Words by Richard C. Choe

“God – to define is to confine”

2009-03-24T20:49:00.003-04:00

John 2:13-22

Richard C. Choe ©

The Third Sunday in Lent

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

To define is to confine.

I remember writing a final exam for East Asian Studies class in my final year of university. The professor looked up from his reading and watched a few us who were still writing. We were the keeners who were planning to do graduate studies. So we were trying to dump as much information as possible onto the paper to let the professor know that we really cared for the course.

“Please don’t draw legs on a snake,” the professor told us with a smile on his face. It was his way of telling us that what we wrote was more than enough. I am sure that I drew lots of legs on a snake on that exam.

Many years later, while I was marking papers for a course I was teaching at Emmanuel College, I read a few papers that drew lots of legs on a snake. When we try to define without taking enough time we end up confining the subject matter to our limited understanding and draw conclusions that may not be real or true.

Today’s passage is one of those “troublesome” passages in the Bible. We hear about a “not-so-gentle” side of Jesus.

We see Jesus really losing his temper when people were gathering for the Passover, one of the most important religious Jewish holy days. He walked into the temple in Jerusalem, the holiest of holy sites for Jews, and really made a scene. He thrashed the animals with a whip and drove them out of the temple. He emptied out the coffers of the money changers and overturned their tables. “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” He yelled at them. His disciples remembered Jesus saying something they did not comprehend at the time, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Why was Jesus so angry? Was his anger justifiable? What about his action?

People selling the animals and the money changers were necessary for the worship at the temple. Pilgrims from far away could not bring animals from home for their obligatory sacrifices so they had to buy them at the temple. Temple tax was received only in “sanctuary shekel,” so they had to exchange their Roman currency into Jewish currency.

Daniel Clendenin, a biblical scholar, writes the following on today’s passage.

“It is not clear whether Jesus objected to any and all commercial activity in the temple out of principle, even honest transactions that were necessary for pilgrims to fulfill their religious obligations, or whether he excoriated the fraud, exploitation and avarice of the religious authorities who controlled the means of ritual purity and thus access to Yahweh.”[i]

Clendenin concludes his article by saying that “the cleansing of the temple [was] a stark warning against any and every false sense of security. Misplaced allegiances, religious presumption, pathetic excuses, smug self-satisfaction, spiritual complacency, nationalist zeal, political idolatry, and economic greed in the name of God are only some of the tables that Jesus would overturn in his own day and in ours. Church is more than a place to enjoy a night of bingo or reinforce my many prejudices and illusions.”[ii]

A warning against any and every false sense of security. But isn’t religion supposed to provide a sense of security?

Clendenin’s article reminded me of my experiences as General Council staff for ten years before I came to KRU.

I remember numerous conversations with congregations across Canada that were willing to die than to change. They would rather keep their local “traditions” that were keeping their neighbours out than to explore new and different ways to be open to their changed ministry context. Being transformed by God’s spirit or serving the neighbours was often forgotten in those congregations. In the absence of clear focus on ministry and mission the upkeep of the church building would often became a focus of the congregation’s priority. It was as if the upkeep of the building provided a sense of security for them. It was as though “tradition” meant something that was unchanging and unmoving.

It was not that the upkeep of church was unimportant or that church should not be utilized efficiently. My concern was that church building was only seen as a property to rent for money or a liability for the congregation’s budget. There were not many conversations about using the building as a form of outreach to the neighbourhood.

“Where is God in all this?” I used to ask myself and people in those congregations. “What are your mission priorities?” I would ask. The answer I heard too often was that they wanted to have more people come in to church so that they would be able to maintain the church building. They seldom talked about serving the neighbours or being transformed by God’s spirit.

One of the exercises I did with congregations was to review the amount of time spent on various areas of their church’s business. Most, if not all, of the congregations that were struggling spent most of the time talking about money and the building. It was a vicious cycle. The less money they had, the more time they spent to talk about money. And the more time they talked about money, the less time they had to talk about their ministry. I would remind people that the amount of time they spent on each topic would show their congregation’s priorities.

Looking beyond themselves, looking at their neighbourhood, and setting up mission and ministry priorities was the last phase of the workshop I facilitated. What was sad was that too many congregations, too often, chose not to change with their changed neighbourhood. It was fear of changes, not faith, which kept them from looking beyond themselves.

Today’s passage from John, for me, is a warning against the kind of things that happens when church loses sight of its priorities, when it is not clear about its reason for existence.

Worship was the reason why the temple was built, not for commercial activities. When business transactions overwhelmed worship Jesus got angry. When business transactions became a priority over transforming people and serving people Jesus overturned the tables.

When we define church based on its survival, we confine church to be self serving. When we define traditions as unchanging, we confine church to become irrelevant to us and our neighbours.

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

This statement is more than just a metaphor of Jesus’ resurrection. It represents the confession of early Christian churches’ understanding that God cannot be defined and confined in the temple but found in each of us and everywhere God is sought.

What about us? What about us at KRU?

How much time, energy and effort do we spend on the upkeep of the building and on the budget? How much time, energy and effort do we spend on transforming ourselves and our neighbours to become whole? How much time do we spend on arguing over the process and the content of worship services in relation to time spent on how we could serve our neighbours?

Our actions, the amount of time and effort we spend, tell us of our priorities.

Where is God in all the activities of our church?

Here is a story that may overturn our understanding of our search for God.

A renowned monk asked a student what he was seeking in his faith journey. The student told the monk that he was seeking to find Buddha so he could become enlightened by Buddha’s wisdom. “When you meet Buddha, kill Buddha,” the monk told the student.

“When you meet Buddha, kill Buddha” is a phrase Buddhist teachers use to explain that seeking truth is not about arrival but a process. Faith is about being in the dynamic process of searching and renewal. It is not about a fixed state of an arrival. The story is a warning against those who become complacent in faith by thinking that she or he has attained wisdom for good.

We are part of the faith tradition that was formed to transform the lives of people and to serve those in need. God calls us to be open to God’s spirit we experience in and through our life. The only security we have is the knowledge that God will accompany us in our faith journey in seeking God’s presence and in being God’s presence for those who are in need.

A Song of Faith, a new Statement of Faith of our church, begins this way:

“God is Holy Mystery,
beyond complete knowledge,
above perfect description.

Yet,
in love,
the one eternal God seeks relationship.”[iii]

God seeks relationship with us so we could become partners in God’s ministry. And this is how the new faith statement ends:

“Divine creation does not cease
until all things have found wholeness, union, and integration with the common ground of all being.

As children of the Timeless One,
our time-bound lives will find completion
in the all-embracing Creator.

In the meantime, we embrace the present,
embodying hope, loving our enemies,
caring for the earth,
choosing life.

Grateful for God’s loving action,
we cannot keep from singing.

Creating and seeking relationship,
in awe and trust,
we witness to Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love.

Amen.”[iv]

May we continue our faith journey seeking God who is Holy Mystery. May we continue to be open to possibilities God provides each and every day. May our church building be a place of welcoming, transforming and serving. May we continue to experience liberty and joy as we experience God as our partners in making our world whole.

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[i] Daniel B. Clendenin, “Jesus Unhinged: the Cleansing of the Temple,” The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, Sunday, March 15, 2009, http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20090309JJ.shtml.
[ii] Clendenin, “Jesus Unhinged: the Cleansing of the Temple,” http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20090309JJ.shtml.
[iii] A Song of Faith, The United Church of Canada, http://www.united-church.ca/beliefs/statements/songfaith.
[iv] A Song of Faith, http://www.united-church.ca/beliefs/statements/songfaith.

“Sex & Chocolate: Consequence of Faith?"

2009-03-24T20:11:00.002-04:00

March 18 2009

The Second Sunday in Lent

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

27Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. --
31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

* * *

Sex and chocolate.

Giving up sex or chocolate, for some folks, is synonymous with Lent. Some of you told me that giving up chocolate has been part of your Lent tradition since you were children. Some of my friends told me – and I am not sure whether they were joking or not – that they would be giving up sex for Lent. The Saturday edition of the Globe and Mail reported that some of the leaders of the Catholic Church are advising the members to give up Facebook for Lent.[i]

It is not just Christian faith that emphasizes “giving up” or “letting go” as part of faith journey. “Emptying oneself” or “surrendering oneself” to a greater being or for a greater cause is an integral part of the spiritual traditions around the global communities. That human beings are in need of liberation from self-absorption seems to be the wisdom found and expressed in faith traditions.

I remember a fast for three days over a weekend retreat during Lent when I was a teenager. I remember the hunger towards the end of the first day. A sense of euphoria enveloped me on the second day. I thought about Jesus and his disciples on the way to Jerusalem as I refrained from food for three days. Refraining from eating helped me to understand a bit about those living in hunger. By the end of the third day, on the way back home, I experienced stillness within me.

As I got older, I began to question fasting as a way of identifying myself with the suffering of Jesus. “What does fasting really accomplish other than feeling a sense of piety?” I asked myself. “How does my fasting really make a difference for those who are starving?” was the question I heard within myself.

What does giving up chocolate, sex or Facebook during Lent mean for us? Does our momentary refrain from our comforts and pleasures accomplish anything meaningful to those who are experiencing crucifixion each and every day? What does our faith require us to do?

“If any of you want to follow me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. For those of you who want to save life will lose it, and those of you who lose life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

Those words of Jesus seem so harsh. Was Jesus “promoting” suffering? Joanna Dewey, a Christian theologian, posed that very question in her article, “Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross: a feminist reading of Mark 8:34 in Mark's social and narrative world.”

“Christians today, especially Christian women, often interpret Mark 8:34 as a call to sacrifice self – to be subservient and to endure suffering that could be alleviated – as a demand of Christian discipleship. … The invitation can be understood as a glorification of suffering and an encouragement to become a victim: one is to deny oneself, sacrifice oneself, wipe out any sense of self, and to embrace the cross, that is, suffering in general. On the basis of this verse, discipleship is portrayed as "suffer now," presumably for reward later in the age to come. Many a woman has failed to develop her own identity and strengths and has embraced or endured suffering that could be alleviated because she has come to believe that such a way of life is pleasing to God and an imitation of Christ.”[ii]

Jesus lived and proclaimed his vision of God’s Reign – a vision of a world where justice is facilitated through compassion for all – in a place where “economic downturn” was not a euphemism but a death sentence by starvation for many. Jesus lived and proclaimed his vision of God’s Reign in a time when the Roman military, an occupying force in Palestine and the rest of the Mediterranean region, had absolute power over life and death for those living under their empire.

Jesus proclaimed his vision of God’s Reign knowing that the consequences of his vision would be met with brutality by the Romans and the religious leaders who preferred the status quo. For those in power, their kingdom was already in effect. A proclamation of any other version of the kingdom was seen as an insurgence against them. People in Jesus’ time understood that power was something to be taken from the less powerful or to be taken away by the more powerful.

Suffering continues to be part of human realities. Warrant Officer Dennis Brown, Corporal Dany-Olivier Fortin and Corporal Kenneth Chad O’Quinn died last Tuesday when a bomb exploded near their armoured vehicle in Afghanistan. Two other soldiers were also injured in the explosion. More than 100 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan in 2001 – a war that is now described as “unwinnable” by our Prime Minister.

Current economic crisis continues to impact us and people around the globe. Companies are closing. Wages are being cut. Jobs are being lost. We read that “unemployment in the United States has reached a 26-year high and the recession is claiming jobs at a pace not seen since 1945, with no end in sight.”[iii]

The crosses in our society seem much closer and more apparent to us in this Lent. What does our faith require of us? What does our faith require of us as we experience so many crises that seem so enormous and too complicated for us to comprehend?

Joanna Dewey writes that Mark 8:34 is not an exhortation of suffering in general when read in the first-century cultural contexts and the larger narrative of Mark. She concludes her article by saying that “to renounce self is to renounce one’s kinship group and join the followers of Jesus. It is an exhortation to remain faithful to Jesus and the rule of God in the face of persecution by political authorities.”[iv]

“To renounce self is to renounce one’s kinship group … and remain faithful to the rule of God in the face of persecution by political authorities.”

Joanna Dewey’s remark reminded me of the keynote address by Susan Sontag, a Jewish American writer, on the occasion of the presentation of the Rothko Chapel Oscar Romero Award to Ishai Menuchin, chairman of Yesh Gvul (meaning “There Is a Limit” in Hebrew) in 2003.

Yesh Gvul is the Israeli soldiers’ movement that refuses to serve beyond the 1967 borders. The soldiers who are part of Yesh Gvul believe that there should be an unconditional withdrawal from the Occupied Territories. The soldiers in the movement, who are Jews, take seriously the principle put forward at the Nuremberg trials in 1945-46: namely, “that a soldier is not obliged to obey unjust orders, orders that contravene the laws of war.”[v] When Nazi German officers stated that they were just obeying orders as soldiers in massacring Jews and other groups during the war the court ruled that each soldier has an obligation to disobey unjust orders.

Sontag emphasized that “the Israeli soldiers who are resisting service in the Occupied Territories are not refusing a particular order. They are refusing to enter the space where illegitimate orders are bound to be given – that is, where it is more than probable that they will be ordered to perform actions that continue the oppression and humiliation of Palestinian civilians. Houses are demolished, groves are uprooted, the stalls of a village market are bulldozed, a cultural center is looted; and now, nearly every day, civilians of all ages are fired on and killed. … These soldiers believe, as I do, that there should be an unconditional withdrawal from Occupied Territories. They have declared collectively that they will not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders ‘in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.’”[vi]

More than one thousand soldiers were part of Yesh Gvul in 2003. More than 250 of them have gone to prison at the time. Yesh Gvul, Sontag believed, provided a model of resistance. Of disobedience. For which there will always be penalties.[vii] There are consequences for one’s belief.

For those in power, for whom their kingdom is already in effect, any other version than the status quo is treason. For those in power, there cannot be any other possibility than what they already have established as the reality they have instituted as the norm for the rest.

Sontag shared that her “admiration for the soldiers who are resisting service in the Occupied Territories is as fierce as her belief that it will be a long time before their view prevails.” And she concluded her speech by saying that “All struggle, all resistance is – must be – concrete. And all struggle has a global resonance. If not here, then there. If not now, then soon, Elsewhere as well as here.”[viii]

Sontag’s conviction in justice required of her to speak against the powers and the principalities at the height of the Bush-ism after 9/11, knowing that she would be accused and criticized by many as un-American and anti-Israel. Each conviction lived in action has consequences.
What does our faith require of us? What does our faith require of us to do as we face the realities of economic crisis and as death tolls rise in our war in Afghanistan?

One of the things we could do is to reflect Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem in and through our life. There were many spiritual leaders envisioning and proclaiming radical changes in Jesus’ time in Palestine. What set Jesus apart from others was that he was a “radical” who sought and proclaimed revolutionary transformation of inner self as well as outer self. In a world dominated by ethics of “eye-for-an-eye” Jesus preached forgiveness. In a world dominated by “entitlement” based on inherited or a violently acquired socio-political power Jesus proclaimed that all are God’s children. In a world full of false prophets promising “suffer now and heaven later” Jesus declared that God’s Reign was already present in each person.
What does our faith require of us?

Taking a risk by letting go of the so-called “conventional truth or wisdom” by looking at things from the “minority” perspective could be a start. Taking a chance in seeing through the eyes of the poor and the disadvantaged could be another. Risking seeing through the eyes of the “enemies” when reading or hearing about the war in Afghanistan and anywhere else could be another. Moving beyond our comfort zone to seek and understand our faith could be another.

Is it possible for us as Canadians to shed tears for those faceless and countless civilians suffering and dying in Afghanistan as we mourn the death of our soldiers? Is it possible for us as Christians to shed tears for those faceless and countless Taliban fighters as we mourn the death of our soldiers?

Is it mutually exclusive to mourn the death of our soldiers and mourn the death of our “enemies”? What does our faith require of us? What are consequences of our faith that are beyond giving up chocolate, sex and Facebook?

Seventeen of us women and men from KRU worked with the Habitat for Humanity in our neighbourhood yesterday. At one point in the day, about 9 to 10 of us formed a line to move bricks from one area to another. The image of us working together, moving bricks and debris was an image of being church for me.

We, who are part of a society where everything is governed by the market economy based on supply and demand, were participating in building houses that are contrary to our current market economy. In our small way we were saying that there is a limit for us as followers of Jesus in participating in the current market economy. In our small way we were resisting the current market economy that rewards the rich and abandons the poor. In our small way we were practicing our faith that God loves all as God’s children and that we are inextricably linked as sisters and brothers.

Yes, there is a limit.

Women around the globe began as an organized global community to speak for their rights in the early 1900s.

Yes, there is a limit.

Israeli soldiers organized to refuse to follow unjust orders that would inevitably cause harm and demean Palestinians.

Yes, there is a limit.

Jesus’ faith in God required him to dream of a world where the true interest of human community is justice and compassion for all.

The season of Lent is a time of reflecting on the consequences of our faith. It is a time of refraining ourselves from the values that demean us and our neighbours. It is a time of finding ways to empty ourselves of the ideologies, beliefs and practices that separate us from our neighbours and God. It is a time of acknowledging and experiencing that there is a limit in human-centeredness and that God continues to invite us to open to possibilities that may lead us from our comfort zones.

May we seek God’s accompaniment in our Lenten journey.

Amen.

--
[i] Erin Anderssen, Lent’s most controversial sacrifice: Facebook, The Globe and Mail, Saturday, March 7, 2009, F3.
[ii] Joanna Dewey, “Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross: a feminist reading of Mark 8:34 in Mark's social and narrative world,” Biblical Theology Bulletin, Fall, 2004, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LAL/is_3_34/ai_n6260526.
[iii] Paul Waldie, U.S. posts worst rate of job loss since 1945, The Globe and Mail, Saturday, March 7, 2009, A1&12.
[iv] Dewey, “Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross,” http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LAL/is_3_34/ai_n6260526.
[v] Susan Sontag, “On Courage and Resistance,” At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches, eds., Paolo Dilonardo and Anne Jump, (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2007), 185.
[vi] Sontag, On Courage and Resistance,” 185.
[vii] Susan Sontag, “On Courage and Resistance, 186.
[viii] Susan Sontag, “On Courage and Resistance,” 187-191.

"Rainbow Connection"

2009-03-19T20:18:00.005-04:00

March 1, 2009
The First Sunday in Lent

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

Richard C. Choe ©

* * *

8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

* * *

“Lord, your ocean so great,
And my boat is so small.”

I remember the vast ocean of clouds on the way to Canada in 1975. I was 14 years old and my family and I were on our way to a new land we would be calling “home.” There was an endless ocean of white outside the window. I remember feeling so small inside the airplane floating toward the new land. I had no idea what the new land looked like. What I had was a sense of hope and a promise of a new beginning.

With me were two wooden carvings my friends gave me as gifts for the new journey. They were totems – miniaturized versions of the statues found at the entrance of villages in Korea, erected to ward off evil spirits. “The Great General under the Heaven” was inscribed on the male totem. “The Woman General beneath the Earth” was the inscription on the female totem. Like Noah in his ark, I carried the pair to the new land. They were mementoes of my birth place. They were memories from my old homeland. They represented my place of origin and a reminder from friends that I was not travelling alone.

I have experienced many upheavals since then. There were floods that swept away much of memories of my old friends. Their faces have all but faded away in the tides of time. There were experiences of feeling so small in the vast ocean of loneliness, growing up in Canada. But I have carried the two totems with me through all the tides and the floods of my life, knowing that they represent my connection to my ancestral spirit.

According to the Book of Genesis, the Great Flood wiped out all life on earth except the life carried in the ark Noah and his family built. The flood destroyed everything. Noah and his family experienced mortality throughout the flood. Each toss and turn reminded them of the “smallness” of being human in the vast ocean of God’s wrath. Each gust of wind terrified them to death.

When it rains, it pours.

“Women and children continue to suffer and die in Darfur.” “A young man gunned down at home in Toronto.” “Ninety children known to Ontario’s child welfare system died in 2007, according to the latest report from the chief coroner’s office.”[i] Each headline in the newspaper tells us of the floods of violence and horror continuing around us.

Our lives are inundated with so many headlines indicating the floods of destruction around us. And we often feel so small in the vast ocean of torrid currents of despair as the world turns.

When it rains, it pours.

There are times in life when we feel so overwhelmed with crises in life that we feel paralyzed. There are issues with people at work. There are conflicts you are trying to manage with your family members. There are times when life seems to be a continuation of one flood after another. Peace and tranquility seem so illusive.

When will the flood subside in our life? When will we see the dry land?

The wind finally subsided and the dry land was found for Noah and his companions. A new cycle of life was about to begin as Noah and every living thing “went out of the ark by families.”

The first thing Noah and his family did when they disembarked on the dry land was to offer thanksgiving to God. The book of Genesis repeats over and over to emphasize what Noah and his companions heard from God – that God will never again curse the ground.

And the covenant was made between God and Noah to mark the new beginning of life on earth. Noah hears God’s promise that there will not be any more destruction and that the sign of the covenant between them is the rainbow. Thus, a rainbow became the symbol of the first recorded covenant between God and humanity. And the covenant was not only with Noah but also with his descendants and the rest of creation. “I will remember the covenant,” said God to Noah.

What Noah heard, what Noah understood, was that the God he heard was the God of life-giving, not the God of destruction. Noah’s understanding of the covenant underscores his faith and conviction that God is the God of renewal. For him, God is the God of rejuvenation and resurrection.

Noah turned around his experiences of desolation into a prelude of a new beginning of his relationship with God. That is the rainbow connection – God and Noah turned to each other to be present to each other. That was the covenant God and Noah made to each other and with the rest of God’s creation.

Where do we see the sign of the rainbow in our life? Where can we experience God’s voice telling us that there shall be no more destruction and desolation?

Experiences of tragedy and near-death often change people’s outlook on life. Nothing can be more life-changing than an escape from a near death experience. Some succumb to fear and live in the floods of nightmares. But some, like Noah, choose to overcome fear and become hope for others.

Daoud Hari was one of the 2.5 million internally displaced people in Sudan. In 2003, Daoud Hari’s village was attacked and torched to the ground by the Sudanese-government-backed militia. He witnessed how the militia murdered his older brother. Though his family was decimated and dispersed, he eventually found safety across the border in Chad.

With his knowledge of languages, including English, Hari became a translator and guide to the foreign reporters and government officials covering genocide in Darfur. He risked his life again and again to help ensure that the story of his people is told while there is still time to save them.

He was captured by the Sudanese military in one of the missions to cover the story of genocide in Darfur. He and his companions were severely tortured by the Sudanese and Chadian governments. When he was finally released with the help of people abroad, Daoud Hari wrote a book, The Translator: A Memoir, to continue to tell the stories of his people so that the rest of the humanity does not forget them.

“You have to be stronger than your fears if you want to get anything done in this life,” Hari wrote in his book.[ii] He stated that “the best way to bury your pain is to help others and to lose yourself in that.”[iii]

Facing our mortality often “awakens” us to realize what’s really important in our life. Near-death or near-disaster in life, if we choose, could help us to renew our life and to cherish those around us. Like Noah and his companions, we could make adversities we face as the beginning of a new way of being. It is true that people often find hope after experiencing adversity. The experiences of desolation and hopelessness often awaken people to search for hope. That’s the rainbow connection – hope arising out of hopelessness.

Noah and his family found hope after experiencing destruction and desolation. Rainbow became a symbol of God’s promise of peace for them. The theme of turning death into renewal – a process of resurrection – continues in our time.

Daoud Hari found hope and became hope for others even after experiencing death and the loss of many of his family members. Gifts from my friends continue to remind me that I am not alone. They remind me that their friendship and love will always accompany me in my life. They remind me that friends are to be found and cherished in life. My old friends’ gifts became a model for my faith and ministry: accompanying those who are in need and being present in their life.

The Season of Lent is a time of searching for such hope – becoming aware of desolations within and around us and turning them into a source of hope and renewal within and around us. Lent is a time of reflecting the life of Jesus and how he became the source of hope for us. Lent is a time of finding ways to become hope for those around us.

When it rains, it pours.

But we also know that it takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow. God continues to invite us to turn our sorrows into hope. God continues to invite us to become a rainbow to those around us. May we dare to be the rainbow of God’s promise to all. May we dare to turn to God and embody God’s renewing love for all.

Amen.

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[i] Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star, http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/591523.
[ii] Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Memoir (Anchor Canada, 2008 ), 11.
[iii] Hari, The Translator, 64.

"Love's the Reason"

2009-02-22T14:27:00.004-05:00

Fun in the Sun

February 22, 2009

Mark 9:2-9

Richard C. Choe ©

Transfiguration

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.

* * *

Love’s the reason.

Q&A is the title of a book by Vikas Swarup, a career Indian diplomat. The book was inspired partly by the story of Harshvardhan Nawathe, a 27 year old to who won ten million rupees – about a quarter million dollars – on September 24, 2000 in India’s version of the American game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

In Q&A Swarup wove a story of an orphan with the realities of Mumbai – one of the most culturally diverse cities where the gap between the rich and the poor is just unimaginable for those of us living in Canada.

Slumdog Millionaire, a simplified and “sanitized” version of the book, is nominated for 10 Oscars, including the best picture category. I will be rooting for Slumdog Millionaire at tonight’s Academy Awards.

Love is the reason why Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from Mumbai’s Dharavi slum enters the contest in Slumdog Millionaire. Winning the money was not the reason that Jamal entered the game show. He was after a chance to reunite with Latika, his lost love, whom he knew would be watching the show. Jamal wins 20 million rupees – about $500,000 – in the Who Wants to be a Millionaire and reunites with Latika.

I liked the movie. But I kept comparing the movie with the original book. This is one of the challenges in watching a movie version of the book. Regardless of how well the movie is made, it cannot fully capture the complexities and the subtleties of your own imagination of reading a book. I felt that the plotline was too linear and not as complex as the original story. But, how can you tell a whole book in two hours?

Describing church, I think, is akin to describing the relationship between the book and the movie based on the book. What the screen writer does to the book is similar to how we try to express our understanding of faith in relation to the vision of the Jesus movement which began about two thousand years ago. What we do here at KRU, how we practice our faith through worship and our work – how we relate with one another here in this place and with the people around us – are only facets of the vision of God’s community lived out and expressed by Jesus of Nazareth and his followers.

The answers to questions like “Why are you here?” or “What is church?” would be different for each person. For some of us, church means a place where we grew up. It is a place where we and our relatives and friends got baptized, married, and were eulogized in funerals.

For some of us church conjures up feelings of nationalism and pride in being Canadian. Some associate our faith with the memories of prayers and vigils during the war years when we desperately prayed for the safe return of the loved ones. For some church is a place of memories of being consoled and consoling those whose uncles, sisters, husbands, and aunts came back wounded or who did not return, forever lost at the battlefields in Europe and Asia.

There are others for whom church is a place where a lunch is shared on Fridays during the harsh winter months. For some church is a place of warmth and welcoming.

Each of those stories about church, although meaningful and wonderful, does not fully describe being church as Jesus of Nazareth envisioned.

There are “not-so-wonderful” sides of being church. Being made up of human beings, there are disagreements and, at times, dissensions arise amongst us here. There are times when we are not able to show our regard or respect for one another.

Why our reality of being church falls short of the original vision of Jesus of Nazareth is mostly due to our human condition. We are trying to become one but are not there yet.

Like the movie Slumdog Millionaire in comparison to Q&A, the complex original story, the faith that we practice and how we are church in our community at KRU reflects only parts of the original vision of being church espoused by Jesus more than 2000 years ago.

The director of Slumdog Millionaire flashes Latika’s illuminated face at various points of the movie to capture and to express the love between her and Jamal. Latika’s face symbolizes love that represents their childhood. Latika’s face illumines a love that survived poverty, separation, violence, and chaos. It is a love that helped them to survive through moments of hopelessness and eventually healed their wounds. It is a love that represents naiveté and hope in society accentuated by greed and fast changes. Their love for each other eventually gave them courage to boldly move into the future with hope. Pictures, indeed, speak a thousand words.

The story we heard today about transfiguration, or metamorphosis in Greek, also captured the imagination of being church – a community of God’s beloved – for the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. The story was so important that Mark, Matthew, and Luke recorded the event. The story of transfiguration illuminated the understanding of the mission and ministry for the followers of Jesus.

It is a scene where three of Jesus’ disciples witnessed Jesus’ physical body being changed, Jesus conversing with heroes of his faith and cultural community – Moses and Elijah – and heard a voice of God.

Like the illuminated face of Latika representing a thousand facets of love between her and Jamal, the story of transfiguration represents God’s call to us to work toward establishing a community based on God’s love and the struggles of establishing such community.

Like Jesus’ disciples, Peter, James and John, Christian communities struggled with the temptations of “settling down” to build shrines in memory of Jesus. Over the centuries, churches often forgot that Jesus called his disciples to go back down the mountain and share the experience of hearing God’s voice with the rest of the world. The transfiguration story reminds us that the Way of Jesus was a movement to establish a community based on God’s love to the end of the earth.

Churches continue to struggle with the temptation of “settling in” high up at the mountain set apart from the rest of the world at the expense of the mission to feed, heal and free people. Buildings or entitlement of power within church becomes a primary focus when a faith community loses sight of its mission.

The story of transfiguration also reminds us of the times when we “conversed” with ancestors of our faith community, like the way Jesus conversed with Moses and Elijah. “How did you do it, Mom?” “How did you walk through the difficulties of being church when there were divisions and conflict?” “How did you minister together when the membership and resources dwindled?” “How did you deal with the fear of the immense responsibilities of being church?” “How did the leadership emerge faithfully when the congregation needed clarity and direction for its ministry?” “How was God’s presence experienced in your time?”

The transfiguration story also reminds us of how God has illuminated us with love. We remember the times when we were able to embrace ourselves as beloved. Do you remember being in love? Do you remember how you found it impossible to hide the love you were experiencing? Do you remember experiencing God’s presence in times of sorrow and in times of celebration?

As church we are called to feed the hungry, heal the sick and free those who are imprisoned in body as well as in mind and in spirit. That is our primary mission of being the church of Jesus Christ with our body, mind, and spirit.

