Our readings this
week in the lectionary cycle are ALL about the love and care
that is embodied in our relationships with one another in community.
David lamenting the
deaths of Saul and Jonathan, Jesus offering the miraculous healings to Jarius’
daughter, and to the woman who simply reached out and touched the hem of his
cloak … the expression of love is revealed in the depth of feeling and the
breadth of generosity that is being highlighted and celebrated.
Being faithful means
being generous.
Being generous means
recognizing that there is not only enough, there is more than enough … there is more than enough to SHARE !!
Making the rounds on
the internet this weekend is a picture of the waters pouring over Niagara falls
festooned with an image of the red and white Canadian flag projected into the
front of the falls … a nice image for our Canada Day celebrations! But as I
looked at the image on the facebook pages of numerous friends, I couldn’t help
but wonder what it must have been like for those first explorers who arrived at
the Falls after slashing through the brush and the undergrowth, and having
spend hours hearing the thunder of the water pouring over the brink of the
falls.
The falls are still
pretty impressive today after you drive the six lane highway to get there and
make your way past all the gaudy tourist shops and boorish museums and
attractions, and finally hear the roar of the cataract over the din of Clifton
Street … but what must it have been like 200 years ago – 500 years ago when
there was nothing there but the trees and the wildness of a largely untouched
wilderness and the thunder of the falls?
What feelings of awe
and wonder and perhaps even terror, gripped the hearts of those hearty explorers
and intrepid first nations guides who stood gasping at the sight of the Falls
the way they once were?
I remember taking to
young women to Niagara Falls when I was a university student. Rulah and Rannah
had grown up in a little village called Bethlehem in a very dry desert country …
they had come to Canada to study at the University of Waterloo and we decided
to take them to Niagara Falls to see the majesty of the falls … Rulah stood her
mouth open in pure wonder and awe as she stood looking at the falls … “This is
more water than my country will see in my ENTIRE life time!!” She gasped
watching the water plunge over the edge into the midst.
A little later
standing on the bow of the Maid of the Mist Rullah and Rannah closed their eyes
and savoured the water and the mist as we approached the falls … they were
completely blown away.
Later, as we drove
home they talked glowingly about the incredible abundance we have all around us
in Canada … how could they describe to their families back in the Occupied
Territories what these two Palestinian student s had just witnessed and
experienced? How could they even begin to describe the falls and ALL they
offer?
This sense of awe and
wonder was repeated for me when I was privileged to experience Canada with my
friend and colleague Garth, who had come to study at Queen’s Theological
College from Jamaica. In the year we spent as students in Kingston, Garth
opened my eyes to much of what we take for granted …
I remember his
excited call on October afternoon when the first whisps of snow were floating
in the air – “It’s SNOWING mahn!!!” he yelled in my ear as I answered the
phone. I looked out my window and said – “Dude, that’s NOT snow!!”
A few short weeks
later we couldn’t convince him to leave his apartment when a full blown snow
storm hit Kingston … “No way mahn,” he protested, “I’ll die in THAT!”
Experiences like a
snow ball fight, ice skating, and even driving from Kingston to Stratford
became events of awe and wonder … our drive from Kingston was done in 30 minute
stages. About every thirty minutes Garth would say “Pull over …” And he would
get out and walk around in the ditch and stretch and say – “In Jamaica you can
drive almost anywhere in 30 minutes mahn!!!”
Garth declined to
join me for the five day drive to BC I was about to undertake that summer to
begin my first Student Internship on the very northen tip of Vancouver Island.
His exact words were – “NO WAY MAHN!! I’d be paralyzed before we got out of the
Province!! And I’d be dead by Saskatchewan … wherever that is!!??”
A few years later
Garth came to Manitoba for a visit and marvelled at how flat it really was …
how cold it was (it was 24C the week he was there and he spent the WHOLE time
in a hoodie and sweatshirt!!) … and he declined the offer to take a few days to
drive to the Mountains … but over and over Garth and others have taught me to
appreciate the wonder that is ALL around us, and the necessity to not only
appreciate it, but to remember to share and celebrate it.
