Ad - huh

There I am, drinking my coffee, reading a non-descript Bible…the kind that does not have gold along the edge…and a person from the neighborhood stops knowing exactly what I am reading. “You Christians must be really excited because of “Christ-mas.” Without much time to think, I pause, and then say, “Well we are, but it probably is a bit more than you think.” The conversation ensues and ultimately I get to this thing we call Advent, to which they say, “Ad-huh?” And there it is, me talking about the “coming of Jesus.” Not just as a baby, but the coming of Christ in Glory at the end-of-time. “You don’t really believe that stuff do you, Armageddon and all that?” Despite the apparent cold-water effect of my comments, the conversation ensues.

My friend is like most people I know, maybe most people in the world. Most of us wake up, born into an area of the world, into a culture, that holds a dominant story. Grow up in China, or Russia, or Qatar, or the United States and there is a dominant story—the way we all think the world, life, the universe is supposed to work. And while the dominant story across this globe is a bit different…most people go about their day with the goal of living their life as best as the can…moving towards something…all the while that dominant story is in the background…in the water…in the air we breathe.

To my conversational companion, his dominant story makes my intimations towards Jesus’ return sound like escapism. Why? Because two smaller stories, both from large meta-story of the Bible, have become a bit twisted.

The first twist has to do with Jesus. With all the pain and suffering in the world, there is a form of Christianity that sees Jesus’ return not merely in judgment, but that he is judging this world “all bad.” The story goes that Jesus will destroy this “bad world” and create a new “good world.” That is the “twist” and that is what leads some to think Christians are “escapists.” That is not what the Bible says. The Scriptures tell us that God created this good, this very good, material world. God’s Word goes on to trace humanity’s departure from the Divine direction with all the attendant consequences…noting along the way that God has not abandoned. Rather, God is reconciling the world to himself by His very coming into the world through Jesus Christ. The world is being restored…not destroyed…it is the ideas of a fundamentally good world being restored which gets us un-twisted.

The second twist has to do with humans. We take seriously God’s command to be stewards of the creation…to take care of it. We work to try and establish justice, to eradicate hunger, to deal with the woes and evils of the world. We have for five centuries (a blip in the timeline of our species) made tremendous gains in medicine and science. We are making progress. In the past, Christians would see God’s hand upon humanity, not only guiding the progress…but cautioning us to not misuse advances for evil. Today however we have outgrown God…we somehow see God as a hindrance to human progress. And so the twist takes place—we think we can (or are) making all the advances on our own…that with enough time we, the human race, can solve all our own problems. When a person holds this view of progress…and then meets me sipping my coffee and reading my Bible talking about the coming of Christ in glory…well the conclusion is that I am an not just an escapist, but rather a luddite as well, further reinforcing the idea that Jesus, the Bible, all of it, should be dismissed.

And if I am honest with myself I hold some of these views. I love science. I am amazed about the progress being made. I get excited when new breakthroughs take place. I get really excited when even I can understand them. It is easy at times, to be optimistic about human progress—and to get discouraged about that old and ancient institution called the Church. But then ISIS smacks me back to the cold reality I would rather escape from. Or I see human progress lead to pollution on such a scale that an entire river completely changes color. These instances and more make the movie genre of dystopia seem remarkably not that far off.

Which is why Advent (and not Ad-huh?) is an important time of year. Historically for Christians, the Church has used the four weeks before Christmas to help us “straighten-out the twists” in our thinking. To remind us of a few things. Advent is meant to:

1.     Remind us that history, this world, is not going round-and-round in a circle until we figure it all out. No, rather as we are being good caretakers of creation, as we are figuring out more about our material world, God has already given us all we need to know about the deep spiritual truths of both who we are…and what our destiny is.

2.     And our destiny points us towards something beyond our own worlds…in fact it has pointed us to “the end-of-time and the beginning-of-eternity.” I know this can sound like a bit of escapism, but suspend for a moment all the Hollywood spectacle, and just ask yourself, “Do you think that all of this is heading somewhere—is there a point?” This is a really important question for each of us, for you, to answer—Do you think that all of this, that YOU are heading somewhere?

