GATHERING AND GREETING

As we gather, we acknowledge with respect the history, spirituality, and culture of the K’omoks First Nation and the Coast Salish peoples on whose traditional and unceded territory we meet.  We also honour the heritage of all indigenous peoples as we recognize the need to seek healing and reconciliation between the descendants of settlers and those who were here before colonization.  We are acutely reminded of past transgression and their continuing consequences as we learn of the bodies of 215 children found in unmarked graves on the site of one former residential school in Kamloops, knowing that there are likely others yet to be found in other places.  The United Church of Canada takes responsibility both for past injustices and the need for healing and reconciliation. The United Church Crest, above, was revised in 2012 to include indigenous symbolism and language.  Below is the 1986 Apology to Indigenous Peoples as delivered by the Right Reverend Bob Smith, then Moderator of the United Church of Canada.  You might also want to search the UCC website for the text of the 1998 Apology for its role in Residential Schools and for details about the Crest.

Long before my people journeyed to this land your people were here, and you received from your Elders an understanding of creation and of the Mystery that surrounds us all that was deep, and rich, and to be treasured.  We did not hear you when you shared your vision. In our zeal to tell you of the good news of Jesus Christ we were closed to the value of your spirituality.  We confused Western ways and culture with the depth and breadth and length and height of the gospel of Christ.  We imposed our civilization as a condition of accepting the gospel.  We tried to make you be like us and in so doing we helped to destroy the vision that made you what you were. As a result, you, and we, are poorer and the image of the Creator in us is twisted, blurred, and we are not what we are meant by God to be. We ask you to forgive us and to walk together with us in the Spirit of Christ so that our peoples may be blessed and God’s creation healed.

THE SINGING BOWL IS SOUNDED AND THE LANTERN IS LIT 

INVITING US TO BE ATTENTIVE TO WHAT CAN NEITHER BE HEARD NOR SEEN BUT WHICH IS PRESENT AND REAL

OPENING IN COMMUNION WITH THE ANCIENTS

Psalm 130, Responsively

Adapted from “Psalms for Praying”: Nan Merrill, Continuum Press, 2002

Out of the depths we cry to You!

In your Mercy, hear our voice!

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of our supplications.

If you should number the times we stray from You, O Beloved, who could face you?

Yet you are ever-ready to forgive, that we might be healed.

I wait for You, my soul waits, and in your Word, I hope;

My soul awaits the Beloved as one awaits the birth of a child, 

or as one awaits the fulfillment of their destiny.

O sons and daughters of the Light, welcome the Heart of your heart!

Then you will climb the Sacred Mountain of Truth;

You will know mercy and love in abundance.

Then will your transgressions be forgiven and redeemed.

Amen.  

All my relations….

HYMN: “Like a Mighty River Flowing” – Voices United #267

Heather McLean, Soloist

Here is another version for those of you at home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grWJOkK-ElY 

Like a mighty river flowing, like a flower in beauty growing, far beyond all human knowing

is the perfect peace of God.

Like the hills serene and even, like the coursing clouds of heaven, like the heart that’s been forgiven

is the perfect peace of God.

Like the summer breezes playing, like the tall trees softly swaying, like the lips of silent praying

is the perfect peace of God.

Like the morning sun ascended, like the scents of evening blended, like a friendship never ended

is the perfect peace of God.

Like the azure ocean swelling, like the jewel all excelling, far beyond our human telling

is the perfect peace of God.

READING FROM SCRIPTURE:  Genesis 3:8-15

The man and the woman heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”  The man said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”  God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”  The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Hear and consider what the Spirit is saying to the Church and to the whole created order:  Thanks be to God.

A BONUS READING FROM A WIDER CANON

“Long Story”, a poem by Stephen Dobyns, from “Velocities”, Viking Penguin Books, 1994

There must have been a moment after the expulsion 

from the Garden when the animals were considering 

what to do next and just who was in charge.

