Transforming Life

I was listening to Christopher Hitchens’ debate on religion with Tony Blair on the radio and had to agree with many of Hitchens’ examples of religious excess and hubris. Human history is littered with examples of abuses in every institution.

But do poor marriages mean the institution of marriage should be banned? Do corrupt political leaders mean that we should abandon politics? Hopefully abusive teachers and doctors do not mean we should close all hospitals or schools. And one can argue that a fundamentalist interpretation of faith does not mean that religion must be narrow-minded and exclusive.

Hitchens can point out the lack of logic and common sense of much religion but he cannot negate the powerful effect of a spiritual leader like Gandhi.

A poster that hangs in my home office is graced by a quote from Gandhi. He lists the 7 deadly social sins:

politics without principle
wealth without work
commerce without morality
pleasure without conscience
education without character
science without humanity
worship without sacrifice

Will that kind of critique and reminder of what truly matters to human beings ever lose its power to transform life?


Peter

Do I Need To Be A Member?

Here's an interesting stat that confirms what many of us have been noticing in recent years. 1n 2001 about 11% of church goers were not members nor were they seeking to be members. Now ten years later, that number is about the same. But...the number of young adults in that grouping is close to double those who are over 45.

So what does that mean? What do we do?

One response would be to do a whole lot more to try convince the under 45s to change their ways and officially join up. Another response which I think we are trying to live into at Emmanuel is to find ways for young people to be connected and involved in our ministry in all kinds of ways. There are many paths up the mountain. Let's keep them all open.


Peter

Desmond Tutu - Christianity's Dalai Lama

I am going to miss the voice of Desmond Tutu. He retired from public life last month on his 79th birthday.

He always struck me as the Christian equivalent of the Dalai Lama. They both have the ability to chuckle in such a disarmingly human way and in the next moment to startle you with their spiritual insight.

I was a commissioner to General Council in London Ontario when Archbishop Tutu captivated the court with his stories and his presence.

His voice was authentic because unlike many of us Canadians who have enjoyed the best of all possible worlds, Tutu’s faith put him in real danger.

Tutu once said, “God is not even-handed. God is biased, horribly in favour of the weak. The minute an injustice is perpetrated, God is going to be on the sid of the one who is being clobbered.”

He could say things like this and still reach out to those who occupied a contrary view and he could do so with a smile and an open hand. That’s a special gift, to not demonize your enemies. We will miss him.



Peter

A treasure of a small group

Those that study the characteristics of vital churches tend to agree that one of the commonalities of such churches, is their small group ministry. These small groups make a huge difference. If you can find a welcome and a place in a small group then you are much more likely to make that church. your home

Emmanuel United has managed to nurture the growth and development of a number of small groups. I drop in on some of these groups from time to time and marvel at how different they are and how well they work.

This week I joined the group that for many years has been described as “Larry’s Bible Study.” Larry never calls it that but others do.

The group just finished up a several week study of Martin Buber’s theological classic, I and Thou. This book is the theological equivalent of War and Peace, begun by many and finished by few. And although the members take turns in presenting, when the discussion begins to stumble, Larry offers a question or an interpretation and the conversation is up and running once more. It doesn’t hurt that Larry taught a course on this particular text decades ago or that in his 90s he still can skilfully disentangle a concept which baffles the rest of us.

This small group along with its sagacious leader, is one of the many hidden treasures of the Emmanuel community.

Peter

Stewardship - More Than Money

Today we introduce our stewardship program and this year’s theme, More than Enough. That is meant to capture a way of thinking that opens our lives and hands in generosity to others.

How well are we doing at that? One survey of 153 countries puts Canadians in the top five in the world when it comes to giving our money and time to charity. Congratulations! That’s impressive.

The survey also found that people are more likely to donate their money than their time. That’s intriguing. I’m not sure I know what that means.

Does this mean that our schedules are more valuable than our money?
Does it mean that we find it easier to write a cheque than to volunteer? Does it mean we need to put more of our time into opening doors for our church community and others to find a meaningful way to become involved?

Or maybe we don’t feel that we have more than enough time. Some people seem to have all the time in the world. Others are caring for children, parents, or friends and don’t feel they have a spare moment for themselves.