3.     I believe I am. I believe that not because of some philosophical system of thought, but because I believe God came to earth in the form of Jesus…and that this Jesus was, and is, the Christ. The testimony from people—people like you and me—that Jesus walked the earth, died at hands of humans in a brutal way, but then rose from the dead and ascended into heaven—this testimony by people of the New Testament, brings into focus all of what God proclaimed through the nation of Israel. I know that is a big leap for many…but it is exactly what gives us, gives me, HOPE.

4.     And this HOPE comes not because “I” have figured it out. No, I have HOPE because the person of Jesus is real to me. Not in some sort of “gooey” feeling sense…but in my heart and mind…in my very soul. So the question then becomes, “Is the person, not the philosophy, but is the person of Jesus real for you?” And if not, “What might it take for him to be real?”

5.     Because I believe in him, I also believe in the end-of-time, but in a different way. I believe that at that moment in history God will come, yes judging, but also putting the world right, and all our striving will come to an end, and all the evil will be totally eradicated.

Next week I want to explore more this idea of God coming and putting the world finally and totally in the right, but for today I want to go back. I want to go back to that coffee shop conversation. I want to invite you to think about your own ideas of time and telos…are you going round-and-round in a world whose meaning is only about you and our short time on earth? Or are you headed somewhere…someplace where your lifespan is more than a breath?

Let’s pray: Almighty God, give us grace to see that you have created us for eternity. We thank you that your Son Jesus Christ came to earth, that he humbled himself for us, for me. I pray you enlighten our hearts and minds to know Him. Give us power to un-twist our story and give us strength, to live right, to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Finally Lord, help us be people of HOPE for the exact reason that we are destined by you to life immortal; I pray this through Him, the One upon who we wait, the One who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

One more introduction to try and set the stage for what I am working to communicate. So far I have posted three pieces that are seeking to engage myself and anyone who might stumble across this blog to “ponder” some thoughts about our human identity and sexuality.

I doubt I will change anyone’s mind. Those who agree might find some useful information. Those who don’t agree…well I am simply trying to offer a cogent exploration of the situation…and possibly, just maybe, you won’t think that friend of yours who is a traditionalist…maybe you won’t think of her or him as a bigot…it is why I had the three earlier pieces about dissent, about starting in the wrong place, and about whether or not I am a bigot.

For me this is not hypothetical. I am the voice of dissent in my church and I wonder…“Don’t we need dissent—in fact shouldn’t we intentionally seek it?” Then after the SCOTUS decision and me testifying at hearings and speaking from the floor of our church’s national convention, I sure was led to believe I was a bigot.

Like I said, I doubt I will change your mind, but I am going to look at Genesis chapter one through three in the next few blogs…and I want to start in the right place…I am not going to start with sex or sexuality…I am going to start with the Person…the Individual…and see what the Bible has to say.

Let me tell you how I approach Scripture. I think it is the Word of God. I don’t worship the Bible, I worship the God of the Bible. That means that I tend to expect the Bible to have meaning for me…and for us. One of the things that happens when you begin to believe in Jesus…in the Word that became Flesh…is that your mind stops marshalling all the facts of the universe against the Bible, and instead you mind sees all these facts of the universe as testifying to the God of the Bible.

I am going to look at Genesis chapter one…creation and yes “male and female” and there may be a tendency right now to jump to your conclusions about sexuality…but hold off. Because while I am going to look at Genesis chapter one…it is not where I am starting…

AND NOW

And now, after all the preamble, I want to start in Genesis, chapter two, verse four.

These are the generations

of the heavens and the earth when they were created

in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

I really like the juxtaposition of the word “generations” as compared to “in the day”…here we get a sense of the prose…that there is a sense of chronological time that elapses and yet it is all in a singular purpose…the singular “day” of the Lord.

While I just wanted to point that bit out, it is not what I really want to get to. Check out verses five through seven. Notice in verse five there is no “man to work the land.” Before humanity is created there is this idea of work…I will return to that later, but the idea of work is before “Adam and Eve eat the fruit.” In verse seven we get to what I am really wanting to hone in on:

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

He formed us “out of the ground.” Now I am not trying to be a literalist. I just want you to sense the intimacy of God as He made us…it is like God is down on his hands and knees forming us…and then He breathes his very breath of life into our lifeless mud-pie bodies…and we become living creatures. The word for breath in Hebrew (I imagine you know) is the same word for Spirit (or wind). God breathes his very Spirit into us.