Each Sunday worship and each act of ministry here and around KRU, we try our best to illumine love of God. We continue to listen for the voice of God within us and amongst us when we gather. We are encouraged by Jesus to go down the mountain, to open ourselves and to serve those in need. And we acknowledge that Jesus’ vision of God’s beloved community is the vision we follow. We also commit ourselves that we will continue to tell that illumination of love throughout our lives. We share the stories of love that invite us to embrace one another as God’s gift. The stories of love that offer hope for all. The stories of love that transform us to become love for all.

Love was the reason Jesus took his disciples up to the mountain. Love was the reason the disciples experienced Jesus’ transformation. Love was the reason they heard God’s voice. And, love was the reason why Jesus and his disciples went down the mountain.

Love is the reason why we are gathered here. Love is the reason why we are challenged by God’s love to open our minds and hearts wide open to embrace our neighbours. Love is the reason why we are continually challenged to be transformed by God’s call to embody and enliven God’s love in our world.

Love is the reason.

Amen.

"Love: Now and Forever"

2009-02-14T19:31:00.020-05:00

February 15, 2009
Black History Month

The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

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A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

* * *

Love. Now and forever.

All of us seek something that can last forever. Anything of value, in our imagination and understanding, is something that lasts forever. Whether it is something tangible, like a diamond, or the love of your life, something that lasts forever is what we search for in life.

We seek things that will last forever perhaps because of our temporal nature of life. As we get older we are more aware of the fact that nothing lasts forever. So, we seek things – tangible and intangible – that could last forever. Look at all the commercials and advertisements. Anywhere from “Built Tough” to “Forever in Blue Jeans” we see the human longing for things that will last a long time.

A leper came to Jesus and begged him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” “If you choose, Jesus, you can heal me from my physical illness that burdens my whole being,” the leper pleaded with Jesus. “If you will, Jesus, you can lift me from the neglect, the isolation, the degradations, and the humiliations I live through each and every day, that has lasted forever,” the leper appealed to Jesus.

Have you ever had such an experience that has burdened your whole being? Where the angry stares of neighbours and strangers seemed to burn into you? Where your presence seemed to bring out the worst in people? When your physicality defined and confined you from being less than your whole self? When the searing pain of existence seemed to last forever?

A few weeks ago my friend, Glenn, and I went to see the movie, Gran Torino. We both like Clint Eastwood. And we both love Ford Gran Torinos, one of the most recognizable cars of our youth from the 1970s TV series, “Starsky & Hutch.” “Zebra Three” was the radio call sign for them as they tore through the streets of “Bay City” in Starsky’s two-door red Ford Gran Torino.

As a movie, Gran Torino has a remarkably diverse ethnicity of people. Each and every ethnic stereotype is pushed to the extreme limit. Walt Kowalski, the main character, played by Clint Eastwood, is a Polish American retired auto worker who lives with the demons of the Korean War. His barber is Italian. They are both macho men who can only talk to each other with offensive name calling and crude jokes. The taxi driver is Sikh. The tailor looks Lebanese.

You see African American youth and Hispanic American youth in the ghetto portrayed as stereotypical thug wannabees. Kowalski’s children and the White working class neighbours have all moved out of the neighbourhood as the Hmong Americans move in. The Hmong youth are no exception – they also form gangs to belong and to defend themselves from other gangs. Everyone seems to be stuck in typical racial-ethnic stereotypes. Everyone seems to be afraid of one another. Everyone seems to have grudges against one another.

Everything changes when Walter Kowalski begins to interact with Thao and his feisty sister, Sue Vang Lor, his Hmong neighbours. The relationship that begins with Thao trying to steal Walt Kowalski’s 1972 Gran Torino, in the end, transforms all three of them. Three strangers from vastly different backgrounds learn to love and embrace one another.

Walt Kowalski is gradually transformed into a loving surrogate father to the two young people. Then, in the end, Kowalski offers his own life for the lives of his Hmong American neighbours. Thao and Sue Vang Lor’s lives are “cleansed” with Kowalski’s ultimate sacrifice.

Walt Kowalski, a grumpy old man living the nightmares of the past, ultimately chooses love – his “now and forever” – and becomes the Christ figure for his neighbours.

“If you choose, you can make me clean,” the leper said to Jesus. “I do choose. Be made clean!” Jesus proclaimed. The leper was healed and cleansed of the illness and became the message – God’s healing love. The leper who thought he was lost from God’s love and compassion was found by Jesus’ healing.

“If you choose, you can become love, now and forever,” Walt Kowalski heard a voice within himself. “I do choose. Let me be the Christ figure for my neighbour and lay my life for them,” was the embodiment of Walt Kowalski’s love for his neighbour. A man who was once lost from his own life and from the lives of his children and his neighbours was found by his new neighbours’ healing presence. He was once blind to his neighbours’ humanity but was able to see how compassion could bring out his humanity even from a tortured past.

The moment of healing became “now and forever” for the leper. He became the message of Jesus’ healing and God’s eternal love for all of us. The moment of self sacrifice of Walt Kowalski became the message of how humanity can leap across the chasm of prejudices and hatred when people reach out to one another with compassion.

As we celebrate “Black History Month” in our worship service, we remember how racial prejudices and hatred have blinded us all from our humanity and God’s compassion. We remember how God’s generous gifts of faith helped peoples of African descent move beyond enslavement, injustice, and degradation to stand tall with dignity.

This is what Rev. James Lawson, known as the “militant non-violent preacher,” wrote as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Statement of Purpose on May 14, 1960 during the “Civil Rights” struggles for African Americans and other ethnic minorities in the United Staes.

“Love is the central motif of nonviolence. Love is the force by which God binds humanity to God and with one another. Such love goes to the extreme; it remains loving and forgiving even in the midst of hostility. It matches the capacity of evil to inflict suffering with an even more enduring capacity to absorb evil, all the while persisting in love.” [i]

We acknowledge the continuing angry glares that burn up possibilities of forming genuine relationships with one another. We acknowledge how skin colours continue to define and confine us from cherishing one another as neighbours in this global village. We acknowledge that sticks and stones will break bones and that names do hurt. And that sticks and stones and name callings hurt all of us in the end.

In our remembering of the dis-ease of and segregations of our Black sisters and brothers, we hear the voice of Jesus, “I do choose. Be made clean!” “I do choose. Be made clean of the hatred toward you. You are and you have always been loved by God.”

In our acknowledging of the malady of the continuing racial prejudices and hatred within us and in our society, we hear the voice of the leper, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” “If you choose, Jesus, you can make us clean of the illness of prejudices and hatred within us and within our society.” “If we choose, we can be healed of the malady that blinds us from seeing our neighbours as members of God’s family – our family.”

Love calls us to become the love, now and forever, for our neighbours. Love heals us to become the love, now and forever. Love reminds us to choose love, now and forever.

Amen.

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[i] Rev. James Lawson, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Statement of Purpose, May 14, 1960. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsncc.htm.

"Saved by Love"

2009-02-01T07:07:00.008-05:00

Mark 1:21-28
February 1, 2009
The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

* * *

Saved by love.

There was a man who had seven different masks. He wore one for each day of the week. He would cover his face immediately as soon as he got up in the morning. He would then get dressed and go to work. He lived without ever showing his true face.

One night, while he was sleeping, a thief stole all his masks. When he woke up and realized what happened, he ran out of the house to look for his masks. His neighbours saw him running up and down the street cursing the world. He spent the entire day looking for the thief and his masks, but to no avail. Desperate and inconsolable, he broke down. No one seemed to be able to comfort his loss.

A woman passing by stopped and asked him, “What’s the matter, my friend? Why are you crying? He looked up and answered, chocking back his tears, “They stole my masks and with my face exposed like this, I feel so vulnerable.” “Take comfort from me,” she said to him, “I have always shown my face from the day I was born.”

He looked at her face for a long time and saw that she was beautiful and confident. The woman bent down, smiled at him and wiped away his tears. For the first time in his life, the man felt the softness of a caress on his face.[i]

Like the man with the seven masks we, too, struggle with a fear of showing who we really are to those around us. “What would people see in me? What if they don’t like what they see in me? What if I don’t measure up to their expectations?” These questions of “what ifs” diminish us and yet we continue to struggle with them. So we show others about what we want others to think we are – the external and superficial things. And for some of us, the masks we wear eventually define and confine our identity.

Growing up for many of us often means learning to cover and hide our true self with masks of what Carl Jung called persona –“the social self resulting from our efforts to conform to the social, moral and educational norms of our milieu.”[ii] The word persona is derived from a Greek word prosopon – meaning the mask actors wore to portray a character.

Our fear of showing our true self also affects the way we see others. Our fears prevent us from seeing others as who they really are. When we carry our preconceived notions and prejudices, we encounter “our projections of what we think people are” rather than their true selves. We project our fears – the things that make us unwell and unbalanced – to those we meet. It is true that we are who we meet – and we meet who we are.

And yet, there is a sense of sadness within us that no one seems to really understand who we really are. We long to connect with our true self and discover who we really are. There is a deep longing in us to be able to see and connect authentically with those we encounter in life.

The Church is no exception in struggling to understand who we really are, who others are, and who God calls us to be as community together. “When you look for it, you will find it.” Dr. Hazel Bigby, one of my mentors, advised me when I was about to intervene in a crisis that was destroying a congregation. She shared her wisdom that there is a tendency for people to project their fears onto those who are in conflict with them. And that individuals experiencing crisis often experience their own fear as the reality of the entire community. Hazel reminded me that a self-fulfilling prophesy stemming from fear was often the primary cause for diminishing congregations and individuals within from being whole.

What diminishes us as a congregation? How do we discern together who God wants us to be as church?

“Be silent, and come out of him!” Jesus commanded an unclean spirit to be silent and to leave the man. Jesus healed the man by emptying him of the unclean spirit that diminished and limited him from being whole. Jesus healed the man by confronting the spirit that prevented him from being whole. Jesus saw beyond the man’s external self. By placing this story as the first public ministry of Jesus, the Gospel writer Mark emphasized that healing – removing things that diminish people from being whole – was the priority of Jesus’ ministry.

For the Gospel writer Mark, to be fully human is to be able to experience authentic connection with God and with one’s neighbours as beloved. To experience life anything less than whole is to experience an unclean spirit within. According to Mark Jesus restored a man on the Sabbath to become whole again by commanding the unclean spirit to leave him. Healing is about restoration. It is about restoring us to reconnect with God and our neighbours as beloved. Healing begins when we are confronted with truth and empties us of feelings and ideas that confine us and disconnect us from God and our neighbours. It is about reconnecting with our true self – the self who is loved and the self who loves. Each healing moment is an experience of God’s presence.

Healing of our relationships – restoration of our relationships – begins when we see who we really are as the beloved of God. Being church together is about experiencing healing and living out our conviction that God loves all of God’s creation. Being church is living out that proclamation in and through our actions.

We gather here to witness and to celebrate the baptism of Abigail Ross Hewitt, a daughter of Tanis and Christopher.

Baptism is an event through which we affirm our belief that Abigail is a beloved child of God and that she, along with all of us here, is called to love herself and the rest God’s creation. It is also a time of God calling us to be rid of the “unclean spirits” within us and put down the masks we wear that block us from being fully human. The baptism of a child is also a time of “remembering” how our face was once bare, uncovered, authentic. It is a moment of remembering to live as fully as God intended us to be.

Reinhold Niebuhr, a theologian, wrote the following words:

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime;
therefore, we must be saved by hope.
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense
in any immediate context of history;
therefore, we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone;
Therefore we are saved by love.[iii]

It is with hope that we continue to work together to build a community where we can uncover our true selves. It is with faith that we connect with individuals within our faith community to become whole together. It is with love that we extend our hands with individuals and communities in our neighbourhood and the rest of God’s beloved in building a world that cherishes everyone as beloved.

We are indeed saved by love that uncovers us. We are indeed saved by love that heals and restores us as we encounter people soul to soul. May we continue to be saved by hope, faith and love.
Amen.

--
[i] John Monbourquette, How to Befriend Your Shadow: Welcoming Your Unloved Side (Ottawa: Novalis, 2001), 36.
[ii] John Monbourquette, How to Befriend Your Shadow, 37.
[iii] Reinhold Neibuhr, The Irony of American History in Sam M. Intrator & Megan Scribner, eds., Leading from within: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Lead (San Francisco: A Wiley Imprint, 2007), 15.

"Conversion: Living into Hope”

2009-01-31T21:24:00.002-05:00

Act 9:1-20

January 25, 2009
The Third Sunday after Epiphany

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

9Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
10Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” 11The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; 14and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” 15But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; 16I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, 19and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, 20and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

* * *

"Broken Open"

2009-01-11T14:05:00.019-05:00

Mark 1:4-11

January 11, 2009
The First Sunday after Epiphany – The Baptism of the Lord

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

--

4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

* * *

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Mary Oliver, a poet, asks us the question in her poem, The Summer Day: “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Well, I spent my one wild and precious day at a Spa last Monday. Kim gave me a gift certificate for a “Gentleman’s Timeout” for my birthday in 2007. The brochure stated that it was for “an Aroma Anti-Stress Massage, a Gentleman’s Facial and an Intensive Spa Pedicure.” It took me over a year to make an appointment. And with some trepidation I finally entered the Spa on Monday.

For three hours, I was thoroughly kneaded, plucked, and filed to be beautified. At one point, right after my face was plucked; I said to the beautician that I now have more respect for women and men who take care of themselves diligently. “Beauty is pain” was the reply. I nodded to her in agreement as I was wincing from the pain. The beauty treatment may not show well on my face but I can tell you how soft the soles of my feet are. “Like night and day” was Kim’s remark.

These are some of the thoughts that whizzed by me as I was being kneaded, plucked, filed and beautified.

· I was glad that I did not have any knotted muscles. Knotted muscles would have meant more pain.
· I was amazed at the kind of high-tech machines at the Spa, such as the high frequency tool the beautician used on my face. It sparked! I realized that science was not only sending people to outer space but also helping us to look good on earth.
· And, I had no idea I was carrying so many dead cells! (At least a pound’s worth.)

I am not sure whether I would be volunteering myself to another beauty session in the near future; however, my smooth feet remind me of what is possible when I actually offer myself to be cared for. The whole experience was like being awaken to a realization that I had a body. And that it wants to be cared for and tended to. It was as though the Spa experience broke open my body to a new way of being.

On one summer day of his life, Jesus waded into the River Jordan, moved toward John the Baptizer, was pushed deeply into the water, and experienced his whole being broken open to the Spirit of God as he emerged from the water. That’s how the Gospel writer Mark opens his Gospel – the earliest one of the four Gospels in the Greek Testament.

Mark does not mention any stories of Jesus’ physical birth. There is no miraculous story of virgin birth. No animals in the manger. No Star and no Magi. Nothing about where and how Jesus was born. For Mark, it is the baptism of Jesus – the experience of the conversion of Jesus – that marks the beginning of Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee whom he proclaims as the Son of Man, who is the Son of God.

For Mark it was the spiritual birth of Jesus that was the beginning. It was the baptism – a ritual that signifies one’s death from the ordinary life (once born) into a renewed life (twice born) – that marked the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

In the summer of his life, Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee hears the question of his life from a fiery preacher named John the Baptizer: “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Jesus’ first response to the question was to surrender himself to God.

In our time surrender is understood as a sign of defeat. It is a sign of weakness. It is something you have to do when you have no choice left. It is inconceivable that anyone would voluntarily surrender to anything these days. It conjures up images of humiliation. “Surrendering is for losers” is the message we often hear in our society. “Never Surrender!” is a war cry even in the peace time.

To be strong, to be tough, is what we desire in life. To be strong is to be independent. Being strong – like being healthy and wealthy – is the message we want to convey to others. Being abundant – to have much and to have more stuff – is the sign of being strong.

Surrendering things we possess, letting go of things we have, is not easy for us. I often said to myself whenever I was packing for a move that I had no idea how much “junk” I had accumulated. Something within us drives us to relentlessly acquire and accumulate.

I read a story of a dictator who had a house in every major city in his country. He also had twelve limousines, largely unused. He liked to look at them from his balcony. In the end, he died at the age of fifty after being shot during a military coup d’état.[i] It sounded so absurd that anyone could live in such extravagance while most of people in his country were eating one meal a day if they were able to afford it. But such displays of lavishness do not only happen in faraway places. Think about the displays of excess and cupidity in our country.

Look at the countless homeless people sleeping in the streets of Toronto under the gigantic TV screens that are lit up by the spectre of products being pushed as signs of wellbeing. I just read an article about Igor Kenk who is accused of being a thief and hoarder of more than 2,700 used and stolen bicycles in Toronto.[ii] Kenk may be an extreme example of cupidity in our society. Then, I realized my own lust for shoes.

My friend, Glenn, used to have a big sign in his office: “The one who dies with the most toys wins!” Although he meant it as a satire on materialism, some read the sign as an encouragement. Well, you are what you read.

If surrendering wealth and material things are difficult, surrendering things within oneself to a higher power or letting go of self to God seems impossible. Letting go of anger, resentment, pain – things you carry within you that have been damaging you and will ultimately destroy your wellbeing – is so much harder than letting go of the physical things. It is a struggle to let go of the emotions and stuff within us even when we know that carrying them are damaging our being and our relationships with others. But there are things we are totally unaware. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to our wellbeing – both physically and spiritually.

How do we let go of the things within us that harm us? How do we break ourselves open to a different way of being?

Richard Wagamese shares his experience of conversion in his newspaper column, One Native Life, in Calgary Herald. Wagamese writes that the anger resulting from the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools drove him for a long time. When he was in his late 40s he realised how much that anger had hurt him. He had had enough. And he searched for ways to let the anger go.

This is how he describes his letting go:

“One day, I walked into a United Church and forced myself to listen. It was hard and I wanted to leave, but there’s a sense you get when the big events of your life are unfolding and I sat there. …
The minister spoke … I heard compassion in his voice. There was no inferred superiority, no judgement, liturgy or doctrine. Instead, I heard the very human struggle to be spiritual in a hard world.
I went back to that church for weeks. The message I heard was all about humanity, the search for innocence, comfort and belonging. There was nothing in the message that was not about healing. I heard compassion talked about, love, kindness, trust, courage, truth, loyalty and an abiding faith that there’s a God, a Creator taking care of all of us. With my eyes closed, there was no white, no Indian, no difference at all and exactly when my anger disappeared I do not know.
That church changed my life. … Healing happens if you want it bad enough. … Every spiritually enhancing experience asks a sacrifice of us and in this, the price of admission is a keen desire to be rid of the block of anger.”[iii]

Baptism was the event through which Jesus was broken open to the Spirit of God. The ritual of baptism signifies a keen desire to let go of a life centred on oneself and a transformative move into a life centred on one’s relationship with God, with one’s neighbours. It is about letting go of control of self focused on wants and desires of oneself. It is about healing oneself by consciously becoming part of the whole – becoming an integral part of God and the rest of God’s creation and letting them become part of you.

When Jesus waded into the River Jordan and was baptized by John the Baptizer, Jesus was broken open to the Spirit of God. In his letting go of the self Jesus experienced God with him – God in him, God around him, and being in God. And through this experience of letting go and being broken open Jesus himself became the sign of God with us, Emmanuel, for Mark and the rest of the followers.

The baptism of Jesus, the spiritual awakening of experiencing God’s immediate nearness, became the point of beginning for the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. In and through his experience of baptism, Jesus experienced God as near and fully present, not far and beyond reach. Baptism – a symbol of emptying of self and surrendering self to God – was the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry that culminated in emptying of self on the cross.

Mark expresses it this way:

“And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” [Mark 1:10-11]

Author Michaela Bruzzese cites James Cone, an African American theologian, in her reflection on today’s passage – “Jesus embraces the condition of sinners, affirming their existence as his own.” And she writes, “Those brave enough to journey to the wilderness to seek salvation find it waiting for them in the form of Jesus – who walks with them.”[iv] The experience of baptism for Jesus was the experience of being one with God, his neighbours and the rest of the creation.

Our life journey is full of parched experiences in the desert and sudden turns in the night. There are times when we wonder whether we will make it to the end or when we fear that our end may come too soon. There are times when life seems to be one long solitary walk through the wilderness. In those unsettling times, we are often tempted to look to quick fixes of material things to fill our sense of emptiness or to numb our spiritual longings with drugs of our choice.

The story of Jesus’ baptism reminds us that our life truly and fully begins when we surrender ourselves to be broken open to the Spirit of God. No “Gentleman’s Timeout” or “Spa Retreat” in itself will really satisfy our longing for healing within us. No amount of outward beatification of our physical selves will genuinely fill the spiritual hunger deep within us.

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? How do you journey to the wilderness and be broken open to God’s Spirit?

After experiencing painful upheavals in her life and experiencing a sense of transformation through her healing journey, Elizabeth Lesser wrote a book to share her insights and the wisdom of those she met in her healing journey. “Will we be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed?” was the question she grappled with in her book, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow. Lesser noted how ironic it is “that the difficult times (that) we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be. … It was only through turning around and facing (her) shadow that (she) was able to break open into a more genuine and generous life.”[v] Healing, for Lesser, is a process of rising out of the ashes of a former self and into a new way of being. Healing is about going deep within oneself.

When we take a risk to venture deep within us and face our own shadows – when we truly surrender ourselves to God – we will find ourselves broken open for the Spirit of God to enter us, to heal and to fill us. When we dare to surrender to God we will hear God’s voice of love for us. When we are open to the Spirit of God, we will relate and connect with the whole of God’s creation with a renewed life and energy.

Each day is a new day to be broken open to God’s healing. Each moment in life is an opportunity for us to experience and share God’s love. Each encounter with our neighbours is an opening to reconnect with all our relations in creation.

May God bless us a life that is wild and precious. May we be open to transformation and healing in our journey. Because with each and every one of us, God is well pleased.

Amen.

--
[i] Ryszard Kapuściński, Trans. by Klara Glowczewska, The Shadow of the Sun (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), 105-6.
[ii] Anthony Reinhart, Bike theft suspect back behind bars, The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, December 16, 2008, A11.
[iii] Richard Wagamese, Embracing forgiveness, Calgary Herald, Sunday, August 3, 2008, A9.
[iv] Michaela Bruzzese, Living the Word: Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle B – January 11: Water and Fire, Sojourners, January 2009, 48.
[v] Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow (New York: Villard Books, 2005), xix-xx.

“The Other”

2009-01-04T14:19:00.003-05:00

Matthew 2:1-12

January 4, 2009
Epiphany

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
--

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

“And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” ’

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

* * *

Wise men. The Other. The one who is outside of the familiarity of our experiences. The one who is defined by the unknown and foreignness from us.

Judea under the Roman military occupation was a harsh place to live for the local inhabitants. Other than those who were part of the political and religious systems of power, life in Judea was a life under siege, a life of poverty and threat. There was a palpable sense of fear and hatred against foreigners, especially those who represented the Roman Empire. There was a sense of a clear and present danger experienced by all colonials living under the Roman military might. The history of the people of Israel, after all, was a continuing saga of military defeats, revolts against the foreign occupying army, and mass exiles. Fear of the Other, for those in Judea in Mary’s time, was deeply rooted in their life and the lives of their ancestors.

It is difficult to trust strangers and foreigners when much of your life and much of your nation’s history of relating with foreigners resulted in conflicts, war, and subjugation. Why would you welcome strangers when you are afraid? Thus, King Herod was “frightened, and all Jerusalem with him” when they heard of the news of the new born king of the Jews. An impending Roman Emperor’s edict to replace Herod? A possible coup d’état? Images of violence and mayhem pierced through the imaginations of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Fear was the primary response at the news of the birth of Jesus in Jerusalem – a city that was the centre of the religious and the political universe of the people of Israel. Offerings of gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh was the response from those from the East, those considered the Other, who recognized the child Jesus as a “ruler who is to shepherd people of Israel.”

Fear of “the Other,” is not unique to our time. Xenophobia – fear of those from other nations – seems to be a constant in human history. Current attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military and the counter attacks on Israel by the Palestinians is current example of fear of the Other. Another example of an extreme form of Xenophobia is the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 where close to 1 million Tutsis were murdered by Hutu militia.

Racial cleansing and genocide – atrocities stemming from fear of the Other – do not usually happen between two ethnically unrelated groups living far away from each other.
Underlying the differences and accentuating the otherness of one’s neighbours often results in violence and war. What is really sad and ironic is that the neighbours who label each other as the Other often share more in common than differences. Emphasizing the Otherness often happens between two racial ethnic groups who share very close, if not the identical, racial ethnic heritage and homeland.

Palestinians and Israelis, most of them, are closely related to one another in terms of ethnicity. Tutsis and Hutus have been intermingling for more than 600 years and the physical differences of the two groups are more arbitrary than scientific. And yet, there seems to be no end to violence based on the fear of the Other in the world when in fact those we often level as the Other are our neighbours and blood relations.

Seen through the lens of fear, the whole earth is inhabited by the Other for one to be afraid of and to despise. Seen through the lens of fear, the entire earth community is nothing but a wasteland where everyone experiences being a stranger in a strange land.

My first real experience of the Other was when I moved in 1967 from a city to a small village near a de-militarized zone that divides Korea into two nations. Although I was used to moves as a child of a military officer, it was the first time I was conscious of heartache in saying “good-bye” to my friends and classmates. I was 7 years old. By then I was getting used to living in the same place for more than three years and having friends. I was getting used to my neighbourhood – the streets, houses and stores along the way to school. And then we moved.

It was the first time I understood what geographical distance meant. Besides the heartache of losing friends, moving from the urban capital city of Seoul to a remote village in the countryside was a shock. The small village was made up of farmers. The entire population of the town was less than 100.

My new home – a house with mud walls and a thatched roof – was in a village that was surrounded by rice paddies and mountains. There was no electricity outside the army base. No neon signs. No brick houses. No buildings higher than a storey tall. No pavement and no asphalt covered streets. There were no cars other than military vehicles and buses that came once or twice a day depending on the conditions of the buses. People walked or rode on a cart pulled by a cow.

Farming was done manually using wooden ploughs tied to cows. A very selected few folks in the village used small tractors they pushed with hands. There was, I think, a market set up once or a twice a month. And once a year, after harvest time, a theatre company will come to town and set up the moving pictures inside a large tent. Night meant the Milky Way strewn in the sky. Day meant experiencing nature at its natural state transformed by just a bit by farming.

I was a stranger in a strange land. I was an outsider – a city kid of an army officer. I was a stranger to my school mates as they were to me. It was my first real conscious experience of being the Other. It was the first time in my life experiencing being with people in close proximity and yet not really feeling part of their life or community.

Gospel writer Matthew recorded that it was the strangers, foreigners from the East of Judea, who searched out and paid homage to the child Jesus as the King of Jews. This is a story from their experience of the Other. It was these wise ones from afar who recognized Jesus as the King of Jews and joyfully offered gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. It was the Other who were messengers of the good tidings that the Messiah, a ruler who will shepherd people of Israel, was born as Mary’s child Jesus in Bethlehem.

People of Israel experienced how God often chose strangers and foreigners as messengers to help them. Rahab was a foreigner who recognized God of Israel as the God and helped Joshua and his people to “settle” in Canaan – the land they believed God promised to their ancestors. King of Cyrus of Persia – Cyrus the Great – was another whose spirit God “stirred up so he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom” to declare the end of the Babylonian captivity of the people of Israel. [Ezra 1:1-4]

People of Judea in Mary and Jesus’ time understood that foreigners and strangers, the Other, were often messengers and actors of God’s salvation. They understood that God also called prophets and leaders outside their own racial ethnic communities. They understood that God’s salvation transcends narrowly defined racial ethnic boundaries.

The wise ones from the East, people who were the Other, followed the star and found the Messiah in the child Jesus, while those in Jerusalem, those who were Jesus’ kinfolk, were trembling in fear of the news of his birth.

A collection of reflections of Ryszard Kapuściński, a celebrated foreign correspondent for the Polish Press Agency, recently published a book entitled The Other. Kapuściński shares his insights on the Other garnered from a lifetime of travel and encounters as a journalist with people in Africa, Asia and Latin Africa.

There are three things Kapuściński shared on Herodotus – a Greek historian in the 5th century who is regarded as the “Father of History” – that captured my attention:

“All people are different and it’s natural that each (cultural group of) people to think its own ways are best.”[i]

“Herodotus wanted to know (the Others) because he understood that to know ourselves we have to know Others, who act as the mirror in which we see ourselves reflected; he knew that to understand ourselves better we have to understand Others, to compare ourselves with them, to measure ourselves against them.” [ii]

“Xenophobia, Herodotus implied, is a sickness of people who are scared, suffering an inferiority complex, terrified by the prospect of seeing themselves in the mirror of the culture of Others.”[iii]

Kapuściński’s ideas are strongly influenced by Emmanuel Lévinas, a French philosopher, whose experience as a Jew in Eastern Europe and later in France heavily influenced his philosophy that “The self is only possible through the recognition of the Other.”[iv] Kapuściński asserts that “‘genuine’ individualism – the recognition of selfhood – can only be brought about by contact with and recognition of the Other, the being who is external to oneself and yet a reflection of oneself.”[v] For him, knowing oneself comes from knowing the Other.

A faith community is no exception to Herodotean assessment: that each community is different and that each community thinks its own ways are best. There is a strong tendency to act out a belief that one’s own faith group or a congregation is the best. I often found it strange that a faith group – a community that is formed for nurturing transformation – is often the most resistant group to change itself. It is also painful to see people around the global communities use religious beliefs as weapons to label their neighbours as the Other and wage war with one another rather than seeking to find commonalities so all can live in harmony.

Wise men left their home – a familiar place and a place of belonging – to search for the Messiah. They answered the call from God and followed the star of their passion and found the place of homage and of God’s presence. Perhaps those wise men were wise because of the risk they took to seek the Promised One by leaving everything that was familiar to them.

I wonder what that homage would mean for those of us here. How would we seek and search for God’s presence in our neighbourhood? Or in another land? How would we recognize Jesus in our life?

