Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Getting Ready

It seems hard to believe that on Thursday we being the month of December. Didn't it just happen last year? December is always so busy what with cards to write, presents to buy, special celebrations to go to, special services at the church, food to buy, decorations to put up, and so on. It doesn't seem possible that it is that time already. But there are the tell tale signs all over that December is almost here. Nights here in Sydney are getting quite warm and humid. The elevators have been blasting Christmas carols for weeks now. TV ads are all full of Christmas gift ideas. I may not seem ready or not, but it is here with or without me.

Maybe that is why it is good we have the season of advent in the church. We enter into this few weeks at the end of November the beginning of December and we don't barge head long into Christmas, but rather we have time to get ourselves ready. We take time to think about the gifts that Christ brings to us: hope, peace, joy, and love. We hear about Jesus' parents being told about the birth of the child. We hear about the prophets of old and how God came to them and told them about the one who is to come. We hear about John preaching about the child who was to follow after him. We hear all of this before the main event. Then on Christmas eve we hear about the child born in the manger and the angels telling us that with that babe God is here and is well pleased with us. In church we have four weeks to prepare for all this. And that is good.

I write this this week not to say that the Christmas movies, the special food, and decorations are not a part of our holiday festivities. They are ways in which we get ourselves ready. The songs, the cards from loved ones overseas, remind us of the love at Christmas. The cheer that we share at Christmas is a sign of the peace and joy foretold by the angels. And the dreams that even old man Scrooge had and the resolutions made at New Year, remind us all of hope. I think these other ways of celebrating, decorating, baking, singing, card writing, all are ways in which we prepare.

But what might be different is the effects of the celebrations. In many households, once boxing day is over everything is put away until next year. There has been little change. Oh we might add a few new things to our memories of good tidings, but that can wait again until next December. But in the church, we celebrate that we are changed. The child born in the manger means that our lives have eternal significance. With the reminder of his birth, we can never go back to just the way we are for we have been changed. This is the good news. Blessings.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Milestones

What are the significant events in your life? What milestones do you remember? Some in my life are very important. Graduating. Getting ordained. Getting married. The day we became parents. The year I moved from Canada. I don't think I will ever forget those. Other events seemed very significant at the time, but have become less important over time: learning to drive, getting my first job, moving from primary to high school, etc. At the time they seemed to be very important. But now looking back these secondary events seem to have less and less importance.

Marking events. In one way it is very important. It gives our lives meaning. Without marking the events that we go through what is the point? Getting my first job- a job at a store in a provincial park- seemed very important at the time. I got it on my own. I applied for it, I was interviewed, I was successfully hired, I learned what earning money was all about. I also learned the value of things. I wanted to buy a pair of western boots with the money I earned. I figured that it took me about 30 hours of labour to buy them. For those learning experiences I was very thankful.

The other reality though was that it was not a great job. My boss told me on the first day that he was a very difficult man to work for and he was true to his word. I was only there three months (it was a summer job) and so it was very brief and I did not earn a lot of money. Somedays the job was exceedingly busy and I would come home exhausted. Other days the job was exceedingly slow and I had to seek out things to fill up my time. Some customers were exceedingly rude. And often I had to deal with things like mice, squirrels, and backed up toilets things that were not much fun.  Getting the first job was very important at the time. But now, it is very much less important in the scheme of my life.

As I write this blog today, some children from the child care centre are preparing for a ceremony marking their leaving the centre and going off to Kindergarten next year. For them, it is a very important event. They will have to say good bye to their teachers who have been with them for the past few years. They will be saying goodbye to friends who will be going to different schools. Right now it is a life changing event for them. However in the scheme of things, I am sure that this event will be less significant in their lives. They will have other changes, other awards, other achievements, other passages which will make this event but a footnote in their lives, but today it is very important.

And maybe that is the message for us today. Things will happen in our lives that may seem quite traumatic and life altering. Some no doubt will be- birth of children, death of a spouse, losing a job, etc. Some though will fade away. This should be a good reminder to us. Bad things do happen, but most likely they will fade away in time. We might have already experienced things which we thing are the best ever, but sometimes the best is yet to come. The huge milestones of today are but mere pebbles in the grand scheme of our lives. Blessings

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Now what

After billions of dollars spent the US election is finally over. In one of the most divisive campaigns ever, Donald Trump was declared the president elect. It was not the result that I wanted, but in their complicated system, Donald Trump won the most votes in the US Electoral College- even though he lost the popular vote by 120,000 votes.

