January 25, 2015
Epiphany 3
1st Corinthians 7:29-31
Psalm 62:5-12
(prayer)
Today, I find myself thinking about significant influences of my past. When we have influential and inspiring experiences, we hold them dear - and often, we look forward to repeating them again sometime.
This past Wednesday, I was forced to accept that there were two things I will never be able to do again:
· I will not get to attend anymore events at the Naramata Centre, and
· I will not be able to learn from Marcus Borg, directly again.
On Wednesday morning, the American modern theologian and author, Marcus Borg, passed away at the age of 72, after a prolonged illness.
That afternoon, the Board of Directors of the Centre at Naramata announced that (after 68 years) the Center was closing immediately.
I had heard that Marcus was not well, but I did not know that he was gravely ill. I use his first name (not because we were friends) but because he was a great influence on who I am and how I am able to think
I had heard that Marcus was not well, but I did not know that he was gravely ill. I use his first name (not because we were friends) but because he was a great influence on who I am and how I am able to think
and speak about what I believe. I was blessed to attend lecture series he gave on five different occasions over the past 20 years.
I knew that Naramata Centre has struggled for many years and that this past year has been particularly challenging as they could no longer avoid the realities of what it takes to be a conference-retreat centre like that now-a-days, but I had been hopeful that some new version of Naramata Centre would emerge. I was blessed by the numourous workshops and conferences I attended there, highlighted by the time my whole family were there for a week of their summer program.
I am not experiencing a gut-wrenching grief at these losses - like the loss of a close loved one (like the family of RCMP officer Wynn in St. Albert or the Tremblay family here in Leduc) - but I am grieving in a way.
My mind knows that no one and nothing lasts forever, but my heart is melancholy. To be facing the future with Naramata Centre and Marcus Borg lectures as things of my past is not what I expected when this week began.
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I am far from unique - we all have these kind of experiences: forced to move into a future we aren't sure we are ready for.
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There is an issue obvious tension behind the psalmist's words this morning - the author of Psalm 62 feels pushed into a lonely corner.
When the passage uses the confident words my soul waits in silence for God - from God is my hope - God is my mighty rock, my refuge, we can imply that there is a worry in the psalmist's view that other means of hope and stability are an illusion and will not serve us the way that trusting in God will.
When the passage uses the confident words my soul waits in silence for God - from God is my hope - God is my mighty rock, my refuge, we can imply that there is a worry in the psalmist's view that other means of hope and stability are an illusion and will not serve us the way that trusting in God will.
The specific example that Psalm 62 uses is an obsession with accumulating processions and wealth - whether within the societal norms or by less-than-reputable means (extortion, robbery): do not set your
heart on increasing riches.
heart on increasing riches.
This is a message that we don't like to hear because we have convinced ourselves that nothing short of perpetual exponential growth is a failure. This view makes us obsess about rising GDP levels, ever widening profit margins and the latest upgrade and new toy. We are thrown into a loop, when commodity prices take an unpredicted drop, or annexation plans run into opposition, or time simply runs out quicker than we had hoped.
The text of Psalm 62 has it's own version of the modern proverb "you can't take it with you": those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion - in the balances they go up, they are lighter than a breath.
To quote the 70s rock band Kansas "all we are is dust in the wind".
Or these words from Marcus Borg: "Imagine that Christianity is about loving God. Imagine that it's not about the self and its concerns, about ' what's in it for me', whether that be a blessed afterlife or prosperity in this life."
My own mantra is "to try and live each day so that, on my last day (whenever that will be), I have minimized my regrets".
The psalm writer is urging his audience to set aside the goals and means of selfish living and to live lives of humility that entrust ourselves to the steadfast love and grace of God - and to do that now, not just set it as a goal to be worked on in the future.
Jesus may have been thinking of Psalm 62 when he famously said (in Mt 6:24, Lk 16:13): no one cannot serve two masters, you cannot serve both God and 'mammon' (often translated as money, or wealth, or greed).
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This is easy to say. But how do we make it practical in a world whose socio-economic structures are the way we are?
The choices we face about faithful living can stretch us.
How much is enough? Not only do we have enough basic resources, but are we using our time and energy to the best of our abilities and potential. How much is enough?
How much is enough? Not only do we have enough basic resources, but are we using our time and energy to the best of our abilities and potential. How much is enough?
Too many of us feel stretched to the breaking point.