What about Mary? How do we learn to be like Mary whose faith and wisdom helped her to receive and accept the gifts of wise ones from the East – strangers and foreigners – who proclaimed her child as the Messiah? How do we recognize the gifts of strangers – gifts of the Other – who help us to fully know who we are in our encounters and interactions with them? How do we learn to receive from the neighbours we encounter in our ministry together?

It is not too often we get to experience deep connections with those we encounter in life. Perhaps it is because we are too afraid of strangers. Perhaps it is because we are too afraid of seeing who we might be in the eyes of the others. Perhaps it is because we do not really believe that we can connect with others and be heard.

I met many people throughout my life. My encounters with people in the remote village in South Korea helped me to understand my relation to nature and the beauty of God’s creation. My encounters with people of different faith communities helped me to deepen and widen my understanding and experience of God. My encounters with strangers who became my friends helped me to nurture empathy, compassion and belonging. But those I felt the deepest connections to were the ones who treated me with kindness and compassion; who helped me to see who I am by opening themselves to me; connections where I experienced knowing that I was understood. These are the connections that nurtured me as a human being and a fellow sojourner in God’s Creation.

The story of the wise men from the East and their encounter with Mary and her child Jesus tells of how God’s grace transcends the lines that divide human community into groups of the Other. The story of the encounter helps us to understand how our daily encounters could help us know more about who we are in relation to God and to our neighbours. It is about deep connections amongst strangers who became part of God’s community through their encounters.

May we continue to seek out the Other and discover who we are. May we be the Other and be the mirror to those searching for God’s presence.

Amen.

--
[i] Ryszard Kapuściński, Intro. By Neal Ascherson, The Other (London: Verso, 2008), 4.
[ii] The Other, 19.
[iii] The Other, 19.
[iv] The Other, 4-5.
[v] The Other, 8.

“Blessings for the journey”

2009-01-04T14:02:00.006-05:00

Richard C. Choe©

Luke 2:22-40

December 28, 2008
First Sunday After Christmas

* * *

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

* * *

Blessings for the journey.

“Baek-il” – “One Hundredth Day” – is a celebration marking a child’s “coming out” party in Korea. When a child reaches one hundredth day after birth, a family celebrates by inviting neighbours and relations into the house for a party.

One hundred is an auspicious number for Koreans. Many infants and mothers did not survive birthing in Korea in the olden days. Ninety-nine days were lived in prayer for the well-being of the infant and the recovery of the mother’s health. A child’s household was virtually quarantined for the first 99 days of the child’s life for fear of transmitting diseases.

The ancient Koreans believed that surviving the first ninety-nine days was a sign that the child had overcome the trauma of birthing and would be strong enough to fight off diseases. It was also understood that a mother’s body requires that much time to heal if she survived giving birth.

On the one hundredth day of the child’s birth, a house would be open to the neighbours and relations so they could visit and share the joy of the arrival of the child into the family and the community. One of the traditions in the celebration was to make rice cakes and share them with neighbours and anyone who happened to be passing by the house. Often, grandmothers of the infant would share a piece of a rice cake with passersby at the gate of the house and invite them in to bless their grandchild. Ancient Koreans believed that sharing the celebration of child’s birth with the rest of their community was a way of seeking blessing for the child and the child’s place in the community. The practice was rooted in belief that happiness is multiplied when shared and that an individual is an instrument of God’s blessing to one another in community.

The tradition of “Baek-il” continues in Korean families. Koreans may not open their house to all the passersby, but the tradition of sharing happiness on the one hundredth day of the child’s birth with neighbours continue to this day. Joys and happiness, indeed, multiply when shared.

The ancient Jews also had a “coming out” party for children as well. We heard this morning from the passages in the Gospel According to Luke about the “coming out” celebration of a child named Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph.

Jesus was presented to God along with the sacrifice offering of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” Mary and Joseph brought their first born according to Jewish custom where the first to be born is considered “sacred and presented to the Lord because that child opened the womb so that other children may also take their turn in being born.”[i]

Even from a distance people would have seen that Mary’s family was of modest means by the offering the family brought for sacrifice. A more prosperous family would have brought a lamb – an animal that was required for the ritual sacrifice of atonement. The child Jesus was blessed by two aged worshippers, ordinary folks, at the peripheral part of the temple where women were allowed.

The gospel writer, Luke, stressed the lowly and marginal nature of Jesus of Nazareth as he recounted Jesus’ birth and his life. Jesus, a child of a low social and religious status, was recognized by those who were also of low social and religious status. Jesus was recognized as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to people of Israel” and as “the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” even when he came from a family of low socio-economic status. It was not one of the priests or the chief priest in the temple of Jerusalem who recognized Jesus as the “One-Waited-for” but two less important but devout worshippers of the temple.

Like the time of Mary and Jesus we live in a society where we value blessings of others, and yet find it difficult to feel blessed. And like the time of Mary and Jesus, we live in a society where those who have more than others are seen to be blessed more than those who have less.

In our society where the signs of material blessings are so abundantly visible, we continue to search for the meaning of blessing – blessing of each of us as one to be cherished, nurtured, cared for, accepted as one to be loved. In a society that seems to be filled with folks driven for “success,” we continue to struggle with the voices of a “critical parent” within us that tell us that we are not good enough or that we will not amount to anybody of importance in our life. Those who hear and accept the message of the “critical parent” will eventually act out to show others that they are indeed not worthy. There is also a good chance that an adult carrying a “critical parent” within will become a “critical” mother or a father oneself to their children and even to those they encounter in their life. Those who do not experience blessing often do not live blessed lives.

How would you describe or define “blessing” in your life? Do you “count your blessings?” Do you seek blessing from others? Do you see yourself as a blessing to those you encounter in your life?

Thrity Umrigar, an American author, shares one of the most enduring and beloved Parsi legend.

A small group of Zoroastrians land on the shores of India after fleeing religious persecution in their homeland of Iran. They seek political refuge. The local Hindu ruler is wary of the foreigners and does not want to grant them entry. They do not speak a common language so the local Hindu ruler takes an empty glass and fills it to the brim with milk. The symbolism is clearly communicated to the refugees. “This land is full and cannot accommodate newcomers.” But the Zoroastrian priest is a wise man. He takes sugar and drops it into the glass and dissolves it in the milk, careful not to spill a drop. His message is also clearly communicated. “If you let us stay, we will sweeten your local culture, without displacing or disrupting it. Thus, the Zoroastrians – or Parsis, as they came to be called – find a home in India and true to their word, became a model community, their contributions enhancing the culture of their new homeland. [ii]

The Parsi story tells us of the wisdom of the priest as well as the Hindu ruler. They both were able to clearly communicate what they saw as a reality – that there was no room for them and that they came with gifts. They both were able to clearly see what they saw as a possibility – that new ways of being was possible and that they could co-exist as neighbours. The wisdom of the leaders provided new possibilities of being in community.

The Ojibway say that there are seven hills to life. Each hill is a vantage point for looking back, thought not everyone takes the time for reflection. It is only in looking back, the Ojibway say, that you discern the trail, identify the climb and rest contented in each stage of the journey. The final hill is the elevation of wisdom. It is from there you can look back on the vast panorama of your life and come to know who you are by virtue of who you’ve been.[iii]

In a land where the value of the life of a child from a poor peasant family was worth next to nothing, two elders, Simeon and Anna, were able to see a child of blessing and blessed Jesus’ life journey. In a time when hope seemed to have disappeared and God seemed to have forgotten the plight of the oppressed people of Israel, God blessed Simeon and Anna to see the coming of the “One-Waited-for,” the Messiah. From the vantage point of the seventh hill in life, Simeon and Anna came to know who they were – the ones who were blessed to recognize the coming of Messiah. From all the places they have been in life they were blessed with wisdom to recognize the Messiah in an ordinary child. And to recognize their part in blessing the Messiah for his life’s journey. The ones blessed both received and shared blessings.

We, as a congregation, have celebrated 100th year of ministry in this neighbourhood and beyond. We have heard stories of challenges and growth, we have remembered the times of pain as well as joys we have experienced together. We have looked back and realized that our community has never been perfect or that we have always been in the right. What we saw from the vantage point of this 100th year was how we were able to grow and transform together as we experienced each phase of growth as community.

Our children, through their participation in the Nativity Play, reminded us of our childhood and the times gone by – the times of innocence, the times of youthfulness, the times of wonder and discovery along with growing pains about life, death and resurrection. Nothing stays the same in life. People grow old. Relationships grow, change, at times, break apart and heal. There are joys in life as well as grief.

Our geographic location may not have changed but our contexts of ministry – our neighbourhood – has changed and will continue to change. Neighbourhoods change. Familiar neighbours move out and strangers move in and become neighbours. Along with those changes, the membership of our congregation changes as well. Looking back helps us to realize that we, too, will continue to adapt, change and find new and different ways to continue the ministry of Jesus Christ in this neighbourhood and beyond.

Seeing our children on the Christmas Eve family service was a vantage point of looking back for me. I saw our children growing in faith and maturity. I was saying to some of the parents that some of the angels dressed in white looked more like brides than children dressed as angels. Watching the play also reminded me of how God opens our eyes to see each and every child as blessing to our faith community. Watching our children also reminded me that each one of us is a blessing to our community if we choose to take that blessing seriously. Our life affects the lives of those we encounter. Like the way God called and blessed Simeon and Anna to recognize a child from a poor peasant family from Nazareth as the Messiah, God continues to call and bless us to recognize blessing in those we meet in our life.

Each child is blessed. Each child, regardless of social or religious status, is blessed was the message Jesus and his family experienced from the actions of Simeon and Anna. Each child, each life, is a blessing for every community.

I lived with my grandparents for a while when I was about 9 years old, a time when I was really fascinated by spy and espionage stories. I invented a cryptic alphabet to communicate with my friends and carried a membership card made with rubber stamps for a spy organization I invented. One of the things we used to do was to “train” ourselves by daring one another to jump over the open sewer in the neighbourhood. Each night I would return home dirty with a ripped shirt. One day my grandfather confronted me with the “evidence” of what he believed to be my involvement with a neighbourhood gang – my membership card of my imaginary spy organization. He thought I had joined a gang and was involved in something illegal. It took a quite a bit of time for me to explain to him that the spy organization was created out of my imagination. The filthy pants were due to failed attempts to jump across the open sewers. And shirts got ripped when my friends tried to grab me from slipping into the sewer after landing.

My grandparents used to laugh about that time whenever they reminisced about the time I lived with them. A time when they thought that their grandson, a model student, had gone astray and joined a gang.

Children grow, change, and show us of the blessings of change and growth. There are those who are able to see God’s child in each person. My grandparents saw a blessed child in me and they blessed me with stories of wonder and an unconditional love that helped me to know that I am loved forever. If we choose, like Anna and Simeon, we, too, could be a blessing to those we encounter.

As we journey towards the New Year may the Apache Nation blessing go with you:

May the sun
Bring you new energy by day,
May the moon
Softly restore you by night,
May the rain
Wash away your worries,
May the breeze
Blow new strength into your being.
May you walk
Gently through the world and know
Its beauty all the days of your life.

Happy New Year everyone!

Happy 101st year of ministry!

Amen.

[i] http://liturgy.slu.edu/HolyFamilyB122808/theword_gillick.html
[ii]Thrity Umrigar, Harper Collins, http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=29280&isbn13=9780061240232&displyType=bookessay
[iii] Richard Wagamese, One Native Life (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2008), 168.

“Truth about stories”

2009-01-04T13:56:00.006-05:00

Luke 1:46-55

December 21, 2008
Advent 4 & Christmas

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
--

And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

* * *

Truth about stories.

“Truth about stories is that that’s all we are.”[i] That’s what Thomas King, a well known Canadian writer, says about stories. Who we are depends on what stories we live by and how we make meaning out of stories in our life.

Two sisters are remembering an event that happened over forty years ago.

“Remember the woman on the bus, Vera? The woman in the fur coat?” It was Christmas Eve in 1952. A sixteen year old and a six year old sisters are snuggled up against their mother on the backseat of a bus. They are Ukrainian refugee family recently arrived from Germany following the WW2. They remember a kind woman in a fur coat who leaned across the aisle and pressed sixpence into their mother’s hand saying, “for the kiddies at Christmas.” “Thank you, lady,” was what their mother said as she slipped it into her pocket.

The younger sister tells the older one, “It was that moment – more than anything that happened to me afterwards – that turned me into a lifelong socialist.” The older sister for whom conspicuous displays of her consumption has become a part of her life, replies to her sister, after a long silence, “Maybe it was what turned me into the woman in the fur coat.”[ii]

Truth about stories is that that’s all we are. How we experience and what lessons we learn from each event shape and mould our identity. Stories influence the way we see and experience our surroundings. Stories shape our lives. Stories inform us of who we are and how we are related to others – as friends or foes, neighbours or strangers, as part of us or them. Stories reflect the kind of values and principles we hold as truth as individuals and as part of the whole.

One of the dominant themes in stories permeating in the lives of Mary and her contemporaries was that of the power and domination. After all, she grew up and was living under a Roman military occupation. She lived in a land where displays of military might and abusive physical and mental brutality were the norm.

The rich and the powerful were known to be the ones God blessed. They have every right to be proud to be in the company of God. They were the exalted ones whose will was the will of their society. They were the ones who deserved to fill themselves with good things while many in their society were sent away empty.

More is good. Big is better. The message that might was right was the prevalent message of Mary’s time. God was in the business of blessing the rich and the powerful. The poor and the powerless were invisible even to God. The truth about those stories was that that’s all Mary was – poor, powerless, and pregnant before she was married, a morally “defiled” girl who was a social and a religious outcast – one of those insignificant undeserving and forgotten by God.

Some things don’t change. Wall Street bankers gave themselves exorbitant salaries and bonuses even after the stock market meltdown. “Because we can” was the message of their actions. More is good. Big is better. Excess is the name of the game. Three CEO’s of the largest auto companies flew private jets to Washington, D.C. to beg for billions of dollars in loans. “Because we deserve it.” A sense of self importance and entitlement seem to permeate amongst those three who led their companies into utter disaster. It seems that North American society is divided into two categories – those who get rescued by the government and those who do not. Might continues to be right even in economic recession.

Closer to home, signs and bright lights on the billboards around the city continue to feed the insatiable appetite for consumption. More is good. Big is better. Keep the economy afloat with the myth of “retail therapy” and needing the latest model. Power and domination – the message Mary and her contemporaries heard more than two thousand years ago – continues to perpetuate as a dominant story.

There is a prevailing sense of uncertainty and fear as we experience this severe economic crisis. We hear about people losing jobs as many companies are shutting down or reducing the number of employees due to the down turn in economy. People are asking: How will this crisis affect me? What does this mean for my family? What would happen to my retirement savings and to the value of my home? Do I have enough saved for my children’s education? It’s not supposed to happen this way.

If we are experiencing this much uncertainty and fear in North America, how is the rest of God’s people, especially those in the so called “developing” countries, experiencing this economic crisis?

Our lives are connected to all lives everywhere. Donations to charity organizations are drying up while needs are escalating. Shelves in many of the drop in centres in Toronto are sparse. The Mission and Service Fund of the United Church is behind its target. Our Friday lunches at KRU are packed with folks looking for a meal and warmth.

What stories do we hear as we wait for the day of the birth of the Christ Child? What stories are we telling one another in this season of hope in Christ as we experience the economic downturn in our society? What stories could we dare to imagine in this bleak winter? How do you hope for a better tomorrow when you are feeling so vulnerable and overwhelmed with so much uncertainty?

According to the Gospel writer Luke, something radical happened when Mary was visiting her cousin Elizabeth who was also pregnant. In her encounter with Elizabeth, Mary began to imagine a world that was fundamentally different than the world she was part of. Mary remembered another dominant theme of the stories that had shaped her life – stories of hope and resistance against power and domination. She remembered Hannah’s song. She remembered how Hannah, who was too old to have a child, was blessed by God and had Samuel. She remembered how God’s mercy made the impossible possible for Hannah. And Mary’s love for her child in her womb turned her to envision a world where the lowly, those like her and her child, could experience God’s mercy. She dreamt of a different world where people like her and her neighbours would no longer be sent away empty.

She imagined a society where the priority was to provide things to those who were in need. She imagined a society where justice would mean moving beyond equal share for all or equal pay for equal work. Mary’s imagination was much more radical than that. She imagined a “needs-based” economy which focuses on filling the needs of the “have nots” rather than a “wants-based” economy which focuses on the wants of the “haves” and “have nots.” She imagined a political system which would go beyond Capitalism, Socialism or Communism. She imagined a society where those who have would refrain from acquiring any more than what they need, and those who do not have enough would be provided for what they need.

God’s mercy, Mary proclaims, is much more radical and drastic than humanity can ever imagine. It is God’s mercy that will save humanity, not the excessive desire for wealth and power.

And yet, we continue to hold and perpetuate the stories focused on the merits of power and domination over our neighbours and God’s creation as the central stories to live by within our individual selves and within our society. We continue to have difficulty imagining, never mind accepting, the good news that Mary heard. We may be able to imagine a notion of equal share or equal distribution of goods but not to the extent of Mary’s vision. Mary’s story of God’s mercy and blessing envisioned in her song continues to challenge us.

Would it be possible to imagine us being part of a society where men and women working in the assembly lines in the auto industry get paid six figure salaries because they do not have enough? Could we imagine a society where senior auto industry executives are compensated a minimum wage since they already have enough? What holds us from imagining such a possibility?

Would it be possible for those of us living in North America to radically decrease our consumptions of water, gas, and electricity amongst other things – and share our natural resources with citizens of countries who do not have clean water to drink and fuel to cook with? Could we share our savings with those who are living in abject poverty and barely surviving without much hope? What holds us from envisioning such a possibility?

Would it be possible for us to convert our church building into a low income housing for the homeless and gather at a school cafeteria or at a school gym for worship on Sunday? What holds us from thinking about it as a possibility? Would it be possible to dream the undreamed dream of God along with Mary?

The Nigerian storyteller, Ben Okri says,

“We live by stories; we also live in them. One way or another we are living the stories we planted – knowingly or unknowingly – in ourselves. We live stories that either give our lives meaning or negate it with meaninglessness. If we change the stories we live by, quite possibly we can change our lives.”[iii]

We can change our life by changing the stories we live by. The quality and the content of our life and our relationship with our neighbours and the rest of God’s creation will change when we no longer take the stories focusing on the power and might as the stories we live by. The quality and the content of our life and our relationship with our neighbours and the rest of God’s creation will change when we begin to take stories of hope and resistance against power and domination as stories we live by.

Mary changed the stories she lived by as she dreamt of a better future for her child. Like any mother would, she envisioned a future where her child would be blessed and embraced by God and God’s people, open to new and limitless possibilities.

Truth about stories, indeed, is – that that’s all we are. Stories shape and reshape us. Stories inform, reform and transform us. Which stories we choose to tell and which stories we continue to tell informs us of our values. We struggle with the prevalent stories that continue to dominate our imagination – that more is always good and that less is always bad.

How do we participate in such drastic changes of imagination when we ourselves are feeling so insignificant? By changing one small story at a time.

Every evening a woman heard her neighbour’s baby girl crying through the thin walls of the apartment next to hers. She realized that the baby’s parents put the child to sleep alone in the dark. Every night the baby cried for a long time while her parents watched TV. The woman heard anguish and loneliness in the baby’s crying. What could she do? She wondered. Speaking to the baby’s parents might make things worse. Then, she came up with an idea. Just as she could hear the baby, the baby could hear her. She decided to sing. Every evening when the baby cried alone in the dark, the neighbour sang sweet lullabies, talked to the baby through the thin walls, consoled and comforted her. The baby heard the invisible voice of love, stopped crying, and peacefully fell asleep.[iv]

It is small gestures of love shared with people around us that changes, heals and saves us.

This voice of warmth and compassion is what the shepherds and Mary heard. This comforting voice, telling us of God’s remembering of each one of us, is what we hear through Mary’s Song. These lullabies of love are what we are called to continue to share with those we encounter in our life, those who are crying out in loneliness.

This is the message of Christmas – that God so loves the world that God continues to sing lullabies of hope, mercy and compassion through the prophets like Mary, the Mother of Jesus, like the younger sister on the bus. God’s lullabies continue to be sung to those who are meek and vulnerable.

Richard Wagamese, a writer and a newspaper columnist, shares in his autobiography, One Native Life. “Stories are meant to heal. That’s what my people say, and it’s what I believe. Culling these stories has taken me a long way down the healing path from the trauma I carried.”[v] “Everyone has a story. That’s what the circle teaches us. We become better people, a better species,” Wagamese says, “when we take the time to hear them. That’s how you change the world, really. One story, one voice at a time.”[vi]

May we continue to hear God’s lullabies of hope. May we continue to sing God’s lullabies of mercy, hope and compassion even to those we do not know. May we live the message of the Christmas story in all the songs of our lives, songs of good news of great joy for all people.

Amen.

--
[i] Thomas King, The truth about stories: a native narrative (Toronto: Dead Dog Café Productions Inc. and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2003), 2 - 9.
[ii] Marina Lewyck, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 220-1.
[iii] King, The truth about stories, 153.
[iv] Piero Ferrucci, translated by Vivien Reid Ferrucci, The power of kindness: the unexpected benefit of leading a compassionate life, (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2007), 28-9.
[v] Richard Wagamese, One Native Life (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2008), 4.
[vi] Wagamese, One Native Life, 203.

“Truth & Its Consequences”

2009-01-04T13:51:00.003-05:00

Matthew 25:14-30

November 16, 2008
Twenty-seventh Sunday After Pentecost

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

Truth and its consequences.

Every community has commonly held beliefs or interpretations of stories that are accepted as truths. These commonly held beliefs are time honoured truths that inform individuals about what is considered good, as in what is acceptable for the well being of the community, and what is deemed evil, meaning what is unacceptable since it harms the community. Whichever qualities a community chooses as good or evil are derived from their common experiences as community. And the kind of choices each community makes as truth lead to consequences that the community has to bear together. Yes, every truth held by a community has its consequences.

Some of those truths are as innocuous as a stable boy becoming a king after taking a sword out of a stone like the legend of King Arthur. The legend of Arthur reveals the community’s commonly held belief that anyone could be chosen by the divine to do good, find honour in search of the holy and fight against evil. The legend portrays the ideals and the “realities” of life of the British way – pursuit of truth, finding and losing love, and the transitory nature of power as part of human realities.

Then, there are beliefs about attributes that “qualify” some folks to be “better” or “worse” than their contemporaries in the community. Every community has systems of social hierarchy as a consequence of the truths they hold about “values” and “qualities” of being a member of the community.

The commonly held beliefs in community, those “truths,” undergird and influence the community’s social conscience.

Watching the Presidential debates between Barack Obama and John McCain in the United States helped me to see not only what each political party holds as truths but also what the United States as a nation considers as truths in their country.

As a Canadian and a Christian, I found it fascinating that the word “liberal” was considered a dirty word in the US politics. Arguing about “spreading the wealth” as a “Socialist” concept was not a surprise; however, seeing socialism as something very negative by both political parties and by many of the US citizens was a surprise.

What I found most fascinating about the US Presidential campaign was that neither political party really talked about the poor. They talked about the “middle class” extensively – although the definition of the middles class was not as clear to me – but none of the candidates really spent much time to talk about the poor in the US. It was as though the poor did not exist in the US. Being a Muslim seemed to be a damaging factor, if not damning, for the political candidates in the US.

I remember a conversation I had with Frances, my eldest daughter, during the US election. One of the things we talked about was the fact that “spreading the wealth” and “taking care of the needy” were essential Christian values. We talked about the fact that before socialism or communism became a distinct political notion, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and most, if not all, of the religions of the global communities held “spreading the wealth” and “taking care of the downtrodden” as essential parts of their religious beliefs and practices. And we still do hold those values as essential in our faith.

Canadian politics are not much different than those of our neighbours in the South. Remember, we also had a federal election in the midst of the US Presidential campaign? A similar criticism was also raised about the poor being forgotten by the political parties in Canada.

It seems like the US and Canadian societies are deeply immersed in “the rich get richer and the poor get what little they have taken away” version of market economy.

If it is a commonly held belief in our society that the rich ought to get richer and the poor ought to get things taken away from them, the consequence of that belief will be that our society will find ways to make it a reality. One of the consequences in such a society will be that the rich will continue to find ways to worship the market economy which benefits them as God. Even most of the poor would have internalized those values that marginalize them as truth in such a society. Every truth has its consequences.

The parable of the Talents is one of the most familiar stories from the Bible. The story is so popular and influential that the word “talent,” originally one of the largest currencies in the Mediterranean in Jesus’ time – an amount worth more than 15 years of wages for a daily labourer – came to mean one’s gift or ability in our society. By the way, if you were to consider a person working at a job that pays $10/hour working full-time for 50 weeks a year, the annual salary will be $20,000. One talent in our time, thus, will be $300,000. Five talents is a modern day equivalent of $1.5 million!

We hear and interpret others’ stories by our own world view. Our own experiences of life inform the way we read, hear and interpret stories and experiences of others. Reading, hearing and understanding the stories in the Bible are no exception. As the Parable of the Talents was read this morning, each of us heard it according to our world view and the commonly held beliefs informed by years of sermons and Bible studies.

The first two slaves were faithful because they worked hard to double the money entrusted to them by their master. One turned $600,000 into 1.2 million dollars and the other amassed $3 million dollars out of 1.5 million dollars. The outcome of their faithfulness was a reward for more things and more responsibility given to them. Thus, being faithful means taking a risk and doubling the gifts you are given by God.

The third slave was unfaithful because he did nothing with the money entrusted to him. Hiding the talent entrusted to him by his master represents his laziness and irresponsibility. The end result for him was to be condemned by his master as wicked and lazy, to have everything taken away and be thrown out from his master’s household. Thus, being unfaithful will result in banishment from God’s love.

The story ends with a punch line, “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” [Matthew 25:29-30]

It seems like a straight forward story. Those who risk and work hard for a higher return will be rewarded for their effort and those who do not risk and are lazy will be punished for their non-effort. “God is generous and rewards those who have been faithful to God” was and is one of the underlying points for interpreting the parable. “So, be faithful like the first two slaves!” preachers would proclaim in his or her sermon.

How many of you heard this in the Bible studies or sermons or interpreted it this way yourselves? Varying versions of the interpretation of the parable I just summarized continue to be common. And like any other commonly held beliefs as truth in community, Christian churches and the societies that churches are part of have been influenced by and have experienced the consequences of such truth.

But there is a nagging feeling about the way story is told.

The way the third slave described the master is particularly bothersome. This is what he said, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’” [Matthew 25:24-25]

The master does not dispute the way he was described by the third slave. And he replied to the slave, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents.” [Matthew 25:26-28]

Jesus proclaimed and preached God as loving Daddy. Then, why does the master in the story come across as such hard headed and hard hearted? According to the third slave, the master seems more like a greedy thief who will do anything to get what he wants. He sounds like Conrad Black and other criminals who swindled millions of dollars from their clients because they could. “If you didn’t have guts to take a risk to get a 100% profit by unscrupulous means, at least you could have legally got 10% from the bank” is what the master seems to be saying to the third slave.

I am not sure whether such characteristics are the kind of characteristics of God that Jesus was portraying. And even if the master does not portray God, I am not sure whether relationships based on the extreme profit margin as the bottom line is the kind of household Jesus envisioned as God’s kingdom. There is something that does not make sense in the interpretations we have been holding as truth.

I came across an article by Ched Myers and Eric DeBode which offers very different interpretations of the Parable of Talents. One of the things they invite readers is to examine the socio-economic contexts of the first century Mediterranean world during which Jesus lived and shared the Parable of Talents.

Here are some facts:

· Most of the listeners of the parable and the followers of Jesus were poor. They were like the slaves in the parable.

· The highest legal interest rate was about 12 percent. Anything higher was considered as rapacious.[i] Those who were the original hearers and the contemporaries of Jesus would have been disgusted at the 100 percent return. They would have heard the high return rate as extortions like those they have experienced.

· The ideal in traditional Mediterranean society was stability of the community, not self-advancement of individuals. Anyone trying to accumulate inordinate wealth risked upsetting the equilibrium of society and was thus understood to be dishonourable. Usury, lending at exorbitant rates of interest, was understood by people in Jesus’ time to be responsible for the destructive cycle of indebtedness and poverty. Profiting from commodity trading was explicitly condemned by people like Aristotle.[ii]

· There are various warning about the prohibition against usury and profiteering off the poor in Torah (Leviticus 25:36).

Myers and DeBode assert that the parable is not about a stewardship where we are called to double the return but about critiquing the economic system that makes such doubling possible in the first place.[iii]

The parable is about exposing the cruelty of the market economy of Jesus’ time that was promoting “rich get richer and poor get what little they have taken away” scheme. The parable is about denouncing such inhumane market economy and those who benefit from it. The parable was told by Jesus to invite the hearers of the story to resist and dissent such an inhumane economic system that was promoting the unbridled greed and rewarding its perpetrators as “good and trustworthy” while punishing the poor by marginalizing them and labelling them as “wicked and lazy.”

Understanding the contexts of the parable brings a different perspective to the story. Hearing and interpreting the parable without being aware of the original contexts of the parable, while immersed in our Capitalist socio-economic contexts, may lead us to not fully appreciate the intent of Jesus’ telling of the parable.

Truth and its consequences. Which interpretation we choose and accept as truth or hold as common belief will shape our faith and life practices. Our commonly held belief will eventually shape and influence the way we live out our faith in life.

“Here, you have what is yours.” This may conjure up a scene where a slave is cowering and trembling with fear as he is handing over the large sum of money to his master, if you believe in “the rich get richer and poor get what little they have taken away” version of the interpretation. But if you were to interpret the parable as the social critique of Jesus on the market economy of his time, you may be able to imagine a scene where a defiant slave chooses to dissent and opt out of the economic system that enslaves people. “Here, take back what is yours!” would be what you would hear from the “whistle-blower,” who unmasked the fact that the master’s wealth is derived entirely from the toil of others.[iv]

Every truth has its consequences.