The bear flexed his muscles, the tiger flashed 

his claws, and even the porcupine thought himself 

fit to rule and showed off the knife points 

of his quills.  No one noticed the hairless creatures, 

with neither sharp teeth, nor talons, they were too puny.

It was then Cain turned and slew his brother 

and Abel’s white body lay sprawled in the black dirt 

as if it had already lain cast down forever.

What followed was an instant of prophetic thought 

as the trees resettled themselves, the grass 

dug itself deeper into the ground and all 

grew impressed by the hugeness of Cain’s desire.

He must really want to be boss, said the cat.

This was the moment when the animals surrendered 

the power of speech as they crept home to the bosoms 

of their families, the prickly ones, the smelly ones, 

the ones they hoped would never do them harm.

Who could envy Cain his hunger?  Better to be circumspect 

and silent.  Better not to want the world too much.

Left alone with the body of his brother, Cain began 

to assemble the words about what Abel had done 

and what he had been forced to do in return.  

It was a long story.  It took his entire life 

to tell it.  And even then it wasn’t finished.

How great language had to become to encompass 

its deft evasions and sly contradictions, 

its preenings and self-satisfied gloatings. 

Each generation makes a contribution, hoping 

to have got it right at last.  The sun rises 

and sets.  The leaves flutter like a million 

frightened hands.  Confidently, we step forward 

and tack a few meagre phrases onto the end.

TED’S REFLECTIONS

I caused a bit of a flurry in my first congregation after I was ordained.  I was still in transition from my earlier life in the theatre to my new life in the church.  So I brought some of the first into the second.  Specifically, when the lectionary turned to the Old Testament passages from the Abraham and Sarah cycle in the Book of Genesis, instead of reading them from the lectern, I walked down among the pews and told them as stories.  I didn’t change the words all that much but there is a different style and energy that naturally expresses itself through a story teller rather than a reader.  Well, after a few weeks of this, a couple of people in the congregation took me aside in the foyer and spoke to me following a Service.  “Ted, we don’t think you should tell those stories in church, especially when there are children present.  There is just too much sex and violence in them.”  And they were right, of course, at least about the sex and violence part and maybe about its suitability for young children. 

One of the things I appreciate about the Bible – maybe especially about the Old Testament, but the New Testament certainly has its moment – is that it does not sugar-coat life.  The Bible is not rated G for general audiences.  It is at least PG and maybe even R, chockful of sex and violence, betrayal and intrigue, cruelty and exploitation, power mongering and political maneuvering – just like real life screaming at us out of today’s newscasts, TV dramas, and blockbuster movies.  Even the great heroes of the Bible are portrayed with their shadow sides darkening the stage – take that pandering Abraham, his scheming grandson, Jacob, or that adulterer and murderer, King David, as examples.  As a core text for our religious tradition, the Bible does not invite us into a sanitized fantasy world but asks us to seek meaning and direction in the midst of the world as we actually know it from real experience.  

The Bible does not have all the answers but it does try to step back from it all and wrestle with the question of where evil and sin and suffering come from.  And, because such matters are beyond precise analysis and definition, the Bible uses a folktale to suggest rather than dictate an answer.  So we have a story about a mythical first man and first woman living in a beautiful and lush garden, Innocently wandering around naked and unashamed, sustaining themselves from its bounty with the one proviso that they stay away from the fruit of a particular tree their Creator has warned them against, and each day enjoying a late afternoon stroll and pleasant chat with that very Creator.   But then a sneaky serpent plants an insidious idea into their still naïve minds.  The Creator’s self-serving prohibition is not for their own good, the serpent insinuates, but to prevent them from becoming as sophisticated and wise as that god, with the ability to differentiate between good and evil.  A rival for God in a way.  Well, they succumb to the allure of gaining such knowledge and things immediately start to head south.  When their Creator-companion shows up for their daily little jaunt, they run and hide, they cover their nakedness, they bend the truth and blame anyone or anything but themselves for what they have done, and, before long, that garden disappears into nostalgia and they head out into the real world as we know it today and as history has always portrayed it.  

