RevPeterLougheed
What? Me worry? (Sermon 1 March, 2009)
Posted on: 03/02/2009 21:19
“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
You may never see an ad like that on a local bus but at this point it hardly matters. Regardless of what city hall decides, the ads have had their desired effect. Everybody’s weighing in: moderate and militant religious groups, moderate and militant atheists, columnists and comedians. One Christian city councillor here in Ottawa said that kind of ad is hurtful and should not be allowed in a public place.
“There’s probably no God” does not strike me as offensive. I hear that all the time. Many people don’t believe in God and they have as much right to say that as we do to say there is a God. I would defend the right of anyone to take issue with my views, when it’s respectful.
If we question the right to disagree, then religious groups are in trouble. That means Elijah had no right to criticise Ahab and Jezebel . That means Jesus had no right to question the government of Herod or the chief priests. Prophets always argue with the status quo. It’s in their job description. Our world would be a much smaller, colder place without strong voices calling for justice and compassion.
United Churches in Toronto saw these bus ads, not as an attack, but as an opportunity for discussion. They answered with their own signs, “There’s probably a God, so stop worrying and enjoy your life.” The debate swirls on, and more power to it.
My parents went to India over 55 years ago on behalf of the UnitedChurch. They still remember the orientation conference and the warning, “Do not force your faith on others. Instead, listen so carefully to the other’s position that you are almost tempted to join them.
Listening carefully is the crucial first step in any conversation. We may have heard the words but did we get the other’s motivation, the experience, the feelings behind the words.
These ads are not a personal attack. It’s all in the perceiving. If we so choose, they are an opportunity for dialogue and understanding.
So far most of the debate has centred around that first sentence. “There probably is no God.” But what about the second sentence, “Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
Last week during a Senators game, there was an ad that caught my eye. A couple stops at a market in some distant vacation spot. They are offered a small doll and are told it’s a worry doll. it will help their worries disappear.
They answer, “We need a bigger doll than that. Our worries are mucho grande, very big.”
We certainly do have grande worries - about the economy, our health, relationships, the planet. If worry leads us to constructive action in these areas, then our worry is not such a bad thing.
In this case, the worry in the bus ad is linked to God. What kind of worries do people have about God?
Douglas John Hall wrote a book a few years called Why Christian? In the preface, Hall says there are a great many people living on the edges of the church. Maybe their parents or grandparents attended. They may keep their distance but they wonder, “Is there is something worthwhile here?”
Hall’s book is a dialogue with a young seeker, who says,
“I’m not interested in getting to heaven. In fact I’m doing everything I can to avoid it...so when I hear ‘saved’ people talking about how great it will be when they’re dead, I have to wonder what they must think about their life if they’re so enthusiastic about wrapping it up...I’m also not worried about hell...and I don’t feel all that guilty.”
Hall asks, “What do you worry about?”
The student says, “Well, fairly often I feel superfluous... A lot of my contemporaries can’t find work and it’s going to get worse. Who needs me? Does my life have any meaning?”
Hall says that what many of us today need to be saved from is not worry about death or guilt. One of today’s worries is that we might be superfluous, that our lives may have no purpose.
Inside the church or outside, we are often in the same boat. Life changes for us and we wonder what we are to do or how we are to be in this new chapter of our life. Do we matter? Do we still have a purpose?
The season of Lent always begins with this story of Jesus walking out into the wilderness. Mark tells us that Jesus is driven there by the Spirit. It’s as though he needs a push. There Jesus wrestles with the kind of person he is going to be. It’s an argument with the voices in his head, with the self centred side and the selfless side. He questions and listens and sorts out what he believes.
A friend of mine once said, “Unbelieve in order to rebelieve.” Let go of what no longer works and embrace a new way of being that works.
A wise person recently said to me, “The most important thing in my life right now, is that I have someone to look after. If I didn’t have that, I don’t know if I’d get up in the morning,”
Betty Jo Bell, described an experience she had while working as a hospice nurse. There was this husband who daily attended his wife in that residence. When he helped his wife from the bed to the bathroom, he moved her in the most tender and gracious manner. Watching them, it appeared to Betty Jo as though the couple were ballroom dancers.
“Her slippered feet, just below her gown, are set atop her lover’s shoes. Their perfect timing is an illusion he creates as he lifts her feet on his and draws her nearly weightless body up with his arms...(He) only sees the beauty she must once have been. The dance is only one of many ways he finds to show his love and to let her keep her self-respect.”
No matter how many expert advisers we have employed, we are never really prepared for life. Yet even there, in the frightening places, new life awaits, fresh bread for the soul.
Our worries always have the possibility of being interrupted by the gentle caring presence of the spirit, leading us in a dance, raising us up, holding us close.
And at other times, we are called to do the leading, to be the ones who extend our arms to another.
May it be so for us. Amen.
with thanks to:
Betty Jo Bell, John Buchanan, Kent Ira Groff, Douglas John Hall, Carl Schenck
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Comments
Beloved
Greetings! "Our worries
Posted on: 03/04/2009 11:24
Greetings!
"Our worries always have the possibility of being interrupted by the gentle caring presence of the spirit, leading us in a dance, raising us up, holding us close."
That's beautiful . . . can we quote you?
Hope, peace, joy, love . . .
RevPeterLougheed
Yes. If a quote can be of
Posted on: 03/04/2009 15:31
Yes. If a quote can be of use, it's all yours.
Peter