If our faith community is one that also believes that the rich ought to get richer and the poor ought to have their possessions taken away from them, then that is going to be the consequence for each and every one of us. Our life and faith will be about getting ahead of others and accumulating wealth by any means necessary. If our community believes that the well being of the whole is the priority of our community, then the consequence of such a belief is that we will be committed to building such a society. Such an interpretation would require us to fundamentally change the way we relate with one another here in the church as well as in our neighbourhood and work place. The poor and the weak will be a priority in our church and our faith practices. Those who cannot take care of themselves will be our focus in our political and economic practices. Well being of everyone in our society will be one of the truths we hold as an underlying social and religious consciousness in our community.

We have committed ourselves to receive Mayei Kojo Anite as part of our faith community today. Our interpretation of the parable and our holding of the interpretation as truth in our community will also inform and shape the way we raise her along with her family.

The concept of King Arthur’s Round Table where no one is above or beneath another is a concept many around the unequal globe still struggle to realize. The Parable of the Talents is also about the Round Table of God’s kingdom where all are cherished and valued as equals. The parable is a reminder and a challenge to each one of us to opt out of and actively dissent the systems of power that reward the powerful while neglecting and abandoning the weak. May we be enabled by God to struggle to build a society where all are cared for and everyone can share their wealth for the well being of one’s community.

Amen.

--
[i] Richard Rohrbaugh cited in Towering Trees and ‘Talented’ Slaves by Ched Myers and Eric DeBode, http://lists.joinhands.com/pipermail/midrash/2005-November/001925.html. In his article "A Peasant Reading of the Parable of the Talents," Richard Rohrbaugh notes that in antiquity the highest legal interest rate was about 12 percent; anything higher was considered rapacious.
[ii] Bruce Malina, The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology cited in Towering Trees and ‘Talented’ Slaves by Ched Myers and Eric DeBode, http://lists.joinhands.com/pipermail/midrash/2005-November/001925.html.
[iii] Ched Myers and Eric DeBode, The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology cited in Towering Trees and ‘Talented’ Slaves, http://lists.joinhands.com/pipermail/midrash/2005-November/001925.html.
[iv] William Herzog, Parables as Subversive Speech, cited in Towering Trees and ‘Talented’ Slaves by Ched Myers and Eric DeBode, http://lists.joinhands.com/pipermail/midrash/2005-November/001925.html & in David B. Gowler, What Are They Saying About Parables? http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~dgowler/chapter6.htm.

"Communicating Peace”

2009-01-04T13:37:00.002-05:00

John 8:31-36

November 9, 2008
Twenty-sixth Sunday After Pentecost

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
---

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, “You will be made free”?’
Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

* * *

“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

A young man joined in the Canadian Expeditionary Force of 1914-1918. He served the duration of the war and sustained three wounds. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Amiens in 1918 and was sent home. He got married and had five daughters. He did not say much about the war experiences. One day, while he was fishing with one of his grandsons, he began to talk. His back was to his grandchild as memories of war swirled through and beyond him.

He recounted a story of how his patrol encountered a German machine-gun nest in a village in the Arras Sector of France. Everyone in the patrol except him died in the fire fight. When the machine-gun fell silent he fixed his bayonet and jumped into the machine-gun nest to discover one German gunner still alive. He saw a kid with “eyes like water, these watery blue eyes.” The German kid raised his hand to him, smiled and said, “Kamerad” – meaning “comrade” or “friend.” He bayoneted him in the forehead. And he carried the burden of that moment for the rest of his life.[i]

Paul Gross, the grandson of Michael Joseph Dunne, shares his grandfather’s burden and other realities of war in the movie Passchendaele. Over 600,000 Canadian men and boys enlisted to serve in the Great War. The Canadian population was less than 8 million in 1914. This means that about 15% of males in Canada fought in the Great War.

Gross believes that Canadian identity – strong, resolute and proud – was forged in the Western Front of Europe during the Great War. He asserts that Canadians “must pay honour to the 173,300 casualties, and we must do homage to the 67,000 who paid the ultimate sacrifice.”[ii]

Here are some truths about the Great War in our neighbourhood – the Beach and the East end.

Gene Domagala wrote the following in Beach Metro News:

“When I was researching this article, I went through many newspaper accounts of the war. Sometimes I just stopped and couldn’t go on reading, especially when it came to our area. … ‘Canadians winning at the Somme, at Ypres …’ At what cost? Every day for over four years, you would see pictures in the papers of our great heroic soldiers – John Smith of Lee Avenue died; Tom Brown of Queen Street died in a gas attack; Joe gave his life to save his brother in arms, and so on. … Sometimes it seemed that the Beach and East End would run out of volunteers. The parents and the community gave up so much for war and for the country. In St. John’s Norway Cemetery, we find crosses of some of those soldiers who gave their lives for the Beach and Canada.”[iii]

“Truth will make you free,” Jesus said. And we wonder what truth and how truth will make us free as we remember and honour those who fought and sacrificed in the Great War – the war that was going to end all wars – and in all the subsequent wars.

Truth is one of those over used and abused words that many of us have great difficulty accepting the way it is presented to us. We live in an age where truth no longer seems to be relevant. Truth, these days, is understood as relative, expendable, dispensable and even irrelevant. For some the word truth invokes religious and political extremism rather than conjuring up the notion of seeking ideals for human community.

This is how Wendell Berry, an American poet, expresses truths about war in his poem Sabbath 2005.

They gather like an ancestry
in the centuries behind us:
the killed by violence, the dead
in war, the “acceptable losses” –
killed by custom in self-defense,
by way of correction, as revenge,
for love of God, for the glory
of the world, for peace; killed
for pride, lust, envy, anger,
covetousness, gluttony, sloth,
and fun. The strewn carcasses
cease to feed even the flies,
the stench passes from them,
the earth folds in the bones
like salt in a batter.

And we have learned
nothing. “Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you” –
it goes on regardless, reasonably:
the always uncompleted
symmetry of just reprisal,
the angry word, the boast
of superior righteousness,
hate in Christ’s name,
scorn for the dead, lies
for the honor of the nation,
centuries bloodied and dismembered
for ideas, for ideals,
for the love of God![iv]

War continues in our global communities. It seems like we have not learned much from the previous wars. War is still a primary mode of resolving disputes and conflicts within and amongst nations.

We are burdened with the sin of war as we participate in another Remembrance Day worship service.

How do we remember and honour those who fought for our country without glorifying violence and war? How can our remembrances of war not be trapped in our national boundaries?

How do we begin to open eyes and hearts to acknowledge that war violates and desecrates each and all of us? How do we resist the seductive use of force – both emotional and physical – as primary means of resolving disputes and conflicts in our life?

How do we seek truth that will free us of the enslavement of “us” and “them” so we can truly see one another as relations and kin in God’s reality? And how do we dream together of God’s creation one day living in peace and harmony?

Wendell Berry continues his warnings about war in his poem.

If we have become a people incapable
of thought, then the brute-thought
of mere power and mere greed
will think for us.

If we have become incapable
of denying ourselves anything,
then all that we have
will be taken from us.

If we have no compassion,
we will suffer alone, we will suffer
alone the destruction of ourselves.[v]

There is a truth that Jesus invited his disciples to know. How do we search for truth that will make us free?

We are enslaved to half truths and political spins when we only remember one side. As long as we continue to remember “our” nation’s sacrifices and deaths without remembering “their” sacrifices and deaths, there will be war. As long as we continue to remember our side of the story as “truth” without listening to the stories of our enemies also as truth, there will be war. As long as we are deaf and blind to the innocent bystanders and victims of war, there will be war.

So remember the bombing of London, England but remember the firebombing of Dresden, Germany. 1,300 heavy bombers drop over 3,900 tons of high-explosives bombs and incendiary devices in four raids in three days, destroying 13 square miles of the city. The firebombing caused a firestorm that literally melted the city centre. Recent publications place the figure of civilian casualties between 24,000 and 40,000. Remember how those who were labelled by the Nazi government as socialists, communists, homosexuals, Gypsies and Jews were murdered as the enemies of the state. Remember how stateless Jews were given home by displacing Palestinians after the World War II and how the hatred and violence continue to this day in Palestine.

Remember Pearl Harbour but remember Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Remember how Americans and Canadians of Japanese ancestry were branded as “enemy aliens,” striped of their properties and sent to concentration camps across North America.

Remember 9/11 in the United States but remember the countless bombings of Bagdad and many other places in the Middle East where civilian casualties far outnumber the death tolls of 9/11. Remember Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer, who was deported to Syria and tortured. Remember that it was the RCMP which helped the US government to implement its policy of “extraordinary rendition.” Remember Omar Khadr, a Canadian who is incarcerated in the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp as one of the “enemy combatants” who are not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva Conventions. Khadr was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15 years old. Remember how human rights are being violated in the name of national security in Canada.

All human life is sacred. One death due to war violence is one too many. How do we discern the kind of truth Jesus talked about? How do we seek the kind of truth that will free us?

Majid Tehranian, Director of Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, is a leading peace journalist. Peace journalism attempts to transform conflicts from their violent channels into constructive forms by conceptualizing news, empowering the voiceless, and seeking common grounds that unify rather than divide human societies.’[vi]

Tehranian proposes Ten Commandments for peace journalism.

1. Never reduce the parties in human conflicts to two. Remember that when two elephants fight, the grass gets hurt. Pay attention to the poor grass.
2. Identify views and interests of all parties to human conflicts. There is not a single Truth; there are many truths.
3. Do not be hostage to one source, particularly those of governments that control sources of information. … and he goes on to say
10. Transcend your own ethnic, national, or ideological biases to see and represent the parties to human conflicts fairly and accurately.[vii]

Truth about war is that it is violent and people die – perpetrators and innocents, soldiers and civilians, friends and foes. Truth about war is that human beings kill other human beings and desecrate the rest of God’s creation -- the land, the waters, the air. Truth about war is that human beings – mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, lovers and relations – are belittled, dehumanized, hated, maimed, desecrated, and killed in the name of national security and many other rationalizations that societies deem as “higher truth.”

But truth about war is also that we can unburden the memories of horror, violence, and pain of those who fought and suffered in wars by engaging in peace. We can choose to communicate and advocate for peace rather than war. Truth about war is that the colours of our eyes are various representations of colours of God’s love.

May we who are gathered here continue to find ways to communicate peace so that no friend has to sing of “empty chairs at empty tables.” May we who are gathered here continue to proclaim a message of Jesus – that truth will set us free of hatred of our neighbours in the global village, so no parent has to cry “bring him home” or “bring her home.” May we who are gathered here as Canadians practice gentleness, kindness and humility as part of our national identity and faith as we pay homage and gratitude to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Amen.

--
[i] Norman Leach, Passchendaele: Canada’s triumph and tragedy on the fields of Flanders: an illustrated history (Regina: Coteau Books, 2008), 2.
[ii] Leach, Passchendaele, 3.
[iii] Gene Domagala, War took great toll on Beach and East End, Beach Metro News, November 4, 2008, 20-21.
[iv] Wendell Berry, Sabbath 2005 in The Best American Spiritual Writing 2008, ed. Philip Zaleski (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 11-12.
[v] Wendell Berry, Sabbath 2005 in The Best American Spiritual Writing 2008, ed. Philip Zaleski (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 16.
[vi] XXX quoted in Philip Lee, The No-Nonsense guide to Peace Journalism, the World Association for Christian Communication [WACC] 2008.
[vii] XXX quoted in Lee, The No-Nonsense guide to peace journalism.

Women of Courage, Men of Peace

2007-12-02T22:21:00.001-05:00

“Women of Courage, Men of Peace”
Isaiah 2:1-5

December 2, 2007 First Sunday of Advent

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
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“Women will starve in silence until new stories are created which confer on them the power of naming themselves.” [i]

- Sarah Gilbert & Susan Gubar

Richard C. Choe©

A mother drives to pick up her fourteen year old daughter who works at a local drugstore. She spots her kneeling on the floor in the toothpaste section, stocking the bottom shelf. She is about to walk to her daughter and greet her when she notices two middle-aged men walking toward her daughter. They look like anybody’s father. Her daughter does not see them coming. She is too focused on her task in getting the boxes of toothpaste lined up evenly. The men stop and one says to the other, while peering down at the girl, “Now that’s how I like to see a woman – on her knees.” The other man laughs.

The mother watches her daughter’s expression fall. Seeing her daughter kneel at the men’s feet while they are laughing at her subordinate posture pierces through the mother’s heart. She does not know what to do. But she realizes that if she were to abandon her daughter at that moment by simply walking away and keeping silent, her daughter may internalize the posture of being subservient for the rest of her life.

The mother walks toward to the men. “I have something to say to you, and I want you to hear it,” she says. They stop laughing and her daughter looks up. “This is my daughter,” the mother says, pointing at her daughter, her finger shaking with anger. “You may like to see her and other women on their knees, but we don’t belong there. We don’t belong there!”

Her daughter rises to her feet. She looks at her mother, and with confidence she stands by her mother and faces the men. “Women!” one of the men says and they walk away.

Mother and daughter look at each other and smile. There are moments in life when words cannot truly express the profound moment of truth.

Sue Monk Kidd recounted this moment of her awakening as a woman in her memoir, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, articulating that the men in the drug store mirrored one of the attitudes existing in our culture, a culture long dominated by men – a culture of patriarchy that seeks male power over women, the other. Of staying up by keeping others down.[ii]

By confronting the misogyny of the two men and by standing together, Monk Kidd and her daughter began to name themselves as women of strength.

I wish I could say with confidence that I am far removed from the attitudes shown by the two men in the story I just shared. I realize that not only am I a product of the culture of my father’s generation but I have also have been a willing participant of the patriarchal culture that has been designed, developed, and rewarded machismo while belittling, demeaning and denigrating women.

My birth culture honoured me as the oldest male of the generation in my clan. I was the first born male of the first born male in a family within a culture where being male had clear advantages and rewards. No one had to really go out of their way to teach me that boys were better than girls. It was so ingrained in my birth culture. I grew up learning that being a male in Korean society was clearly a privilege. A family with a new baby boy would tie red peppers to a rope indicating pride and joy of the family. I remember seeing black briquettes tied to a rope on the gate of houses when a girl was born, indicating shame and misfortune in that family. The black briquettes symbolized something dirty and unclean. I find it ironic that these were the same briquettes that provided warmth and were used for cooking to sustain every household in traditional homes in South Korea.

It may be shocking for some to hear that I find Canadian culture – Western culture – the very culture I came to embrace from age 14 – is not much different from the culture of my birth. Although there are more egalitarian ways between the genders being practiced in public by changes in laws and peoples’ attitudes, the machismo, patriarchal culture is still very much ingrained and prevalent in North American society.

Misogyny – hatred of women – may have been outlawed and seen as uncouth in our society. But incidents like the massacre at l’École Polytechnique in Montreal on December 6, 1989 where 14 young women were murdered simply because they were women tell us that we have a long way to go in dismantling misogyny still so deeply embedded in our cultural foundation. Women in our society continue to be put down and murdered because of their gender.

How have women historically been received in church? "Not well" would be a simple answer.

Faith communities have been a major source and a proponent of patriarchal culture for centuries. Men rationalized, theorized and instituted patriarchy in such ways that in many instances men literally became God. Religion, culture, and politics have colluded and collaborated. Imagining, defining, seeing, and embracing the Sacred as feminine according to women’s realities have not been widely acknowledged or widely accepted as significant or authentic. Many are still uncomfortable or downright angry when they hear any reference of femininity to God. Calling God “Mother” is still considered blasphemous and sacrilegious to many.

“The Bible is no stranger to patriarchy. It was written mostly about if not entirely by men. It was edited by men. It describes a succession of societies over a period of roughly 1200 years whose public life was dominated by men. ... It talks almost only about men. In the Hebrew Bible as a whole, only 111 of the 1426 people who are given names are women. (That’s almost 8 %.) The proportion of women in the New Testament is about twice as great, but still leaves them a tiny minority.”[iii]

This is what author Margaret Starbird says about Christianity:

“Institutional Christianity, which has nurtured Western civilization for nearly two thousand years, may have been built over a gigantic flaw in doctrine – a theological ‘San Andreas Fault’: the denial of the feminine.”[iv]

Women continue to experience being the insignificant Second Sex in God’s Household. Although the United Church prides itself as one of the first denominations to ordain women, women’s place in the United Church has been relegated to the Second Sex in ministerial leadership for many years. The United Church once enacted a “Disjoining Rule – a policy where deaconesses – women clergy – until 1957 were required to give up their paid ministry in church once they married. The unfairness of this policy was finally acknowledged in a Service of Apology at the April 2006 meeting of the Executive of the General Council. At that special worship service an apology was extended to those affected by this history.[v] It took close to 50 years for the United Church “to apologize to those women and express the church’s sorrow for the loss of their leadership to the church.”[vi]

In a church where patriarchal culture is embedded in the bedrock of the foundation so that God can only be perceived and known as male, it is not just women who suffer. In our patriarchal society, men also suffer the consequences of dehumanizing their mothers, sisters, daughters, life partners, friends, colleagues and neighbours – those who are integral in shaping and forming who men are as human beings. When one part of society is dehumanized all parts of society is dehumanized.

Elizabeth Dodson Gray, a feminist culture critic, defines patriarchy as “a culture that is slanted so that men are valued a lot and women are valued less; in which men’s prestige is up and women’s prestige is down.”[vii]

Sue Monk Kidd says that, “It is important to emphasize that patriarchy is neither men nor the masculine principle; it is rather a system in which that principle has become disoriented.”[viii] She also states that “men’s resistance (of women in becoming liberated and becoming whole persons) often grows out of fear – fear that everything is going to change, that women’s gain is their loss, that women will ‘turn the tables on them.’ ... what’s needed in to invite men into (women’s) struggle, to make them part of (women’s) quest”[ix]

How do we reorient ourselves in order for us to dismantle the system that denigrates, distorts and damages us – both men and women – from being fully human?

I remember watching a one-woman performance called “Motherless World.” The woman in the play talked about what it meant to be a woman in a faith community through the ages. At one point she faced the audience and said – “If God is only a Father, then as children of God each one of us is a motherless child.” That I am a motherless child if God is only a father reverberated through me as a profound shock. The feminine aspect of God has been distorted and often absent in the household of God within Christian faith. Many of us – both men and women – grew up in faith as motherless children in church. I believe that men need to integrate the feminine image of God the way we take masculine image as an integral part our faith journey.

When Isaiah envisions God’s reign on earth, peace is the primary marker of the future Household of God. Isaiah envisions peace where people will engage in right relationship with one another and with God. How do we link such vision and hope for peace in and around us in our part of the global village? How can we experience God in our community in a way of peace?

Like many men, my journey toward liberation from bondage and collusion with patriarchy continues. Whether it is learning to become comfortable in a kitchen or unlearning the expectation that men are inherently superior to women, each step is a struggle. No one really wants to change when it means giving up privileges.

As a man in his late forties, I know the kind of man I do not want to be but I do not yet know the kind of man I could be. Many men of my generation feel that we are lost between the culture of our fathers and the emerging culture we are not sure of. Many of us are wrestling with the notion of being a man who are able to live in genuine partnership with women. We are aware that we cannot simply use our cultural upbringing as an excuse to not take responsibilities for our own words and action.

The Household of God originated from a Greek word oikoumene (οἰκουμένη) – the feminine present middle participle of the verb οἰκέω "inhabit" – meaning “inhabited world.” Christians redefined oikoumene as “the Household of God,” meaning Christian faith community – the church universal.

“Pyung-An(平安)”[x] is one way of expressing peace in Chinese. “An(安)” – the second character forming “peace (平安)” in Chinese is made up of two components – a roof standing over a woman (安). According to Chinese, peace is experienced when woman is present in the household. In other word, feminine presence is an integral part of peace in household. Peace within the Household of God will not be a reality without a presence of the feminine.

As we remember the 14 women who were murdered in Montreal on December 6, 1989 along with countless women who have died in violence since then, I would like us to commit to National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in every aspect of our life and faith. May we be bold in reclaiming the feminine images of God we have lost throughout much of our faith journey. May we be daring in expressing the many feminine aspects of God in and through our worship and ministry.

May our journey toward Bethlehem in this Season of Advent – season of waiting for the Christ Child who “at Christmas became like us so that we might become like him”[xi] – be a journey of discovering and embracing God who nurtures us the way a loving mother nurtures her children. And may we find the courage to make peace.

Amen.

------------------------------------------------------

[i] Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine (New York: HarperCollins.1996) vii.
[ii] Kidd, The Dance, 7-10.
[iii] Cullen Murphy, “Women and the Bible,” Atlantic Monthly 272, no. 2 (Aug. 1993): 41-42 cited in Sue Monk, Kidd, The Dance, 70.
[iv] Margaret Starbird, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail (Santa Fe, NM: Bear, 1993) xix. cited in Kidd, The Dance, 63.
[v] Moderator’s Report to the General Council, 39th General Council, 39th General Council Workbook, OMNI-59, http://www.united-church.ca/files/organization/gc39/workbook2_omnibus.pdf.
[vi] Vivian Harrower, Regret, Not Apology, from General Council, Women’s Concerns, Fall 2003, 40.
[vii] Elizabeth Dodson Gray, Patriarchy as a Conceptual Trap (Wellesley, MA: Roundtable Press, 1982) 19 cited in Kidd, The Dance, 61.
[viii] Kidd, The Dance, 57.
[ix] Kidd, The Dance, 44.
[x] Korean pronunciation of Chinese word peace - 平安.
[xi] William Sloane Coffin, Credo (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004) 7.

Who will be the face of peace?

2007-11-11T23:39:00.001-05:00

“Who will be the face of peace?”
Luke 20:27-38

November 11, 2007 Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

--

Richard C. Choe ©
Warriors Memorial at Walpole Island Nation, Ontario, Canada
--

Stolen Voices.

The title of the book, Stolen Voices: Young People’s War Diaries, From World War I to Iraq, twigged my interest. I read it in preparation for Remembrance Day service last year but found that I needed more time to digest it, experience the difficult stories, and find hope in the stories.

I have attempted to use the book again this year but with the same result. The war time stories of children broke my heart. It was so painful to read stories of children growing up through wars and experiencing atrocities. I could not pick myself up after reading the final entry of one of the diaries and, then, the postscript. Nina Kosterina, a young Russian girl who began her diary at the age of 15 on June 20, 1936 with so much love of life and hope, died on the Russian front at age of 20 fighting against the Nazi German army attacking her country.[i] Like Nina, many of the children whose diaries were in this book died fighting in wars.

War, I think, is just that to most of people – a catastrophic event through which people’s lives are destroyed. War destroys people’s hopes for one another and changes the terrain of human hearts forever. Such destruction happens to the innocent and the war-mongers. Such heart change happens to both aggressors and victims. Everyone, soldiers as well as civilians, are affected by war forever.

Olara A. Otunnu, UN Under-Secretary-General, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, 1997-2005, wrote in July 2005 to the foreword for Stolen Voices.

“In the last decade 2 million children have been killed in situations of armed conflict, while 6 million children have been injured. Over a quarter of a million child soldiers are being used today in situations of armed conflict around the globe. Since 2003, over 11.5 million children have been displaced within their own countries, and 2.4 million children forced to flee conflict and take refuge outside their home countries. The scourge of land mines result in the killing or maiming of between 8,000 to 10,000 children every year. The future peace and prosperity of many countries will depend upon how well we are able to care for the children affected by today’s conflicts and their future rehabilitation and development.”[ii]

Mr. Otunnu ends with the following words.

“Today, as never before, we have the necessary means to ensure the protection of all children exposed to armed conflict. In today’s world, parties in conflict do not operate as islands unto themselves. … the force of international and national public opinion represents powerful means to influence the conduct of parties in conflict.”[iii]

Zlata Filipović, one of the co-editors and a survivor of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a child diarist herself, shares the following story.

“Some months ago, I received an e-mail from a ten-year-old American girl who had read my diary and who had such a pertinent point that I had to relate it here. She was finding it strange that my story was the only one that she had read about the war in Bosnia, or that the most famous story from the Holocaust is that of Anne Frank. But after thinking for a while, she realized that in order to understand, you follow one story and subsequently accept that Anne Frank is, in a way, the face of the Holocaust, and that I am also, in a way, the face of the Bosnian war. She couldn’t help wondering, however: “Who will be the face of peace?”[iv]

Who will be the face of peace?

Who will be the face of peace in a planet where war is a never ending event? Who will be the face of peace in a globe where war mongering is a major business venture for investors to increase their stock portfolios? Who will be the face of peace?

Nicholas Keung reported in last week’s Saturday Star about a screening of Chris Tashima’s Visas and Virtue, which tells of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who in 1940 ignored orders from his government and issued hand-written visas to Jews fleeing the Nazis.[v]

Chiune Sugihara was sent to Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania, as a Japanese Consul-General in March 1939. Chiune Sugihara had barely settled down in his new post when Nazi armies invaded Poland and a wave of Jewish refugees streamed into Lithuania. They brought with them chilling tales of German atrocities against the Jewish population. They escaped from Poland without possessions or money, and the local Jewish population did their utmost to help with money, clothing and shelter.[vi]

Mr. and Mrs. Sugihara wrote and signed visas by hand for 29 days – from July 31 to August 28, 1940 – and saved more than 6,000 Jews. They wrote over 300 visas a day, which was about a month’s worth of work for the Consul. This selfless act resulted in the second largest number of Jews rescued from the Nazis.

Chiune gave two reasons for signing the visas against his government’s order: "They were human beings and they needed help," he said.

“You want to know about my motivation, don't you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when (one) actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. … There is nothing wrong in saving many people's lives....The spirit of humanity, philanthropy ... neighbourly friendship ... with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation – and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.”[vii]

Sugihara was a Christian who believed in a universal God of all people. He was fond of saying, "I may have to disobey my government, but if I don't I would be disobeying God."
In 1985, Chiune Sugihara was granted the honor of the Righteous Among the Nations (Hebrew: חסידי אומות העולם – Khasidei Umot ha-Olam) by the government of Israel. Sugihara was too ill to travel to Israel, so his wife and son accepted the honor on his behalf. Sugihara and his descendants were given perpetual Israeli citizenship. Chiune Sugihara died on July 31, 1986 at the age of 86. In spite of the publicity given him in Israel and other nations, he remained virtually unknown in his home country.

Chiune Sugihara is the face of peace.

The Rev. Murray Whetung is another face of peace. I have known Murray Whetung since early 1990s. We even shared a room together at the Grand Council of the All Native Circle Conference in Manitoba. Late in life Murray became a United Church minister. I have experienced Murray as someone with tremendous wisdom and humour, and who has an overflowing love for his son, a traditional healer.

Murray Whetung’s story was recently featured on the front page of the Toronto Sun.

Mike Strobel reported that “every man of fighting age, (51 of them), in Curve Lake, an Ojibwa reserve then known as Mud Lake, volunteered for World War II. All 20 young men had volunteered for World War I as well. 100% of the young men in Murray’s reserve volunteered for the two wars. From across Canada, 12,000 First Nations Peoples fought for Canada. More than 500 were killed, including two of Murray’s childhood friends. Signalman Murray Whetung landed on Juno Beach three days after D-Day and fought the war until the Germans surrendered. Still think native Canadians aren’t too committed to this country?” Strobel asks in his article.[viii]

There are so many tragedies in war. One of which is that all sides at war have tendency to lump together and condemn all people on the opposing side as evil. War propaganda would make you believe that all Germans are Nazis, all Allied soldiers were saints, and so on. I would encourage you to watch Letters from Iwo Jima, an American movie directed by Clint Eastwood as the other side of Flags of Our Fathers. It took more than 50 years for Americans to see and accept Japanese soldiers as human beings with families who faced the same uncertainties about fighting for their country and who experienced war with fear and misgivings just like the American soldiers.

Another tragedy of war is the tendency to forget all those who fought along side you to defend your country’s freedom. The photo in the bulletin cover today was taken in Walpole Island, Ontario. Warriors from the First Nations are forgotten by most Canadians. For years, Murray Whetung was not able to wear his native attire since it was banned from any Remembrance Day ceremony. Soldiers from the Caribbean Islands who fought for the “Motherland” of Great Britain, were treated as foreigners who were taking away jobs after the end of the Second World War. Algerian soldiers who fought for France took several decades to be recognized as French Army veterans.

If we believe falsehoods about other nations propagated during the war, we will be continuing the same kind of attitude that led the nations to war. If we forget those who also fought for the freedom of our nation, we would be perpetuating injustice that divides our nation from within.

Remembrance Day is a very difficult day. We are all affected by war in one way or another. By naming those who are not usually remembered, I invite you to expand and deepen your memories in order for us to “correct” the falsehood that leads people to conflict and war.

Let us remember those who have fought and perished as Canadian soldiers in Juno Beach, Vimy Ridge, Korea, Afghanistan, and many known and unknown places. Let us also remember those whom we considered our enemies. They were all fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, friends, and lovers who gave up their lives for their country. May our response to all who died in war be a commitment to transform our face into the face of peace, and a commitment to also transform the faces of our neighbours and our enemies into faces of peace.

We have red balloons in our sanctuary to remind us of our hopes and dreams for peace. The 1984 song 99 Red Balloons envisions the imaginary end of the Third World War.

“99 dreams I have hadIn every one a red balloon …In this dust that was a cityIf I could find a souvenirJust to prove the world was hereAnd here is a red balloonI think of you and let it go”

Jesus talked about resurrection as something that is very different than the way we experience our life. Resurrection is a process of making God’s reality of peace a human reality. Resurrection is a process of transforming our face into the face of peace. May each one of our lives be a process of becoming the face of peace.

Amen.

