RevPeterLougheed
The Spirit’s Heart Print - Sermon 29th March, 2009
Posted on: 03/29/2009 16:57
It was the third bomb this week in Pakistan. A man walked into a mosque in Jamrud during Friday prayers. The congregation was about the size of our gathering this morning. Just after the Imam said the words, “God is great”, the bomb was detonated. Half of the congregation were killed or injured.
Horrific. An act like that is beyond our comprehension, even more so when it is done in the name of religion.
Add to that, a report that has been emerging this week from Israeli soldiers that took part in the recent invasion of Gaza. There are conflicting claims, but during the three week invasion of Gaza, there may have been as many as 900 civilian deaths, including 189 children.
One soldier, named Ram, described the time just before they went into action. He said it felt like a religious mission. Ram’s sergeant, an orthodox Jew, gathered the platoon for prayer. His message was abundantly clear. He told them,
“We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land.”
The soldiers had the feeling that this was a religious war.
Religion continues to be a prime contributor to violence in the world. And it’s not just Jews and Muslims who are to blame. The so-called Christian nations, fare no better than other faith traditions when we evaluate our religious history of inquisition, cruelty and holy war.
The world is in a religious mess. You have to wonder about our future when the most extreme and militant groups attract the most attention and the most followers. In this time of intolerant faith, how do resist sliding into cynicism? How do we continue to be faithful and hopeful?
This morning's first reading comes from the prophet Jeremiah. This reading is the only place in the Old Testament that the New Testament is mentioned. Jeremiah speaks of a new testament or a new covenant with God. This comes to us on the fifth Sunday of Lent, as an anticipation of the good news of Easter, the news that God transforms human hearts.
That’s a message that never grows old especially in difficult times. And it was in those most chaotic times that the prophets always found their voice. Like in the days when Israel was riding an economic boom, and the poor were being left even further behind, that was the time when Amos cried out for justice to roll across the land like a mighty flowing stream. And when israel and Judah were invaded, their cities torn down, and their people exiled, and boom became bust, Isaiah and Jeremiah told the people there was a future worth looking forward to.
It wasn’t so much a brand new covenant as it was a renewal of the old covenant. God wasn’t changing, but Jeremiah was discovering something new about their covenantal relationship with God. The Empire of Babylon could tear down their temples and execute their leaders but despite their new reality, they found the presence of the Holy Mystery was still among them. They didn’t need a professional priest to bring God close to them, the awareness of God, the sense that the Spirit was guiding them, was still there. The covenant which had been written on tablets and scrolls was now engraved on their hearts.
Author, Susan Ivany puts it this way “God has left a heart print on every human being declaring that they are loved.” That’s the kind of covenant that Jeremiah was speaking of. Deep in our hearts there is a common vision. It needs to be imprinted because our promises get broken, our patience only goes so far. We can’t keep our attention on suffering, so we turn away. We criticise and judge one another. We forget the kind of life that we have been called to.
And we find that we need to be reminded about the heart print that we all carry.
A couple of weeks ago Bill Moyers interviewed Karen Armstrong on PBS. Armstrong has emerged as one of the insightful authors of our time on the development of the major religions of the world. She calls her self a “freelance monotheist” and her mission is to bring compassion, the heart of religion, back to the forefront of our religious traditions.
Armstrong’s mission was recognized last year when she was one of the three persons chosen to win the TED prize. The TED comes with the subtitle “Wishes big enough to change the world.”
Armstrong’s wish is on the TED web site:
“ I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion - crafted by a group of inspirational thinkers from the three great Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principle of the Golden Rule. Do not do unto others what you would not like them to do to you.”
This is a very big dream. Armstrong has all kinds of ideas for how this can happen. for instance gathering scholars to address why our scriptures can include not only verses of love and peace but also passages that bless hatred and violence. Armstrong hopes that a study of why these passages have arisen, will help us to understand them better and not blindly follow their instruction.
Her web site has testimonies by individuals who see the need for a new way.
A Pakistani fashion designer who has founded the first artist’s commune in his country.
A Muslim woman from Egypt who is candid abut the level of hatred for Jews in her country. There is a very long way to go but she sees small victories in schools where leaders encourage different races and religions to interact.
The dream of religious peace is also close to the heart of the United Church of Canada. Our Church has developed study materials in recent years that encourage our relationships with Judaism and Islam. It’s amazing that we can exist next to other people of faith and yet know so little about one another. Religious ignorance has caused great sin in the past and so any bridging of the religious divide is a sign of hope.
Our education series, Thank God It’s Tuesday and I am in Church, began again last week. One of the choices you can make is interfaith. Last Tuesday Youssef Berada spoke to us from his experience as a practising Muslim. We saw his faith in action as 30 minutes into his presentation he and his son went into my study for prayer. He checked for the direction of east, then faced toward the library and I left them to their prayers.
It was a fascinating evening. Youssef said that one of our strengths as a church community was our willingness to listen to another religious tradition. He said it took confidence to listen and not be threatened.
This evening did not end any religious divide, but we did meet face to face. We built a little bridge. That is how a relationship develops.
Our world is in need of a new covenant of understanding between faith traditions. Or perhaps we need the old covenant renewed for a new context.
“The Jesus movement included everyone from crooked businessman to sex workers.” (Onleilove Alston) Everyone was allowed in because they were all needed. As are we. Our church need all of us to reach across divides of culture, race and religion. We won’t always do it right but we need to keep at it. When we fail, when we are broken, it’s not an ending. It’s how we learn.
The grain must fall to the earth and disintegrate before the harvest comes. Or as Hemingway said, “The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong in the broken places.” A friend of mine once wrote, “The mystery of faith is all about paying attention to the blessed, broken stuff in your life and in the world.”
The history book of Emmanuel United Church begins by saying that in the beginning this church had no name, no building, no permanent minister What they did have was what you really need, people gathering together to worship and serve God.
It is that gathering of people paying attention to the broken and blessed stuff in our world that gives me hope. And around us all is the Spirit, provoking, comforting, encouraging us to continue on sharing the good news of God’s covenant of love and justice. May it be so for us. Amen.
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with thanks to: Onleilove Alston, Karen Armstrong, Ryan Beiler, Kent Groff, Ernest Hemingway, Bill Moyers, Anne Squire.
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WaterBuoy
And Hemmingway said something
Posted on: 03/30/2009 09:17
And Hemmingway said something about this world being an insane place ... perhaps something about to much incoming Love and not enough outgoing care. A Shining?
Is the physical rule hard and the roues of the heart and mind amorphous ... roues of sharon in satire? Now could a Mere m'n state a t'Ruth in a world that is not conditionned on such things?
The Rose of Sharon in the dark is a delicate thing we call crow cuss ... destroyed in walking where you cannot see ... perhaps the timeless adage fits ... remove you shou' Muse and walk softly ... the dirt you call mother earth is a delicate medium that supports you as you learn. Or did we decide intellect and intelligence was evil in the eye of unlimited desires? Should something be contained on the balance? Harold Bloom said at least once that m'n doesn't know his limits (and therefore propbably self-destructive). Does anything change?
Sophie, Pan Dore! Small creatures could not absorb that, could they? Like essenses of the mind ... unbelieveable to many as the soul/mind/psyche complex is believed not to exist in an eclectic storm. Now where would that be contained?