Pentecost

Faith Today - Moncton Times & Transcript

Ah, Pentecost. 

There is, I think, no festival of the church year which I like better. Perhaps it is because this is the only one I can truly wrap my head around religiously. I mean, Christmas is about Jesus being born, it is just a birthday party. Easter is about Jesus dying and being resurrected, and I can’t really figure out how that happened, or what it means…

But Pentecost… The day that we remember how the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples to start the church, and how that same spirit continues to empower us. That I understand.

It is like love. Love inspires me to be nicer to people than I normally would. Or it is like creativity, which causes me to all of a sudden have this great idea for putting mustard on corn on the cob. (try it, you’ll love it).

The spirit is something we cannot see, but we can feel. It is the power of the universe seeping into my pores and strengthening me to do things I was afraid to do, or giving me ideas I never would have come up with, or empowering me to do it anyway, even though I am afraid.

So, the story says that these followers of Jesus, who were having a pretty rough time, were all gathered in Jerusalem and they were talking… and suddenly it was like their tongues were on fire… it was like everyone understood what they were saying… it was like they were inspired to speak in such a way that everyone wanted to join the new movement…

So partly this is the birthday of the church. It was from Pentecost on that people flocked to hear the disciples preach. But more importantly, this is a time when we celebrate a concept, the concept of divine inspiration.

There is a passage in the Bible where it says that when we are too sad to speak, the Holy Spirit speaks for us, and it does it through sighs and tears.

I like that. Once more it is a practical explanation of how God is active in my life. God is that power that goes beyond the strength I have. The divine is what gets me through it.

Albert Einstein was one of the world’s most creative minds. He could imagine things that others had not even dreamt of. He once put what I am trying to say this way:

“The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.”

It is when I stand and stare at the sunset over the Miramichi River and feel joy, and awe, and love in my heart that I am empowered to go out into the world and help others, or write creatively, or paint a picture….

Religion really is as simple as this. Jesus said that all of the laws, all of the rules, all of the sacraments, all of God could be wrapped up in the idea of having love in your heart.

It is that love and the inspiration that bore it that we celebrate during this time. Once upon a time there was a man who loved so completely, honestly, and compassionately that everyone wanted to be like him. That same spirit lives on in those of us who try and follow to this day.

Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail, but once a year we stop and remind ourselves that the power of that spirit goes beyond our imaginations; and that when you truly feel it, it will change your life.

So happy Pentecost everyone!

Spring Dawn

Faith Today - Moncton Times and Transcript - April 21 2012

Whatever your views on climate change, this spring sure seems different.

I can’t remember ever being out mid-April in the 25 degree sunshine in the Maritimes. I can’t remember the picnic parks opening up long before the Victoria Day weekend. I have even considered swimming… but when I put my feet in the water that idea quickly changes.

It may seem like it was ancient history, but it was not so long ago that people with a religious bent prayed, sacrificed, danced, and otherwise implored the gods to change the weather. Most of us have probably even tried this ourselves, praying to god for sunshine when we want to go to the beach, or rain when we want to get out of something. How about a snowstorm on exam day? I was guilty of that once or twice.

I am not if anyone remembers the movie Bruce almighty, where there is this one man who is given the power of God to teach him a lesson. He tries to change the weather, or make the moon brighter, and in the meantime nearly wipes out the other side of the planet because he has thrown off all the tides and oceans.

There is a balance that is impossibly complex to figure out. In fact, some scientists claim that if a butterfly flaps their wings on the other side of the world it changes the air currents way over here.

Which I guess is what has always troubled me about the whole prayer scenario. If I pray for sunshine and the farmer really needs rain, do I win if I am more faithful? I’m a minister, do my prayers count double? They don’t seem to on those beach days when it rains.

This may seem trivial, but what about when we start praying for a child to survive a night of sickness? What if we pray to survive a natural disaster?

It seems to me just a little arrogant to think that my needs trump the needs of the rest of the planet; even if it is life and death.

Also, realizing the complexity of all things, how can I personally decide when my needs are more valuable than the needs of other people?

So perhaps I am more inclined to be like the people who say, “It is in God’s hands” and trust in that. This is what Jesus supposedly did in the garden of Gethsemane when he said, “If there is any way to get out of this crucifixion thing, God, I would be good with that; but whatever needs to happen…”

Well, actually, I am little further along the line of thinking that what really matters is what happens after the fact.

It seems pretty clear that life is random. Weather patterns come and go; people who are good have accidents and bad people stumble across riches. I do not think that any of these things are changed because of prayer.

What does change is me. Prayer is an after the fact thing in which I connect to the divine spirit and get the strength to face the reality of my life.  So, it rains, and I have to learn to accept it and move on. I get sick and I have to learn to accept it and live whatever time remains well.

I think of God as the creative and positive spirit of the universe that flows through each one of us, to connect to it is to be able to see the world differently.

So in essence it does not matter if it is 25 degrees in April or not, what matters is how I feel about it. Do I accept it for the gift that it is and have a picnic, or do I complain about how unnatural it is and live bitterly?

The choice, ultimately, is up to me. Way back in the story of the people of Israel finding the promised land God is rumoured to have said to them, “I put before you life and death, blessing and curse; choose…”

How are you going to choose to live your life.