--

[i] Nina Kosterina, Russia, 1938-41 (15-20 years old), World War II, 1939-45, Zlata Filipović and Melanie Challenger, eds., Stolen Voices: Young People’s War Diaries, From World War I to Iraq (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2006) 41.
[ii] Stolen Voices, v.
[iii] Stolen Voices, vi.
[iv] Zlata Filipović and Melanie Challenger, eds., Stolen Voices: Young People’s War Diaries, From World War I to Iraq (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2006) xvi.
[v] Nicholas Keung, 2007 Nov. 3. Pain of Holocaust felt by many groups: Cultural and religious organizations share grief during Holocaust Education Week. Saturday Star.
[vi] Jewish virtual library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sugihara.html.
[vii] Hillel Levine, In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat Who Risked His Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust (New York: Free Press, 1996) 259.
[viii] Mike Strobel, 2007 Nov. 7. Murray Whetung strung telephone wire from Juno Beach to Germany. At Age 85 he salutes the other 49 brave men of Curve Lake who enlisted, Toronto Sun; 6.

Beyond Welcoming to Belonging

2007-11-04T22:09:00.001-05:00

Luke 19:1-10

November 4, 2007 Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
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Ireland Park, Toronto, Canada Richard C. Choe©

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Beyond welcoming to belonging.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote in one of his books that strange travel suggestions are dance lessons from God. I recently had such a dance lesson.

I was attending a function at a private golf club. I was given a name and was comforted by the fact that most people seemed to know the place. I looked up the Google Maps and got the directions. It looked simple enough. Well, what you see in a two dimensional map and what you see through your windshield while driving is a different story.

I could not see a sign or a marker indicating the golf club as I was driving back and forth along the street where the entrance was supposed to be according to the map. So when I saw the green through an opening I assumed that it must be the entrance. The entrance was not exactly what I expected. It didn’t look like any of the golf club entrances I had ever visited but I thought to myself, “Well, this must be a very private one.”

As I drove along I could not understand why the road was so narrow. After driving about a minute or so, it dawned on me that I must have entered the golf course through the wrong side. I was driving on the golf cart path! It was like a scene from a James Bond movie – or Mr. Bean, depending on the way you looked at the situation. I kept driving and ended up at where people tee off.

I told a friend that I had to drive on the golf cart path and that my car may have been damaged because of it. He, an avid golfer, told me that it was a good thing I didn’t drive on the green. It costs over a million dollars to put the green on the golf course and I should consider myself lucky that I was not sued for any damage I may have caused. So the name of the golf club shall remain nameless.

The lesson I received at the private golf club was that,

· If you belong here, you know your way in so there is no need for clear signage.
· If you cannot find this place, it is because you do not belong here.

On the way back home (through the real entrance), there were nagging questions in my mind. What if church is like that private golf club? What if church is like a private club where people who are new to us get the kind of message I got at the private golf club – if you do not know the way around here, you do not belong? The size of our building may not be as large as the golf course but the message would have the same impact.

The private golf club, I think is an apt metaphor, for many churches. Whenever I visit a church I find that there is no clear signage to indicate which door to use or where things are. Newcomers and visitors often find that even the worship itself is an alienating experience where it is assumed that you ought to know what is about to happen. When do you stand? When do you sit? When do you recite prayers that are not printed in the bulletin? What exactly is the Lord’s Prayer everyone seems to have memorized? How do you not feel foolish when everyone seems to know what they are doing? For those who are relatively new to church, being welcomed means more than hearing hello from people.

When you are new to a place, when you are a visitor, you soon realize that what people consider as common knowledge is not so common for you. You also realize that those in the know often assume that everyone knows what they know. There are lots of assumptions people in the know take as normal or elementary.

If welcoming strangers is so difficult, how, then, are we to help them be part of us? I think there is a clue in welcoming strangers and helping them to belong to the community in the Luke passage read today.

Jesus is visiting Jericho – the famous place described in the book of Joshua in the Hebrew Scripture where the walls of the city tumbled down by the long blast of Ram’s horn before the ark by Joshua’s army. The city of Jericho is a town in the West Bank near the Jordan River. It is believed to be the second oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world.

Jesus encounters a wealthy man named Zacchaeus, who has accumulated his wealth by dishonest means. Being a chief tax collector in Palestine during the time of Jesus meant that he would be skimming off profits from collecting tax. Jesus must have heard of him. Jesus initiates conversation, “Zacchaeus, let me stay at your house today.” Zacchaeus reciprocates Jesus’ invitation by not only hosting him in his place but he also volunteers to give and return much of his ill gotten possession to the poor and those he had defrauded.

Zacchaeus’ experience of being welcomed and being invited to open his door to Jesus becomes a turning point in his life. A chief tax collector promises to return most of his wealth – giving half of his assets to the poor and promising to return four times to anyone he has defrauded. But there are murmurs of disapproval from the religious. “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”

An encounter between two individuals – a wealthy man who was despised by the public for his ill gotten wealth meets a homeless preacher who is being watched by religious authority for getting too close to so-called sinners – provides an example of how transformation takes place in human life. Even a chief tax collector – the epitome of corruption – can be turned around from ways of evil when he experiences genuine welcoming and an invitation to be part of God’s community.

The story also tell us that,

· There will always be individuals who will have difficulty accepting those who are changing their lives around.
· That welcoming and belonging takes reciprocity and mutuality.
· And that there are no barriers in God’s love; that everyone is welcomed and invited to belong in God’s community. After all, even a dishonest tax collector can change.

When individuals experience genuine welcoming, they experience a life changing encounter. We have all experienced such welcoming in our lives. We know what it is like to be greeted when we move into a new neighbourhood. We know what it is like to be welcomed when we have felt alone in our surroundings. We know what it is like to be accompanied when we are “walking alone.”

Moving from welcoming strangers to ensuring that they be an integral part of our community takes courage from everyone involved.

There are few things that KRU Council and I have been trying to work with since I came here. One of the messages I heard from the Search Committee was that KRU community would like to continue to expand welcoming in a rapidly changing neighbourhood.

“Sharing the Peace of Christ” during Sunday worship is one attempt of implementing welcoming in and through worship on Sunday. I am well aware that it is not easy for introverted folks to take part in such an extroverted activity. I am also aware that getting up in the middle of the worship service could be experienced as a disruption of a worship mood when you want the worship to be a time of quiet reflection.

But what if welcoming is the integral part of worship? Making peace with our neighbours before we make peace with God is part of worship. Worship – being in communion with God – cannot happen without attempting to make peace with those who are here. Experiencing welcoming and being welcomed by one another is part of Sunday worship service. Taking time to greet people is part of greeting God in our midst.

Welcoming encounters involve change. Sometimes the change is tremendous like the way Zacchaeus was changed by his encounter with Jesus – from an unscrupulous tax collector into a generous man giving away much of his fortune. Other times, it can be as mundane as receiving a genuine greeting in worship on Sunday when you’re not feeling very friendly – and turning to greet someone else with more warmth than you felt a minute ago.

There are many examples of how we practice welcoming at KRU.

· There are Sunday School teachers upstairs who are sharing their time with young children and their passion for Christ’ ministry.
· We have former CGIT leaders who have resisted sexism and misogyny and in turn guided young girls to be women who live to their fullest potential.
· We have lay leaders like Helen Hick who just celebrated her 90th birthday, along with those in the 90 plus club – Elizabeth Carnaghan, Myrtle Lamb, Hazel Ferguson, and Bessie Stallworthy – who have exemplified living a life that is full of zest, humour, and generosity.
· We have members of the choir who minister to us through music.
· There are those who participate in Friday lunches, who phone or visit shut-ins. The list could go on.

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, a Roman Catholic priest who is regarded as a Poet Laureate of Toronto recently published a book, Municipal Mind: Manifestos for the Creative City. In it, he considers what enfeebles the passionate imagination of a city. If I were to replace the word city with church, this is what we would hear.

“The quality of life is initially and inevitably predicated by love. … What is at stake is always quality of life, which people know cannot be bettered, unless love is factored in. People who are not in love are irresponsible. A church that is not in love (to care for) itself is irresponsible. … A congregation is incited to action by eros of mutual care, by having a common object of love – their neighbourhood.”[i]

“What enfeebles the faith community?

The notion that money predicates vision.
The mean-spiritedness that criticizes before it allows.
The convention of “safeness” from either the left or the right.
Anything that discourages human encounter in the interest of expedience and time-saving.”[ii]
Our faith community is called to serve this neighbourhood. Serving this neighbourhood requires us to move beyond welcoming in order for our neighbours to belong with us as part of KRU community. Serving this neighbourhood also requires us to be integral part of our neighbourhood.

May we continue to welcome strangers and be welcomed by them. May we continue to broaden our sense of being a faith community with those who journey with us. May we be changed as we learn to belong together in God’s community. And may we show signs of welcome wherever people are so that all will know they belong here.

Amen.

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[i] Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, Municipal Mind: Manifestos for the Creative City (Toronto: Mansfield Press Inc., 2007), 23.
[ii] Municipal Mind, 19-20.

"El Dia de Los Muertos"

2007-10-31T10:48:00.001-04:00

Ezekiel 37:1-14

October 28, 2007 Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

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Kim and I were on an elevator after visiting our friend Glenn when the elevator stopped on the 5th floor. A priest walked in. He was dressed in black and wore a clergy collar; a Bible and a purple stole in his hand. It was most likely that he had just performed last rites for someone who was dying. He looked very serious and solemn. As the elevator began to descend to the main floor, I said to the priest, “I thought you guys only go up and never down.” The priest burst out laughing. Humour has way of unburdening us from life’s challenges.

I grew up seeing caricatures of tigers and evil spirits in South Korea. Some of the old houses had drawings of a tiger with large fangs on the gate of a house. Some of the old cemeteries had huge stone carvings standing ten feet tall guarding the tombs. Each and every one of these image also had humorous expressions on them. The tiger, one of the most feared animals in Korea, had comical expressions on his face. Many of the tigers were holding a long stemmed tobacco pipe, smoking. The stone carvings of the evil spirits had cartoon-like features like huge rounded eyes and a huge circle depicting a nose.

I learned while studying Korean religion and philosophy in university that the ancient Koreans turned the objects of fear, such as tigers and evil spirits, into humorous caricatures so they could grapple with fear in a manageable way. Images of death, like a ferocious tiger or evil spirits, were “tamed” by re-imagining them into something comical and silly.

Many cultures and communities around the globe use humour to deal with fear of death. Making something that is outside of one’s grasp into something tangible like anthropomorphized tiger and evil spirits in order to make some sense has been part of spirituality in many communities.

If you were to pause and look around you, you may be surprised to know that there are many who are living with illness and many are grieving the loss of loved ones through death. Irene Maguire, one of the staunch members of our faith community passed away last Sunday. Her funeral was held here on Thursday and she is missed by many of us. Death is part of our lives. And yet North American culture focuses so much on youthfulness and rejuvenation of individuals. Our culture seems to be focused on “death-denying” and we do not want to acknowledge death as part of our life. Many TV and print advertisements in North America are about youthfulness. Billions of dollars are spent on anything and everything that would make people look youthful. “Old is bad and young is good” seems to be the message.

But if you were to look at the reasons why we are so preoccupied with youthfulness and rejuvenation in our culture, you might draw the conclusion that it is not youthfulness we are preoccupied with but a fear of death. It is the fear of death that drives people to find ways to deny that death is part of the human life journey.

I am sure some of you were shocked at the images you saw in the bulletin this morning. I must admit that I, too, felt somewhat uncomfortable using the images of “El Dia de Los Muertos” when DeeAnn and I sat to work on today’s service a few weeks ago. The images of this Mexican festival looked so alien to me. Is this Christian? Could we use such images on Sunday worship service? Are we glorifying death?

DeeAnn was very helpful to point out to me that “El Dia de Los Muertos” – translated roughly from Spanish into English as the “Day of the Dead” – is about re-connecting death as integral part of our life rather than trying to deny that reality. “El Dia de Los Muertos” uses humour to help us to embrace death as an integral part of the human life journey. There is also a sense of tribute to nature and respect for one’s ancestors present in ofrendas – the offerings – to the ancestors.

Hallowe’en began as a Celtic ceremony reflecting the vision of life as a natural, never-ending cycle of birth, death and reincarnation. The five days of festivities known as Samhain (pronounced sa-wen) began on the eve of October 31, and constituted the greatest event in the Celtic calendar. The Celts’ religion, still practiced today, is called Wicca, meaning wise. The Celts believed that the veil between the spirit world and the living is the thinnest on Samhain (sa-wen) Eve. As the two worlds become transparent to each other, those who died recently chose the bodies of people or animals to inhabit for the next year. To scare away these spiritual “squatters,” the Celts dressed up as demons, hobgoblins and witches.[i] Hallowe’en began as a way to embrace death as part of the circle of life in ancient times in British Isles, West-Central Europe, Spain and Portugal. Many Celtic belief and practices have been incorporated into western Christianity over the years.

Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the powerful Babylonian empire, destroyed Jerusalem and burned Solomon’s temple to the ground in 586 BCE. The Jerusalem temple, where Yahweh dwelt, was essential to the Israelites. Some ten thousand Israelites were exiled in Babylon. How would they serve Yahweh without the temple that was the only means of making contact with their God? Five years after his arrival in Babylon a young priest called Ezekiel had a terrifying vision. He saw a vision that God had left Jerusalem and, riding on what seemed to be a massive war chariot, had come to live with the exiles in Babylon.[ii]

Today’s scripture reading is part of Ezekiel’s vision from his experiences of exile in Babylon. It is a vision of re-imagining new ways of being in the midst of suffering and death. It is a vision of hope that God is with them even when Israelites felt disconnected from God.

If you were to see the images in this space – this sanctuary – through the eyes of someone new to the Christian faith, you would be surprised how much symbols of birth, death and resurrection you see here. There is a cross – a symbol of torture and death from the Roman era turned into a symbol of a new birth. There are images of dead saints – those whose lives are eternal through the re-telling and re-enacting of their deeds by the followers of Jesus. There is also all of us – individuals at various life and faith stages walking together as community. This is a place of acknowledging life, death and renewal.

How do we learn to pause at times to reflect on our life?
What are we thankful for when we think about our ancestors?
How do we grieve loss of lives of our loved ones in ways that are healing rather than just experiencing pain?

I would like to invite you to take time to reflect on those questions as you participate in the activities following this reflection. Like Ezekiel we live in the midst of despair and hope for radical changes. Like Ezekiel we would like to vision a renewed life that is filled with God’s spirit so we could experience connection with God once again.

May God’s spirit be poured into us and renew our soul, mind. and body. May God gift us with a sense of humour when we feel too exhausted to laugh. May we be a source of hope and strength to one another.

Amen.

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[i] Gregory Felton, “How Halloween took flight,” The Globe and Mail October 31, 1994. “Halloween born of ancient pagan rituals” Toronto Star October 31, 1996.
[ii] Karen Armstrong, The Bible: A Biography (Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 2007) 9-10.

Stretching to Our Fullest

2007-10-22T14:37:00.001-04:00

Luke 13:10-17

Preached at 2007 Toronto Conference Ethnic Rally at Toronto Chinese United Church
by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

Stretching to the fullest.

A few years ago I went back to South Korea to visit and I toured an old prison in Seoul. It had been turned into a walk through museum. In the basement of the jail, I saw small prison cells no bigger than a broom closet. They were purposely designed with very low ceilings so the prisoners could only stand with their necks bent. Can you imagine never being allowed to stand fully erect? My neck hurts as I think about it now. The effect of such prison cells was to break prisoners’ spirits as well as their bodies.

The prison was built and used during the Japanese military occupation of Korea from 1909 to 1945. The jail is now a museum so visitors can see and experience the shameful period of Korean history when the Japanese Military Regime ruled Korea with brutality and violence until the Atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The prison cell in South Korea reminds me of Luke’s story of a bent woman with a spirit that had crippled her for 18 years. Not being able to stretch to her full height must have been torturous. Only seeing the ground she was walking on – littered with things people would carefully avoid stepping on. Never being able to look people in the eye. But the worst part of it all must have been the inability to stretch to the fullest of her being.

An unnamed, bent over woman encounters Jesus one Sabbath Day and was set free from her ailment and was able to stand straight and praise God for letting her be able to stretch to her full height. But the religious authority can only focus on the fact that Jesus transgressed the rules of the Sabbath.

In the time of Jesus, physical difference was accepted as a curse, a sign of an individual’s sin or the sins of one’s ancestors. Having any physical contact with such a person also placed one at the risk of being cursed as well. It was not just during the time of Jesus that physical difference was seen as a curse. It continues to happen in our time.

Societies continue to define and dictate what is acceptable and “normative” to the public. Media spins the “orthodoxy” – “belief in or agreement with what is, or is currently held to be right, especially in religious matters.”[i] And the public continues to perpetuate the orthodoxy until a brave soul, like Jesus, stands tall and challenges public opinion.

Tracy Turnblad is a generously portioned high school student in Baltimore, Maryland in 1962. The highlight of her day is to watch The Corny Collins Show, a local teen dance show from Station WYZT, with her friend, Penny Pingleton.

When the Station is looking for a new dancer for The Corny Collins Show, Tracy auditions for the show but gets turned away for being overweight and supportive of racial integration of the show.

This is 1962 in Baltimore. Only once a month are African American kids allowed to be part of The Corny Collins Show. Racism was in full swing.

Besides catchy tunes and wonderful dance moves, the play and the movie Hairspray shows how the United States struggled with the issues of race, intertwined with socio-political disparities, in the 1960s. The physical standards – physical preferences of the media, to be precise – based on people’s sizes, both height and width, along with the colour of one’s skin is also at a forefront of the issues the movie deals with. Parts of the movie were captured in Toronto so there are familiar landmarks as people march along the Roncesvalles Village near High Park.

When Black and White young people fall in love with one another – like the characters of Seaweed and Penny – and people finally stand up for their rights – the way African Americans and Tracy and her Mom march for racial integration of the dance show – the walls of segregation begin to tumble down. When people begin to lift their heads and reach to their full potential, equal rights, and privileges, communities begin to experience healing and freedom.

It was not just African Americans who were healed by marching toward healing and freedom when they stood up for their God-given inalienable rights to be equal with their White neighbours. The rest of American society – First Nations Peoples, Whites, Asians, and bi- and multi- racial people of all shades began to be healed and freed in the process. By segregating one segment of society, those who were enforcing segregation were also in need of healing and freedom from their racism and hatred of their neighbours. Canada was not exempt.

It is amazing how the church and societies do not seem to realise that the disease of discrimination against the downtrodden and minorities of any community always points to the illness of the majority of the members within it. There is much resistance toward the healing of the community and the Other just the way the bent woman’s community seemed unwilling to heal her themselves, and heal themselves in the process.

The Very Rev. Dr. Bill Phipps, who served as the Moderator of The United Church of Canada from 1997 to 2000, speaks of the necessary transformation of humanity as a process of moving away from being co-opted and perpetuating the Old Story – stories that are characterized by violence, fear, domination, arrogance, and competition. In his new book Cause for Hope: Humanity as the Crossroads,[ii] he speaks of moving to the New Story – stories that are characterized by mutual respect, cooperation, laughter, humility, interdependence, interconnection, and gratitude. When you change the story, you can change the context of your life and the future.

Much of our Church, The United Church of Canada, still believes, participates, perpetuates, and disseminates the Old Story. When the Ethnic Ministries Council was being developed as a way of transforming the United Church in 1992, many in the church raised questions about creating a national program unit that would “isolate and segregate” ethnic minorities from the rest of the church. What they have not asked themselves was the question why they, the dominant part of church, have been “isolating and segregating” the ethnic minorities since the inception of the United Church. There were no visible minority or First Nations Commissioners at the Mutual Arena celebrating the inception of The United Church of Canada in 1925.

The same question continues even today, eleven years after the creation of the Ethnic Ministries Council. Like the religious authority in the Luke story, the people of the status quo can only focus on the fact that ethnic minorities are doing something that is contrary to the rules and regulations that have benefited them to remain dominant within the church.

“Why Ethnic Ministries Council/Unit?” Many of us who have been part of the Ethnic Ministries Council/Unit have been answering this question for more than seventeen years.

The institutional racism within The United Church of Canada has segregated and isolated ethnic minorities as the Other within the Church from the time of Union in 1925. It is questionable whether the founding vision of the United Church of being One in Christ Jesus had any intention to include anyone other than White Europeans.

Being One in the United Church for many ethnic minorities, Peoples of the First Nations, and French Canadians has been and still is about being assimilated into White Anglo Saxon Protestant values that have too often been expressed as the Old Story of alienation, belittlement and exclusion of ethnic minorities in the church. What we seek through the leadership of Ethnic Ministries is integration of the whole where each part of Christ’ body is valued and appreciated and is part of transforming the whole.

So when ethnic minorities within the Church, in partnership with some ethnic majority allies, spoke for establishing a national unit that would encourage, enable, and empower ethnic minorities along with the rest of the Church, those of the Old Story saw it as a threat to their status quo rather than a gift to the Church.

Ethnic Ministries, Aboriginal Ministries, and French Ministries have a vision to begin to tell the New Story of the United Church – stories that are based on mutual and interconnected relationships amongst all peoples within and outside the Church.

But when you are only used to the Old Story – a paradigm of competition, and divide and conquer – ways of interdependence by establishing, developing and nurturing all parts of the Body of Jesus Christ can only be seen as “isolation and segregation” of the minorities.

The proposal from the Ethnic Ministries Unit for the United Church to embrace intercultural ministry – a ministry of mutuality between and amongst all racial/ethnic/cultural communities – and to become an intercultural church was accepted at the 39th General Council of The United Church of Canada in Thunder Bay in 2006. The church committed itself to move toward the New Story for the common good of all.

The United Church needs intercultural ministry – a ministry between and among peoples of various racial/ethnic communities – a ministry that envisions, pursues, and lives out the original vision of Jesus Christ “That All May be One.” What we need is individual and corporate courage to live the New Story of interrelatedness, mutuality, and interdependence where no one is left out and where everyone is truly appreciated and valued as children of God.

The intercultural church we envision is about faith communities that seek partnership amongst the disenfranchised to enable and empower themselves to be equal partners in the ministry of Jesus Christ. It is about inviting and challenging those who are in the status quo to courageously “de-centre” themselves to join the community where everyone is truly equal as servants of the ministry of Jesus Christ. It is about re-membering – as in re-connecting – our church to find ways to establish right relationship with sisters and brothers in First Nations communities and with one another.

My hope is that the intercultural vision would provide a thorough understanding of the Old Story in order to not keep repeating the old paradigms of empowerment of some at the disempowerment and dispossession of others. James Cone cautions us that “lack of knowledge of one’s past leads inevitably to self-hatred and self-hate leads one to love the oppressor’s values, and thus to act against one’s own freedom.”[iii] Ethnic minorities in the church would need to unlearn the behaviour of being Native Informers – those who have been co-opted to the Old Story that they have internalized the racist values of their oppressors deeply within them. Ethnic majorities in the church, on the other hand, would need to embrace and accept who they are without the trappings of the unearned privileges and status of being White in Canada. What we are envisioning together as ethnic minorities and ethnic majorities through intercultural ministry is a faith community that tells the New Story that heals and transforms all within it.

An Intercultural church should be a place where faith and life stories of each one in the community is lifted up and cherished so we can all live to our fullest. It is a community where the Journeys of Black Peoples is a healing and peace-making journey of peoples of all African descents. It is a community where the Sounding the Bamboo is a healing and life transforming event for racial ethnic minority women. It is also a community where people of the land and people from away; where men, women, youth, children, gays, lesbian, transgendered, and differently abled folks are all welcomed and embraced as sisters and brothers in God’s love.

Intercultural Church is a vision of a community where the last, the least and the lost in our society are invited and welcomed as part of our community. Intercultural church is not a middle class ghetto where only upwardly mobile folks from various racial-ethnic cultural communities congregate for the next opportunity to advance themselves by peddling the “hierarchy of pain” through which one community’s Otherness becomes a ticket for one’s personal and individual success. Intercultural church is where everyday is “intercultural day” and every aspect of ministry and worship is intercultural in ethos and in practice.

There is a song in the movie Hairspray that says a lot about our communal journey in intercultural ministry. The civil rights marchers sing “I Know Where I’ve Been” as they demonstrate for the de-segregation of the dance show.

Motormouth Maybelle Stubbs, played by Queen Latifah, leads the singing as they march for freedom and the healing of society.“There's a dreamIn the futureThere's a struggleWe have yet to winAnd there's prideIn my heart 'Cause I knowWhere I'm goingAnd I know where I've beenIn my heart 'Cause I knowWhere I'm goingAnd I know where I've beenThere's a roadWe must travelThere's a promiseWe must make'Cause the richesWill be plentyWorth the riskAnd chances that we takeThere's a dreamIn the futureThere's a struggleWe have yet to winUse that prideIn our heartsTo lift us upTo tomorrow'Cause just to sit stillWould be a sinAnd lord knowsI knowWhere I've beenOh! When we win,I'll give thanks to my God'Cause I know where I've been.

When people stand up to say “No” to the orthodoxy of the day and society’s prevailing beliefs and attitudes based on the Old Story that threaten and force people to live at a less than their fullest, then healing of the society begins.

When the rest of the Canada begins to hear the pleas for dignity from Aboriginal Peoples and participate in the healing journey for all Canadians, the healing in Canada will begin.

When society begins to realise that the healing of the entire society depends on the healing of the wounded and marginalised, then healing has begun.

When we, as a faith community, do not participate in this healing process, we are diminished, stunted, living with our heads down so we cannot see our brothers and sisters. Becoming an intercultural church is about affirming life for all so that all can live to their fullest in the New Story.

Luke recorded the day when Jesus not only sought out the bent woman but also touched her and healed her on the Sabbath. It is not the dogma of the religion that healed the bent woman. It is the homeless rabbi named Jesus from Nazareth who healed and enabled the bent women to stretch to her fullest.

The story does not end after her healing. The healing also comes to the community. Jan Richardson, a Methodist pastor, writes in her book, Sacred Journey: A Woman’s Book of Daily Prayer.

“The community also receives Jesus’ freeing touch as it begins to learn about the care God calls us to have for one another. With Jesus’ touch of the woman’s body, with her song of praise, and with the community’s rejoicing, this story challenges us to consider how we participate in the diminishment of those around us and how we must provide the condition of healing – physical, emotional, economic, relational – to happen for us all.”[iv]

In a place where people lives were bent with the burdens of the Old Story Jesus started the New Story that “un-bent” and stretched everyone to their fullest potential. For us, intercultural ministry is the New Story of Jesus Christ for our church. It is the story of interconnectedness, interdependence, and intercultural relationship amongst all God’s people.

The bent woman got un-bent and she was able to celebrate with her community and praise God for the gift.

What about us? in the here and now?

What parts of our lives are not living to the fullest? Who are we in the face of those who live at less than the fullest?

Jesus continues to challenge us to seek out those who are prevented from living to their fullest, and to heal them. Jesus continues to seek us out and heal us when we are bent and stunted by the prejudices and unwillingness of others to see us the way God sees us. For we, too, need healing. For we know where we’ve been. And we know we are going on a journey of healing and freedom for all God’s children.

May our life be abundant with creative ways of stretching to our fullest.

Amen.

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[i] Katherine Barber, The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1998 ed.) 1027.
[ii] Bill Phipps, Cause for Hope: Humanity at the Crossroads, (Kelowna: CopperHouse, 2007) 71-109.
[iii] James Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation, (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1986) 203.
[iv] Jan L. Richardson, Sacred Journeys: A Woman’s Book of Daily Prayer, (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1996) 414.

Gift of Life

2007-10-07T12:49:00.001-04:00

John 6:25-35

October 7, 2007 Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Worldwide Communion & Thanksgiving Sunday

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

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34They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’ 35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Richard C. Choe©
“Communion Basket & Cup at Walpole Island First Nations United Church”

What are you thankful for?

What are you thankful for as you celebrate Thanksgiving?

I know that Thanksgiving Day will always be associated with a miracle that happened to my friend Glenn this weekend.

“In Honour of those who gave the Gift of Life” This inscription was etched on the 7th floor of the Toronto General Hospital as you enter Transplant Unit of the hospital. There are sixty photos of people on either side of the inscription. Each photo is accompanied with a brief description of the person. They are photos of men and women, boys and girls, who have donated their organs so that others may live. I was so moved by the individuals who were courageous enough and generous enough to share part of their body so that someone else may have a chance to live life anew.

A woman came by me around 6 am on Saturday morning as I was reading the descriptions of each person on the wall. “They are beautiful, aren’t they?” she commented. “Are you doing a research to write a book?” she asked me. “No, but I would like to share some of their stories with others since a friend of mine is waiting for transplant surgery,” I said to her. “My name is Suzanne and I just had heart transplant on September 20,” she said. “I did not know how long it takes to recover but I am so thankful for these people.” “I read about some of these people in the news,” Suzanne said as she walked toward her room, pushing her IV trolley.

My friend Glenn Smith, whom some of you have met at our Covenanting service last year, has been waiting for kidney and pancreas transplants for about three years. He received a call on Friday night around 9 pm that he would need to get to the Toronto General Hospital as soon as possible. The call was from 705 calling area, Glenn told me as we were heading to the hospital. We were surmising that there must have been a fatal accident in Northern and Central Ontario, places like Halliburton and Barry. Glenn was also told that he was a “secondary” recipient – meaning that the surgery may or may not happen this time.

Glenn, Kim and I were beyond excitement as we were heading down the Gardiner Expressway. We know how difficult it has been for Glenn as he awaited for a possible transplants. There were so many ups and downs. A close friend of Glenn’s volunteered to donate her kidney and they spent so much time going through all the required procedures in the past year. But there were medical complications that prevented the hope of transplant at the last stage a few weeks ago. Needless to say, this was such a disheartening experience for all of us who were hopeful of the transplant for Glenn so he could live his life as fully as possible. Then, the call came out of the blue on Friday night. A gift might have his name on it.

“It is good to be a friend.”

“It is good to be a friend,” was what I was thinking as I was rushing along the highway to take my friend to a hospital on Friday evening.

We got to the hospital in record time. Kim reminded me that the surgery was not an excuse for me to fly down the highway. Once Glenn was admitted to the hospital, a long wait began. Three of us spent the night sharing jokes and regaling one another as nurses came in through the night and morning to perform various tests and preparations for the surgery. No one at the hospital was able to tell us whether the surgery would happen. All we knew was that there was a possibility of a surgery.