And still others are finding new meaning in sharing themselves with others.
One of the best stewardship testimonies I’ve seen recently came from Theo Fleury, the former NHL hockey player and abuse survivor. He said, “The experience of getting your life back together makes you a quality human being. You’ve got so much more to give,” Well said, Theo.


Peter

Jesus, Wine and Celebration

I regularly visit Home-brewed Christianity and recently saw a blog about What Would Jesus Brew? It sparked some thoughts. Since I am getting ready to get back into home brewing, thanks to a friend who passed on his equipment, this felt timely.

I wonder if a few years from now Emmanuel might have it’s own little Oktoberfest. If we can’t serve God’s hoppy gift at our bazaar maybe we could do a visit to VanKleek Hill and try out some of that wonderful Beau’s Lug Tread Lager at their Oktoberfest next year. There’s a reason this company is winning awards.

Jesus drank with the best of them. And with those with whom society did not sit down with. And his purpose was not escape. His purpose was to widen and deepen the circle of faith. Celebrating a wedding, he made 150 gallons of wine. That’s about 800 bottles. This was a celebration of a new union and a time to rejoice.

In those days it was less dangerous than today. Instead of driving home in a dangerous weapon, all you did was fall off a donkey. Still the social issue of alcoholism and dangerous driving must be considered. But the Bible is able to speak to the dangers while still lauding the gift.

We could learn from that.

Peter

Love of God Creates Moderates

Just because a pastor and congregation in Gainesville did not go through with a threat to burn 200 Qur’ans does not mean the end of hatred towards Islam. Qur’ans were burnt in Kansas, Michigan and Tennessee. Pages were torn out of the Qur’an outside the White House. Two people died in riots in Afghanistan at the thought of this action.


According to Religious News Services, Laleh Bakhtiar, the first woman to translate the Qur’an into English sees in this controversy, a theological difference between both Muslims and Christians who see God as a vengeful or a loving presence.


“If it’s fear of God , then you get these extremists. When you teach the love of God, then you become a moderate.”


It would be good to see the moderates become more vocal about this loving, peaceful God, more intentional about building bridges. Canada needs communities like this.



Peter

Moving House

Seeing a reference to the this book of poetry by Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, I thought of the many times I have had to move from one home to another. Including university and moving for summer jobs, its around 24. There are always a few boxes I never get to. Most of us have had that sense of dislocation packing, moving, unpacking and adapting to new surroundings.

As a congregation we are living through that communal dislocation of moving house in our worship our committee meetings and our activities. I hope we have moments in the chaos when we realize that even these times can be life-giving. One of the traditional prayers in a funeral service encourages us to learn the lessons we can only learn when we are faced with mortality. Being "all shook up" can shake some grace into our lives.

O'Donnell's life began in a harsh and loveless coal-mining home in Pennsylvania. Her poems include her own miner father: "No poem for you my father/ I was always too afraid. Your quick anger, your dark days." She feels his frightening presence and after his death, we recognize the bond as she feels his absence, "hoping to find you again, my father."

As she grows into adulthood, a more hopeful new house emerges. Her sons delight her, as she watches them play basketball through the window and she asks, "Can I wish me a blessing?"

Can we wish ourselves a blessing? Why not?

Peter Lougheed

Where you go, I will go

Tis the season for weddings and that will continue on through the fall season. couples will be fretting over getting the right flowers, music, poetry and maybe even scripture texts for the readings.

It doesn’t get used so much these days but over the years when presented alternative texts, people used to choose the words of Ruth, “Where you go, I will go.”

Athalya Brenner in a recent Interpretation magazine wonders why this text has been romanticized. Not only was Ruth a female, she was also a foreigner and a migrant worker which put her in a precarious position. Brehner says, “There is nothing romantic about being a fugitive, or about seeking economic asylym. What Ruth needed is what aliens and immigrants need today - human rights. Unlike civil rights, human rights are primarily matters of physicalities like eating, sheltering, multiplying, speaking and breathing.”

We appropriate stories from other ages to our own uses, but taken in their original context, their message is far more challenging and provocative than a superficial reading would indicate.


