82. Halloween

It is that time of year again.  No, I am not talking about the time of year when we are visited by Jason, Michael, and Freddy along with a host of goblins, ghosts and witches demanding candy.  Well, I am, sort of.  It is that time of year that Christian publications, mostly on-line these days, warn of this pending Satanic celebration.  There is only one problem, Halloween is not Satanic.

          As I am blogging about this, you can bet your bite sized Oh Henry bars that I am taking some exception to this perception of Halloween.  Halloween has its roots in the antiquity of Europe, when at this time of the year, or earlier, we were slaughtering animals to get through the winter.  The entire time had a dismal feel to it.  For not only was death literally in the air, we were facing the hardest time of the year to survive.  The belief came that this was the time when the veil separating life and death was at its thinnest; perhaps because our grasp on life was at its most precarious.

          There was recognition that death was an inescapable part of life.  Yes, the deities of the time were celebrated, this does not make the celebration Satanic.  It would have been later that the Church of Rome came and demonized the spiritual beliefs of the people.  The rest, well to coin a phrase, is history.  The celebration of Halloween, viewed death as a necessary and valuable part of life.

         

So, this Halloween I want to make comment about death, which like taxes, waits for us.  Each one of us.  Next year, if I am still blogging I will comment about our relationship to Satan.  For a bit of a teaser about that entry - Jesus said to Peter, “Get thee behind me Satan.”

          But death, the great dirt nap.  And if you are one who believes that we are taken up in the rapture, then unless Jesus comes before you Kak, you too will die.  Those of you who don’t believe in the rapture are with me already.

          I have managed to figure out how to avoid paying income taxes legally, and honestly.  I cannot say the same thing for death.  Death awaits me and there is nothing I can do except to attempt to prolong our meeting.

1 Corinthians 15:55 – 57

 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

To my way of thinking, Halloween is an excellent time to contemplate death.  Yes, I am aware that Christianity tends to cast death in a rather unattractive light.  Death is considered the wages of sin, a consequence of being kicked out of the garden.  But it is also the only way to get to heaven. 

          But more to the point, I think people should keep mindful of our mortality. Our finiteness defines us.  I have only so many days, about thirty thousand if I live as long as my Grandparents, less if I die at my parent’s age.  At this time of my life there are less sunsets for me to watch than I have already watched.  So what I spend my time on, because it is finite, is what I value.

Me and the kid were out driving one day, actually I was driving and he was passengering. We were talking about how at age seventeen he felt that he had experienced much of life.  For my kid this was not just adolescent hyperbole, at his age he probably has seen more than many adults.  But I commented, “Just wait until the only major thing left in your life to experience is.”

          “A prison term?”  The kid asked, cutting me off.

          “No, death.”  I answered.

So I think this year, after the kids have stopped bugging us for candy, and my kid has collapsed into bed, I will take some time and think about this next year.  While I do not believe that it will be my last, the odds are increasingly favouring that each year could be.  And what do I want to do with this year?  What is important to me?  How will I serve God?  How much time do I want to spend upset at the agitation of fools in my life?  How much time do I want to spend letting my wife and kid know that I love them?  I will also think of those who have gone on before, my dad and mom, various aunts, uncles and cousins, and more than a few friends. 

          Death is the next big life event that awaits me, I hope.  There are other big life events that await, but I hope to avoid those.  This season, as the days grow shorter, and we are cast into more darkness than light, I hope to come closer to reconciling myself to dying.  In doing so, I see the light, love and grace of God that awaits for me.

2 Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

81. Terrorist?

We all are now far too familiar with the story of Nathan Cirillo being shot while he served ceremonial duty at the War Memorial in Ottawa.  Most, if not all, will have seen the play by play montage of video clips of the shooter driving up to the War Memorial, shooting Nathan, stealing another vehicle and then charging into the Parliament Building.

          Very early in the incident the word Terrorism was brought into the conversation.  It is understandable.  However, the act continues to be identified as an act of terrorism.  I think it is important to understand that it was not an act of terrorism.  It was the act of a man who was crazier than a shit house rat.  His actions were an expression of that man’s mental illness and not any political or religious ideology.