So here is the question, “Who are you at your core?” Furthermore, “What value do you intrinsically have as an individual person?” Ephesians 2:10 says we are “God’s handiwork” which seems to fit this story…but then Ephesians goes on to say the we are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared for us in advance.” Created in Christ Jesus…with a purpose. In fact it says earlier in Ephesians, 1:4 that “God thought of us, before he thought of the world” (paraphrase from The Message Bible)…and that also kind of fits what we have just read in Genesis.

So what is the big deal? The BIG DEAL is You! You are a big deal. You are of infinite worth. You have the Spirit of God in you! Unfortunately you and I live in a world where people keep looking outside themselves for meaning and purpose and love (and I could go on and on about that…think of all the things we do to fit in, or be noticed, or have people “like us”, or…).

The point is that Genesis tells us that if we want to understand who we are and our purpose, and if we want to talk about who and how we are to have relationships…the point is we need to get ourselves grounded in who we are as created by God.

Today in the world…compliments of the sexual revolution…people describe themselves as sexual beings…to which I say hogwash.

We…as individual persons…are souls that are created by God and who contain his very Spirit…it is God’s Spirit that first animated us and brought us to life…it is therefore seeking a relationship with God that will satisfy the primal longing of our souls…we are souls who happen to have bodies. We are not bodies that have souls…and so our bodies and our sexuality is not our starting point…our starting point is being filled with the Spirit of God.

We will get to sexuality in a few blog posts…but let’s not rush past this point…savor it…go to church, sit in a pew or chair, and ask God to fill you again with His life giving breath.

Oh...and the picture...so how many hands did God use when he was forming you?

AM I A BIGOT?

Am I a bigot? Seriously. I start with this question for a few reasons, but first let me back up by providing a bit of a disclaimer and also some background.

First the disclaimer. People do not like it when I talk or write about things related to sexuality. It is uncomfortable. Many of us are trying to find a way to “get along.” Two blog posts ago (“Most people do not set out to destroy where they work…” dated 6/3/2015) I argued the need for a formal dissenting opinion process in The Episcopal Church. In that post I suggested one of the benefits of such a process is that it helps keep people in dialog. I even worked at our most recent Convention to have that required as the Task Force on Marriage has been commissioned for another three years. That amendment was not only soundly defeated…the body voted to not even discuss it! So with that action the minority are relegated to the blog world.

Now onto the background. In my last post (“Starting in the wrong place” dated 7/3/2015) I posited that we, The Episcopal Church, in evaluating whether marriage of same-gender couples was biblical, started in the wrong place…we failed to start with our identity and purpose. And so now I am on to write about this notion of “our identity and purpose” as described in Holy Scriptures. But first…

But first I must ask if I am a bigot. Why? Because the Supreme Court of the United States declared marriage (albeit civil marriage) a fundamental human right. They upheld the idea of religious freedom…and I could take a tack to draw distinction between civil marriage and the sacrament of Holy Matrimony…but I am not going to do so. To take that path seems a bit at odds with my purpose. My purpose is to examine our fundamental—down at the very root of our being—identity and purpose.

If in the end that leads to the option of same-gender marriage, then civil marriage and the sacrament of holy matrimony should be consonant with one another. If my opinion leads to heterosexual marriage as only appropriate, then I will find myself at odds with the recent decision from SCOTUS. To be at odds with their recent decision does not mean that people who are not drawn into a lifelong view of marriage should be discriminated against. Nor does it imply that people who are single should somehow be penalized by tax policy, health care proxies, and the like. And certainly hatred and violence towards anyone in these matters is evil. Yet if I am somehow saying No to this newly acclaimed civil right, might that imply that I am a bigot.

This emotionally charged word is at times defined as someone who holds an opinion that does harm based on the judgment of another…and by me holding this opinion, I am denying people their right to marry, and thereby harming them. Being called a bigot is rather troubling. But consider, in a recent hearing at the General Convention of The Episcopal Church a man got up and testified that our Book of Common Prayer was racist in its Marriage liturgy. He drew on the recent hate crime in Charlestown, South Carolina and drew a straight line, a direct correlation, to the Prayer Book’s continued discrimination against same-gender marriage. To hold to this traditional view, in this one person’s opinion was to be a bigot. He shared this emotionally charged view right as I was thinking about my view.