Three of us formed a circle as we held hands and pray to God for Glenn’s safe keeping and guidance for the surgeons and nurses. The emotions of the moment and the tears flowed on our cheeks reminded us of the friendship and love we shared with those who were praying for Glenn. 27 hours after he received the call Glenn’s surgery was successful and he was alert last night.

It is wonderful to be alive. It is wonderful to give a “Gift of Life” when you have an opportunity to do so.

Here are two descriptions I read from the wall of the Transplant Unit on Saturday morning.

Robert was wearing a tuxedo with a smile on his face. He looked to be in his mid 30s.

“Known as Bobby to friends and family, he was full of life and always had a smile. He enjoyed fishing, cars and being with friends. He was a loving son and a caring person with a heart of gold. He would have wanted to know that through organ donation he was still able to help another. He is dearly missed by all who knew him.”

Sarah was wearing a graduation gown and a mortar board in the photos. She looked to be about 8 years old.

“Sarah was beautiful child who stole people’s heart at a very early age. She was full of love and not shy to show it. She helped people however she could. Sarah loved to swim, fish and ride her bike. Her school planted a tree in her memory. Not a day goes by that she is not missed immensely by her family.”

It is indeed wonderful to be alive. It is truly wonderful to give a “Gift of Life” when you have an opportunity to do so.

We heard the words of Jesus remembered by the early Christians in the Community of John, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Robert, Sarah, and those who gave their organs in their death have become the bread of life for those who have received transplants – like my friend Glenn Smith and Suzanne whom I met at the hospital yesterday. People like Robert and Sarah gave opportunities for others to have their life renewed. I am immensely grateful to those who had courage to share their life through organ donations for I know what it is like to see a dear friend’s life being renewed and regenerated with hope and possibilities of a future.

In my thanksgiving for Glenn’s renewed life, I am also mindful of the death of the person who shared part of his or her body. I think of the pain the family must be experiencing as they mourn the loss of their child, parent, and love of their lives. I pray for God’s guidance and comfort as they grieve the loss of their loved one.

Jesus is remembered as the bread of life by us for we believe that Jesus is present in and through our lives as we comfort those who are in need of our care and celebrate with those who are experiencing joy in their lives.

It is good to be a friend – for Jesus is our friend. It is good to be a “Gift of Life” – for Jesus is the gift of life for us all.

On this Thanksgiving Sunday we are thankful for all those friends who are walking with us in this journey called life. We are grateful for so many who have been a source of nurturing and sustenance for us as we traverse this passage called life

We celebrate Worldwide Communion – partaking in the celebration of being part of body of hope for a renewed life in Jesus Christ. We “re-member” (bind) ourselves with people of Burma – military dictators who are spiritually destitute as well as for those who are hungering for food and for justice in their land. We “re-member” (bind) ourselves with our neighbours who are homeless and those who experience “homelessness” even when they are at home. We “re-member” (bind) ourselves with Jesus Christ as we join in his ministry of loving kindness for all God’s creatures.

Amen.

Saving Fish from Drowning

2007-09-30T01:20:00.003-04:00

“Saving Fish from Drowning”
Luke 16:19-31

September 30, 2007 Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

Charlotte, North Carolina Richard C. Choe©

19 ‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.* The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.* 24He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” 25But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” 27He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” 29Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” 30He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” 31He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’

* * *

Jesus tells a parable that was well known to his listeners. This story read from the Gospel according to Luke is a folktale which reflects a popular view of the afterlife. It focused on the individual’s fate – that there would be a just reward in the end, that there is a “great reversal” at the end. Needless to say, the story is told from the perspective of the downtrodden and the have-nots.

People in Jesus’ time believed that there was a time and place of reckoning after death. They believed that there was “heaven” for those who led an exemplary life and “hell” for those who did not. The story of an after life was often told in the ancient days as a warning that there would be a time of reckoning.

This notion of “reckoning-after-death” or a “great reversal’ may provide some “relief” and “comfort” for people who are experiencing injustice in life. “Someday my time will come” may have been a way to endure the burdens of life for many who were suffering. The notion of an after life, however, has been abused by many oppressors in history. Many abusive leaders everywhere, both secular and religious, have exploited this “reckoning-after-death” notion to tell the oppressed to accept their life situation without a fuss.

“Do not complain. Do not protest against those who oppress you. Accept what you are given and don’t seek any change. Be thankful for what you have.” Some religious thinkers describe this notion as a form of “delayed gratification” – suffer now but you will get your just reward later.

The notion of “prosperity theology” is a contradictory concept that continues to exist along with the “delayed gratification.” Many continue to believe that wealth is a sign of blessing from God and poverty a sign of God’s curse. Pharisees of Jesus’ time believed this notion based on their reading of the Book of Deuteronomy. Thus, Lazarus, for the Pharisees, would have been an example of God’s curse. Pharisees of Jesus’ time would have implicitly and explicitly accepted that Lazarus was guilty of some appalling sin, and, thus, deserved his suffering. For the Pharisees and many others, God’s blessing was individualised, personalized, and, in the end, privatized God’s action. For many, God had been reduced to a “blessing” business. Their belief in a privatized God led them to ignore the poor and vulnerable. But such a belief also created poverty and vulnerability.

It was to those who believe in a privatized God that Jesus spoke. One of the Biblical Commentary states,

“While this parable seems to be about money, it is really about values. … The question is not whether we have money, but whether we love money (over and against anything else in life) – whether we share God’s concern for the poor and the vulnerable – whether we are too preoccupied with personal concerns to notice the Lazarus in our midst.” [1]

The apathy of the rich man who walked in and out of his house every day past the starving, sore-covered man lying at his gate was the cause of the harsh judgement in the story Jesus told.

The rich man was not an evil doer. He might even be considered a kind man. He could have kicked Lazarus out of his gate yet he allowed him to be there day after day. How long would many of us allow someone who was dirty, sick, and smelling of disease to park right by our door?

The problem with the rich man, Jesus says, was that he did not even lift a finger to do anything to change Lazarus’ circumstance. Apathy, indifference and lack of concern for someone suffering on his doorstep, was the rich man’s sin. It was not a sin of commission but a sin of omission.

By naming the man Lazarus, meaning “God heals” or “God helps,” Jesus confronts the Pharisees of his time. Luke described them as “the lovers of money” (Luke 16:14). Jesus counters their prosperity theology based on Deuteronomy saying that "what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15).

The name Lazarus is a counter statement from Jesus to those who believed in a privatized God that “God helps those whom people with apathy chose not to help.” The Pharisees would have heard Jesus’ warning to them through the parable: If they were like the rich man in life, they will be like the rich man in death. “Don’t be by-passers. Engage with the poor, the sick, and those in need” is what I hear Jesus saying.

The challenge of the parable did not end with the Pharisees. The challenge continues today.

Who do you identify with the most in the story?
What aspects of the story make you uncomfortable?
How would you like the story to end? And, why?

We, too, pass by the poor and homeless without seeing. We, too, are often so preoccupied with our own issues that we cannot see those who are in need of our help. We discover that we love money over anything else in many instances. The parable confronts us to help and heal the Lazarus people in our midst – in our city as well as in the global village.

Dr. Fumitaka Matsuoka, former Academic Dean of the Pacific School of Religion, shares the following insight on the Luke passage.

“The statement of the “chasm “ that exists between the rich man and Lazarus is a reality about our own apathy (as middle class North Americans) and numbness in the face of overwhelming poverty and suffering. It is a statement about how we are numbed until we become indifferent by the enormity of suffering world over.” [2]

Dr. Matsuoka stated that there is a great chasm fixed between those of us who live in affluence and those who are suffering from economic, social, and political devastations in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and in our own cities. He talks of the chasm fixed between the culture of the “contented” and the underclass. He concludes by saying that, “If faith communities are the embodiment of the good news, these communities are an opportunity for us of courage to see the world for what it is – a world ruled by powers and forces that derive their strength from our natural fear of destruction and our natural need for self-preservation at any cost, even at the cost of dismissing the very images of God.” He then urges people “to turn your heart and your eyes away from the contained private world of self-preoccupation, even self-preoccupation with our own pain, to the deep pain of the larger world. “We are called to a deeper accountability in the world full of Lazarus (people).” [3]

Over the past week we have been overwhelmed by stories and images of violence trickling out of Burma, now commonly known as Myanmar. What started as a peaceful demonstration turned into a violent suppression by the Myanmarian military junta.

The military dictatorship has ruled Burma since 1962 – for 45 years. Burma is the most militarized country in the world. [4] “Nearly half a century of military misrule has turned resource-rich Myanmar into a shambles, with a ranking of 130 out of 177 countries on the UN human development index and a per-capita gross domestic product lower than that of Sudan or Chad.” [5]

Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won a clear and popular mandate in free elections in 1990; however, she has been living under house arrest for the most part since July 20, 1989 – the year the military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar. Suu Kyi, advocate of non-violent resistance, was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma.

Olivia Ward, a foreign affairs reporter for Toronto Star, reported on Friday, September 28, 2007:

“The crackdown began Wednesday when soldiers and police fired tear gas, clubbed protesters and arrested up to 200 (Buddhist) monks in an attempt to quash the upraising, the largest since the rebellion by students and (Buddhist) monks in 1988, in which more than 3,000 (Buddhist monks and students) were killed.” [6]

The Globe and Mail reported that at least nine people – including (Buddhist) monks – were killed at the Myanmarian junta’s hand. British diplomatic sources said that there was evidence that one monastery was raided before dawn. (Buddhist) monks were ‘badly beaten’ and hauled away, leaving large amounts of blood in their dormitories. [7]

In 2005 American writer, Amy Tan, wrote a fiction novel situated in Myanmar called Saving Fish from Drowning.

Tan began her book with a fable from which her book title is derived:

“A pious man explained to his followers: ‘It is evil to take lives and noble to save them. Each day I pledge to save a hundred lives. I drop my net in the lake and scoop out a hundred fishes. I place the fishes on the bank, where they flop and twirl. Don’t be scared, I tell those fishes. I am saving you from drowning. Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still. Yet, sad to say, I am always too late. The fishes expire. And because it is evil to waste anything, I take those dead fishes to market and I sell them for a good price. With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes.’” [8]

The fisherman is an apt metaphor for the military junta and their cronies who plunder and pillage and justify their actions in Burma. It is no wonder Amy Tan has been banned from Myanmar since the publication of the book.

Andrea Okrentowich wrote in her review of Saving Fish from Drowning.

“The underlying truth throughout Saving Fish from Drowning is that of human nature; how one perceives themselves and the world around them. This novel demonstrates how one reacts to suffering on their part or others, physical or emotional. At what point does an individual drop their shields and see their surroundings as (they are) meant to be seen? If the circumstances are beyond their perception of the norm, at what point will an individual give up hope? Does one have the ability to bend their reality in order to survive? And at what cost?” [9]

As I was reflecting on the words of Jesus from Luke and the uprising for freedom in Burma, the questions from the book review kept coming back to me.

• At what point do you drop your shields and see your surroundings as they are meant to be seen?
• If the circumstances are beyond your perception of the norm, at what point will you give up hope?
• Do you have the ability to bend your reality in order to survive?
• And at what cost?”

According to Jesus, the rich man chose to see his surroundings by bending reality rather than dropping his shields to see his surroundings as they were meant to be seen. He chose apathy – originating from the Greek α- “not” and πάθος (pathos)” to mean “not suffering” or “indifference to feeling” – over empathy or compassion – i.e., identifying pains of others and suffering with them.

Choosing apathy, according to Jesus, was sin. Unwillingness or inability to live out one’s faith is sin.

Last week, Burmese Buddhist monks and students rose up to peacefully demonstrate for the liberation of their people knowing that the violent and brutal suppression of 1988 may repeat itself. They began with reciting Metta Sutra – the Buddhist virtue of metta (“unconditional love and kindness”). [10] “Excesses of the (military) regime, and the wretchedness of the Burmese people, have driven the monks to the streets,” says Pricilla Clapp, former chief of mission in the U.S. embassy in Burma. [11]

The people of Burma have risen up once again to live out their belief that unconditional love and kindness ought to be practiced in their land. Theravada Buddhism, a school of Buddhism 90% of Burmese is part of, teaches that each person is a potential Buddha. Each individual can attain Buddhahood, by various practices. People of Burma can no longer bend the reality of a country ruled in fear in order to survive. They rose to free themselves from God within themselves being distorted and destroyed by the military dictatorship of the 45 years.

People and countries around the globe are standing with those standing up for love and kindness. On Thursday evening a former colleague of mine joined more than 150 people gathered at Nathan Phillips Square to show support for the demonstrators and Buddhist monks who stood up for justice and freedom in Burma.

One thing I know for sure is that even brutal oppression cannot and will not suppress people’s desire for freedom and compassion toward one another. When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

At what cost do we bend reality as it was meant to be seen?

May the great compassion of Buddha move the people of Burma as they seek liberation for its people. May we, the followers of Jesus of Nazareth – the one who sided with the downtrodden and the oppressed – hear the challenges of the parable and bear the cost.

Amen.

--------

[1] Luke 16:19-31, Sermon Writer:Resource for Lectionary Preaching, http://www.lectionary.org/EXEG-English/NT/ENT03-Luke/Luke%2016.19-31.htm
[2] Fumitaka Matsuoka, The Lazarus World, http://www.psr.edu/page.cfm?l=89&id=24.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Olivia Ward, Spiritual Warriors, Toronto Star (Saturday, September 29, 2007), Section AA2.
[5] Marcus Gee, The hidden ‘lady’ for whom they struggle, The Globe and Mail, (Saturday, September 29, 2007), A23.
[6] Olivia Ward, World & Comment, Toronto Star (Friday, September 28, 2007), Section AA1.
[7] Aung Hla Tun, Toll mounts as brutal regime bares its teeth, The Globe and Mail, (Friday, September 28, 2007), A16.
[8] Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons: New York, 2005), 6.
[9] Andrea Okrentowich, An Essay on Amy Tan’s Novel Saving Fish from Drowning, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/54600/an_essay_on_amy_tans_novel_saving_fish.html.
[10] BurmaNet News, http://www.burmanet.org/news/2007/09/25/all-burma-monks-alliance-and-88-generation-students-joint-statement-of-abma-and-88-students-unofficial-translation/.
All Burma Monks Alliance and 88 Generation Students: Joint Statement of ABMA and 88 Students (Unofficial translation) Tue 25 Sep 2007 Filed under: News, Statement
1. The entire people led by monks are staging peaceful protest to be freed from general crises of politics, economic and social by reciting Metta Sutra.
2. The ongoing protest is being joined by monks, nuns, Member of Parliaments, students, ethnics, artistes, intelligentsia and the people from all walks of life which is the biggest unity seen in last 20 years.
3. In this demonstration, we need to show we are deserved democracy by upholding the following 3 slogans adopted in consensus by the monks and endorsed by the entire people.
(a) Economic well-being
(b) Releasing political prisoners
(c) National Reconciliation
4. The entire people must aware the danger of government’s anti-strike counter- measure and violent crush by drawing lessons and experiences from 88 uprising, need to form the Mass Movement Committee and Anti-Violence Committee to prevent from such a violent crackdown.
5. The monks and students will not hesitate and not be deterred from any form of intimidation and violent crackdown will join hands with all the people and continue our struggle bravely and resolutely step by step for our beloved country.

Signed by

All Burma Monks Alliance(1) U Aw Bar Tha (2) U Gambiya (3) U Khe Mein Da (4) U Pakata

88 Generation Students(1) Htay Kywe (2) Tun Myint Naung (3) Hla Myo Naung (4) Aung Thu

[11] Olivia Ward, Spiritual Warriors, Toronto Star (Saturday, September 29, 2007), Section AA2.

Hope. Vision. Action.

2007-09-23T03:06:00.001-04:00

Patricia Richmond [August 6, 1924 - July 27, 2007]

“Hope. Vision. Action.”
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

September 23, 2007
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
--

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears,so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!

* * *

What was the most painful time in your life?
When was the most desolate time in your life?
How did you cope with it?
What did you learn about yourself and God from your painful experience?
Do you feel that you just got by or were you able to live through it?

These are some of the questions came to my mind as I was reading the passages from Jeremiah that was read today.

Judah, the southern Kingdom of Israel is about to be invaded by Babylon, the new empire in the Middle East. People have turned against Yahweh – God of their ancestors – and Jeremiah speaks to his people of the desolation that is about to befall Judah. It is hard to tell whether it is Jeremiah or God who is lamenting about the hopelessness of the situation the people of Judah are facing.

Is there no balm for those who are hurting? Is there no remedy? Is there no physician? Is there any hope for healing? God appears unable to get the people to change through the prophet’s words. God identifies so closely with the people that their wound is God’s wound.[i] Jeremiah declares that no salve on earth can heal the people’s wounds. The people are looking in the wrong places for their salvation. Their healing will eventually come through their tears, of which Jeremiah is an example.[ii]

Hope. Vision. Action. [iii]

Frank O’Dea is one man who has gone through hell and back again. As he looked back at his life of 62 tumultuous and eventful years, O’Dea realized that three principles have sustained and transformed him to a new life: hope, vision, and action.

Frank O’Dea was born and raised in an upper-middle class family in Montreal-Ouest in 1945. He experienced his father, a business executive, as someone who had difficulty showing compassion to his children. He experienced his mother as one who adored her husband so much that she did not have much love left for her children.

He describes his family in these words.

“My loneliness intensified during my high school days. Other (times) were lonely too, but still, I knew there was something wrong about entering a house where my mother barely acknowledged my presence and my brothers and sisters saw me as I saw them – as an intrusion. We shared neither secrets nor time.”[iv]

Frank was sexually assaulted by an older woman at the age of 13. Alcohol eventually provided a release from the loneliness and alienation he experienced. He was then sexually abused by a policeman who was his father’s acquaintance. While he was telling his father of the abuse, and before he could ask to be protected from further attacks; Frank’s father shook his head and walked out of the room, leaving the boy alone.[v]

Frank’s ordeal did not end there. He was also sexually abused by Catholic priests. His alcohol abuse got worse. He stole money from his family to buy alcohol. He drove drunk and wrecked his parents’ cars. He failed one private school after another.

“For the good of the family, you have to go. … Nobody wants you here, Frank. … We don’t know what your problem is. I hope you identify and solve it. But you’ll have to do it without us,” was what his Dad told him when Frank was in his early 20’s.

In the early 1970s, Frank O’Dea lived in the streets of Toronto in an alcoholic haze. He spent each day panhandling around the Jarvis Street for change for wine and a bed at a flop house.

Then one day – Thursday, December 23, 1971 to be exact – a realization settled on him – “If I don’t change, I will die like this.” He realized that he only had two options left: Die or change.

Frank walked into a social agency and simply uttered, “I need help.” He remembers how the woman at the other side of the desk broke into a radiant smile and said, “You’re home!”

Fast forward thirty years after his decision to become sober and renew himself: Frank O’Dea was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. He had gone on to become a successful businessman and a philanthropist. Frank O’Dea is co-founder of the Second Cup coffee chain, a Canadian business venture that started a revolution of high-end coffee shops in North America.

Frank remembers people’s generosity while he was living on the streets of Toronto. He has been active in raising funds for Street Kids International (SKI), which is devoted to protecting homeless children around the globe from predators. He co-founded the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) in the 1980s when AIDS was not a popular cause for fundraising. He is founding chair of the Canadian Landmine Foundation. He helped raise over $2 million for the anti-landmine cause.

“An estimated seventy million (live) landmines remain buried in about a third of the world’s countries, awaiting to explode when a person or animal step on them. … Landmines kill or maim almost twenty thousand civilians each year, or more than one every thirty minutes every day. About one of every three mine victims is a child.”[vi]

In his biography, When All You Have is Hope, Frank O’Dea shares the following wisdom:

Street people are faceless.[vii]
No matter where you begin or where you finish, you can do amazing things with your life if you choose to.[viii]
I am what I am today, and I was what I was back then.[ix]
Never give up on anyone.[x]
It’s not the money you make that matters most. It’s the difference you make.[xi]

Frank O’Dea was able to turn his experience of desolation into a source of hope for many. Miraculously, he learned the importance of community service from his father, the same father who could not be present to him in his suffering. And Frank has been able to work on making peace with the rest of his family even if they cannot forgive him. He is at a place where he is able to own up to his own wrong doings rather than just blame his circumstances.

As I was reading about Frank O’Dea’s life, I was touched by this man who not only experienced pain and hopelessness but chose a renewed life. I saw a man moving from hope for a changed life to a vision for renewal to action for healing of himself and others.

Frank O’Dea is a spiritual man. He credits God, a Higher Power, as the source of his healing. A Higher Power who helped and supported him to move on to new ways of being. The same Higher Power, the same God who moves among those of us gathered here.

Today we remember and celebrate the life of Pat Richmond. Pat was born on August 6, 1924 in Stoney Creek and died on July 27, 2007 in Toronto. I remember Pat’s smile. I would see her sitting across from my office waiting for a friend or a ride on Sunday after worship service. When I greet her, she would look up and give me a smile.

Pat leaves five of her daughters – Nancy, Brenda, Holly, Heather and Ruby. This is what Holly Corman, one of Pat’s daughters, wrote to share with us.

“Although Pat lived in the area for just over two years she made many friends at Kingston Road United and in her apartment building. She looked forward to going to Bessie’s Tea and Conversation Group every Wednesday and avidly enjoyed the group’s lively and varied conversation. Her neighbour, Hazel across from her in her apartment building would look in on Pat to see if she was all right and they both would look out for each other.

From her early career as a Registered Nurse at Wellesley Hospital to raising five daughters she always thought of others before herself. In her pocket was always a roll of coins to drop in the hat of a homeless person.

She often enjoyed engaging someone in a political discussion and it was no secret what she thought of George W. Bush and his government. It was much to her daughters’ amusement when they discovered that her initials for her maiden name stood for M.P.P.

She appreciated all things British and enjoyed several trips there with friends and to visit her daughter and grandson in Oxford.

Pat often took all five of her daughters to have “Afternoon Tea” at the Green Room at the top of Eaton’s in Hamilton. Many times we were brought tea in bed whether we were sick or just curled up with a good book, much to the astonishment of our friends who claimed their Mothers never brought them tea in bed!

One love that she did not pass onto her daughters was that of mushy peas!

There were many loves that she did pass onto her daughters and friends and that was her love of flowers and nature itself which is reflected in two hymns that she liked – “All Creatures Great and Small” and “For the Beauty of the Prairies.”

Another love was her care and concern for others. So next time you pass a homeless person, drop a Toonie or two in the hat for Pat.”

To someone like Pat, the homeless Frank O’Dea of 35 years ago would not have been a faceless person on the street.

Nancy, Brenda, Holly, Heather and Ruby, may you remember, cherish, and celebrate your Mom’s life. May you find comfort and solace as you walk with God and your faith communities.

Most of all, may we all be able to turn sorrows and pain into a source of healing for us and those we encounter. And may we also be able to turn to hope and move through vision and action to renew ourselves through God, the Higher Power.

Amen.

* * *

Collect our Tears

by Safiyah Fosua

God,

Collect our tears

Tears of sadness

tears of joy

Tears of anxiety

nervous tears

Tears that don't know why they run like rivers down the face

Gracious God,

collect our tears in your bottle

And pour them back on us as life-giving water!

Safiyah Fosua, "21st Century Africana Liturgy Resources: Collect Our Tears"
Copyright © 2007 General Board of Discipleship, Unite Methodist Church, USA. (www.gbod.org/worship)

--
[i] Anna Grant-Henderson, Insights / Messages of Jeremiah 8:18-9:1, http://www.oldtestamentlectionary.unitingchurch.org.au/2007/September/Pent17Jer8_07.htm .
[ii] It Is a Real World, 17th After Pentecost (Year C): September 23, 2007, Whole People of God.
[iii] Frank O’Dea, When All You Have Is Hope, (Viking Canada: Toronto, 2007), 92.
[iv] Ibid., 11-12.
[v] Ibid., 28.
[vi] Ibid., 189-190.
[vii] Ibid., 68.
[viii] Ibid., 45.
[ix] Ibid., 35.
[x] Ibid., 60.
[xi] Ibid., 219.

Beyond Wants

2007-09-16T09:43:00.001-04:00

Richard C. Choe ©
“Beyond Wants”
Luke 15:1-10

September 16, 2007
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

The Parable of the Lost Sheep
The Parable of the Lost Coin

* * *

A friend sent me a video link to my Facebook a few days ago. Facebook, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is social networking website where people put up their personal information for communication. I noticed thatmany KRU folks are using Facebook.

I didn’t pay much attention to the video link until Thursday when I had time to check messages. I clicked on the arrow and saw an unassuming man walking into the lights on the TV show stage of Britain’s Got Talent. “I came to sing the opera” was his answer to the judge’s question why he was there. When he began to sing Nessun Dorma, one of the Pavarotti’s signature songs from an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot, silence fell in the audience and then people began to stand and cheer him on. Tears flowed from my eyes as I listen to Paul Potts sing Nessun Dorma – meaning “No One Will Sleep.” I had a tough time sleeping that night as images of an unassuming man singing his heart out kept coming back to me.

Paul Potts is a 36 year mobile phone salesman from South Wales. He shared at various interviews that he was often bullied as a child and singing was his way of dealing with life’s struggles. He was able to afford some voice training but an accident and illness, along with a lack of confidence prevented him from continuing his dream to sing opera. That is, until he decided to audition for the TV show, Britain’s Got Talent.

Paul Potts won the competition. His semi-final performance was viewed over 6.7 million times when I clicked on YouTube on Friday night. And his CD, One Chance, will be released domestically in Canada on September 18.

A mobile car salesman who dreamed of singing opera found his voice when he moved to make his dream a reality.

In Chapter 15, Luke connects the two parables – the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin – with a third parable, commonly known to us as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.” Biblical scholars say that the three parables come from different contexts but they have been “built into an artistically constructed unit with a single theme – God’s love and mercy for human beings and Jesus’ call for repentance and conversion.”[i] Luke is also conscious about balancing the images of man and woman in his stories.

Lost and Found seems to be a common theme throughout the three parables; however, there is a key difference between the two parables read today and the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.” The searchers – the shepherd and the woman – seek out and find the lost in the two parables read today whereas the “lost” returns in the other parable. The emphasis is on the actions of the searchers in the two parables read today. The shepherd seeks out the lost sheep until he finds it. The woman searches for the lost coin until she finds it. Both rejoice in their finding by inviting their neighbours to share in their celebration.

Luke writes about two “distinctive” groups of people present at the scene. “All the tax-collectors and sinners” make one group of people who are on the “wrong side of the track” of the community. Then, there are “the Pharisees and the scribes” – the religious and the professional theologians who are on the genteel side of the community.

Shepherds had often been portrayed in the Hebrew Scripture as the image of God; however, in Jesus’ time shepherds were considered undesirables. The shepherds were not following religious laws as closely as they should when they were in the wilderness tending the sheep. How do you not work on the Sabbath day when you have sheep to tend?

Tax-collectors in Jesus’ time did not fare any better than the shepherds. I know that there are a few in our congregation whose work is closely related with taxation so I am sure they can vouch for me that paying tax is not a popular notion in our society either.

Before we condemn the tax-collectors as a greedy lot, let’s look at the Roman Empire’s taxation system.

The Roman taxation system was built like a pyramid scheme. At the top of the pyramid is the Roman Empire, and there are various chains between the local Jew – a colonial – and the Roman Empire. A local tax-collector was a business operator who would purchase the right to collect tax from a local tax office for a geographical area by paying a specific amount of money allotted as tax for the area. Your profit is the difference between what you are able to collect and the set amount you paid to the local tax office.

The upside of the tax business was that if you could collect more than the amount you have to repay tax office, you would profit from the tax collecting business. The downside was that if you collect below the allotted amount, you had to make up the difference. One of the problems the tax-collectors faced in the pyramid scheme of the Roman taxation was that the population base used to stipulate tax by the Roman Empire was way higher than the real population base they were working with. Then there were those who were so destitute that nothing could be collected form them.

The Roman Empire, being at the top of the pyramid, would collect the amount set for the region regardless of the real population base. People lower on the pyramid also had to skim of the tax for their profit. As a result, the local tax-collector, who is at the bottom of the pyramid scheme, had to charge way more than what the local person was designated to pay.

Tax collectors would often resort to gouging an exorbitant amount of tax from the locals by any means necessary. In the eyes of the local Jews, the tax collectors were lackeys of the hated Roman Empire. They were one of the most despised in Palestine in Jesus’ time.

The sinners were those who failed to observe religious laws and those who were guilty of moral failings. Many women who turned to prostitution as means of survival after their husband’s death or family misfortune fell into the category of sinners. Women’s status and survival depended on men in Jesus’ time. And it continues to be a reality in many parts of the world today. The poor – the destitute known as People of the Earth – also fell in the category of sinners. How do you not cook when you find food on the Sabbath and you have been starving for days? How can you judge a woman for prostitution when no one is there to help her to survive?

As in our society, rules and regulations were made by those who can afford to keep them. For the Pharisees and the scribes – those who were able to afford to follow the religious rules – anyone who did not observe the rituals according to the prescribed rules, regardless of one’s circumstances, was condemned to the outside of the boundary of their faith community.

Well aware of the religious and social contexts of his time, Jesus chooses a shepherd, an undesirable to the religious leaders, as an image of God. Jesus also chooses a woman as another image of God and went against the social and religious norms of his day. Portraying the woman seeking for a lost coin as image of God seeking the lost must have shocked the audience.

To “welcome” – translated from Greek – could be actually mean to “host.” Jesus did not only eat with the undesirables of the society at someone else’s party, he actually hosted them at his place and threw a party for them. Jesus was not committing a transgression against the religious rules to not to eat with the sinners by happenchance. He was wilfully committing transgression by inviting the undesirables to his own party. According to a Biblical Commentary, “the Hebrew word (and perhaps the Aramaic) for coins, zuzim, can also mean those who have moved away, departed.”[ii] No wonder the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

The two parables of Jesus indicate that Jesus came for those the society labelled as outcasts and undesirables. That God searches and seeks out the ones who are not worthy in relations to the rest of the community is the point Jesus was making through the two parables. Jesus came to seek those who are lost and who are denied by the norms of the society.