Peter

Prayer - From The Heart, Or Not At All

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Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith

Barak Obama left a prayer at Jerusalem's Western Wall. Stephen Prothero admitted to reading this private communication, if it was indeed private. I mean what celebrity puts a prayer in the most famous prayer site in the world and expects it to remain private. Some seminarian stole the prayer and published it. Prothero says he was struggling with how to pray himself and so gave in to that common but questionable habit of looking over someone else's shoulder to read what was not intended to be public. Turns out it was nothing remarkable. In the end the only true prayer is one that emerges in honesty from one's own heart. It needn't be pretty or erudite or even polite. It does need to be real.

Prothero says that if he was to return to the Western Wall today he would leave a prayer for Obama and McCain. He'd pray that each of them would listen to what the Wall has to says about power and vulnerability, and the delicate and dangerous dance between them. That's Prothero's understanding of transcendence -"the significance of any human being, however large, is dwarfed by the mystery of millions of things we will never fully understand, not least the practice of prayer itself."


Peter

Revitalization Realization

This past Sunday, we had a meeting of the congregation to deal with some unexpected news about our anticipated CE Hall revitalization. Already on a tight timeline to get this done before the cold weather returns; already committed to a carefully debated cost estimate, expecting to be passing the final motions that would give the project the final go ahead, it was a shock for all of us to discover there were new expenses that increase the budget by about $400 k.

The good news, and let's remember that is our raison d'etre, is that none of us has to carry this burden alone. We have the wisdom of our community to lean on. We have experienced and sensible committees that are meeting to help us find a way though this situation. We have a history in this congregation of rising to clear some serious hurdles. And there is this fairly significant presence in our midst called , God. "Have a little faith" is a refrain that keeps reasserting itself into exasperated conversations.

I don't know what the outcome will be, but I am guessing that "having a little faith" will be important.


Peter

Banana Slug Psalm by Meera Subramanian

from Believer Beware

"We found the tree - a fir wolfy with age, cloaked in lichen - and collapsed into the soft earth, looking up into infinity from its base. From there on the ground, from the vintage of an unbeliever, I imagined that this is what finding God must be like. Or rather, not finding but feeling found.,,My friends and rose, to see if we could circle the tree, all four of us with arms stretched taut, faces pressed against the rough bark, linking our hands to form a current. That's what God is, right? something so big that you, alone, can't wrap your arms around it. Something that stays with you, no matter where you go, right?"

I heard Stewart McLean on the radio today speaking about the first time he saw a beluga whale. Watching this great creature, only a few feet away, moved him and others present, to tears.

Meera and Stewart experienced what Celtic Christians called thin places, places where the boundaries between ourselves and the world fall apart, where the sacred shines through. Our souls long for this connection with nature with a capital N. Is it happening for you?


Peter

You’re Not In Oz Anymore

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From Believer Beware;

You’re not in Oz Anymore which amounts to Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet interviewing Velvet

They met at the AGM of a few thousand witches, druids, and magick -workers. The gathering happens at a campground called Heartland, about an hour north of Kansas City. Velvet is not her real name but it’s the name she goes by in her coven of elf-witches. At first this sounds like a Dungeons and Dragons chapter but the more you listen, the more you get the sense that these folks take this all very seriously. Here’s what Velvet says,

“ There’s a list of elven gods this long, but I don’t even worship ‘em. I worship Hecate and Loki. Hecate and Loki are both ‘dark deities.’ I hate that term. The deal is they teach really hard lessons. And they’re not lessons you want to learn. People want Magick to be all flowers and rainbows. And life is not all flowers and rainbows. I’m sorry. Neither is is it all death and such, but people don’t even want to face that Loki has a tendency to teach by playing a trick, and once you pick it up you go, ‘You know, I should’ve known that.’ Hecate is more of the opinion of ‘Smack, okay you’re in this situation, now get out of it. Okay you learned something, didnt’cha?’

It’s not just the cosmos that is stranger than we could have known. So are the religious groups living all around us.

I sympathize with Velvet trying to explain what brings meaning to her life. I find myself in her shoes on a regular basis. I suppose for a lot of people today, elf-witches are no wierder or scarier than Christians.

And we don’t have to fight ‘em or convert ‘em or join ‘em. We can love ‘em. That was what this morning’s service was saying to me. Listen closely enough to our neighbours to find out what we share, and if we don’t get turned off by the strangeness, we might learn something.