Now this idea, me being prejudiced, is not a new to me. To be however immersed in the 78^th General Convention is to think about these things, to think about myself. At the convention I intentionally went up, after having shared publically my own thoughts, introduced myself to others who held opposite views, and thanked them for theirs. Most were shocked at my approach to them. My response to them was that getting up in public and testifying was hard to do…we shared this common experience…we shared in this process of trying to put ideas into the public debate…me with the label of bigot and them with other labels…and it was not pleasant for either of us, but we obviously each felt the need to do so. For the most part, those post-testimony conversations were healing.

And I continue to feel this need, this need to offer something positive to the discussion. I say positive because so far those who hold to the traditional view of marriage seem to be offering one thing…and that one thing is denial of marriage. And that has me asking, “So for people not drawn into a heterosexual relationship that has the intention of lifelong marriage, what does God have to offer them…what is their identity and purpose in God’s grand design?” With that long preamble, let me then begin.

That question, “What is my identity and my purpose in God’s grand design?” starts well before our sexual identity…in fact it starts in Genesis. Genesis…that old book about old times and deep truths. Some call it “pre-history.” Their sensitivity to dinosaurs and evolution and science cause them, when drawing on this text, uncomfortableness. I welcome this prose, this narrative so rich with its deep truths from God. Genesis chapter 1 and 2 tells the story of God as Creator and Sustainer. It tells us that God is the source of life. It tells us that we, are above and beyond all other creation and have a special role. It tells us that “human beings” are God’s image bearers to God’s good, very good creation—it begins to tell us our identity and purpose.

In my next post I want to specifically dig into that a bit more, but I wanted to really “put out there” the uncomfortableness…and the necessity of even writing about this subject. 

STARTING IN THE WRONG PLACE

I am looking out my window at the amazing Rocky Mountains…from the West Side…which is kind of cool for me to think about given I first just assumed I was on the other side. I am not used to being on the western side of mountains. Living on the east coast my whole life, my orientation, has been to look westward.

It is easy to become disoriented. It is easy to think you are in one location, start out on your journey, only to end up at a destination that you never intended to arrive at.

This past week I have been at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church and I want to suggest that many have been thinking we are “starting” at one place, thrown ourselves into a journey, and quite frankly are on a way to a destination that many people did not expect (let me emphasize many not all). I got a glimpse of that destination this week.

We thought we started at a place called Marriage…or Marriage Equality. We were offered the idea that two…count them two…people in a lifelong monogamous relationship, should be treated equally regardless of gender and sexual orientation with regards to marriage. I will not rehash all the debates about this change in theology. This week the General Convention of The Episcopal Church changed its Canon for Marriage, it changed its theology of marriage, redefining it as between a couple, irrespective of gender. You might have thought we had arrived at the destination; we had not.

This battle that many have fought (and I know my pacifist friends deplore that language, but it is honest) this battle, was thought to be over the right to marry. Said differently, some thought that the journey had set out in the direction of marriage equality. Apparently that was not so.

We learned it was not about marriage equality. I am not inferring or extrapolating anything in that sentence. We were told directly—it is not about marriage equality, but rather equality.

This week, person after person gave testimony in committee hearings and from the floor of the House of Deputies that it is about equally for all. Now equally for all sounds nice. But their context was equality for sexual behavior. One person unabashedly stated they were living with their mate, had no plan of marrying, no plan for children, and no plan for lifelong commitment…but then stated they hope that soon the Episcopal Church will be able to bless them. At another hearing I heard a similar comment after the person testifying provided a long list of possible…well let’s just say arrangements.

Now, just for a moment let me stop here from further describing the situation. Let me avoid the fear mongering of where this might lead…let me…well let me just point out that none of these possible arrangements is about marriage. In all these discussions, what is really going on is IDENTITY. People wonder, “Who am I?” and “If I am this kind of person, am I OK?” and finally “If the Church would bless me and my behavior, then perhaps (big emphasis here on the word perhaps) then perhaps I will feel OK.”

As people living in the early part of the 21^st century, we are inheritors of the sexual revolution of the late 20^th century, and that revolution…so potent with its allure…has completely hijacked our understanding of identity. This is not an “anti-sex” article…it is an article about how we have started these very serious and important discussions in the wrong place…we thought we were starting with whether two people of the same gender, with the intention of a lifelong committed relationship, should be understood as married…and if so, then should the church asks God’s blessing upon them in this institution which most Christians say God instituted…we thought (at least many) we thought this was the starting point.

