Prayer of the Day/Collect for Christmas Eve/Day

 

Jesus our light: There is so much darkness in the world, and even in our own hearts and lives. Political, economic, social, mental, physical and spiritual darknesses have way too much power and influence in the world. How we long for your coming in the church, the world and within each one of us to fill us with your light which is eternal and has the power to transform all things, all situations, all people. All praise and thanks to you Jesus, light of the world; may your light fill us and the whole universe with joy, hope, peace, and love, as we celebrate your birth today. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Today, January sixteenth, the people of the United States of America celebrate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here are a few quotations attributed to him, worth consideration to inspire, instruct, and motivate readers who seek to live justly and peacefully.

“Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” —“The Purpose of Education” from Morehouse College student newspaper, The Maroon Tiger, 1947

“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives [human beings] knowledge, which is power; religion gives [human beings] wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.” —“A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart” sermon, August 30, 1959

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” -—"Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” —Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964

“We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the mountaintop... I've looked over and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.” —“I've Been to the Mountaintop” speech, April 3, 1968 

Brief reflection on Luke 6:27-38

This teaching of Jesus to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” is the most difficult teaching to put into practice. The world is an imperfect place. Read, watch, listen to the newscasts every day, and you discover that sin and evil seem to be winning; and love, justice and peace are losing. 

Are we to take Jesus’s words here literally? Of course Jesus did, by setting the perfect example of praying for the forgiveness of those who crucified him. Stephen also prayed for the forgiveness of those who stoned him. Others have also taken Jesus literally, including Corrie Ten-Boom, Mahatma Gandhi, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Then there is also the thought-provoking quotation attributed to the Rev. Martin Niemoeller, concentration camp prisoner: “It took me a long time to understand that God is not the enemy of my enemies. God is not even the enemy of God’s enemies.” 

So, in short, love conquers all. The antithesis teaching of Jesus to love one’s enemies is a sign of the in-breaking of God’s realm. 

Yet, many of us still have some rather “thorny” questions regarding Jesus’s teachings in this gospel pericope. For example, what about a husband who abuses his wife? Does she love her husband by allowing him to continuously strike her on both cheeks, and other parts of her body? By allowing her husband to beat her up, is she giving him the message that his abuse is acceptable? What about a minus thirty below zero winter and allowing a thief to take your coat and giving the thief your shirt as well? Is this what Jesus really would want us to do? I don’t think so! By a wife turning the other cheek to a violent husband; does that succeed in preventing the husband from being violent? By giving a thief your coat and shirt on a minus thirty below zero winter’s day; does that prevent the thief from being a thief or give them further encouragement to continue to be a thief? The person who gives their coat and shirt away on such a winter’s day may very well freeze to death! 

What Jesus is getting at, I think, is that extravagant love, love that exceeds “normal” tit-for-tat expectations has the power to change the world, and break the evil cycles of hatred and violence. In a perfect world, of course, this antithesis teaching would not be necessary, since everyone would love perfectly without it having to be commanded, and, of course, there would be no more enemies, no more wars, no more violence, no more hatred and evil, no more need for laws, police, judges, jails, and so on. Sounds like what we pray for in the Lord’s prayer, doesn’t it? “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.”

Church and State, Canada and U.S.A. Relations

The recent election and inauguration of a new president south of the 49^th parallel has got me thinking a wee bit about church and state—or religion and politics—and Canada-U.S.A. relations.

   I, like a lot of people in the U.S., Canada, and around the globe am rather upset about the election results and inauguration of the new U.S. president. It still seems rather surreal to me that our American neighbours would choose the person they did to be their president for the next four years. Someone who has no political experience, and his moral-ethical standards are at best questionable and controversial, and at worst downright dangerous.

   For example, there have been folks who have monitored what he has said publicly on social media claiming that he has lied a lot; and there have been alleged incidents of sexual abuse. Yet, his agenda to “make America great again” seems to have appealed and still appeals to a lot of Americans.

   What disturbs me most and perhaps others is the polarization of Americans, and of everyone really, into “us” and “them,” and the blanket demonization of “them,” so as to feed the fires of fear, hatred, xenophobia, sexism, and religious discrimination, etc. Civilized political debate seems to be abandoned, and the value of the common good: that we as human beings are all in this together, and I may disagree with you adamantly, yet I still respect you as a human being and want to continue to dialogue with you, and remain your neighbour, friend, fellow citizen—which is a bedrock principle of any healthy democracy seems to alarmingly be in grave danger of becoming an extinct freedom.