I cannot even attempt a full analysis and explanation of this rich folktale but I am struck by one thing when I wiggle around inside it.  To me it seems to suggest that a lot of our human misery stems from a naturally occurring aspect of the evolution of the species: the gaining of self-awareness and conscience.   Brutishness is common to … well, to brutes, another word for creatures and animals in general, including the human variety. Within the natural order among all species there are bloody battles for leadership, for territory, for mates, for food and water to survive.  Animals kill and eat each other – sometimes even their own kind.  Some days even squirrels probably get up on the wrong side of the nest.  The difference is – so far as we know – that we humans are the only ones who have developed the ability to understand and reflect on what we are doing.  The knowledge of good and evil, as the folktale describes it.  So we have the capacity for moral discernment, the ability to make choices, and to feel guilt and remorse when we know our choices don’t align with our values. Capacities that maybe the Adams and Eves of other species haven’t yet achieved, though some other species may be getting pretty close.  Our actions as humans not only have consequences for good or for ill, but we can be mindful of those consequences and experience the emotional and psychological impact of the consequences of our actions and experiences. That is the jump in human evolution that I see reflected in this ancient folktale. 

Now, for what it’s worth, this is just one little glimpse into the richness of this early folktale and in a moment I will say something more about where that glimpse leads me. But I am also very aware that over the generations and centuries within the Hebrew, Christian and Muslim worlds that all treasure these early stories, people who make their living as scholars and theologians and clerics have developed quite elaborate interpretations of these stories, and some pretty complex doctrines and rituals built on the foundations of their interpretations.  One thread in all of this has been how we deal with the consequences of suffering that result from wrongheaded human choices and actions.  Things like our own guilt for things we have done or maybe should have done but didn’t, the resentment and bitterness we might harbour because of things done to us, the outrage and horror we carry around with us because of the atrocities committed by the monsters among us, or even by the messes left by the well-meaning but wrong-headed among us.  When we don’t effectively deal with these things, the world around us becomes more and more twisted and painful.

One of those threads developed into a complex system of blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.  In early Hebrew priestly circles, there developed rituals of taking one particular animal – usually a young, tender, and innocent animal such as a lamb or a goat  or a calf or a dove – symbolically placing all the accumulated sins of the people on that animal, and then slaughtering it on an altar as an offering to the gods hoping to satisfy that god’s demand for justice and compensation, with the result that the slate is wiped clean and everyone gets a fresh start – until such sins mount up again and a fresh sacrifice is needed.  In Christian circles – some of it within the New Testament writings themselves – this earlier Hebrew practice influenced some who were raised in that tradition to see the death of Jesus on the Cross as such a sacrifice to a just and even a vengeful God to bring about the forgiveness of human sins once and for all, including going to the root of human motivation to excise our human capacity for “brute-ality”. May I suggest that, if that was the intention, it didn’t work!  Life has gone on after that pretty much as it had before.  

So, acknowledging that sin and suffering and guilt and resentment are real, is there another way to deal with it?   I think Jesus himself suggested that way – and I also think that he would be very perplexed by the way some people have talked about his death.  Jesus seemed to have walked in a simple intimacy with the God that, childlike, he called Abba, an intimacy not unlike that attributed originally to the first man and the first woman in Eden. In that intimacy, Jesus knew God as Love itself with an aching heart for human misery rather than a vengeful desire for bloody sacrifice and elaborate ritual.  So Jesus taught another way – the way of simple human to human forgiveness.  “I’m sorry.”  He not only taught it, he practiced it, for almost his last words from the Cross were a plea for God to forgive those who put him there – a plea, I am sure he was sure would be granted.  

The organist and choir director of the church I attended when I lived in Toronto once counseled me in words that, though common enough, are also deeply wise.  After the rehearsal for our wedding the next day, he took me aside and said, “Ted, for a marriage to be good and remain good, don’t let the sun go down on your anger.”  What is implied by that biblical truism is that, rather than let our guilt or resentment fester, we should deal with it as each hurtful incident comes along.  Take the time to acknowledge our feelings of guilt and remorse and to ask forgiveness, to acknowledge our feelings of resentment and to offer our forgiveness to others.   If we take care of things along the way, they won’t mount up to the point where someone needs to be nailed to a cross, so to speak, which would accomplish nothing except an unnecessary and meaningless and futile death.  