Many of the sermons preached on the two parables in North America often skip over the contexts of the story told in Jesus’ time.

For a poor shepherd who is looking after sheep for someone else, losing one sheep may have meant having his wage garnished from his pay. “Life is hard for men who are poor, but even more so for women,” Elsa Tamez, a feminist liberation theologian born in Mexico, says in her book, Jesus and Courageous Women.[iii] She estimates that a person in Jesus’ time needs 200 silver coins a year. A silver coin would provide two days worth of meals and housing.

There is a sense of desperation in the story we often miss as those who are living in North America. Preachers and theologians in Latin America and Africa understand what it means to lose a sheep or a silver coin in their contexts. A value of a sheep may not have meant much for a wealthy person but it could have been few weeks’ wage for a poor shepherd who are looking after sheep owners. The value of a silver coin may equal the value of dinner at a fine restaurant for some. But it is enough for a poor family to sustain themselves for two days.

After all, a silver coin – about $50 to $100 in today’s term – could pay wages for two to three people for a month in Cuba today. DeeAnn reminded us last week that $50 will educate a child for a year in Mexico. I read from the Saturday Star that at Susur, a fine dining establishment in Toronto, a dinner for two with wine, tax and tip is about $500.[iv]

Just the way the shepherd and a woman search desperately for the lost, God seeks us with desperation. For each one lost is of tremendous value. For each one lost is precious. For without one, the rest is not complete. This is the context of the story that the tax collectors and sinners understood. God loves them with desperate passion and intense longing to reunite with them. “No transgression is too deep, no infidelity too severe, and no alienation too long that God’s justice and love cannot repair.”[v]

But for those who were law abiding citizens and middle class religious, the parables were mere stories of paradox Jesus was using to provoke them. Why waste time and risk the 99 in danger by going after 1? Why be so dramatic by inviting your neighbours to rejoice with you after finding a mere silver coin?

The same question echoes through our time. Why bother with the poor? Why do we spend so much of our resources on mission for outsiders than on our church? People who are outside of the church often wonder whether church is a self-serving place or a community-serving place.

The ministry of Jesus Christ we are engaged in is about seeking the lost with desperation and with passion. There is a sense of urgency and desperation in the ministry of Jesus Christ. It is not about engaging in a leisurely theological debate about who God is and where God is.

The two parables challenges us to move beyond our wants and needs and to address the needs of our neighbours and those who are within the community who feel lost and experience absence of God in their lives.

We are found when we welcome the lost. We rejoice when we welcome one another. Such is God’s compassion – desperate, passionate, intense, mutual, and joyous. “There are no insignificant people. There is no one who isn’t supposed to be here.”[vi]

God never gives up until we are found. We are called to be the shepherd and the woman in the parables – seeking the lost to be whole again and rejoicing together when we find one another.

The KRU Council met last Wednesday. One of the Agenda items was the acceptance of Ian Kellogg as an Inquirer for ordained ministry in the United Church.

Ian shared with us his faith journey and how the KRU community has impacted his faith and his sense of Call to ministry. As Ian shared his moving acceptance of his Call, many of us around the room also had tears in our eyes as we listened to his story.

We heard of a man who felt distant from a Christian faith community who found himself resonating with the Gospel preached at KRU when he came to worship here on Sunday, September 16, 2001 – the Sunday after 9/11.

In our listening and in our celebration with Ian as he took steps toward ordained ministry – the way Ian’s Dad, the late Rev. Claire Kellogg did – each member of the Council embraced him as each person shared the joy of Ian’s decision to accept the Call to ministry of Jesus Christ.

God continues to seek us and searches for us to be reunited with God-self. There are no insignificant people in our faith community or in our neighbourhood. There is no one who isn’t supposed to be here.

Amen.

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[i] Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, The Anchor Bible, (Doubleday: News York, 1985), 1071.
[ii] Chris Haslam, Comments, Revised Common Lectionary Commentary – Clippings: Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 16, 2007.
[iii] Elsa Tamez, The Woman Who Won’t Rest Until She Finds Something Precious She Has Lost: Luke 15:8-10, http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/jesusandwomen/lostcoin.html .
[iv] Ashifa Kassam, Who is Susur Lee?, Toronto Star: Saturday, September 15, 207, A24.
[v] Marlinda Elizabeth Berry, LivingtheWord, Sojourners Magazine: September-October 2007, 54-57.
[vi] Hugh Prather, Love and Courage, (MJF Books: New York, 2001), 3.

Hospitality - Beyond Imagination

2007-09-06T18:46:00.000-04:00

“Hospitality – Beyond Imagination”
Luke 14:1, 7-14

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost:September 2, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’

* * *

What is the nature of discipleship? According to Luke, Jesus declares discipleship is hospitality.

“There once was a religious and devout woman who was filled with love for God. She went to church every morning. And every morning she met children and beggars calling out to her for help. But she did not even see them since she was so immersed in her devotions.

One day she went to church in her usual manner. She pushed the door but it would not open. She pushed it again and tried another door but found the doors all locked.

Distressed at the thought that she would miss the service for the first time in years, and not knowing what to do, she looked up. And there, right before her eyes was a note pinned to the door.

It said, “I’m out there!”[i]

In today’s reading from Luke Jesus is talking to people at a dinner party. You can tell from the way Luke writes about the situation that there is tension between Jesus and the Pharisees. “The Pharisees were watching Jesus closely,” Luke writes.

Remember, the Pharisees were not bad people. They were the ones who closely followed religious rules and applied them in their lives. They studied Torah. They shared their wealth with the poor. They were the upstanding citizens of the day. Some Biblical scholars even suggest that Jesus may have been one of the Pharisees based on his frequent interactions and conflicts with them along the way to Jerusalem.

Jesus first shares a conventional wisdom of the day with the guests at the dinner party, “Be humble. Real honour does not come from self-seeking choices, but from what is conferred on you by others.” He adds comments to indicate that God is the ultimate source of the honour – God will humble those who exalt themselves and exalt those who humble themselves. Jesus is saying that humility, not status-seeking should be the way of life for his disciples.[ii]

If Jesus ended his remarks here, he may not have escalated the existing tension between him and the Pharisees. There is no harm in telling people to be humble. There is not much discomfort in hearing a radical young rabbi say that ultimately it is God, not people, who decides on who is great and who is not.

But then Jesus goes too far and offends the host who has graciously thrown a party at which he is a guest. Jesus asserts that the kind of people one should invite to dinner is not one’s friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbours, but the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

Jesus challenges both the host and the guests. Genuine hospitality requires unconditional generosity where you offer something without expecting anything in return. Genuine hospitality requires that you offer something to those who you think are least deserving of your generosity. Genuine hospitality is not merely inviting only those who are near and dear to you – what we normally do – but invite those who usually get left off the invitation list – those who are not welcome or spurned by us for justifiable reasons.

I hear Jesus challenging the Pharisees and his disciples to go beyond normal conventional wisdoms and rules of social engagements. “Move beyond the norms you are comfortable with!” is what I hear. For Jesus, discipleship points to radically living out the meaning of hospitality in one’s life.”

The kind of society Jesus urges his disciples to imagine and establish is a society beyond the norms and conventions of his day. It is a place where people can live without the need to be first. It is a place where people can live in harmony where they do not have to compete against others to be better than their neighbours. It is a place where values are not defined by how much we are worth in terms of acquisitions but by who we are in building a society where radical acts of compassion and kindness are the measure of a person. Discipleship requires such acts of radical hospitality.

It is easier said than done. Some may say that it is an impossible dream.

There is a church building in South Korea that was converted from a traditional Korean house. It is an “L” shaped house with beautiful ceramic tiled roof. There is a glass display case similar to the one we have here across from the church office. At the center of the display case are old photos of the lay leader who was the first convert of the Christian faith in that town in the early 1900’s and a photo of the first Korean minister of the congregation.

In the early 1900’s in Korea, as in other countries, a caste system was deeply entrenched. People were divided into distinct classes: an upper class, a middle class, a lower class, slaves, and the untouchables. Although the class system was not a primary marker for one’s financial status, being part of the upper class almost guaranteed upward social and financial mobility.

One’s social status was inherited from the ancestors. So if you were born into an upper class, you belonged to that privileged class regardless of your financial situation. At the other end of the scale, you inherited the status of slave if you were born to a mother who was a slave. Slavery was a norm and hereditary. The caste system was rigid and unchanging from one generation to the next.

There was an upper class land owner in that Korean town who converted into Christian faith. The religious conversion of an upper class man, who enjoyed the privileges of the caste system, to a religion that espoused “equality” for and of all, was a miracle in itself. As a result of his conversion, the rest of his household, including his slaves, became Christian. Much like the early Christian church.

When the Korean church was selecting a leading elder for the congregation, the land owner was the obvious choice. The land owner, while he was honoured to be nominated, believed that one of his slaves had a deeper faith, and bowed out of the nomination. As a result, the slave became the leading elder of the congregation.

The congregation, like all the Christian churches in early 20th century Korea, had always had foreign missionaries as their ministers. This congregation, however, felt that they were ready to have a Korean minister lead the congregation and that one of the members would be trained for ministry. The land owner was again nominated for the position for he was the most educated amongst them and had a good reputation and wealth. The land owner once again backed off, saying that his slave, now the leading elder, was the one who should be trained for ministry since he had the deepest faith.

The history of the congregation proudly states that the slave became the first Korean minister for that congregation. The land owner, after his conversion to the Christian faith, promoted, supported, and freed his slave, and in the end served under his former slave’s pastoral leadership. Such an action would have been seen as socially unacceptable and would have brought shame to the family. Many of his extended family members and his peers would have shunned him for his irresponsible and reckless action.

Giving up his privileges of being upper class may have been one thing but lowering oneself beneath one’s slave by working as an elder in a congregation that is pastored by one’s former slave was impossible for anyone at that time to imagine. But the land owner believed that the gospel of Jesus Christ commanded him to live out the unconditional generosity God had shown through Jesus Christ. The congregation flourished and thrived because of the embodiment of the liberating words of Jesus through the land owner. Hospitality – creating a Household of God where even a slave can become a leader – was the foundation of Christian faith in Korea.

The land owner’s actions show that genuine hospitality is moving beyond being generous and moving toward those whom we think are less deserving of our generosity. For the followers of Jesus, hospitality is about creating and building a Household of God where everyone – even those who are social outcasts – are actively sought out to be invited, welcomed, cherished, and embraced as part of the community. Genuine hospitality is personal & public, social & economic, and religious & political choices and commitments.

Building a society founded on God’s vision requires more than a humble attitude. The kind of mind-set we need is a radical hospitality.

When our actions as church do not reflect our faith, church would be the wrong place to seek God. If we believe that a church building is the place of encountering God, we may be missing the message from God saying, “I’m out there!”

What would it mean for us to “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind – those who cannot repay us? What would it mean for us to live out God’s radical hospitality in our lives?

In 2008 we are going to celebrate 100 years of ministry in our neighbourhood. There are so many things we can discover, learn and celebrate about our 100 years of ministry – friendships created and fostered; faith lives deepened and enriched; laughter and tears with our neighbours; burdens shared and lightened; a community to cherish and celebrate. But most of all, our discipleship must continue to be deeply rooted in a commitment toward making a safe and welcoming space for all who are challenged in spirit and body. For we are followers of Jesus of Nazareth – a master who acts as a slave to his disciples by washing their feet and washing away the prejudices and misconceptions that only the strong survives and gets honoured.

The kind of society we are actively imagining and working for is a place where hospitality means opening our doors and going out to meet and invite all who are in need of God’s compassion. We are called to be disciples of radical hospitality. May we continue to be challenged by the Gospel of Jesus to imagine beyond our seeing and see through the compassionate eyes of Jesus.

Amen.

---------------------------------------------
[i] Anthony de Mello, Taking Flight: A Book of Story Meditations, (Image Books, Doubleday: New York, 1988 ), 33-4.
[ii] Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, The Anchor Bible, (Doubleday: News York, 1985), 1045.

Stretching to Our Fullest

2007-09-06T18:41:00.000-04:00

“Stretching to Our Fullest”
Luke 13:10-17

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost: August 26, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

* * *

Stretching to the fullest.

A few years ago I went back to South Korea to visit and I toured an old prison. It had been turned into a walk through museum. In the basement of the jail, I saw small prison cells no bigger than a broom closet. They were purposely designed with very low ceilings so the prisoners could only stand with their necks bent. Can you imagine never being allowed to stand fully erect? My neck hurts as I think about it now. The effect of such prison cells was to break prisoners’ spirits as well as their bodies.

The prison was built and used during the Japanese military occupation of Korea from 1909 to 1945. The jail is now a museum so visitors can see and experience the shameful period of Korean history when the Japanese Military Regime ruled Korea with brutality and violence until the Atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The prison cell in South Korea reminds me of Luke’s story of a bent woman with a spirit that had crippled her for 18 years. Not being able to stretch to her full height must have been torturous. Only seeing the ground she was walking on – littered with things people would carefully avoid stepping on. Never being able to look people in the eye. But the worst part of it all must have been the inability to stretch to the fullest of her being.

An unnamed, bent over woman encounters Jesus one Sabbath Day – a day of rest to remember the holy day when God rested after creating the universe – and was set free from her ailment and was able to stand straight and praise God for letting her be able to stretch to her full height.

In the time of Jesus, physical difference was accepted as a curse, a sign of an individual’s sin or the sins of one’s ancestors. Having any physical contact with such a person also placed one at the risk of being cursed as well. It was not just during the time of Jesus that physical difference was seen as a curse. It continues to happen in our time.

Society continues to define what is acceptable to the public. Media spins the “orthodoxy” – “belief in or agreement with what is, or is currently held to be right, especially in religious matters” according to The Canadian Oxford Dictionary.[i] – and the public continues to perpetuate the orthodoxy until a brave soul, like Jesus, stands tall and challenges public opinion.

Tracy Turnblad is a “pleasantly plump” high school student in Baltimore, Maryland in 1962. The highlight of her day is to watch The Corny Collins Show, a local teen dance show from Station WYZT, with her friend, Penny Pingleton.

When the Station is looking for a new dancer for The Corny Collins Show, Tracy auditions for the show but gets turned away for being overweight and supportive of racial integration of the show. “I want every day to be Negro Day,” Tracy blurts with passion at the interview.

This is 1962 in Baltimore after all. “Negro Day,” is held once a month, and is the only time that African American kids are allowed to be part of The Corny Collins Show. Racism was in full swing, including the words used to describe people of African descent.

Tracy’s chance meeting with cool Black schoolmates leads her to learn R&B dance moves. When TV host Corny Collins sees her dance at a school dance he is hosting, Tracy gets a spot as a dancer on his show.

Besides catchy tunes and wonderful dance moves, the movie Hairspray shows how the United States struggled with the issues of race, intertwined with socio-political disparities, in the 1960s. The physical standards – physical preferences of the media, to be precise – based on people’s sizes, both height and width, along with the colour of one’s skin is also at a forefront of the issues the movie deals with.

When Black and White young people fall in love with one another – like Seaweed and Penny – and people finally stand up for their rights – the way African Americans and Tracy and her Mom march for racial integration of the dance show – the walls of segregation begin to tumble down. When people begin to lift their heads and reach to their full potential, equal rights, and privileges, communities begin to experience healing and freedom.

It was not just African Americans who began their journey toward healing and freedom when they stood up for their God-given inalienable rights to be equal with their White neighbours. The rest of American society – Blacks, Whites, and people of all shades began to be healed and freed in the process. By segregating one segment of the US society, those who were enforcing segregation were also in need of healing and freedom from their racism and hatred of their neighbours.

It is amazing how societies do not seem to realise that the disease of discrimination against the downtrodden and minorities of society always points to the illness of the majority of the society. Discrimination of Others by those in power is manifested as discrimination against themselves. But there is much resistance toward the healing of the community and the Other within our own society just the way the bent woman’s community seemed unwilling to heal her themselves, and heal themselves in the process.

There is a song in the movie Hairspray that brought tears to my eyes. “I Know Where I’ve Been” is the song the marchers sing as they demonstrate for the de-segregation of the dance show.

Motormouth Maybelle Stubbs, played by Queen Latifah, leads the singing as they march for freedom and the healing of society.

“There's a dream
In the future
There's a struggle
We have yet to win
And there's pride
In my heart'Cause I know
Where I'm going
And I know where I've been
In my heart'Cause I know
Where I'm going
And I know where I've been
There's a road
We must travel
There's a promise
We must make
'Cause the riches
Will be plenty
Worth the risk
And chances that we take
There's a dream
In the future
There's a struggle
We have yet to win
Use that pride
In our hearts
To lift us up
To tomorrow
'Cause just to sit still
Would be a sin
And lord knows
I know
Where I've been
Oh! When we win,
I'll give thanks to my God
'Cause I know where I've been

When people stand up to say “No” to the orthodoxy of the day and society’s prevailing beliefs and attitudes that threaten and force people to live at a less than their fullest, then healing of the society begins.

When a woman who has been in an abusive relationship finally stands tall to her partner and says “No!” to the relationship that has been stunting her self, then healing and freedom begins for her, and quite possibly for her partner.

When gays and lesbian people of faith begin to challenge the hatred spoken against them in the name of God, then healing and transformation begins for them, and hopefully for the faith community.

When the rest of the Canada could begin to hear the pleas from Peoples of the First Nations and participate in the healing journey for all Canadians, the healing in Canada will begin.

When society begins to realise that the healing of the entire society depends on the healing of the wounded and marginalised in the society, then healing has begun.

When we do not participate in this healing process, we are diminished, stunted, living with our heads down so we cannot see our brothers and sisters. Being an affirming congregation is more than saying “welcome” to gays and lesbians. It is about affirming life for all so that all can live to their fullest.

Luke recorded the day when Jesus not only sought out the bent woman but also touched her and healed her on the Sabbath. The story does not end after her healing. The healing also comes to the community. Jan Richardson, a Methodist pastor, writes the following in her book, Sacred Journey: A Woman’s Book of Daily Prayer.

“The community also receives Jesus’ freeing touch as it begins to learn about the care God calls us to have for one another. With Jesus’ touch of the woman’s body, with her song of praise, and with the community’s rejoicing, this story challenges us to consider how we participate in the diminishment of those around us and how we must provide the condition of healing – physical, emotional, economic, relational – to happen for us all.”[ii]

Both the current movie Hairspray and the story in Luke have happy endings. The bent woman got un-bent and she was able to celebrate with her community and praise God for the gift. Tracy and her mother Edna – from whom Tracy inherited her generous physique, Motormouth Maybelle Stubbs and her son Seaweed, Penny Pingleton, and the rest of Baltimore eventually began to celebrate integration. But Hairspray was a fictional story, about fictional characters. The bent woman lived a long time ago.

What about us? in the here and now?

What parts of our lives are not living to the fullest?
Who are we in the face of those who live at less than the fullest?

Jesus continues to challenge us to seek out those who are prevented from living to their fullest, and to heal them. Jesus continues to seek us out and heal us when we are bent and stunted by the prejudices and unwillingness of others to see us the way God sees us. For we, too, need healing. For we know where we’ve been. And we know we are going on a journey of healing and freedom.

May our life be abundant with creative ways of stretching to our fullest.

Amen.

------------------------------------------
[i] The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, (Oxford University Press: Toronto, 1998), 1027.
[ii] Jan L. Richardson, Sacred Journeys: A Woman’s Book of Daily Prayer, (Upper Room Books: Nashville, 1996), 414.

Waking Up

2007-09-06T18:38:00.000-04:00

“Waking Up”
Luke 12:49-56

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost: August 19, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

* * *

A father is knocking on his son’s door in the morning. “Jaime,” he says, “Wake up!” Jaime answers, “I don’t want to get up, Dad.” The father shouts, “Get up, you have to go to school.” Jaime says, “I don’t want to go to school.” “Why not?” asks the father. “Three reasons,” says Jaime. “First, because it’s so dull; second, the kids tease me; and third, I hate school.” And the father says, “Well, I am going to give you three reasons why you must go to school. First, because it is your duty; second, because you are forty-five years old; and third, because you are the principal.”[i]

Father Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest, gathered and shared wisdom stories collected from various parts of the global village. He shared this joke as he was speaking on spirituality in his book – Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality. “Spirituality,” Father de Mello says, “means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep…and (they) don’t want to wake up…”[ii]

Many religions stress that “waking up” is the key in perceiving and understanding the “whole” and “full” realities of oneself and one’s surroundings. Buddhism talks of enlightenment. Islam talks about “extinguishing the fire within.” Being awake is to be at peace with oneself. It means that one is content with herself or himself.

Listening to the words of Jesus from today’s passage in Luke is very difficult. Jesus is very harsh when he speaks to those who came to hear him. He is on the way to Jerusalem, the centre of the universe for Jews – the place where God resides in the temple and where the political and economic powers of the region also reside.

Jesus is chiding his listeners. “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” He is challenging his listeners to read the signs of the times – signs of God’s time. According to Joseph Fitzmyer, a Biblical scholar, Jesus is not saying that his listeners are unable to read the signs of the times but that they are unwilling to read the signs of the times and unwilling to do something about it.[iii] I hear Jesus challenging his listeners to “wake up” from their slumber and see where they are and who they are in relation to God.

Waking up is often unpleasant. It is not easy waking up to the realities. Even more difficult is facing our own selves. Life seems to bring so many complications and we feel that we get blindsided by too many people and events in life.

A couple of weeks ago Kim and I went to see the movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. Some of you might have also seen it or heard about it. It’s the third of a trilogy of movies about a character named Jason Bourne who is trying to regain his memory. Brainwashed to forget who he was before his memory was wiped out, Jason Bourne struggles to wake up to who he really is. All he knows is that the merciless killer he was trained to become and the man named Jason Bourne that so many others keep trying to assassinate may not be who he really is.

The waking up to himself is painful as Bourne is constantly on the move, fighting for his life, and visited by hazy and violent flashbacks. Even the movie theatre audience participates in the pain of his virtual awakening. The handheld camera angles were so jerky that Kim started getting motion sick when she was watching the movie.

· How do we wake up?
· How do we face reality?
· How do we discern who we are?
· Where do we start?

Looking into ourselves as individuals and as societies, I believe, is a good place to start. It takes great courage to look within us and acknowledge the wounded person within. It takes a tremendous effort to embrace that wounded person within us. It is a courageous undertaking to interpret the signs within our societies which will provide strength and energy to envision new and different ways of being who we really are.

Anthony de Mello says that waking up is a painful experience. He says,
“When you are beginning to awaken, you experience a great deal of pain. It’s painful to see your illusions being shattered. Everything that you thought you had built up crumbles -- and that’s painful. That’s what repentance is all about; that’s what waking up is all about.”[iv]

The initial pain of facing the realities of where we are and who we have become are the reason why so many of us have difficulty “turning around” – what repentance means in Greek – from slumber and waking up in our life. There are many who would rather live in a state of anger or despair – another aspect of anger – than to wake up and embrace the life filled with wonders. After all, it is better to deal with the devil you know, as the saying goes.

Quite often what we want when we encounter problems in life is relief rather than healing. We simply want relief from pain since healing would take so much more pain and involve too much of ourselves.

On the way to Jerusalem, on the way to confronting the powers that corrupt and set individuals against one another and from God, Jesus challenges those who are willing to hear his words to wake up and turn around toward one another and to God.

Each one of us today is still being challenged by these words of Jesus. Challenged to awaken from a slumber where we think it is fine for us to be isolated from God. To awaken from a slumber where spirituality is used as an opiate for people to believe that everything is OK as long as I am OK. To awaken from a slumber where the notion of the common good is just a pipe dream.

Sometimes the appearance of the present is disguised as reality. Sometimes the real present is a very different reality.

A scholar was reading a book and dozed off. He dreamt that he was a butterfly. When he woke up he began to wonder, “Am I a human who dreamt that I was a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a human?” “Which is the reality?” was the question posed by a Chinese philosopher more than 1,000 years ago.

This is our struggle in life. This is our struggle with our faith. The struggle to wake up to the real presence of God. To know what is real. To be real. To interpret the signs of God’s time that acknowledges that each one of us is created to be loved, that we are interrelated in God’s community, and that each one of matters.

God’s signs are all around us. May we be awake each moment and each day to God’s real time. May we have the wisdom and courage to be in God’s present.

------------------------------------------------
[i] Anthony de Mello, Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality, (Doubleday: New York, 1992), 5.
[ii] Ibid., 5.
[iii] Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, The Anchor Bible, (Doubleday: News York, 1985), 1000.
[iv] De Mello, 45.

Living Into the Answers

2007-09-06T18:34:00.000-04:00

“Living into the Answers”
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost: August 12, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

* * *

A man has fallen half way down a cliff and is hanging on by a vine. “Save me, God!” he calls out for God. God says, “Just let go, my son. I will catch you.” The man thinks about this for a minute and then yells out, “Is there anyone else up there?”

It is easier to have faith in theory but living out that faith is not an easy task. We often experience a tremendous gap between having faith and being faithful. There seems to be an immense disconnect between the faith one has – believing in creeds or doctrines of one’s belief – and being faithful – living out that belief in day to day life.

The author of The Letter to the Hebrews writes, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The author then proceeds to remind the readers of how Abraham was obedient to God’s call to journey to the unseen, and how he was provided with the Promised Land for his descendants. The author reminds them of how Sarah laughed at God’s promise, and how her “good deed” resulted in having descendants “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

What I wanted most as a teenager, experiencing uncertainties, was the kind of faith of Abraham and Sarah had in God. I sought after a faith that could move mountains.

At first I was part of a conservative Christian congregation which believed that God would solve all the problems and difficulties in life if we had firm faith in God. I went to revival meetings to hear preachers on fire who spoke of the sinful nature of humanity and how our repentance would lead us to the salvation Jesus Christ offers. I fasted during Lent for a week to cleanse me from all the sins I have committed. I prayed for the ability to speak in tongues.

Regardless of what I did to seek a firm faith in God, there was always these nagging questions and doubts about God – who God is and what God was all about. I had too many questions about the kind of things that were in the Bible. There were too many things I could not believe no matter how hard I tried. There were too many rules and regulations – both written and unwritten – in the congregation as well.

It seemed to me that Christians were arguing over too many petty things – such as whether or not it is sin to drink alcohol and whether or not it is sin to play volleyball on Sundays while so many things were happening outside the church. In the end, I left the church when I went to university. Any Christian faith I knew and experienced until then was not real, logical or rational enough. I left the church to look for something more real, logical and rational.

William Sloane Coffin, a renowned Christian pacifist was one of the leading opponents of Vietnam War. As Chaplain at Yale University in the 1960s he said that his realization that “for Jesus, from the outer periphery to his inner core, creed and deed were one” was part of his conversion into Christianity.[i] In his book Letters to a Young Doubter Coffin talks about “loving the questions and living into the answers,” a quote from Rilke as he reflects on life.

It took many twists and upheavals in life for me to return to church. When I think back on my disappointment with the Christian church of my teenage years, I realize that I was not able to distinguish faith – sets of creeds and rules – from being faithful – a process of living out the faith. I learned that loving the questions and living into the answers is about being faithful.

As I look back, I realise that I was so focused on the doctrinal aspect of my conservative Christian religion that I was not aware of living faithfully even if it meant struggle and falling short of what the rules said. I agree that when we are being faithful to God we are engaged in making creed and deed become one and the same.

I hear echoes of my own teenage disappointments and disenchantments at the rules and regulations of the church when I talk to those who are returning to the Christian faith after a long journey away from church. I hear how unreal they felt about faith and church when they were much younger. I hear the uneasiness and apprehension about faith when parents come to meet me to talk about their children’s baptism. People who are returning to church seem to have the same struggles as those of us who have been in the church: struggles of disconnectedness between having faith and being faithful.

Abraham and Sarah, two ancestors of faith for Judaism, Islam and Christianity were the archetype of the ones who loved the questions and lived into answers. Abraham accepted God’s Call to the journey into the unseen but promised land. Sarah laughed at God’s promise of a child and was blessed with decedents “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews knew the struggles of the early Christians, and encouraged them that God would be faithful to them as God was faithful to Sarah and Abraham. The author stressed that one person’s faithfulness made a tremendous difference in the history of many people.

How do we live out our faith? In what ways could we be faithful in our neighbourhood? What can one person do in the face of tremendous challenges from the Empires of our time?

I recently came across a book entitled 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen. 28 people are profiled in the book to represent the 28 million people in sub-Saharan Africa estimated to be infected with HIV. The numbers are staggering. It is like almost all of the Canadian population infected with HIV.

Nolen’s trip to Malawi in 2002 opened her eyes to the impacts of AIDS in Africa. Malawei is located in South Western part of Africa – East of Zambia, South of Zambia, and North of Mozambique. One in six adults in Malawi was infected with HIV in 2002. In the village of Nkothakota, hundreds of people were either sick themselves, caring for the sick, or sheltering their relatives’ orphaned children. One way or another, everyone in the village was being affected by AIDS.[ii]

In 2003, Stephanie Nolen persuaded her editors at The Globe and Mail to send her to Johannesburg to travel through the heart of the epidemic. Her book approaches the difficult questions by telling the stories of various people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. Nolen says in the introduction of her book,

“I knew people in North America who had been living with HIV for years, taking anti-retroviral medication that does not cure aIDs but will keep a person with HIV healthy for decades. But no one in Africa had the drugs. … AIDS was a fully preventable illness at home. But in Africa, it was a plague. … The relentless spread of this one virus raises difficult questions about why we do the things we do, why we believe what we believe – about who we are and what we value [as human beings.][iii]

One person’s willingness to be faithful to the victims of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa helped share 28 people’s stories representing the 28 million victims of HIV in Africa to show how the disease works, how it spreads, and how it kills. Their stories explain how AIDS is tied to conflict and to famine and to the collapse of the Nations. They explain how the treatment works, when people can get it, and how the people who can’t get it fight to stay alive with virtually no help and no support.[iv]

I believe that being faithful to our neighbours is a way of being faithful to God. Being faithful to God is to struggle to make our beliefs practiced in our day to day living. One person can affect changes.