It is obvious now that it was not. It is instead a fairly vocal amalgamation of people, who have formed themselves together, each crying out for recognition of their identity. I note that most people involved in this gallant effort speak passionately about their identity. And let's face it, our identity is hugely important. In fact the letters LGBTQ…are about identity, but identity that seemingly reduces the matter of personhood to the singular lens of sexuality.

Furthermore, returning to evaluating this under the idea of marriage/relationship starts again in the wrong place. Identity starts first with the individual before moving to relationship.

I doubt the outcome on Same-Gender Marriage would have been different. I do think however it has sent us on a course, a path of thinking, which start’s in the wrong place. What if it started with a different question, a different name to the Episcopal Church’s Task Force? Instead of the Episcopal Church’s Task Force on Marriage, what if, it were the Episcopal Church’s Task Force on Human Identity & Purpose?  If we started there I imagine our thinking, our approach would look quite different. No doubt we would run the risk of producing a summa theologica.

We could start in a few places. In some future blog posts I want to explore just that question. For now however I would return simply to where I began…and that is…I wonder if we did indeed start in the wrong place.

Most people do not set out to destroy where they work…

Some of us are old enough to remember, it was January 28, 1986. Seventy-three seconds into the STS-51-L mission, it broke apart, and in an instant seven members of the Space Shuttle Challenger were dead. The loss of life was terrible. The root cause deeply disturbing. The making of the accident took more than the flight of 73 seconds, you might say it took over 730,000,000 seconds. The then 28 year old Space Shuttle Program was a model of success. One of its stated guiding principles, Safety First. Yet in the rush, the pressure to complete 24 scheduled launches per year, another unstated guiding principle had a pervasive effect on the organization, its subcontractors, indeed all who came in contact with what was up to this point, a highly successful organization.

I worked in a similar organization of sorts. I worked for a company that was called a prime contractor to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. At the time of the Challenger disaster we proudly hailed over one million nautical miles sailed under nuclear power without accident. One million nautical miles…was in fact our tag line often used with Congress and others. NASA’s success, erased in an instant, along with the seven precious lives that trusted in the huge complex of programs, processes, and people to keep them safe, was eerily similar to ours.

There were many lessons we learned from Challenger, and some we took to heart. One of those heart-lessons was the idea of a “dissenting opinion.” This is not a new idea. The Supreme Court had been doing it for decades—issuing dissenting opinions. The post disaster investigation revealed that it was more than the infamous O-ring that led to the loss of our American heroes—heroes that trusted in the organization with all its history and success. Imagine, within the organization people were saying, and saying it out loud, to stop, to wait, to not move forward. Yet the flood of pressure to launch, to succeed, filled the organization that had no system, that had no way to hear these voices, no process to channel these voices to the ears who needed to hear them. The result was that these small voices were relegated to the unsatisfying role of prophet. Following this organizational failure, my one million nautical mile organization mandated a process, installed a conduit, that would bring dissenting opinions, however small, to the ears of those who made the decisions, so they would hear—and consider.

Why this 350 word introduction about an almost 20 year old failure? Because today I find myself part of an organization rushing forward, caught up in its own version of success, caught up in its own sense of importance. In terms of mission, what could be more important than the mission of God. The organization, the Episcopal Church, believes it is right in re-shaping itself, and many of the 2,000 year old norms of Christianity. Beyond belief, is its urgency, its urgency to advance its mission. The signs of this urgency, the signs of this drive are present everywhere as the build up to General Convention 2015 yields, indeed spews, report after report calling for change.

I found myself reading one of these many reports. It was filled with the hard work, with the hopes and dreams of its authors. Yet it possessed a very specific attribute—certainty. It screamed, “We are right!” As I read it I found myself underlining phrases, scribbling notes in the margins, and at times just drawing question marks next to paragraphs in utter amazement. Then it hit me, “I am the dissenting opinion.” In that moment I simply put down my pen. Why? Because there is a difference. Today I live in an organization with a healthy sense of urgency, but with no process, no systems, to prevent its rush to succeed from sending it blindly careening over a cliff. I live in an organization not interested in dissenting opinions, indeed not interested in dissenters.