Sometimes forgiveness is harder than that, I know, especially when we think of outrageous atrocities committed by some individuals, governments, movements, and even churches.  Sometimes, even in our day to day personal relationships, forgiveness is hard when one or the other of us is not willing to acknowledge the hurt we have caused or to demonstrate – beyond token apologies – that we deeply understand and feel genuine remorse for the damage we have caused.  Forgiveness was not enough to salvage my first marriage for example, as hard as both of us tried for so many tough years to keep it afloat.  

So to forgive and to ask for forgiveness may be a simpler and more effective way to deal with hurt and guilt and resentment, but it is not necessarily an easy way. Nevertheless, because we have the capacity for self-awareness and choice, let us choose to live kindly, justly, peacefully, responsibly, considerately, patiently, generously, gently, and well.  But when we falter, as we will, and when others falter around us, as they will, we don’t need elaborate theologies and complicated rituals to restore us to peace. We simply need to be authentic and vulnerable enough to let our hurt and our remorse show, to courageously and humbly ask for forgiveness, and to let go of our ego long enough to be forgiving.  When we do, we are breathing the air Jesus breathed – the air saturated with the Love of God whose forgiveness is out there all around us all the time blowing in the wind.   When two people – or two peoples – touch each other in a moment of mutual understanding and forgiveness, there is blessed healing and reconciliation at last.

For Further Reflection

1. Sometimes the hardest person to forgive is ourself.  How are you doing with that?

2. How do we deal with larger and more complex situations, such as healing and reconciliation with indigenous persons in Canada and the church’s role in that systemic injustice?  Is forgiveness too much to ask?

A TIME FOR REFLECTION, PRAYER, AND OFFERING

As we enjoy a musical interlude, you are invited to use the quiet to reflect on the readings and thoughts shared today, to place a stone or shell as an expression of your prayer, and/or to place an offering in the basket.  If you get up to move about, please maintain safe physical distancing.

OUR DEDICATION

From the United Church of Canada’s Song of Faith

Made in the image of God, we yearn for the fulfillment that is life in God. Yet we choose to turn away from God. We surrender ourselves to sin, a disposition revealed in selfishness, cowardice, or apathy.  Becoming bound and complacent in a web of false desires and wrong choices, we bring harm to ourselves and others.  This brokenness in human life and community is an outcome of sin.  Sin is not only personal but accumulates to become habitual and systemic forms of injustice, violence, and hatred.  We are all touched by this brokenness: the rise of selfish individualism that erodes human solidarity; the concentration of wealth and power without regard for the needs of all; the toxins of religious and ethnic bigotry; the degradation of the blessedness of human bodies and human passions through sexual exploitation; the delusion of unchecked progress and limitless growth that threatens our home, the earth; the covert despair that lulls many into numb complicity with empires and systems of domination.  We sing lament and repentance.                                   

Yet evil does not—cannot—undermine or overcome the love of God.  God forgives, and calls all of us to confess our fears and failings with honesty and humility.  God reconciles, and calls us to repent the part we have played in damaging our world, ourselves, and each other. God transforms, and calls us to protect the vulnerable, to pray for deliverance from evil, to work with God for the healing of the world, that all might have abundant life. We sing of grace.

CONCLUDING BLESSING IN WORD AND SONG

Deep peace of the running wave to you

Deep peace of the flowing air to you

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep peace of the shining stars to you

Deep peace of the gentle night to you

Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnQJLGGLhfM 

(Be ready for an ad at the beginning and applause at the end, which kind of break the spell a bit!)

Deep peace of Forgiving Love to you

Deep peace of the Light of the World, to you

Deep peace of the Gentle Dove to you

Deep peace of Creator, Christ, and Spirit to you …

Amen.