Take That Risk

Seventy seven years ago a seventeen year old young woman was waiting off stage at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. It was amateur night and she was next on stage with a dance routine. But the duo before were also dancing and when they were done she was so imtimidated that she could not dance.

She decided to sing instead. She had never sung in public before. She wasn’t sure that she had any singing talent. But she sang anyway. Her name was Ella Fitzgerald.

It makes you wonder what would happen if we risked a new routine.


Peter

Of One Mind?

Last week at the Kairos Bethlehem encounter, the whole gathering seemed to be of one mind. But of course that is never the case and over the week some differences became more apparent.

In one presentation from a European country, there was a challenge to the patriarchal attitudes inherent in the document.

This was vigourously opposed by some of the local Palestinian authors including women. They felt that this was just one more imposition from the outside telling them what to do. Local voices said , “At this point we are just trying to survive. Allow us to tackle these issues in our own way, at our own speed.”

However the representatives of Christian social justice groups and churches were all agreed on the the Kairos document’s call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the Israeli settlements. We were convinced that the relentless increase in settlements, roads and barriers has placed the Palestinian community in an impossible situation

Where else in the world is a whole people barred from using the main highways because of their race? is this not technically an apartheid?

The Kairos document asks the Christian community to act before it is too late. I wonder if Canadian churches will do so. I wonder if we here at Emmanuel will be able to see the world through Palestinian eyes.


Peter

The Wall Of Separation - Posts From Bethlehem

We met at dusk for a worship service at the Wall. This outdoor service needed a little light. During the opening words, the presider invited the security guard in the tower that loomed over us to turn his searchlight on us so we could see the words on our bulletin. When that did not happen we resorted to candle light.

I joined two ministers, Lisa serving the Lutheran church in Sweden and another from the church of Scotland in reading alternate words to O little Town of Bethlehem. Mine were:

While morning stars and evening stars
Shine out in your dark sky,
Despair now stalks your troubled streets
Where innocents still die.
And Jesus, Child of Mary,
Whose love will never cease,
Feels even now your pain and fear,
Longs with you for your peace.

After scripture, hymns and a choir from the Bethlehem Bible College, a sermon, and an exchange fo olive branches and candles, we walked out to “We are walking in the Light of God” to plant an olive tree on behalf of Kairos. Our midweek evening Advent services are around the theme of light, so I felt you were all with me as we worshipped here this night, holding up our candles of faith hope and love in front of the Wall of separation.



Peter

We Are Pilgrims - Posts From Bethlehem

How often does one get to spend the second Sunday in Advent in Bethlehem? I am staying for the week in the Bethlehem Hotel, a half hour walk from the ancient Church of the Nativity. This morning Barbara Lloyd, the other United Church representative, and I got to the Church before the tour bus onslaught.

I had to bend in half to squeeze in the tiny door of the church. Here was a reminder at the door to humble oneself when entering. This for me is one of those "thin places" in this land. That's what the Celts called these places where the threshold to the holy was more translucent than usual.

We had arrived at the end of what may have been an Armenian service of worship. Sun streamed in the upper windows casting the pillars in lovely tones of light and shade. The atmosphere was thick with incense and radiant with large chandeliers and freshly placed prayer candles.

We took a seat just emptied as the worshippers had gone forward for communion. They streamed by us with pieces of bread in hand. For what purpose? To share with family members who could not attend? To take to relatives in hospital? We felt a bit disconnected to what was taking place in a language that we did not understand. We were visitors but we were not just tourists. We were pilgrims, as we told the Security officers when we entered the country yesterday.

A woman walked by us with her two children. She turned and with a smile offered a piece of bread. Her son did the same.At that moment we felt part of that Bethlehem Advent service.

These Christians in the Holy Land have gone from 10% of the population to less than 2% but they are still here and they have a story they want to tell. That's why we are here this week.


Peter

Apocalypse And An Unlikely Saviour

The film Melancholia fits with the apocalyptic images in the scripture texts for the first Sunday in Advent. Our cinephile group saw this at the Bytowne on Friday night. Kirsten Dunst was brilliant and I can see why she won best actress at Cannes.

