Swift and Varied Changes

 In the collect for today we pray for grace

            “that among the swift and varied changes of the world,

            our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found.”

 

“Swift and varied changes…”

This congregation certainly knows what that is like.  We all do.  What a year!

 

No matter how well we understand the situation 

                                    in which the swift and varied changes occur,

understanding doesn’t necessarily take care of what we may be feeling, 

            and when the changes come in the form of “swift and varied”

                        the predominate emotions that we may feel are grief and anxiety

-       grief from the loss the changes have incurred                                    

    and anxiety about the future which is yet an unknown.

 

Grief comes out in many different ways,

            and likewise anxiety about the future is expressed in different ways.

And it is not always straight forward in communication

                        because one isn’t always clear with one’s self 

                                                just why one is feeling a particular way.

            so it is always good to ask the question, “What’s this all about?”

 

This faith community is now in the process of being  reconfigured,

            and in light of all the varied changes 

                        we have to re-examine what we had taken for granted. 

 

And the equilibrium of the community

            has slipped out of kilter

            and it will naturally take some time

                                    for that equilibrium to become re-established.

 

When I was a hospice director and did a lot of volunteer training

            I used the example of a mobile

                        from which one of the parts is removed.

Without its weight the other parts lose their ability 

                                                to maintain the shape of the whole.

Each piece must be shifted around – each piece – 

            until a new configuration is found where the balance works.

 

A family or a community, while this readjustment period is going on,

            will experience a whole array of conflicting emotions.

Not everyone will be at the same place at the same time

                        in the process of reconfiguration.

                                                                                                            

While one is yearning deeply for those who are now missing,

            another will be working strongly at what to do next

                        because it is too unbearable to face that yearning and loss,

            and another’s grief will be expressed through anger

                        about the changes now being faced – change being seen as a threat.

 

While ordinarily people may have a clear perspective 

            about their mission and purpose in life and in what they are doing,

with a loss there will be a regression 

                        and that mission and purpose may become obscured.

Security becomes a bigger issue.

            Does this sound familiar?

            Doesn’t this describe what Nativity has been going through this last year?

 

As the parts of the mobile get rearranged back into equilibrium

                        so that it can be a mobile again,

            how can we here be with each other to bring healing balance?

 

Certainly very practically it can be 

            by picking up on cues from one another 

                        about the other being in pain or need of some kind, 

                        and being quick to respond and acknowledge their situation.

We don’t always have to do anything, much less solve some problem.

We need simply to let the other know that they are heard, acknowledged.

 

Humans have a tendency to neglect doing this

            1 because they think they have to have a solution to a problem,

            and 2 because it is hard to be with another in their pain,

                        their pain is uncomfortable for us too.

 

Now, someone very wise once said to me,

            “When you say ‘I love you’ to another person,

            that indicates you care more about them than you do about yourself.”

 

When Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground…”

            he was referring to himself 

                        meaning his own self giving out of love for us.

He obviously cared more about you and me than he did about himself.

 

That’s obvious.

The kicker is that he is expecting that of his followers also.

 

Jesus said to his disciples,

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, 

it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 

Those who love their life lose it, 

and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 

Whoever serves me must follow me, 

and where I am, there will my servant be also. 

Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”

 

So as we come to the last Sunday in Lent, 

            here is where the theme of Lenten discipleship takes us; 

this Sunday’s Gospel, we could say, 

is the Ultimate discipleship lesson.

 

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth…

            Well, that is what the purpose of the seed is for – to get planted.

…unless it falls into the earth and dies…

            Once planted that is the end of the seed’s existence.

            The identity of the seed as seed is over.

            What comes next looks nothing like a seed.

…unless the seed falls and dies, it remains alone…

…but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

            The purpose of the seed is to bear fruit.

 

The death of the seed is a birth 

                                    into a new and more abundant, fruitful, effective life.

 

There is a parallel drawn here between the seed and the disciple.