I remember walking up
to a barn on the farm of a friend and Garth gasped in horror saying “Look at
the size of that cow!”
We looked around and
wondered what cow he was looking at – the yard was full of Simmetal calves.
Garth practically ran for the car when the momma cow stepped out of the barn …
he wasn’t used to the big cattle we see in our fields every day. And of course
there was the close encounter with a Buffalo Bull in Riding Mountain National
Park when he rocked our little minivan and stared in the passenger side window
at Garth, who for his part said “Nice fellah …” as he put up the window … “and
what’s that going to do?” I asked “make me feel safer” he replied.
Over and over, I have
had my eyes opened to the wonder and the splendour that is ALL around us, and
over and over I’ve learned to truly marvel at how incredible it really is.
We live in a great
country that is abounding in beauty and everything imaginable. Places like
Niagara Falls with their abundance of water, or the look out on Mt Baldy, or
standing on the vast prairies watching your dog run away for three days like WO
Mitchell said, reminds you of who much there really is around us …
Yet, in the Church we
tend to live defensively and miserly … we overlook the abundance and instead
see what we feel we lack …
We could look at
yesterday’s yard sale and pancake breakfast and instead of marvelling at the
300 to 400 people who wandered in and joined us, say – “if we could only get
those people to come to Church …”
They came to Church.
They came and sat in
our chairs at our tables and enjoyed OUR food, and bought our stuff, and came
to Church.
There were at least a
dozen kids who asked their parents if they could go and look inside the Church –
and they went. They came in the doors and looked around at this beautiful
heritage building we call home …
THEY CAME to CHURCH
in droves!!!
But, we have
conditioned ourselves to not see that … we’ve conditioned ourselves to NOT see
the splendour and wonder and abundance all around us … we’ve conditioned ourselves
to no longer be friends who share THAT abundance generously …
A few weeks ago a
video was making the rounds again on the internet, and in it a school
administrator addressed a graduating class by daring to say “you’re not
special.”
Before the Graduating
class of Wellesley High School in Wellesley Massachusetts, one of the teachers
offered a powerful commencement address that reminds the students that no
matter what they may have been lead to believe they are no more special than
anyone else. He ends his speech (one I recommend highly and that is easy to
find on the internet – google search Wellesley High School and you’ll find it)
The teacher ends his speech with the following challenge to his students:
The point is the same: get busy, have at it. Don't wait for
inspiration or passion to find you. Get up, get out, explore, find
it yourself, and grab hold with both hands. (Now, before you dash off and
get your YOLO tattoo, let me point out the illogic of that trendy little
expression-because you can and should live not merely once, but every day of
your life. Rather than You Only Live Once, it should be You Live Only
Once… but because YLOO doesn't have the same ring, we shrug and decide it
doesn't matter.)
None of this day-seizing, though, this YLOOing, should be interpreted as license for self-indulgence. Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct. It's what happens when you're thinking about more important things. Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly. Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion-and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special.
Because everyone is.
Congratulations. Good luck. Make for yourselves, please, for your sake and for ours, extraordinary lives.
None of this day-seizing, though, this YLOOing, should be interpreted as license for self-indulgence. Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct. It's what happens when you're thinking about more important things. Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly. Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion-and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special.
Because everyone is.
Congratulations. Good luck. Make for yourselves, please, for your sake and for ours, extraordinary lives.
Our readings today, in the context of
Canada Day, remind us to live our live abundantly recognizing the splendours
around us and knowing that our God is generous and will pour out blessings upon
us. But more importantly, our readings remind us that we are called by faith to
live out our days by seeking a fulfilled life – a life seeking to serve the
good of others and striving to be selfless rather than selfish.
The abundance around us reminds us
that we live in a pretty amazing place full of awe and wonder and full to
bursting – our task is to share generously the love and wholeness and grace
that is part of ALL OF THIS. Our task is to rediscover that reminder that
selflessness is the best thing we can do for ourselves, and for each other …
May it be so … thanks
be to God … Let us pray …
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