Some thoughts on Death and Faith (from the Jubilation Newsletter)

Friends,
   This is not a typical blog post, but the Jubilation Newsletter included the following thoughts for our congregation, but somehow the format got jumbled and these words were presented as one long continuous paragraph.  I know that I can go on... but a 1000 word paragraph is a bit much.   Here are the same words, but this time with a chance to stop and breathe.

Notes from Norm

This edition of Jubilation is coming out a little later than usual. One of the reasons is that yours truly has been particularly busy in the last couple of months with funerals.  We’ve all been busy with funerals, as dear friends, pillars of our community, loved ones and companions on the journey, have died.   We know in our heads that death is part of life, and we may not be afraid or in denial, but it still takes a toll on our hearts.

When there are many deaths in a family or a community, we are often given the opportunity to share the comfort and wisdom of our faith with someone who is searching or grieving.  They look at us in the eye and ask if it’s going to be okay?  Is death the end of everything?  What does your God have to say to me in my pain or worry?

What does our faith have to offer in the face of death?  The promise of a heavenly abode if we are worthy?  A refuge in our grief?  A connection to thousands of years of tradition?  Perhaps some or all of these things resonate with you.  But I think that there is something more basic to our faith, more fundamental than the promise of Jesus’ Father’s house with many rooms; truths that can resonate with others and that we can feel deep inside our bones.   

By the time you read this, Ash Wednesday will have passed.  Some of you may have attended one of our services, or taken a moment to have ashes rubbed on your forehead  with the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return” spoken to you in love.   Essentially, those words are saying “You’re going to die”   How can that possibly be said in a loving way?  

There are many teachings in our Christian faith, but for me, there are two central stories.   These stories are not the only important stories or lessons and they may not even be the most important, but they are central to our Christian faith.  The centre, not around the teachings of Jesus, but around the event of Jesus.   The first is the Christmas Story.  This story, as simple or fantastic as it may seem, asserts that Jesus is somehow both Divine and Human:  He is us, but he is also something eternal.  Some may read the Christmas story as an assertion that the one that we follow is better than any others, because he is the “Son of God”.   I don’t think that the Christmas Story is intended to prove the superiority of our Jesus, instead  I believe that the Nativity Story, the Christmas assertion is that there is more to our humanity that we know:  That God, the eternal, is with us in the human experience.   There is no aspect of our experience or existence that is “God-Free”, God is with us in the human experience.   The eternal is present in the mundane.  

On Ash Wednesday we are reminded that we are dust, but that dust is not simply the dirt that builds up behind the couch, it is also stardust.  It is the stuff of creation.  It is the stuff of which the baby Jesus was made.   We are made of the same stuff as the cosmos and if the Jesus is both human and divine, then we are made of the same stuff as God.   This has been important to me as I realize that the very human experience that we go through in death or in grieving the death of a loved one, is not all there is to us, we are not just mundane grief, we are also glorious.   We are not alone.

The other central story is the Easter Story.  I may not be in the majority here, but I feel very strongly that the story of the resurrection is not a story about our hero (Jesus, again) coming back from the dead to prove that he is mightier than all the others.   If that were the case, then upon emerging from the tomb, Jesus would have done a victory lap and confronted Pilate and Herod; he would have “Lorded it” over  at all those who doubted or failed to stand up with him in his time of persecution and execution.  Instead, Jesus went to those who were lost, hurt, grieving and afraid and he showed them that he had been transformed.  Transformed:  Remember how Mary failed to recognize him in the garden; how the couple on the road to Emmaus had no idea of his identity or how Thomas needed to touch the wounds to be sure that it was Jesus?   The risen, resurrected Jesus was still Jesus, but he was different – his dust was also stardust.   In the resurrection, Jesus showed us that death is not the end of anything, no matter how final and government-sanctioned it may be.  Scripture and Christian tradition insist that resurrection is not just for Jesus, but for all of us –  believers and non-believers alike.  We are all dust; we are all stardust.  

These stories reveal truths that lie deep within our hearts and bones:  that death is not the end and that it is our destiny to be one with God.  In short, God is part of us and we are part of God.  The veracity of these “truths” is not guaranteed by the historical accuracy of our scripture, instead the truth of the stories is confirmed by the feeling in our bones – we know that there is more, we just don’t know how to describe it or talk about it.

What has been particularly important to me and to others in the past couple of months is that we are transformed by our experience of death, not erased.  And the love that we share with others, does not end, it too, is transformed.    

So, I know that this isn’t my usual “Notes from Norm” not a lot smiles or chuckles, but our faith is not always about smiles and chuckles… it is about love, transformation and finding ways to trust and express those truths that we feel deep in our bones.  Love Matters.  We are not alone and we ain’t seen or experienced it all….