          Those who are insistent that he was a terrorist, have latched onto the term “self-radicalized.”  It is a desperate attempt to cast the shooting into a more sensationalist light.  It would be like saying Charles Manson was self-radicalized.  But I understand the comfort behind such lies. 

          I think in many ways the truth is much more frightening.  A lone gun man propelled by his violent imaginings manages to get his hands on a gun, and then goes to wreak havoc.  The senselessness of it is much more concerning than if he had been driven by some agenda other than his insanity. 

          There are a number of facts that have been brought to light about the man in this case:

- he is not connected with the incident at St-Jean-sur-Richelieu earlier in the week

- he had a long list of criminal offenses – for drugs, violence, and robbery

- he had almost a longer list of mental health assessments and interventions

- he was wielding an outmoded hunting rifle designed in 1894.

          In short he acted alone, ill prepared, and without a plan. 

Yes, he had converted to Islam about a decade ago, and yes his version of Islam was molded and shaped by his insanity.  So I wonder, if he had converted to Christianity a decade ago, would we be calling him a Christian terrorist? Or, would we be concentrating more on the aspect of the shooters mental health?  Methinks if he had been a Christian we would be focused on the man’s mental health, not his religion.

          Why is this important for us?  And by us I mean us Christians.  

Almost two decades ago in Vancouver, Garson "Gary" Romalis was shot and wounded most likely by a man later arrested in New York who was a Christian terrorist.  The news coverage of the shooting of Romalis, targeted because he performed abortions, talked of the repugnance of such actions.  The sniper was not identified as being a radicalized Christian, but he was.  The person believed responsible for that crime and two others in Canada before shooting an abortionist in Amherst, New York, was acting out a religious ideology.  He was identified as being an anti-abortionist.

          Most people understood and accepted that this killer’s actions might reflect the beliefs of some Christians, but not the majority.  Again easy enough to understand, most of us come from a Christian heritage, a religion with which if we don’t agree with, then at least we see as benign. 

          During the struggles in Northern Ireland did we identify the IRA and the Orange Volunteers as being Christian extremists?  They were.

          How many of us knew that the man that attacked the Children’s Camp in Norway in 2011 killing 77 people, considered himself a Christian warrior?

          It seems to me that we quickly divorce the actions of extremists from our faith.  Perhaps we could afford others the same courtesy?

          For those of you of atheistic bent, did you know the shooter at École Polytechnique was an atheist?  Should we consider him a self-radicalized atheist?

I could go on, believe me, but I think I have made my point.  I do think we need to address at a local level as well as broader levels the need for mental health services. There is such a desperate need.

          But I think we also need to understand that the killing of Nathan Cirillo, and the assault on Parliament Hill was not a terrorist act.  At least not as we define terrorism. And more importantly it was not an Islamic act.

          Please, challenge those around you that refer to the shooting on Wednesday morning as an act of Islamic Terrorism. This view supports and perpetuates a toxic view of a religion that most adherents see as calling them to live in love and peace with each other – not a bad idea at all.

          I would also ask for prayers for the family of the Nathan Cirillo, and for the family of the man who killed him and then was shot and killed.

80. Hypocrisy

Romans 2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

I was having an off day, in fact one of several in a row.  During this time I was talking with my brother who is a follower of this blog.  I was discussing a particular thorn in my side and talking about the pleasure that could be had in stapling this woman’s lips and tongue to her desk.  It would an effective way to stop the woman and the malicious gossip and half truths she spreads about the agency and those who work with me.

          My brother expressed shock, mostly in jest, referring to me as the guy who writes about love.  He then asked, “Aren’t you the guy that wrote about taking logs from our eyes?”

          I replied, “Yes, I wrote that when we take the logs from our eyes we are not then free to judge, but I did not say anything about clobbering the other person with them.”

          It has been one of the weeks.

One might call me a hypocrite for entertaining thoughts of harming an other person.  And although my declaration that I am not a hypocrite might be self serving, I believe that there is not a lot of hypocrisy to me.  Let me explain.

Romans 7:19 & 20 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

There are myriad behaviours that I wish I could stop.  Some days are better than others, other days less so.  At this point in my life I am better behaved than when I was younger, and I will grant you that may have to do with my getting older and having less energy than my becoming more righteous. 