Danish director Lars von Trier who was banned from Cannes after jokes about Jews and Hitler, has a bleak view of relationships and the fate of the world. He conveys the brokenness of the humanity in ways that has the audience shaking their heads and groaning.

The weight of the world which as been on Justine (Kirsten) begins to shift onto us. We feel the sadness, the inability to escape fate. And then there is this moment when an unexpected Christ figure steps forward.

It is a small thing in the larger scheme of things but an act of compassion occurs. Sometimes that is all that is available to us.

Some of the group are lobbying for a more cheerful film next time.



Peter

Remembering The Past

This morning our community of faith began to meet at 9 am. That was the time that veterans, their spouses and/or children sat down for breakfast with some of the youth of Emmanuel. Parents of the youth and the teenagers served the meal. It is a lovely tradition.

Conversations took place as the young people got to hear from these veterans what life was like for them as they went off to war as young people. And our older members showed an interest in these young people, asking them about their lives. Some of the youth had been to memorials in Europe and spoke about them.

The vets, families and youth then walked in to the sound of the bagpipes played by James Ritchie, a grandchild of Jean MacDonald. A young child walked in with her grandfather dressed in his uniform, looking up at him and wondering what it all meant.

This is one of the ways we show respect for the story of our congregation members. This story includes suffering, sacrifice, and grieving. It is not an easy Sunday. Emotions are close to the surface.

And as I look out over the worship gathering, I see those who have been in war zones in Afghanistan, El Salvador and countries in Africa. These wars have all left their scars and we hope that our children will not have to experience this in their lives. And so we pray for peace and we work for a more peaceful world.



Peter

Looking For Inspiration - Look At Our People

I have spoke to several people this week whose commitment to being part of this community amazes me.

There’s a woman who takes three buses to attend one of the midweek programs at our church. And she brings children along with her.

Three woman that I have spoken with recently have to battle their way through the difficulties of the morning to get themselves ready for a 10 am service.

Another person just does not have the support to make that time in the morning but devotedly listens to the live-streaming on the web.

And I am sure that is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the inconveniences that individuals overcome and the sacrifices that people make to connect and contribute to this community of Emmanuel.

All I can say is, Wow! That is inspiring!



Peter

Thinking And Acting Outside The Box

Don’t we love to think of ourselves as unique, free thinking individuals who make our own decisions?

Bill Bishop, not the fighter pilot one, wrote The Big Sort, a book on how we pick our neighbourhoods. Bishop says that we have a tendency to choose to live among those who are politically ‘like us.’ By choosing politically like-minded parts of the country or city, we become a little less likely to encounter other points of view.

Knowing how power works, it should be no surprise to us that the political machinery is well aware of their constituencies and who is living in their neighburhoods. Not only do they know where we live, they know how to design their message to appeal to our self-interest.

Here again, Christians and all those who care for their neighbours, need to be ‘as wise as serpents and a harmless as doves.” Those who do think of the needs of those who are different from us, have a greater responsibility to speak and act for the common good.


Peter

The Right Battle

I was on a study leave event this weekend and I heard a story about Dietrich Bonhoeffer that I had never heard before. Apparently there was a time when a number of the German pastors were present at a meeting with some important Nazi officials.

The highest ranking Nazi rose to his feet and shouted out, “Heil Hitler.” Bonheoffer and others pastors who were resisting the Nazi regime stood up and joined the salute.

One pastor remained seated. Bonhoeffer leaned over and said, “Stand up you fool. This is not the time. This is not worth dying for.”

Bonhoeffer as we know did die for his faith but this was not to be the time or place or issue. Which raises the question , what is the issue that is worth going to the wall for? If we decide to make a stand, then let it be for an issue we can look back on and feel good about. Let it be carefully considered rather than a reaction.

On our journey of transformation, we are all in the process of learning what this means. How as a community do we move together? How do we make truthful and loving decisions? We are all learners and we are all teachers in this process.


Peter

Tolerance Through Breaking Bread Together

Someone has done a study on race relations on campus and they have discovered that students who eat with other ethnic minorities are more likely to report good race relations than those who do not.

Apparently it is not enough to have racial intermingling in the classroom or dormitories. The report suggests that one difference is that the dining room seating is voluntary.