In my prior life I at times held the dissenting position. Post-Challenger that opinion was welcomed. I in fact was challenged to hone my arguments, to present them in the most convincing way possible. I remember the day a technical submittal, complete with its dissenting opinion received the most amazing response from Headquarters. Headquarters had read both technical arguments, and concluded the dissenting opinion was the better choice. That day it was not my opinion. It was the opinion of a single engineer in a sea of thousands of engineers. It was the opinion of a single voice. It was an opinion expressed in an organization that had learned how to put in place checks and balances as it pushed head-long into its critical mission.

Today in my setting I hear much of how we need to “talk more” and “listen more.” Of course talking and listening is critical. But to those of us who are in the minority, it seems less as if we are talking and listening, and perhaps more like we are receiving a “talking to.” There needs to be a point in the process beyond talking and listening. There needs to be a point in the process that asks, in fact desires, that the dissenting opinion be presented. As I look across the issued reports to those consulted, both within and outside our church, all I see are like-minded voices. These reports look nothing like my reports of old that explored various opinions as people wrestled for the best answer.

The people of our church, people who trust the processes—procedures—who trust the people in authority to find the best answer, need to know that the dissenting voice is being heard. What might such a world look like? It looks less like an “either-or” world and more like a world where people, listening to the other point of view, rather than capitulate, refine their own view and their understanding of the other position. It looks like a world where those in authority take the leadership risk of actually caring about the dissenters and their opinions—so much so that they allow themselves the possibility, however remote, to agree. In the end it really is a leadership issue. Will the leaders put in place processes to where they themselves want the various opinions heard? Will the leaders actually lead all the people?

They should. An effective dissenting opinion process results in better decisions, usually for the majority. I recommend that our bishops consult with other organizations that have put in place such processes, and do so for our church. I recommend that each report to the General Convention and beyond seek out, cultivate, and include the dissenting opinion—rather than talking it into submission or silencing it. When these voices are silenced they will either struggle in silence, or simply leave. Have not enough already left? We as the church need these voices. We need simply look at our history, to all the times we have silenced those voices, to see all the times we erred. I urge those in power in the Episcopal Church to heed well the lesson from the Space Shuttle Challenger…that within our Church there are voices that possess real concerns, voices that possess real knowledge—voices that perhaps can prevent catastrophe.  

Crossing the threshold.

Lucy peered out the wardrobe, her body wrapped warm by the surrounding furs—her face alive with the cold wintery air that greeted her nostrils. That is how I imagine eight year old Lucy from the Chronicles of Narnia as she gazes into an unknown world of wonder. There she stands, poised to cross a threshold from one world to another for the first time. There is a moment, and just a moment, when she needs to decide whether or not to enter. You need not be familiar with C.S. Lewis’ popular children’s novel. It presents a magical world, Narnia, a world of two stories. The first story is the one that thrusts itself upon young Lucy. The air is cold. It is winter; it is always winter. (Perhaps many of us can relate to that feeling after this long winter of 2014-2015.) The world is ruled by the White Witch and her nervous subjects submit to her, not quite knowing how she will turn. It is, by all measures, the real world. The world that Lucy can touch, and smell, and see, and hear, and taste. The second story offers a world that at first blush appears imaginary. The kind of imaginary world an eight year old would create. It is filled with talking animals the likes of a faun. It tells the story of the Land of Narnia before the White Witch had cast her spell, and it promises that someday winter will end, and all be healed. How, you might ask? The all-powerful lion Aslan will shatter the spell!

It is a wonderful story, and the novel draws you in as soon as you cross the threshold of the wardrobe with Lucy. It is not long before you too, want the second story to be true. There is something in all these talking animals are saying that is right. And while you and Lucy cannot see it, or touch, or taste it…it somehow seems to make sense. It is not only the story, but the animals, it is something you see in them—it is hope.

In the midst of the story with Lucy you begin to realize that she has been immediately welcomed—she belongs. In this “belonging,” she, and we with her, watch the animals “behave” and live with hope in the midst of frozen tundra. They are quite frankly, infectious. It is through being welcomed to belong and being surrounded by this behavior of hope, that quite quickly you find yourself believing—and praying—that the second story is true.