Peter

Believer Beware: First-Person Dispatches From the Margins of Faith

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"Please Don't Feed the Prophet" by Daniel S. Brenner

"I don't know what kind of person you are, but maybe you don't believe that God loves you any more than Barney the Purple Dinosaur loves you..."

Daniel's dispatch is a stream of consciousness rant on the seeming impossibility of making a connection with a loving God. He ends with this story;

"There was a child born whose mother did not give her milk. Nor did she give her love, nor think of her as a miracle as she lay in the cradle. A bitter woman, she was, a tormented woman, her mind had been warped by the selfishness of those around her and she saw her child only as a burden, a chain, an affliction.

Yet in spite of the mother's neglect, the child grew. For in her dreams each night an angel would come and feed her. First the angel fed her letters, all the letters of the languages of the earth. And these letters nourished the child.

And as she grew the angel began to feed her words. And this was good. She grew more and soon the words grew into poems, and the poems begat songs, and the songs begat stories upon stories.

Soon the child was grown up, and she walked the earth filled with the letters, words, poems, songs, and stories from the angel. And in small groups, people would gather to hear her. Some men wanted to hunt her down and kill her for her stories frightened them. Some women wanted to slit her throat from jealousy. Her stories spoke of the deep shame of her life, the silent pain, the loneliness. And when she spoke, those who heard her felt a nourishment they had never felt, a mending of all that had been shattered. She roamed from place to place and spoke in her quiet way, a cross between whispers and lullabies. Where is she now, this child fed from the letters of angels? ... She had disappeared. Wandered off deep inside your soul, calling out to your right now to join her. She's getting ready to tell you a story.



Peter

Believer Beware

I've always had a connection with Doubting Thomas. He's the sceptic among the believers and many of us can identify with that. Many of us hear a statement of belief and our response is "Yes, but...." I think Erik Hanson would understand that.

Eriks grew up in the Evangelical Covenant Church. But by the age of 22 he had developed an uneasy relationship with that group of believers. Other influences had been working on him. So when he found himself as a counselor at a camp designed to bring about a born again experience among teenagers, it was a most awkward situation.

Hanon writes,

"From Kierkegaard I knew that Truth is subjectivity, from Nietzsche that Christians were pop Platonists, and from Rene Girard that the New Testament revealed the scapegoat mechanism secretly present in all other myths. I knew Christianity, like life, was something far more complex and messy and hard and weird than you could explain to teens in a week. And I knew that it was condescending and wrong to make teens feel dysfunctional if they did not have a Jesus experience in just the way the CHIC had preordained for them."

Here's to the revolutionaries in the crowd, the protestors in the group, the divergers, those who ask the pointed question. You are walking alongside the One who wrestled hard with the tradition and found himself in the loyal opposition. Jesus loved the tradition but he sure did not see it the way the traditionalists did.


Peter

Believer Beware

To Pardon all our F***in' iniquities

Laurel Snyder grew up in a home where religion was somewhere between the opiate of the masses and a kettle of fish better left alone. As She did go to Hebrew school on Sundays but only to keep the grandparents off their case. After her parents' divorce, her mother started going to church. This caused Laurel much confusion, trying to sort out the often opposing messages between church and synagogue. She was never quite sure what was a bad word since it changed with the religious views of the family. In time, following religion classes in college and a host of other influences, Laurel began to shape a Judaism that fit her political interests and aesthetic.

And now she finds herself trying to navigate the Jewish season of awe, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is the time to ask forgiveness of those we have harmed. During the Yom Kippur service, chests are thumped and a prayer is recited, called the Vidui. The prayer is an alphabetic recitation of the communal sins committed. Laurel calls it a string around the finger, a way to begin a new year by apologizing to others and ourselves (maybe even to God if we like) for our mistakes and missed chances. If you ask three times then the other person has to forgive you. if they don't, you are forgiven anyway. You get a do-over, if you bother to ask.

Some of the wisdom of an ancient path which Laurel affirms in her earthy style.

Peter

Oscar Romero and History

It was March 24. Just a couple of hours before the procession to remember the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Romero. Before we joined the march, our group was invited to visit the headquarters of the National Civil Police. It was chilling to walk through this palatial building, knowing that underneath the lovely courtyards lay the clandestine cells where death squads brought citizens of this country to suffer at the hands of the police.