This coming Sunday is World Communion Sunday and that is a reminder to us that this communion we are part of is meant to be a force that brings all races together around one table. Canada and Ottawa are home to an amazing diversity of peoples. Sometimes our churches reflect that reality.

One more interesting point in this study. The dominant white community felt they did a better job than did the ethnic minority groups. That tells me predominantly white churches still need to do some soul-searching.


Peter

Lady Gaga

After this week’s gospel reading on the foreigner woman who bested Jesus in a debate and proved to be more Christian than he was, I am looking for unexpected sources of truth. And I stumbled across Lady Gaga.

It turns out that Lady Gaga began life as Stefani Germanotta. Maybe I’m the last to discover this but an article by Rodney Clapp describes her as an awkward teenager. She experienced bullying for being ugly, having a big nose and giant eyebrows. They put her down for her laugh, her makeup and her love of theatre. It got bad enough that she wanted to stay home from school.

In her new life as Lady Gaga, Stefani has maintained her outrageous persona. But despite her present day fame, she can’t forget her pain as an unhappy teenager. Thus beneath the flash and glam, Stefani conveys a message that despite others’ putdowns because you’re too fat or too skinny, despite harassment because you’re gay, you have real worth. if you’re a misfit, embrace yourself.

Fans write to her in gratitude for helping to liberate them from the chains of hate. A 15 year old offers this testimony, “At every concert you’ve said that you want to liberate us and that is what you’ve done. Your songs have taught me not to listen to haters and be who I am, because baby, I was born this way.”

Lady Gaga may be an unlikely source of truth but this sounds like good news in unusual packing.

Peter

Real books

I can’t quite get my head around this one. I read a few days ago that the University of Chicago has opened a state-of-the-art library. The pubic space is full of computers. But there is not a book in sight. What? Obviously students are learning to learn without books. Actually most of us are. Amazon has announced this week that they are selling more digital books than print books. I have to admit that I downloaded the Wind in the Willows and was reading it at the pool while waiting for a little girl to finish her swim lesson. I understand the convenience of the digital library but I still like to see books around me on the shelves without having to turn on a machine.

In a recent magazine which still comes to me on paper through the mail, John Buchanan quoted this from John Updike,

“Shelved rows of books warm and brighten the starkest room...By bedside and easy chair, books promise a cozy, swift, and silent relapse from this world into another...Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture...Books hold our beams down; they acts as counterweight to our fickle and flighty natures.”

Non-Violent Protest IS The Way

Stephen Zunes , professor of politics and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco and chair fo the academic advisory committee of the International Center on Non-violent conflict, offers a view off the mainstream media grid.

He claims that the most successful pro-democracy protests have been the non-violent ones. Over the past decades, this has been the case. Note - the Philippines, Serbia, Chile, Poland, Bolivia, the Maldives and now Egypt and Tunisia.

Even Libya made its greatest strides in the early non-violent phase of the uprising. In the first week resignations took place in the cabinet, pilots crashed their planes or flew them out of the country, refused to bomb protesters. Thousands of soldiers defected. But when the protest grew violent the gains stalled.

Zunes claims that Libya may end up being an example not of the ineffectiveness of non-violence but of the need for strategic, well-organized non-violent protest.

It takes great courage to take part in these protests but in the long run, the violent rebellion may prove far more costly.



Peter

But I don’t like church!

So how is the church to respond to a generation that does not seem to want to go to church? Some younger people are attending but the echo generation (the children of the boomers) is less connected to church than previous generations.

Tom Sherwood, former campus minister, is helping us to listen and learn to the echos. Tom is conducting a research project on youth and young adults called Listening to the Echo.

Tom’s research uncovers a deep spirituality that is part of the lives of many young people. They care about justice issues. They are passionate about the environment. They just don’t see the church as being relevant or helpful to them.

Tom heard this comment from a 20 something young person:

“Religion is more harmful than helpful.”

Tom says he has heard lots of ignorance about who we are as the United Church. Many young people confuse us with Catholicism and American fundamentalism. When the echos articulate their theology, it is remarkably like our own in the United Church.

How do we help echos see the real us?

Perhaps we need to be clearer and more articulate about who we really are. as a faith community. Perhaps we need to find ways to be in conversation with young people to see what we do have in common or to see what we can learn from each other. What do you think?