Trump won the election on basically two planks. The first plank was that as a complete political novice, Trump was able to state that there were many problems in the establishment in Washington DC. Stories of corruption are always bubbling up in Washington. Lobbyists hold too much influence over politicians. Omnibus bills mean that all politicians have to swallow their pride at time and vote for things they don't believe in just so that bills they support get passed. Politics in Washington does need a good cleaning out.

The second plank that elected Trump was fear and anger. Since 9/11 fear has gripped the US. The "other" is no longer welcome by many Americans- even though they talk about being the great melting pot. Since 9/11 the US has increasingly become like a fortress with figurative walls keeping the strangers out.

Anger has also gripped a large part of the US. Many states are suffering. West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin for instance have seen many of their industrial jobs shut down because of global trade, environmental concerns over coal, and other factors. Agricultural states like the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas have struggled much more than the urban areas of the country. Some Americans find it increasingly hard to find work and so they blame immigrants for taking their jobs.

These two planks got Trump elected. When people are feeling good about themselves, it is easy to vote for hope and togetherness. When people are struggling, like so many Americans are, it feels better to blame and point fingers. Trump's words, abhorrent as they were to so many of us, seemed to reach out to those Americans who felt they were falling further and further behind.

But now the genie is out of the bottle. Since Trump's election hate crimes have increased around the world. Swastikas have popped up in Holland, Canada, and all over the US. People have been bashed because others thought they were gay or lesbian. People have been told to get out because their skin colour was not ivory white. Women have been told that they will never get ahead in business or politics because of their double X chromosomes. With the election of Trump, it seems ok to hate again.

This is what scares me, not the election of Trump per se. Yes Trump was not my choice for president, but politicians come and go. They may do great things or horrible things for a few years, but in a few years they will be replaced. It's like the weather in Melbourne, if you don't like it, wait fifteen minutes and it will be something else. Politicians are like that- they rise to power and then they fall. But what scares me is this increase in hatred. In my way of thinking it is abhorrent to hate the other. Everyone is a child of God no matter who they are: old, young, male female, gay, straight, white, black, yellow, whatever. Everyone is worthy of respect. No one deserves to be hated because they are of their sex, because of their faith, because of their language, because of the colour of their skin, because of where they were born, because of who they love, because they are the child God created them to be. Love has to triumph over hate. Let us strive for a world that breaks down barriers, puts aside differences, and works for the good of all people, not just for some. Blessings

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Connections made and lost

I like to think that I am a fairly social person. Yes I am an introvert. Yes I do find a lot of social interaction to be quite exhausting. But I enjoy people. I like getting to know them. I like sharing jokes with them. I could never be a hermit. I need people.

In this modern age I have the ability to connect with anyone in the world using a computer or my smart phone. As long as we are both on line, within milliseconds I can connect with friends whether they be in Australia, Canada, the US, Britain or wherever. The thousands of kilometres between us don't matter although time zones limit when we can talk.

I realise that even though I have the ability to connect with anyone, I sometimes don't. Some people I have little in common with. Some people may have been my friends when I was a child, but we have moved on in different ways. Sometimes long standing arguments hinder my relationships with a few people. Some people cannot understand English and I cannot understand their language. Some people move in different social circles then I do (Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian, Malcolm Turnbull). For whatever reason my circle of friends and acquaintances is a minuscule part of the population as a whole.

In some ways this is understandable. The world is very vast and very diverse. I have travelled a bit, but there are great portions of the world that I will never see. People from all walks of life could join a church where I serve, but in reality there are not that many billionaires or Satanists that I come across in my line of work. Also, I am a person who well knows my limitations.  I have a few problems putting names to all of the faces that I have already met- just imagine if I had to do that with all 7 billion people in the world.

But in another way, I lose when I can't connect with others. What wisdom might they have to share with me? How might they have challenged, inspired, guided, listened, laughed with, cried with, and celebrated with me. No I am not suggesting that we can connect with everyone. But maybe we can be more intentional about keeping the connections that we already have. Let's listen and share with each other. You'll be glad you did.  Blessings.