We met with a director of Investigations. This man is responsible for investigating crime today and the disappeared from the years of the war. He is Augusto Castaneda and he is also a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church. He told us one of the best fruits of last year's election was the reform of the police force. A number of commanders were replaced so that now finally the police are no longer given the freedom to do whatever they want. Discipline and accountability have been enforced.

I saw a photograph on his shelf of Augusto and Desmond Tutu who as you know was one of the leaders that contributed to the end of Apartheid in South Africa. Augusto told us that it came from a time when he was in Haiti at election time providing security for Desmond Tutu.

Augusto asked Tutu if he could have a photo with him. After the picture Tutu asked,

Where do you come from?

I come from El Salvador, the home of Oscar Romero.

And what do you think of him?

I think he is one of the greatest men in the history of El Salvador.

Tutu shook his head. He said, "No. Oscar Romero is one of the greatest men in the history of the world."

These were the words ringing in my ears as we walked that afternoon through he streets of San salvador to the Cathedral and the tomb of Romero. Fitting on the verge of Holy Week.

Peter

Everybody has a mother and they all die

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This is excerpt #6 from, " Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith"


Jeff Sharlet says, "Mine did; your will too. When she does - if she hasn't already - you'll be sorely tempted to make sense of what has happened."

Jeff speaks from experience. He asked the doctors for her medical records. They told him that they would do him no good and that if it was a lawsuit he was after that he'd lose because they knew how to handle these things.

He asked his grandmother for some of his mother's letters and it was in these letters and poems that he received some understanding of who she was. She developed a faith out of many faiths. In one letter she wrote to a doctor, she said, "For some reason I don't find it necessary to be exclusive. I concentrate on Buddhist meditation and Christian prayer. And sometimes a phrase comes to me that seems addressed to the Great Spirit."

But I like best her poems, such as this one from three months before she died,

"This body, bound in skin and downy hair
Is shuddering, weeping.
It breathes and whispers a thank you with each breath.
It likes to be giddy.
It likes the mysterious warm tingle of red wine on a dark winter night,
The startle of fragrance when an orange is cut.
It likes the smack of cold winter air..
It like to dance until it is the music."


Peter

Love: Prince or Frog

Cathleen Falsani, author of " The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers" , in a recent Sojourners article, related her attempt at a reading at a friend's wedding. After much thought she chose excerpts from Tom Robbins' " Still Life with a Woodpecker" which featured an exchange of letters between an environmental princess named Leigh-Cheri and a tequila-swilling outlaw called Bernard:

"The most important thing is love," said Leigh-Cheri. "I know that now. There's no point in saving the world if it means losing the moon... I'm not quite 20, but thanks to you, I've learned something that many women never learn: Prince Charming really is a toad. And the Beautiful Princess has halitosis. The bottom line is that a) people are never perfect, but love can be. b) that is the only way that the vile and the mediocre can be transformed , and c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love."

Bernard's letter, via his attorney, arrived shortly.

"Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honour and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question, The words, "make" and "stay" become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free."

So here's a mix of realism, a love's bad breath, mixed with a degree of idealism which must be part of any new venture, or we'd never set out. If we were to write or borrow some lines to declare our love for a new love or a mature love, how would it have grown, evolved since you first met?

Peter

I am a Sea

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This is excerpt #5 from "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith"


Patton Dodd remembers a day when he was 12 years old, listening to the singing of hundreds of junior high evangleical Christians. They sing:

I am a sea! I am a sec-aiche! I am a sea-aiche are eye aye en!

He has no idea what they are saying. It turns out they are singing:

I am a C! I am a C-h! I am a C-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n!

Now years later Dodd says that shouting something does not mean it is entered into your heart. He no longer can affirm that evangelical certainty. But I sense that there's something there that he is missing.

There are countless dropouts from Christianity. Other refer to them as graduates. I wish for them and for us all, a more flexible faith, a faith that can mature and develop and continue to evolve. So many exit the faith without realizing that many followers of Christ no longer adhere to the triumphalistic faith of the literalists.

It is possible to be part of a community of the Spirit that enlarges rather than restricts the spirit. I want to say to these foks, don't stop the search.