....more on this in weeks to come.


Peter

God So Loved The Dirt

“God so loved the dirt...”

There it was - this unusual title of a magazine article about God loving dirt.

It seems like a fitting headline for this weekend with Good Friday and Earth Day coinciding. Christians should be first in line when it comes to caring for the dirt and for all the other elements and beings of creation.

The Holy Weekend begins with Jesus going straight from the Last Supper to a garden where he prays for guidance. And now on Easter morning Mary goes to the other side of the city to follow the burial rituals. Here in the cemetery she mistakes Jesus for a gardener. And so he is. The God who is revealed in Genesis is more gardener than warrior. We lost that somewhere along the way and as Joni Mitchell wrote, “we have to get back to the garden.”

In Norman Wirzba’s article, he says “Whether Christians do right by the environment depends on whether we see the Earth as a megastore where we can shop for whatever we want or as a garden that needs careful tending.”



Peter

Accept Me As I Am

A local Houston paper reported that over two dozen churches in Houston sponsored a “Bring your Gay Teen to Church Day.” This was set in motion because of a teenager’s suicide. A desperate young person could no longer cope with years of bullying. The largest church in Houston, Joel Osteen’s megachurch, declined that invitation to be involved. Osteen believes homosexuality is a sin.

I recall on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Amarillo, a young person from Joel’s church told me how exciting it was to be part of a such a huge congregation. You really should come here if you are ever in town. If I was a young gay person, being bullied, I don’t think I would feel all that welcome at that megachurch.

I wonder how welcome gay folks feel in our community. I wonder what we can do to make those who endure cruel jokes and spiritual judgement, feel more welcome in our congregation. The Ottawa Presbytery is taking this year to explore what it would mean for us to become an affirming presbytery. I hope we can be listening and learning so we can consider that question for our own congregation.


Peter

Prayers For Hard Times

The news of the world over the last month has been very difficult to watch. The stories from Japan, Yemen and Libya seem to pile misery upon misery. No wonder that anyone who can seems to want to get out of those dangerous places as soon as they can.

One story I heard recently reported Christian leaders in Libya who say they have no intention of leaving the country. Religious sisters working in hospitals in the eastern coastal religion have been tending the wounded. The Catholic Church is the largest group in Libya but other churches are also living their ministry in the midst of much suffering and uncertainty. So our prayers are with Catholic, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and our Pentacostal brothers and sisters.


Peter

How Safe Is Our Path?

Like many of you, I have been watching the disaster scenes from Japan with horror. Is this really taking place? Are those real people in those cars, slowing down as the wall fo water rushes toward them and they are swept away?

One interview today was shockingly real. A Canadian returning from Japan and his work with a nuclear plant described his experience. As he watched from a safe vantage point cars in the parking lot below were tossed about. A nearbye fishing plant was picked up and slammed into a cliff. He admitted that he was still shaking. This native son was so grateful to have his feet back on solid Canadian ground. He was never going back to Japan Then he warmly embraced his grand-daughter.

We Canadians often feel grateful when we return home to safe, familiar territory. But as people of faith, we have a second instinct, a counter cultural instinct to go out into a world which is increasingly uncertain. Our mission is to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. How safe does that make our path?


Peter

How Can We Respond, As A Church, To The Need

Jan and I tried all the church doors until we finally found one that opened. This was 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, an African-American centre of protest in 1963. In September of that year, four members of the KKK dynamited the church killing four girls between the age of 11 and 14. The tragedy reminded the world of the cruel determination of those who resisted the dream of racial justice.

In 1997 Spike Lee produced a documentary about the four girls and the lives that were cut short. Since then their stories have been in my thoughts.

We were shown around the church by a man whom we took to be one of the deacons. Particularly moving was the gorgeous modern stained glass of a black Jesus on the cross, a gift from the people of Wales.

I asked if any of the families of those girls still attended and he said yes, there were still family members that attended worship now and then. He took great pains to tell us that this was not just a museum but was a living breathing congregation of Christians.

Amazing how the church provided such leadership and strength to the civil rights movement. I wonder if we could do so again in response to the immense needs in our world.