I would like to share a poem by Joan Murray which tells us about being faithful. The poem reminds me of countless and nameless mothers and grandmothers working to care for the victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

They know what it means to live into the answers.

Her Head

by Joan Murray

Near Ekuvukeni,
in Natal, South Africa,
a woman carries water on her head.
After a year of drought,
when one child in three is at risk of death,
she returns from a distant well,
carrying water on her head.

The pumpkins are gone,
the tomatoes withered,
yet the woman carries water on her head.
The cattle kraals are empty,
the goats gaunt –
no milk now for children,
but she is carrying water on her head.

The engineers have reversed the river:
those with power can keep their power,
but one woman is carrying water on her head.

In the homelands, where the dusty crowds
watch the empty roads for water trucks,
one woman trusts herself with treasure,
and carries the water on her head.

The sun does not dissuade her,
not the dried earth that blows against her,
as she carries the water on her head.
In a huge and dirty pail,
with an idle handle,
resting on a narrow can,
this woman is carrying water on her head.

This woman, who girds her neck
with safety pins, this one
who carries water on her head,
trusts her own head to bring to her people
what they need now
between life and death.
She is carrying them water on her head.[v]

May we be faithful in our living. May we be faithful in our loving. May we live into the answers in our life.

Amen.

-------------------------------------------------
[i] William Sloane Coffin, Letter to a Young Doubter (Westminster Knox Press: Louisville, 2005), 41.
[ii] Stephanie Nolen, 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa, (Alfred A. Knopf Canada: Toronto, 2007), 28.
[iii] Ibid., 1.
[iv] Ibid., 16.
[v] Joan Murray, Her Head, Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times, edited by Joan Murray, (Beacon Press: Boston, 2006), 64-65.

Now and Forever

2007-09-06T18:30:00.000-04:00

“Now and Forever”
Luke 11:13-21

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost: August 5, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

* * *

How much is enough?

A farmer who was greedy for land was told by a landowner that the price for land is one thousand roubles a day. “A day? What do you mean,” the farmer asked the landowner.
“As much as you can go around on your feet in a day is yours, and the price is one thousand roubles a day. But there is one condition: if you don’t return on the same day to the spot whence you started, your money is lost.”

“But how am I to mark the way I have gone?” “Well, take a shovel with you. At every turning, dig a hole and pile up the turf; then afterwards we will go around with a plough from hole to hole. You may make as large a circuit as you please, but before the sun sets you must return to the place you started from. All the land you cover will be yours.”

The farmer was too excited to sleep. He figured that he could easily walk 35 miles a day. He was going to be rich! He got up before the sun rose and met the landowner at the hill top. “Start from here and return here again. All the land you go around will be yours.”

There was a vast stretch of land before him. The farmer began to walk toward the rising sun. He dug a hole at every 1000 yards. The weather was getting warmer as he covered more ground. He needed a rest but felt that he could walk more. He finally stopped, dug a hole, and drank, and then turned to the left. He walked on, and the weather was getting very hot.
The farmer was feeling tired: he looked at the sun and saw that it was noon. He took a quick bite and walked on. It was terribly hot and he was getting tired. “An hour to suffer, a life-time to live,” he muttered to himself as he walked on.

After a while, the farmer was about to turn left but saw a damp hollow: “It would be a pity to leave that out,” he thought. “Flax would do well there.” So he went on past the hollow, and dug a hole on the other side of it before he turned the corner.

The sun was now nearly half way to the horizon, and he realized that he had made the two sides too long. “I must make this side shorter,” the farmer decided. Then, he realized that he may not be able to get back to the hill in time. So, he gave up the idea of making a square. He hurriedly dug a hole and began to walk toward the hill.

He was now very tired. The sun is sinking lower and lower. “Oh dear,” he thought, “If only I have not spent so much time trying for too much! What if I am too late?”

He looked towards the hilltop and at the sun. He was still far from the starting place, and the sun was already near the horizon. He began to run, throwing down everything but the shovel.
His heart was beating like a hammer, and his legs were giving way as if they did not belong to him. As the sun went down, the farmer finally reached the hilltop, and lunged toward the spot where he started.

“You have gained much land!” the landowner exclaimed. People ran to the farmer to help him get up. As they were helping him up they saw blood flowing from the farmer’s mouth. He was dead.

The people picked up the man’s shovel and dug a grave long enough for the farmer to lie in, and buried him in it. Six feet from his head to his feet was all the land he needed.”

This is a condensed version of “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy. A very sobering view of life. This is a metaphor of life for many in our society.

Tolstoy was a Christian who believed in living out the principles of communalism Jesus taught. His thoughts on non-violent resistance influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

How much is enough?

A man complained to Jesus about an inheritance. “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But Jesus turned this complaint into something very different. Jesus turned the question of fair sharing between blood relations into a question of fair sharing between humanity and God. When a man – someone who has enough money to argue over with his brother – seeks a fair share of his inheritance – Jesus raises the question of fair sharing with the rest of his neighbours.

“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Be rich towards God.” I interpret it as be rich toward your community.

The question posed to Jesus about fair sharing between two blood relations ended with Jesus posing a question about the care of the whole and those who were around him. How much is enough for some individuals if there are those in their community who are barely getting by?

How much is enough?

“How much is enough?” is the kind of question I am often confronted with whenever I hear and reflect on the stories of the deceased as I prepare for funerals.

Three individuals who have been part of Kingston Road United Church died within the last ten days. Doug Hussey, who is survived by his Dad, Bill Hussey, died on July 26. His funeral was on Monday. Pat Richmond died last week and her memorial service will be in Stony Creek. Pat’s daughter, Holly, told me that her Mom wished to have her ashes to be interred in England. Norm Clemens died on July 31 and his memorial service was on Friday.

Norman Albin Clemens died on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007, in his 98th year, surrounded by his family at Scarborough General Hospital. Norm was a devoted husband of Marion for almost 69 years. Even after 69 years of life together, Marion told me the evening before the funeral that it was such a short time to be together. Norm and Marion built and nurtured together a kind of love that will last beyond their lives.

As I was listening to the stories of Norm’s life – about how he overcame his health challenges, how he enjoyed meeting people, how he made his family his priority, how he lived out his faith through his ministry with KRU folks – I kept thinking about what people really remember about Norm after his death.

What the family and his friends remembered about Norm was the kindness and loving acts embodied through his life. Norm’s love shared with Marion, his partner of almost 69 years, was more than enough. His love for his children, Keith and Marilyn, was more than enough for them. How much is enough for the family and friends? In the end – Love and kindness.

It was same for Doug as well. His friends and sister remember his acts of kindness and generosity.

On the way to Norm’s funeral service, as I was remembering the stories I heard about Norm, I was listening to “Now and Forever” – a song Carole King wrote and sang for the movie “A League of Their Own” – a 1992 film which tells a fictionalized account of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

The song is played at the end of the movie as the old team mates, now late in their years, gather to celebrate their entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

We had a momentJust one momentThat will last beyond a dream, beyond a lifetime.We are the lucky onesSome people never get to doAll we got to do.Now and foreverI will always think of you.

Although we know our lives are lived only once, too often we forget that each moment of encounter is an opportunity for us to create a moment that will last beyond a dream and beyond a lifetime. It is more than enough to walk each day, sharing kindness and compassion with those we meet. It is more than enough to say “No” to our society’s compulsion to acquire, possess, and accumulate things that people will not remember once we are gone.

A fictional character in a book I read recently speaks of love this way:

“That is what redeems us; that is what makes our pain and sorrow bearable – this giving of love to others, this sharing of the heart.”[i]

How much is enough?

I dare say that God’s love for us which encourages us to be compassionate with one another is more than enough. Now and Forver.

Amen.

------------------------------------------------------------------
[i] Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2006), p. 233.

In my grandmother’s kitchen, along the white door frame, are pencil marks where she would draw a line to mark how tall we were. As time went on, the lines got higher and higher. Sometimes, someone might comment on how tall you have grown, saying, “You are growing like a weed.” It sounds strange, but it’s meant to be a compliment.
God doesn’t care how tall we are or how short we are. In the Bible there are stories of both tall people and short people who do great things. God cares that we grow inside: that our hearts get bigger, and our minds get bigger, and our spirits get bigger. How can we help our hearts to grow? (by loving people, doing kind things, etc.) How can we help our minds grow bigger? (by learning about the world, learning about people, etc.) How can we help our spirits to grow? (by praying, listening to Jesus, learning about ourselves, etc.)

Reality Check

2007-09-06T18:25:00.000-04:00

“Reality Check”
Luke 11:1-13

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost: July 29, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’

* * *

Teach us to pray.

Once the Master was at prayer. The disciples came up to him and said, “Sir, teach us how to pray.” This is how the Master taught them.

Two men were once walking through a field when they saw an angry bull. Instantly they ran for the nearest fence with the bull in hot pursuit. It soon became clear to them that they were not going to make it, so one man shouted to the other, “We’re done for! Nothing can save us. Say a prayer. Quick!”
The other shouted back, “I’ve never prayed in my life and I don’t have a prayer for this occasion.”
“Never mind. The bull is catching up to us. Any prayer will do.”
“Well, I’ll say the one my father used to say before meals:
‘For what we are about to receive, Lord,
make us truly grateful.’”[i]

Well. It is not easy to be grateful for every situation we face in life. Most of us often find that it is difficult to accept and be grateful for the way things are in our life. As a result, we often pray for positive changes in our life situation. We have a tendency to pray for better things. We pray for our situations to be better than what we experience.

There are times when I can’t sleep at night. As I lay awake going through the list of the things I have to do or undo, I feel that my life seems to be way too cluttered and that I am always behind the TO DO list of life. At moments like that my prayer is more of a wish list than a communion with God.

Reinhold Neibuhr, an American theologian, wrote this well known prayer sometimes attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:

“God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”[ii]

How do we know what things cannot be changed and what things can be changed? How do we discern? What do we pray for? How do we pray? How do we pray when we feel that we are way too busy and, at times, our life seems to be beyond our control? When do we even find time to pray let alone take time to pause?

These were the kind of questions I hear from the question by one of Jesus’ disciples when he asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

There was a time in my life when I began each day by praying to God for strength to be able to survive the day. Even taking a shower in the morning took a great effort and courage. Every time I closed my eyes to shampoo my hair I had this fear that I was going to drown. It was as though my life was a continuous descent to the bottomless pit. I was going through a very difficult time in life. It was as though everything was falling apart. My marriage was in shambles. I was not quite sure whether I was finding much meaning in my ministry. Everything seemed so meaningless. Every task seemed so futile.

Although I worked with people all the time, I felt desperately lonely and alone. One of my most fearful experiences was to be alone and not know what to do with myself. I was so afraid to be alone – be by myself – that I would fill my schedule with appointments and meetings.

As I was searching for a way out of this descent into depression, I began to realize that perhaps the only way out of this deep funk (pit) I was experiencing was to start to learn to listen to myself once again. Learning to listen to myself – learning to look into the depths of my being and acknowledging where I was and who I was – became a starting point of healing for me.

I learned that a prayer is a time of listening rather than talking. Prayer became a time to pause from being busy and to hear from the deepest place within me. Each day I set aside time to listen intentionally. My prayer would start by telling myself that I was loved by God and that I was God’s child. And then I would listen. I discovered that when I was able to listen deeply, I was able to hear God’s wisdom as well.

J. Krishnamurti, a unique spiritual leader from the 20th Century, says that if we can listen with the depth of our whole being, with the totality of our being, that very listening is an act of being in communion with God. Krishnamurti teaches that, “When we can listen deeply, we are strengthened to feel that everything around us lives within us and everything within us lives as part of the world.”[iii]

Prayer is a dynamic act of listening to our deeper selves and listening to God’s voice within us. Prayer is a reality check. It is a process of discerning the realities we experience with and within the contexts of the community we are part of.

When asked by his one of his disciples to teach them to pray Jesus taught them that to pray is to honour and discern God’s will in the encounters with their neighbours. He told them to seek basic human sustenance – food for the body and a harmonious relationship with one’s neighbours and with God for one’s soul. Jesus taught his disciples that to pray for oneself is to pray for the well-being of one’s neighbours in God’s community.

How would you listen to your deepest self? What would you pray for?

Here is a Sufi story about a prayer.

Nasrudin was now an old man looking back on his life. He sat with his friends in the tea shop telling his story. “When I was young I was fiery – I wanted to awaken everyone. I prayed to Allah to give me the strength to change the world.
In mid-life I awoke one day and realized my life was half over and I had changed no one. So I prayed to Allah to give me the strength to change those close around me who so much needed it.
Alas, now I am old and my prayer is simpler. “Allah,” I ask, “Please give me the strength to at least change myself.”[iv]

John Mattheson, a friend of mine who works as a chaplain at a hospital in Montreal, sent me a prayer that sums up this story.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change …
the courage to change the one I can …
and the wisdom to know it’s me.”

· What is your prayer in your life journey?
· How would you change yourself?
· What would you change within yourself?
· How would your prayer affect you in such a profound way that you end up transforming your surroundings?

This is what Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest who worked with mentally challenged people in a L'Arche community called "Daybreak" near Toronto, says about change.

“We cannot change the world by a new plan, project, or idea. We cannot even change other people by our convictions, stories, advice, and proposals, but we can offer a space where people are encouraged to disarm themselves, lay aside their occupations and preoccupations and listen with attention and care to the voices speaking in their own center.”

I believe that each one of us is called to create and offer such a place of deep listening wherever and whenever we are engaged with our neighbours.

My two daughters stayed with me last month during my vacation. My daughter Michelle made countless remark about the way I misbehave when I drive. So I wrote a short prayer and put it on my front door at home so I would be reminded of it each time I leave. “May each moment be an opportunity to practice patience and humility.” This is my prayer each time I have an urge to honk and say foul words when someone cuts me off in traffic. This is my prayer whenever I have an urge to say something negative when I experience someone to be offensive. This is my way of struggling to change my own behaviour.

Will you join me in a prayer by Jan L. Richardson from her book In Wisdom’s Path: Discovering the Sacred in Every Season.

God of eye and ear,
of taste and touch,
of smell and of every sense
and source of knowing,
bless me not
with sight alone
but bless me also
with ears to hear
your voice
and tongue to taste
your essence
and nose to breathe
your fragrance
and fingertips to touch
your nearness
and heart to open
that door
which is wisdom,
which is wonder,
which is all.[v]

May each moment of our life be an opportunity to humbly practice patience and kindness. May we be able to experience God with all of our being in our prayers.

Amen.

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[i] Anthony De Mello, Taking Flight: A Book of Story Meditations, (New York: An Image Book, 1988), 31.
[ii] Bartlett’s words to live by: advice and inspiration for everyday life, (New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2006), 245.
[iii] J. Krishnamurti, To Be Human, (Boston: Shambhala, 2000), 3-4.
[iv] Christina Feldman & Jack Kornfield, eds, Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart: Parables of the Spiritual Path from Around the World, (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 212.
[v] Jan L. Richardson, Wisdom’s Path: Discovering the Sacred in Every Season, (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2000), 109.

The Open Door

2007-09-06T18:20:00.000-04:00

“The Open Door”
Galatians 3:23-29

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost: June 24, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

* * *

Being One” may be one of the toughest things in life. “Herding cats” was the expression one of my former colleagues used to say when she was bemoaning the fact that the sum total of her colleagues, including me and her, was much less than the sum of our individual talents.

There are many reasons why a community cannot be united as one. The church in Galatia was no exception in having difficulty uniting into one. There were discussions and arguments over whether or not the followers of Jesus had to follow the Jewish laws in order to become proper followers of Jesus. Paul’s answer to the community is one of the best known phrases in Paul’s letters.

To those who were arguing about the proper way of being a Christian, Paul stated, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” I do not hear Paul saying that everyone is same. I hear him saying that the markers that gauge people as better or worse no longer apply in Christian community. For Paul, God’s unconditional love shown through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ means that everyone is valued as integral parts of the whole – valued and loved unconditionally.

It is not just the Galatians who are stuck with the rules and regulations. After all, rules and regulations help us to know how to relate to one another in our community. We all have them. Rules help us to know what the community norms are. But what if people are so stuck on the rules and regulations that they end up preventing people from becoming part of their community?

Ajahn Brahm, a British Australian Buddhist monk, tells this story. A father and a thirteen year old son were in a beaten-up old car on a side street of one of the poorest suburbs of London. The Father turned to his son and told him, “Son, whatever you do in your life, know this: The door of my house will always be open to you.”

The child did not really understand what the father was saying, but he felt that it was something important, so he remembered it. His father died three years later.

Their home when he was growing up was a small government subsidized apartment in a poor part of London – not much of a house to open a door into. But after he grew up he realized this was not what his Dad really meant. He realized that what his father meant was this: “Son, whatever you do in your life, know this. The door of my heart will always be open to you.” His father was offering unconditional love. The child was Ajahn Brahm, a British Austrialian Buddhist monk. He recollects his father’s unconditional love this way – “I was his son and that was enough.”[i]

Too often, I hear stories from my Gay and Lesbian friends that are quite contrary to Ajahn Brahm’s story. I hear stories of denial and rejection when sons and daughters work up enough courage to reveal their sexuality to their parents and family members. I hear stories of hatred hurled at transgender and bisexual folks because the rest of the society is still grappling to understand them as part of our community.

Today is Pride Parade Day in Toronto. Kingston Road United Church’s name will be proudly attached to the United Church float at the parade, stating to those who are at the Parade that our faith community is proud to stand with LGBT brothers and sisters. We are telling people in our city that our church’s doors are open to them and that our hearts will always be open to them. By our action of becoming an Affirming Congregation we are also asking that the hearts of our LGBT brothers and sisters be open to us as well.

We are also celebrating “First Nations’ Day of Prayer” today. As the back of the bulletin indicates, we are living on a land of countless broken treaties. As the Canon Rev. Laverne Jacobs shared with us in February at our church, all of us Canadians – First Nations Peoples and the rest of us in Canada – are treaty people since it takes more than one party to make a treaty. When a treaty – a covenant among human communities and God – is broken, the entire global community is broken. Most of Canadians are either not aware of this brokenness or do not care to know how this brokenness affect us as a whole in Canada. In order for us to be whole as Canadians, healing needs to take place in First Nations communities as well as in the rest of the communities in Canada. When one part is broken the entire community is broken.

Too often, faith communities have denied people who are considered as outsiders to be integral parts of the community. “Unstoppable!” is the slogan for the Pride Week 2007. I think of Ajahn Brahm’s father’s unconditional love toward his son when I think about men and women who will be joining the Parade today. I think of God’s unconditional and unstoppable love as we celebrate and participate in the Pride Parade as an Affirming Congregation of the United Church. I think of God’s unstoppable and unconditional love as we remember our brokenness and broken treaties with our First Nations’ sisters and brothers across Canada on this beautiful Sunday.

May each one of us carry the unstoppable and unconditional love of God as a blessing to those who encounter us in our life so that all may be one in God’s compassion.

Amen.

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[i] Ajahn Brahm, Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life’s Difficulties, (Summerville: Wisdom Publications, Inc., 2005), 27.

God in Me

2007-09-06T18:16:00.000-04:00

“God in Me”
Galatians 2:15-21

Third Sunday after Pentecost: June 17, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

“It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Paul understands a transformed and renewed life in Jesus Christ in this way. It is no longer Paul who lives the old ways but the risen Christ who lives in and through Paul.

Today is a wonderful day in many ways. It is a day we set aside to come together as a faith community, to pause from busy life, and to reflect together about being followers of Jesus. Today is a day to remember and celebrate fatherhood. Our community is also marking today as the day of baptizing four children – Connor Jacob William Campbell, Hannah Paton Markwart, Jaliyah Justice Michelle Power and Avery Akelah Riley – into Christian community. May our worship and fellowship be a time of remembering and celebrating Christ’s presence in our lives.

A young girl was having a tea party with her dolls when her grandfather gave her a little paper cup. She looked inside it expecting something special. It was full of dirt. “I’m not allowed to play with dirt,” she told her grandfather. He smiled at her and then picked up the little dolls’ teapot. He took her to the kitchen where he filled the teapot with water. Then he put the little cup of dirt on the windowsill and handed her the teapot saying, “If you promise to put some water in the cup every day, something may happen.”

It did not make much sense to a four year old girl. “Put water in the cup?” But her grandfather nodded with encouragement. “Every day, my beloved little one,” the grandfather told her.

And so she promised. At first, curious to see what would happen, she did not mind watering the cup. But as the day went and nothing changed, it got harder and harder to remember to put water in the cup. After a week, she asked her grandfather if it was time to stop yet. Shaking his head no, he said, “Everyday, my beloved little one.” The second week was even harder, and the girl became resentful of her promise to put water in the cup. When her grandfather came again, she tried to give the cup back to him but he refused to take it, saying simply, “Every day, my beloved little one.”

By the third week she began to forget to put water in the cup. Often she would remember only after she had been put to bed and would have to get out of bed and water it in the dark. But she did not miss a single day. And one morning, there were two little green leaves that had not been there the night before.

She was completely astonished. Day by day they got bigger. She could not wait to tell her grandfather, certain that he would be as surprised she was. But of course he was not. Carefully he explained to her that life was everywhere, hidden in the most ordinary and unlikely places. She was delighted. “And all it needs is water, Grandpa?” she asked him. Gently he touched her on the top of her head. “No, my beloved little one,” he said. ”All it needs is your faithfulness.”

Many decades after this enlightenment, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, shares these stories of her grandfather, Rabbi Meyer Ziskind, in the book called “My Grandfather’s Blessing.” Dr. Remen remembers her grandfather as the one who “knew her before she knew herself and loved her enough to last a lifetime.”[i]

Paul understood what it meant to be faithful in Christ Jesus. For Paul, being faithful meant letting Christ live in him – letting God’s beloved little one live within him so he could embrace life in its full extent and possibilities.

What does being faithful mean for us in our daily lives? What faithfulness is required of us as we celebrate Fatherhood? What faithfulness is required of us as we say yes to our commitment to raising children in Christian ways of being?

Baptism is a way of celebrating that life is everywhere, hidden in the most ordinary and unlikely places. Our participation as a faith community in the baptism of children is a pause -- and a way of renewing our commitment that all life is sacred – young and old, those who are near and far, and those whom we consider enemies as well as friends.

But most of all, baptism is an action of faithfulness – transforming the discovery of life everywhere into commitment to nurturing life here in these four young children. Faithful even when we cannot see or know what may happen from our actions. The act of participating in baptism – a sacrament (holy act) for us – is to actively remember to cherish and value life as sacred. Because when we are faithful, something may happen.

According to Kabbalah, the mystical teachings of Judaism, at some point in the beginning of things the Holy was broken up into countless sparks, which were scattered throughout the universe. Kabbalah teaches that there is a god spark in everyone and in everything and that the Holy may speak to you from its many hidden places at any time.

Each baptism speaks to us of the kind of wonder and awe we have about life that is fragile. Each baptism reminds us of a god spark in every one of us. Each baptism is a continuation of the stories of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ in God who lives in and through our lives.

May our lives be a blessing to those who encounter us. May our faithfulness be expressed as we raise our children and as we learn to grow and be transformed with them. May we nurture the child within each one of us as we celebrate Fatherhood knowing that God knew us before we knew ourselves and continues to love us enough to last a lifetime.

Amen.

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[i] Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., My Grandfather’s Blessing: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging, (New York: Riverhead Books, 2000), 1-2.

Belongingness

2007-09-06T18:09:00.000-04:00

“Belongingness”
John 17:20-26

Seventh Sunday of Easter: May 20, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

* * *

One of the worst feelings I experienced as a child was waking up from a nap and finding myself alone. It was late afternoon in South Korea and my mother had gone shopping for dinner preparation. My brothers were playing with their friends outside. I called for my mother as I slowly awakened. No one was home. As a child I knew that having my Mom or my Grandma nearby meant that I was not alone and that I belonged – that I was connected to someone who mattered to me.

Even as an adult, there are times when I wake up feeling alone. It takes a moment to let myself know that I am not alone and that I belong. I know my friends and relations are part of me and that I belong to them. All of us belong to someone or a group of people who are near and dear to us. To be human, I believe, is to be in relationship with others. A Chinese character for a person is made up of two lines leaning on each other. To be human, in Chinese philosophy, is to be able to lean on each other.

Barbara J. King, a professor of Anthropology who has been studying apes and monkey behaviours for over 20 years, asserts that “belongingness” is the most profound and most stirring (moving) transformation in the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens.[i]

In her recent book, Evolving God, Professor King defines belongingness as,
“…mattering to someone who matters to you. It’s about getting positive feelings from our relationships. It’s what you and I work to maintain (or what we wish for) with family and friends, and perhaps also with colleagues or people in our community; for some of us, it extends to animals as well (other animals, for we human are first and foremost animals.) Relating emotionally to others shapes the very quality of our lives. … Belongingness, then, is a useful shorthand term for the undeniable reality that humans of all ages, in all societies, thrive in relation to others.”[ii]

She sees belongingness “as one aspect of religiousness – an aspect so essential that the human religious imagination could not have evolved without it.[iii]” “Religion is an active expression of belongingness aimed at a spiritual sphere.[iv]

This sense of belongingness was what the community of John was seeking desperately. Today’s Gospel lesson was written as a book around 100 CE. It was a time of disappointment and pain for the followers of Jesus. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. The followers of Jesus were facing persecution for not abandoning a man who stood against the mighty Roman Empire. They were facing growing antagonism in the synagogue for they were considered to have gone astray from Judaism. The second coming of Jesus seemed most unlikely. The followers of Jesus felt alone and abandoned.

When hope seemed to be vanishing, they recollected the stories of Jesus and their teachers who lived and ministered with Jesus, and they were renewed in hope.

They remembered that the followers of Jesus had experienced God, whom they could not see, through Jesus. They also began to realize that the ministry of Jesus – a Way of living out God’s compassion in and through their lives – did not end with the death of Jesus but continues through them – the church. This is what one biblical commentator writes. “The Evangelist leaves no one in doubt: the church is not an orphan in the world, an accident in history, a thing dislodged, a frightened child of huddled rumours and superstitions. The pedigree of truth is established and unbroken: from God, to Christ, to the apostles, to the church.”[v]

The early Christian community of John found renewed hope when they realized that God’s presence extended beyond Jesus to the community of believers and that each one of them, as part of that faith community, was being called to continue to proclaim the message that everyone belongs in God’s just and compassionate community.

On June 10th, 1925, the union of The Methodist Church, The Presbyterian Church in Canada, and The Congregational Union of Canada was solemnly consecrated in the Mutual Street Arena, Toronto, in the presence of more than 8,000 members of the three denominations. One of the hopes of union was to build Canada as a just and compassionate society based on the teachings of Jesus. Jesus’ prayer – That All May Be One – was understood as the foundation of The United Church of Canada.

Much has happened since Union in 1925. We have experienced the glory days of the 60s and 70s when churches were busy and filled with people. Mission and outreach were thriving. These days, churches in general are busy struggling to survive with far fewer people. Church buildings, like ours, are aging and in need of repairs. It seems at times that many churches are just too focused on themselves rather than reaching out to the community and working with them.

Jesus’ prayer – That All May be One – is a reminder of that our purpose as church is to promote and to work on belongingness to one another in God. Once in a while, during the week, I look at the photos of the ministers who served here at Kingston Road United Church. They represent more than themselves as individuals. They symbolize all the people who have ministered in this neighbourhood and beyond this place. I am also grateful to see that this tradition of service is being carried out in our community. The bulletin cover photo of Kareen Clarke and Marjorie Bromfield best represent to me how we practice belongingness at KRU. The cover could have been photos of Bessie, Don, or Eve, and many others from our faith community. We all belong together here as brothers and sisters in God’s love in order that we could continue to expand belongingness of God in our society.

This is how professor King ends her book, Evolving God.

“For million of years, human ancestors derived meaning from mutuality; late in our prehistory, humans began to seek belongingness in the sacred as well as in the daily rhythms of small-group life. Emotions that we had been content, before, to create with those we could see, hear, and touch, we now began to create in relation with sacred beings. … That we evolved as spiritual creatures because we evolved first as meaning-makers in emotion with each other is a message grounded in the evolutionary perspective, and in hope. When belongingness runs amok, it can become xenophobia, and people may begin to act out of fear and hatred of others. Yet the power of belongingness amounts to the power to base our lives, the lives of all human who are intertwined in a globe-sized web of belongingness, on an understanding that we all come from the same roots. We evolved as primates; as ancestral hominids in Africa; as settlers of all the corners of the world; and finally as people who act in relation to sacred beings. We are primates still, able to embrace the expression of different faiths, or no faith at all, as we continue to make meaning through belongingness.[vi]

We live in a city where more than 120 languages are spoken and many cultures and religious faiths are expressed in relation to one another. To be One in our culturally and religiously diverse city requires us to be who we are as we learn about our neighbours’ faith traditions.

The People of the Hopi Nation believe that the world’s religions each contained one spiritual thread, and that these threads are always seeking each other, wanting to join. When all the threads are finally woven together, the Hopi believe, they will form a rope that will pull humanity out of this disjointed cycle of history and into the next stage. [vii]

May we continue to be one in God’s compassion. May we dare to belong to our neighbours in this community. May we learn to weave thread of our faith with our neighbours’ faith to build a just and compassionate society.

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[i] Barbara J. King, Evolving God (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 2.
[ii] Ibid., 2.
[iii]Ibid., 8.
[iv]Ibid., 22.
[v] Fred B. Craddock, John H. Hays, Carl R. Holladay and Gene M. Tucker, Preaching Through the Christian Year (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1992), 292.
[vi] King, Evolving God, 236.
[vii] Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love (New York: Penguin Books, 2006), 208.