          So, if I am given to flights of imagination of doing harm, am I not contradicting my writings about love?  I look at this situation like when I was smoking.  If you asked me, I would tell you that smoking was bad for my health.  I would even tell you as I lit up and started coughing.  My smoking did not mean that it was any less harmful, just underlined my stupidity.

          And yes, when I take a while to settle myself down so that I can earnestly pray for someone one, even though I think they are a waste of skin, it does not make the call to love our enemies any less of a good thing to do.  It just means that I am not where I or God or others would like me to be.

My hypocrisy lies not in my sin, but in my judgment of others.  My judgment of others tries to set myself apart from them, to make me different, and in my eyes better. 

          I find it curious that while most Christians are aware of the laundry list of sins the Paul lists in the first chapter of Romans, most are unable to identify more than maybe one or two sins.  Even more curious is that most Christians who are aware of this laundry list of sins, are almost ignorant of the verse that I used to open this post.  The verse that tells us that by judging others we condemn ourselves.

          I have written that my relationship with Christ, while being intensely personal, is not a matter of a solitary practice.  We are called to worship, to pray and to work out our faith together.  And as I have written before, the more honest and vulnerable I can be with you, the more space there is for God to enter the relationship.

          By judging you, by trying to separate myself from you, it is myself that I am isolating. 

          Friends of mine practice a spiritual tradition where each person is recognized as being the divine.  These days I do have difficulty looking at someone and stating “Thou art God” or “Thou art Goddess.” But the sentiment of “When you did this for the least of these you did so for me.” has me look for the Christ in others. It recognizes that if I want to see God, that I should start with those already around me.

          To separate others from me, I limit the presence of God in my own life.  Hypocrisy, the epitome of this separation, lies not within my sin but within my judgment.  For it is my judgment that leaves alone with my sin, and not with the fellowship of my fellow Christians. To lay myself open, to be honest and vulnerable, opens me to the healing Grace of God, and maybe, just maybe, the myriad nonsense I do becomes even less.

79. Salvation by Correct Understanding

Proverbs 3:5 & 6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

It seems to me that we have reduced our salvation to the correct understanding of scripture and the doctrines that we derive from the bible.  A case in point:

Sometime ago I was talking to a pastor of a tradition that practices infant baptism.  Now, I actually believe that baptism is a sign of obedience to God, and that as such it is only an adult who can make the decision to be baptized.  My friend, the infant baptizer, told me that it was not as if a baby that died unbaptized would go to hell, but that he would not want to be the baby’s parents.

I find that a curious statement.

Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Acts 16:31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.

I am back to reading through the gospels.  To my recollection, Jesus in his teachings was much more concerned about how we were with each other, than the correctness of our belief.  I know that in the beatitudes that he did not say “Blessed is he whose doctrine and beliefs are correct.”

As with the argument of the inerrancy of the bible, I see a not so subtle attempt to limit my experience of God. And I distrust it.  I see an attempt to judge each other, and inflict our beliefs on each other.  In short, I see an attempt to control your relationship with God.

My life is messy, I feel compelled into situations where often there is no clear cut solution.  And thus, often, my understanding of God and doctrine reflects that ambiguousness.  Far too often I see the exception to what doctrines try to define. Far too often I see in our attempt to clearly understand our faith the limitation of God’s Grace.

An author that I greatly appreciate, talks of his experience.  He was a great believer in the concept of hell being “Eternal Conscious Torment.”  In his schooling he had written a thesis based on this view of hell.  As a pastor he had taught the same.  Yet, he talks of experiencing the presence of God while deep in prayer.  The message that he received was, “Knock it off.”

The question that I have, is...”How many people would think that he is less of a Christian because he responded to a message received in prayer that goes against the doctrine he believed?”

A better question that arises is “How often have I ignored the leading of the Holy Spirit because such leading did not agree with my understanding of doctrine?”

I see those aspects of my faith of which I am absolutely certain as being my anchors, not my limitation.  Those aspects are few indeed. Thus, my belief in the paradox of the divinity and humanity of Christ, gives me security.  My belief in the redemptive work of the cross provides me with certainty.  I find hope, not limitation, in my conviction of the physical resurrection of Christ.  These are the sum total of the beliefs of which I am certain.