   Where is the church in relation to what is going on in the state these days? Well, as a follower of Jesus I cannot in good conscience be an open promoter of any particular political party or candidate. However, like Jesus, like the Hebrew prophets of old, like those who signed the Barmen’s Declaration during the Nazi regime in Germany, like such leaders as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a host of other less famous people of faith, I am compelled by conscience to speak out against whatever powers and principalities that would divide every human being into either an “us” or a “them.” Jesus the Messiah of all humankind and his gospel, along with the Hebrew Bible prophets give us our marching orders. As God’s people we are: forgiven sinner-saints, called and gifted, graced and freed to speak truth to power, to transform division into unity, to see every human being as a sister and brother created in God’s image, to, in the words of Micah, “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God,” to in the words of Jesus, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” to boldly proclaim with Peter and the other apostles our ultimate allegiance to the highest authority, saying, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”

   Therefore, it is with all of this weighing heavy in the minds, hearts and lives of many that I, along with a host of other members and advocates for Amnesty International appealed to our Canadian prime minister to speak out for justice and peace, unity and the common good, and respect for the human rights of everyone when he meets with the U.S. president.

   I shall also be remembering them both in my prayers. 

Another Short, Short Story

Once upon a time, in the imperfectly perfect city of Purfeckt, lived some imperfectly perfect citizens who were in the process of electing a new mayor and city council. 

   The present mayor and 3 of the 7 city councillors were electioneering again, hoping the citizenry would re-elect them. 

   However, there were other candidates running too, most of whom were young, and inexperienced in civic politics. They were Sally, Mary, Harry and Barry. Or the 'rhyming Simons' as many citizens called them-some in jest because they alleged that these newbies had nothing unique to contribute to civic politics, they were all blowing the same trumpet so-to-speak, offering no viable alternatives to the present council.

   Then, at the last moment, a new candidate registered, with only a handful of citizens actually knowing her. 

   She was a recent refugee from Rwanda, a feminist, a devout critic of the status quo on matters of politics in the state and the church. 

   Her campaign was simple, yet profound. Zero umemployment rate, zero poverty rate, perfect peace with justice policies and love with mercy policies that guaranteed living wages for everyone, free education, free music, art and literature events that involved the whole city every week at city hall. There would be no need for police or jails or guns or emergency shelters and homes for the abused, since no one would have the need to break any laws, no one would be abused, no one would resort to violence to solve problems, no one would be bullied, or manipulated or hated, all would be loved, accepted and equal in the city, all would look after all.

   She was elected mayor for life, her name was Shalomie, and everyone lived happily ever after in the now perfectly perfect city of Purfeckt. One day, she observed, "This is all possible because the Messiah has come."    

A brief prayer: The radiance of light

May the radiance of your light, O Christ, that bathes these trees and shrubs with life bathe me with life today.

A short, short story

Elias offers a prayer at the wall in Jerusalem for his people, especially the ones who live in daily fear of yet another bomb in the living room and children dead. 

   Abdulla throws rocks at the IDF soldiers who clear a path for a bulldozer to destroy his olive grove. He prays to his God too, that his enemy would be defeated and pushed into the Mediterranean. 

   A Coptic priest, named Joseph, prays for the safety of his parishioners, as their non-Coptic neighbours become increasingly suspicious by the day with the escalating conflict between the Egyptian army and the Muslim Brotherhood.

   Jews and Christians living for centuries in Arab nations are being ethnically cleansed and wonder what to do and where to go. Meanwhile, the Western media ignores them.

   All over Africa, Asia, and Latin America the little people like Lee and Kim, Seti and Ette, Jose and Maria are homeless and jobless thanks to large Western corporations developing natural resources for sheer profit, without any thought of the environment or the well-being of the peoples of these nations. 

   In the Western world, citizens like Harry and Janet continue to take their democratic freedoms for granted, shop til they drop, and buy cheap condos in warm and exotic places for the winter.  They can do this because they pay the least amount of money for groceries and clothing that come from nations that exploit their workers in sweat shops and slave labour agricultural estates owned by billionaires. 

   Meanwhile God continues to shed tears of sorrow at a world divided and falling apart, ignoring his love and super-abundant grace that envelopes the universe.