In love,

                 Norm

I'm back - what's up? Thoughts about SNC, JWR and JT

It’s been a long time since I blogged. 

A couple of professional considerations made it necessary to stop publishing my thoughts and foolishness, but those responsibilities have been honoured in once case and completed in another.  So, now I can say what I want (mostly).

The last time I blogged Stephen Harper was the Prime Minister of Canada.  We were just getting ready to fall in love with Justin Trudeau.   So, anything happen while I was gone?

I have a couple of thoughts about our current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau and our current (Liberal) Federal Government.  I will put a couple of things on the record before I say anything else – I did vote for this government.  I don’t know how I will vote in the next election.  I am not, in any way, an apologist for the Government, nor am I defending the Prime Minister.  I am also, not intentionally, maligning those who aspire to govern.   (We’ll see how that goes).

The current SNC-Lavalin scandal and the relationship between Justin Trudeau, the PMO and the former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould is all that people around me want to talk about – but it seems to me that they are talking about the wrong things.  I am not so sure that desiring and or suggesting that SNC-Lavalin should be subject to a Deferred Prosecution Agreement is all that far-fetched.  It may be wrong headed, but I don’t think it so unethical that it rises to the level of scandal.  It is what I would have expected our last five elected Federal Governments to pursue and certainly that I would expect to be the hopes of a Quebec MP (like our PM).   But here is the part that bothers me:  Justin Trudeau campaigned on a promise of “Real Change” and many of us came to believe that this government would be different.  Justin set the bar high and brought in Indigenous MPs and 15 women to the Cabinet; he promised “government by Cabinet”. 
And we believed that things would be different.   

And some things are, but many things are not.   

It is hard to let go of habit, privilege, patriarchal and colonial culture and it feels like the PMO and the Prime Minister have stopped trying for real change.

Some time ago, I have the privilege of working on a national committee that was largely composed of Indigenous leaders.  There were only a couple of settlers around the table and we had no power to influence the way that agendas were set or business was conducted.  It is not the only time that I have been in such a position, but this one gathering was formative for me.   In the course of a meeting, one person gave a presentation and then the meeting moved on.  After a couple of minutes this person realized that there was something else that she wanted to add, but the Chair of the meeting preempted her comment and let her know that we had moved on.  

I thought nothing of it, it was no big deal.   

That night there were 12 of us at dinner together and the woman who had chaired the meeting, paused and asked for our attention.  She then proceeded to offer an apology to the person who had been silenced at the meeting.  The apology was public and came with a gift to acknowledge how seriously she had taken her discourtesy.   She explained that it was the practice her people to make a public and specific apology when a mistake had been made. 

My first thought was “Are you kidding me? – It was nothing… barely a slight; that’s the way meetings go!”  

Fortunately, my mouth remained shut and my brain and heart stayed open to witness a beautiful example of reconciliation, sincere connection and another way of working and being together. 

I don’t know Jody Wilson-Raybould’s particular traditions or indigenous culture, but I do know that it is not an old-boys club culture.  In the meeting that I just referenced, one moment of offense – and a slight one by my standards – was enough to warrant an apology and a gift.  

One.  

Can you imagine how repeated requests for the same consideration; repeated ignoring of the Attorney General’s wisdom and decision would become an incredible insult?  I can.  

Gerry Butts probably can't imagine it, he has been clear that it was just business as usual; the Prime Minister has said that he didn’t realize that Minister of Justice Wilson-Raybould was feeling under-pressure.  And that’s the point for me – he should have.  If you invite her to govern with you, you invite all of her: her culture and her gender as well as her wisdom, experience and passion. 

Our Prime Minister invited people into Government who do not belong to the Old Boys Network with the the promise that they would help to change it - but that means the the Cabinet and PMO have to also change the way they go about governing.  You don't invite women to join your cabinet if you are expecting them to act like men; you don't invite indigenous people into government if you just want them to act like colonialists.  

I appreciate that it is difficult and that mistakes are inevitable.  I know that it is the job of the opposition to jump on every mistake as if it is the great sin that disqualifies the Prime Minister and his government from governing, so I don't pay much attention to the silly holier-than-thou foaming at the mouth.
But I do pay attention to how people act when they make a mistake.
I will be watching our Prime Minister in the days, weeks and months to come...  will he learn and affect real change (even if it's not complete)?  Or will he retreat to "business as usual" and deny and obfuscate?   Time will tell and I sincerely hope that whatever we as country decide in the next election, that we won't let go of the progress that has been made (incremental and small as it may seem), simply because our leaders continue to be addicted to Patriarchal Colonial Privilege... it's a heady and destructive drug.