Peter

The Temple Door

This is excerpt #4 from, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith"



Danielle Trussoni writes of her travel in Vietnam. Is she a pilgrim or a tourist? Her father had been one of the countless tragedies that war left in its wake and now the daughter has come hoping to make some sense of his broken life.

One hot afternoon, Danielle finds her way to the doors of a Buddhist temple. An old monk invites her in. He asks her if she is a Christian. She says she was raised Christian but has no idea what she believes any longer. He looks on her with pity. "You must discover this. It is important to know who you are." When she was about to leave, the old monk offers three joss sticks of incense and tells her that she must pray. "Pray for what?" She asks. "You will know," he said, "when you begin."

As she tries to pray, and through the haze of the incense, Danielle recalls the family movies of her childhood. Before her parents split up, they used to gather in the evening, kids in their pyjamas, to watch 8mm film projected on the wall. Her father always said those were the best years of his life.

She recalls watching those movies again after graduate school. One scene stands out. Her father is walking along side of her as she learns to ride, holding the bar of her bicycle seat. She recalls falling and skinning her knee, but the actual event is captured on film. She doesn't fall. Her father had been there to catch her. Danielle realizes that her memory is inaccurate, coloured by later conflict.

Danielle prays for her father's illness to disappear. She prays that all the terrible things that happened in war would never happen again. She prays for peace.

Some of the most important discoveries come when we are in a strange place. The experience of dislocation allows us to explore in ways we don't when we are in a familiar place. You don't have to step out of your present context to gain perspective, but sometimes it helps.

Peter

What's past Jersey?

This is excerpt #3 from, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith".



Seth has been visiting with Jeffrey twice a week for several months. Jeffrey is in the Juvenile Detention Facility in the South Bronx. Seth is trying to teach Jeffrey and the rest of the class to meditate. Jeffrey sits in the back and rarely says anything. He appears completely disinterested. Seth asks, "What it's done for you?"

It turns out that Jeffrey meditates every day in his room. Seth is taken aback.

"...every night I go into my room and I read for a while. Then I turn out the light and do the breathing stuff you taught us. In, out, in, out. Fifteen, twenty minutes. Then I do my prayers and go to sleep...There's this place I can get alone in my room. I get into the zone...It's like duhhhh. You know what I mean... I can have everything I want in there, total freedom. It is real strong, like I was...well you know, like at peace."

"..but they don't let me stay in there. The staff kicks out...All day long we got to sit out here on this unit. It f... sucks...I can't be happy out here. All this noise. The TV is blaring all the time...And people always coming up and bothering you...No peace, man. No way I can be in the zone out here.."

Seth says, "That's why it's called a practice. Inside your room you got it, man. And that's great, keep it up, (but it) isn't about finding a place and escaping, that's too easy. The real training is, can you do it anywhere, anytime...the peace is within you, Jeffrey, not within your room."

Seth tells him that he used to live in the quiet woods and meditation was easy. When he came to New York it was tough, but "I didn't put my head under a pillow.."

Jeffrey wants to know if the forest is in Jersey. Seth says, "It's way past Jersey." Jeffrey asks, "What's past Jersey?"

Peter


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God? Goddess? Positive Life Experiences!

This is excerpt #2 from, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith". On the back cover comes this recommendation - "In a world river by absolute convictions, these ambivalent confessions, sceptical testimonies and personal revelations speak to the subtler and stranger dilemmas of faith and doubt, of religion lost and found and lost again."

"Zen Mind, Alkie Mind" by Martha G

Martha says she didn't go to AA to get sober or find God. She was 21 and she went to meet guys. She wasn't big on the serenity Prayer or the the Our Father which she had learned in Latin in Grade 1 and never really used since. Neither could she go with the goddess which worked for some of her female AA friends.

Eventually she realized she was damaging herself with alcohol and needed help to stay sober. God still didn't make sense to her and when her father died she no longer tried to make that connection.

On reading that, I wonder if maybe that will change in time. Jung says that for many people the spiritual journey does not make sense until the second half of life. But maybe Martha is already on that journey.

After 21 years of sobriety, Martha says, "It matters less and less what I believe and more and more to me that I show up, a day at a time in my life, and listen to the stories of others doing the same thing...AA is short on absolutes...but the AA Big Book suggests that if you stick around, your life will change and get better."