Divided Loyalties

I was one of the fans celebrating on Sunday when the Packers won the big one. But I had to feel for players like Troy Polamalu. He is known for his thick hair commercials and his violent hits but I had heard that he was one of the nicest guys you could meet in that high pressure world of professional football.

Now a Pittsburgh paper has reported that five years ago Troy and his wife converted to Orthodox Christianity. Troy says there is nothing so beautiful to him as the Orthodox liturgy. Troy fasts during Lent and for another six weeks during the winter Lent or what we call Advent. He does not claim that faith makes him a better player. But it does give his life meaning.

This is why it’s hard to be a sports fan-atic. When you get to know a little more about the personal side of the enemy team, your loyalties can be divided. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Peter

Bridge Builders and Spiritual Engineers

In a time of religious and racial intolerance and misunderstanding, (when hasn’t that been the case) there are always a few who are not content with complacent hand-wringing. There are always people around us who are trying to bridge divides. Eboo Patel is a Muslim community builder who is trying to do just that. And he says the most frutiful ground for creating interfaith cooperation is on college campuses and in churches.

He builds on the ideas of sociologists Bob Putnam and David Campbell and their recent book, American Grace, who say that one of the most effective ways to improve attitudes toward people of different religious backgrounds is to have a positive, meaningful encounter with them. Do something together and attitudes change.

That means we are in a unique position in a church community. We are situated in the very place where change for the good, can and does happen.

We are blessed with a community of bridge builders, spiritual engineers. Blessed are we!



Peter

God's Light- Peace For All

Friday night our church film group took in London River, a tough film to watch. A Christian woman and a Muslim man search London for their children following the 2005 bombings. In the discussion that followed at a local bar we came up with quite a list of why this was anything but a Hollywood ending. Still the two parents found ways to hesitantly reach across their separate realities. And it was the Muslim that took the initial and the larger steps.

Even tentative attempts to bridge the religious and cultural divides in our world are steps worth taking. Some say that it is only Christians that are taking the steps. But then comes the news that Muslim intellectuals and activists called upon Egyptian Muslims to attend Coptic churches for Christmas Eve mass to show solidarity with the country’s Coptic minority after the Epiphany bombing of a Coptic church.

A 40 year old house wife Fatima Mostafa said, “I want to show the world that Islam is a religion of peace and that such attacks are nothing more than a result of poverty, ignorance and oppression.”

A story like that makes you believe that God’s light might yet find a way to make some of the old prophecies sound possible.


Peter

Success Starts With A Single Step

I’ve been reading Parker Palmer’s writings on spirituality for years, so I was delighted to find a reflection by him on writing as an act of faith.

Palmer describes a revelation he received thirty years ago on holding in his hands the first copy of his first book. Up until that point he had written essays. Somebody liked what they read and asked him for more. The next thing he knew he had a book.

The bolt from heaven was that we can do things we don’t think we can do if we don’t think about doing them.

And so “if you can’t write a book, then write a lot of essays. If you can’t write an essay, write a lot of paragraphs. If you can’t write a paragraph, write a line or a word. And if you can’t do that on the page, write your truth with your life, which is far more important than any book.”

For Palmer faith is less about a big leap, more about taking one more step. Writer or not, that applies to us all.


Peter

Dare To Change - Trust The Spirit

So do you have any resolutions for the new year? There are those who say that people do not change, that January gym members' enthusiasm inevitably expires before their memberships do. That may be reality but it does not do justice to the few who do make a decision and manage to stumble along in a new direction. Some people do change, some of the time.

The gospel texts for the season of Epiphany are all about choosing a new direction. Jesus chooses to go to John to be baptized. Simon and Andrew choose to follow this new teacher. Jesus chooses to see his next steps of faith as a response to the inspiration of the Spirit.

The decisions to move in a new direction are probably never as neat as the story describes. There is probably more doubt, disagreement and discouragement than the narrative reveals.

But the gospels have this spirit of adventure and hope that is quite thrilling. I choose to believe that despite our human resistance, the Spirit constantly invites us to new beginnings. That's a theme I am going to be exploring this month. Can I interrupt old patterns? Can I open some new door in my life? Can I trust that God has something new for me to discover?

"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"
Isaiah 43:19


Peter