Consider another story, we read it in the Gospel…Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb…she goes and gets Peter and John and they run to the tomb. John bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed…Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying…then after speaking with the angels…she turned around and saw Jesus standing there…Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

Peter, John and Mary crossed the threshold that day…they went from one view of the world to another. Jesus will spend some number of days on earth being with a large number of people. These post-Resurrection moments will spread the news. On Pentecost, fifty days from today, God’s Holy Spirit will be poured out and the Church will be born. And people, people from all walks of life, will be invited to come and be welcomed to this life of hope—they will be invited to belong. These newcomers will watch a ragtag group of freshly minted disciples try and behave like their Risen Master. The New Testament chronicles that there will be disagreements and struggles, but through it all they will try and model their lives like Jesus. Over time this rebel group will grow amid the other world—the world of the Roman Emperor. With the exception of the Mediterranean climate, it is a world very similar to the White Witch’s world of Narnia. So these new people of hope will live a story in the face of a different story…and over time the number of people living that story, living as rebels, will grow to about 2 million people in about 200 years.

Today we celebrate this moment of crossing the threshold. We celebrate the moment in time when the stone was rolled away so that we might ourselves cross into a new world, a real world—and become people who live a story of hope. I must tell you I went to church for some 30 years before I figured this out. My church experience was not one of belonging, allowing me to see how people behaved—those people who believed that there even was such a threshold to cross. My experience was one of first believing. I was to accept all the precepts first—and then I was to behave—somehow I never got to feeling as if I belonged. In my world the second story, the story of hope got turned upside down. Maybe that happened to you? You should not be surprised, just read the Gospels. Jesus spent his public ministry pointing out to the religious of the day how they had turned God’s Story upside down…he pointed that out knowing all along he was going to shatter that world and put it right. And this, this shattering is the core of the story—the center piece—on which it, and all the world turns. That Jesus Christ has defeated sin and death. His tomb is empty. He stands and invites all to cross the threshold and live into this reality.

All of us today are somewhere in relation to this threshold. For those who have crossed it and accepted the hope—then I urge us to remember to not turn it upside down. To welcome those who are curious, to invite them to see you (and me) struggle to behave to follow Jesus, to let them understand what you believe. To those who are standing at the threshold, peering in, I say welcome! Come, sit with us for a while, feel as if you belong. And finally for those who once came into this world only to turn about and run out, to run out feeling either judged or rejected, please accept my apology—we don’t always get this “living a life of hope” the right way round—but it you might dare to cross the threshold again, I pray you will not only find hope, but find Him who calls you by name.

David Collum, Dean—The Cathedral of All Saints, Easter 2015

WAITING OVER BEING BUSY

HOLY SATURDAY LENT 2015

Today we read Mark 15:42—47. In our modern day and in the church this is a hard day to replicate for at least three reasons. By replicate I mean create the sense of what this day was for those first followers before that first Easter Day…and I will get to that in a moment. The three distractions have to do first with our world. It is Saturday, and it is finally getting warm. People are just busy; we are surrounded by busyness. Next, we know that Christ did rise; there is not the deep ache we feel when tragedy strikes and we know not what lay ahead. Finally there is the need in the church to “get ready” for Easter Day. When I was in a smaller place it seemed that we could keep that compact, but now, now it just takes more.

To cite the above three items as “distractions” begs the question, distractions from what?” I would say sitting, thinking, praying…from waiting. I am sure you have gone through a tragedy or two in your life. You somehow fall asleep after that long day, and then you wake up—numb. That is what the first Holy Saturday must have been like. All they hoped for, all they dreamed—dashed, crushed by a cross.

I want to suggest for Easter to take hold, that we need to use the space Holy Saturday provides. We need to spend some time in the barrenness of a world where we know not what lay ahead, where we ponder what it would be like to live without hope; without Jesus. We need to wait in the barrenness.

Why? you might ask. I want to suggest to create space in us; in our hearts and minds and souls. I can remember numbness after the loss of both my parents. There was a void. Holy Saturday can clear away from our hearts and minds and souls all that has filled our lives and pushed God out. Holy Saturday can be the last "bit" of Lent, so that Easter Joy can flood every fiber of our being tomorrow. 

As I write these words it is early. For whatever reason I could not sleep. We live on a busy street, but for a few moments there was quiet, broken only by a lone bird chirping. It gave time and space for my thoughts…it gave some time to wait.

You and I cannot escape those three distractions I noted above. We cannot pretend Jesus did not rise (praise God for that knowledge). We can however take just a few minutes and sit and wait.