That rings true for me. Like many others in the church, I am less concerned with exactly what I believe and more concerned with having my life change in a good way. That church community can help us with that day by day transformation.

Peter



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Jew Like Me

I'm going to try something a little different for these blogs. I'm going to work my way through an unusual new book I'm reading, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith" . This is the second collection to come forth from KillingtheBuddah.com. On the back cover comes this recommendation:

"In a world river by absolute convictions, these ambivalent confessions, sceptical testimonies and personal revelations speak to the subtler and stranger dilemmas of faith and doubt, of religion lost and found and lost again."

Jew Like Me

Peter Manseau offers the first dispatch. After graduation, Manseau worked for an organization that collected Yiddish books. This French-Irish-American who had learned some Hebrew while studying religion at college began to be mistaken for a Jew. In his Yiddish class he'd been called Pesach so that was his new name.

During a Lubavitcher wedding he watched then joined "concentric circles of black-clad hasidim, dancing madly, a most pit of piety." They began to call for the "Rebbe", the late leader who they believe is the messiah and who they also believe will return to them.

I've seen this kind of sacred frenzy a couple of times - in the streets of Jerusalem just outside the old city and in front of the Wailing Wall/Jerusalem West Wall on Pentecost weekend. Young men and little boys dancing, drumming, caught up in the intoxicating ecstasy of the blessed.

Pesach collapsed into a chair. Out of the crowd emerged two hasidim. One was about four feet tall. The other had Down Syndrome. Pesach asked the four foot man, "He's a rabbi?"

"Of course. And you know what else? I think he's more than a rabbi. His voice dropped to a drunken whisper. "I think he's the Rabbe. I think (he's) chained up inside him and we've got to get him out...Wouldn't that be just like Hashem? Hiding in silence, seeing what we'll do"

I like that. It sounds like the transcendent God, whose secret identity incarnation cannot help but surprise us.

Peter



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Who would be a Samaritan to you?

If you saw the film documentary Super Size Me, then you'll remember Morgan Spurlock's method of investigation. He immerses himself in his subject. 30 days of eating super sized meals at McDonald's caused damage to his health as well as a depression.

Spurlock parlayed his way of understanding big issues into a series on Fox television. Each episode of 30 Days placed an unlikely person in an uncomfortable situation, eg. a self declared homophobe has to live with a gay man in San Francisco for a month; an avid hunter moves in with a vegan animal-rights activist.

Most of us tend to surround ourselves with people who think like we do. Diversity is a great idea but not so easy to bring about in our world. If we had the imagination and courage to get to know those who are radically different from us, we might get Jesus's challenge to love our neighbour. Who would be a Samaritan to you?

Peter


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Your Budget - A Theological Statement

Last year in the midst of the recession, Mervin Lehman offered his perspective on why his Indiana Amish community was struggling financially.

"People wanted bigger weddings, newer carriages...They were buying things they didn't need."

Newer carriages? Quaint? Humorous? Certainly, strange to our ears. It would appear that consumerism is able to reach into even the most intentionally austere of religious communities.

Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chair make his own theological statement on the economic crisis, "Unless somebody can find a way to change human nature, we will have more crises."

Nobody has managed that. But at the very least, faith communities can continue to emphasize good stewardship practices like seeing your budget as a theological statement, being intentional about our charitable givings, making an effort to cultivate a generous heart.

Faith communities offer us the encouragement to develop the best part of our human nature. Bank on it.

Peter


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Debt Relief - Hope For The Future

On a visit to Haiti I met a young man who saw no hope for the future. He put a face and a story for me on a desperately impoverished and violence-wracked country.

I thought about him again this week when I heard that the last of Haiti's external debt was finally erased. A billion dollar debt was removed this past September.

It had been a tough few years. In 2008, a series of hurricanes struck the island. But it was the huge debt that blocked future progress. The necessary policy changes were made as required by the World Bank and the United sates forgave the huge debt. Haiti joins over 20 heavily indebted poor countries who have finally dumped these terrible debt burdens.

Now people fighting to stay above water can hope that life can improve. Many voices joined together to insist that debt relief for poor countries was necessary. Those voices had an impact.

Peter



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