our Friend and Healer, and Holy Spirit of Wisdom and Grace – we thank you for what has been brought forward here today, for all who have bravely stepped forward to speak their peace or their fears or their hopes. And we ask for guidance & blessing as we walk towards a better future for all, especially for your most vulnerable children around the world, Amen.