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A few decades after Jesus' life, the Apostle Paul struggled with the ways of the world and the Way of Jesus. He was stretched between the world he encountered everyday and the world the resurrected life made possible. In one breath Paul seems to describing a battle between the power of God and the powers of the world, but he also seems to be speaking with a tense confidence (similar to the psalmist) that a new era has begun because of the love of God made manifest in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
The love of God (in Christ) changes the way we approach everything - everything is influenced; nothing is left untouched: the love of God informs how we look at joy, sorrow, commerce, relationships... everything!
Paul wanted the readers of his letter in Corinth that all of the old patterns are up for review.
Just because a past experience seemed to work, there can not be an assumption that it will endure or repeat.
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It is a challenging time to try to be a spiritual person now-a-days.
A faith component to life has a lot of competition.
We are stretched.
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It is easy to profess one's trust in God. Even for the most pious among us, it is another thing to face the tensions that come from the competing loyalties for our time and energy.
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Perhaps, there is wisdom from another context - the first step is to admit that we have a problem - to admit that we do not have the perfectly, balanced solution figured out. But to claim some solice in that we can live
(in this moment) with hope and trust that we do not struggle alone - that in God, there is refuge, and hope and promise.
(in this moment) with hope and trust that we do not struggle alone - that in God, there is refuge, and hope and promise.
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Along the journey of my life and faith, I am indebted to one particular course I took at Naramata Centre called "Leading from Within" - it gave me the experience of being honest with my faith and doubts and to be open to the possibility (the fact) that there is mystery beyond what I know know, even about my own abilities and potential. My times among the sand hills of the southeast Okanagan taught me to appreciate
that God's love shines within me and that I am never alone.
that God's love shines within me and that I am never alone.
It is a gift to be able to build out from the inner strengths that I discover and to offer that to the world around me.
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The first Marcus Borg book I ever read (before I ever saw him in person) was "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time". It was Borg's response to the desire to understand the historical Jesus (the earthly carpenter from Nazareth) alongside the cosmic Christ (that Jesus came for the church after his death). Borg was one of the scholars of the Jesus Seminar that discerned the nature of the historical Jesus in the 1980s and 90s.
I so much appreciated the permission to explore an experience with Jesus in a way that Jesus' disciples did - this teacher and healer, so obviously full of the mystical presence of God, that they would stretch their lives in a new direction, to follow him; to be able to step back an get to know the pre-Easter Jesus. It profoundly allowed me to find a deeper understanding to all that we have come to profess about the post-Easter Christ.
"Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time" was not the first book that Borg wrote, but it began a relationship for me with the insights of Marcus Borg that will endure within me.
This week, when I learned that he had passed away, I realized that it was one of Borg's older books "Meeting God Again for the First Time" that has shaped my approach to faith and ministry, more so than any other modern text.
I plan on re-reading it very soon.
I am particularly impacted by the reminder that it is essential that I must always seek the relevance of my faith in this present moment of my life. My spirit is enlivened when I am able to trust that God matters to me, right know - that I am more that the carrier of an old, old story, but a vessel for a living faith.
Marcus Borg helped articulate for me that a contemporary faith does not need to conflict with reason and science; that I can challenge traditional walls of exclusion - even those (especially those) erected by my own faith and cultural traditions - in favour of the radical holy love that enabled Jesus to include the excluded and inspired the NT letter writer to pen "Let us love one another because love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God... for God is love" (1 John 4:7-8).
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This basic profession is the heart of Jesus' ministry and the soul of the gospel of Christ. I have come to believe that no matter how hard I find myself pulling in another direction - no matter how thin I stretch the grace of God, that God's compassion for me will not break - that (even when I have trouble knowing it) I do not journey this life alone.
Steadfast love belongs to God.
Steadfast love belongs to God.
Because that is who and what God is.
Jesus knew this and tried to show that truth to others.
I am learning that I can admit there is a lot I don't know, but that touching the truth that God is Love might just be enough to face all that is stretching me out today.
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Among the many social media tributes to Marcus Borg that I have seen in recent days has been his own words from his book Speaking Christian: :
"So, is there an afterlife, and if so, what will it be like? I don't have a clue. But I am confident that the one who who has buoyed us up in this life will also buoy us up through death. We die into God. What more that means I do not know. But that is all I need to know."
Given that, I really appreciated this David Haywood cartoon.
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Let us pray;
God, our rock and deliverer, help us to stand on the sure footage of your love. May the power of your love be, for us, a fortress against all of the things that distract us from you. Amen.
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