Our purpose as disciples, what it is that God wants from us, 

is that we bear much fruit, 

that our lives are fruitful in the qualities and characteristics 

of the Kingdom of Heaven, 

that our lives are lights to others 

bringing them also into the Kingdom.

That is the fruit that we are made for and intended to produce – 

                                    very pragmatic and utilitarian.

 

But it would appear 

that the process of producing such fruit of being thus useful 

                                                is by dying.

“Those who love their life lose it,

and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

 

Now these are hard words; they confront us,

            but we would do ourselves a great disfavor 

if we avoided looking at them,  as we often would like to do.

These words are too important spiritually to let them pass by unexamined. 

What is the life that is to be hated, 

that is, the life to be renounced?

What is the life that we turn our backs on and walk away from?

 

It is that which we have linked our self-identity with, 

that which we have claimed ownership with regarding who we say we are.

It is how we answer the question, “Who am I?”

 

Now we may not see this, or realize this, 

but our self-definition for the most part is an illusion, 

a fantasy, a falsehood, unreality.

 

But loss and grief and the swift and varied changes of the world

            can set things up for stripping away illusion.

We are caused to sit up and look again at who we are.

 

Sometimes it is pretty hard to see through our illusions.

There is, it would seem, a veil covering our eyes.

We are not able to remove that covering from our eyes by ourselves, however.

 

That, thank God, is the work of the Master, the Teacher, 

the One who was lifted up on the cross 

who draws all people to himself.

 

Jesus said, “I will draw all to myself.”

The veil of illusion covering our eyes, the false self-identity we cling to, 

            will be stripped away from us by the action of the cross.

We will be unsheathed from that.

What is left is our true identity in Christ.

 

Now, as we move into the last part of Lent,

            we are coming up to Holy Week.

 

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday.

 

Here is where we can see the Mystery of how this dying to self comes about,

            and in light of the swift and varied changes experienced here

Holy Week can speak to us.

                        The events of Holy Week can bring healing.

 

I urge you to enter into this Holy Week as a disciple. 

You are strongly encouraged to be there not only for Palm Sunday 

            but also for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday 

                        and the Diocesan online Easter Vigil.

 

Holy Week commemorates the extent of the love Jesus had for us,

            that which is the source of our healing

            and the grace for seeing us through the swift and varied changes of life.

Caduceus

Did you know that the 4^th Sunday in Lent,

            as it is observed in the Church of England, our Mother Church,

                        is called Mothering Sunday.

It is the British equivalent of Mothers Day 

                        and has been celebrated as such since the 16^th Century.

It occurred on this Sunday at the midpoint in Lent

            when the traditional Gospel lesson was the story of the loaves and fishes

Hence it was also called “Refreshment” Sunday

            because the multitudes were refreshed with the food our Lord provided them.

 

So we are now just past the half way mark in Lent,

            and I might ask, how is your observance of a holy Lent going?

I can see the lengthening of days with signs of spring

            and more of us getting vaccinated

                        and the increasing activity within our parish life:

                                    small groups gathering 

                                    either online or, now, even in person

                        meeting for Bible study 

                        or discussing the Lenten devotional booklet, Steadfast Love,

                        or for engaging with the Profile Committee’s 5 Questions

            or for praying the Daily Office together,

I can say with certainty that fresh life is burgeoning here.

            There is Refreshment going on.

 

Often when it seems we can hardly keep going,

            something intervenes and the discerning heart will say

                        that God has provided.

And indeed God has.

            Let’s look at the scriptures for this Sunday because they bear that out.

 

The lesson from the Book of the Torah called Numbers

            recounts yet another time when the Israelites were in difficult straits

                                                out there in the Lenten wilderness of the Sinai Desert.

It wasn’t a virus, but it could have been, 

            this time a plague of poisonous snakes,

                        and people were dying.

But God provided, 

            although it was somewhat strange what God provided – 

                        healing in the form of a serpent of bronze on a pole

            and all they had to do was to gaze on it

                                                            and they would live.

 

Are you familiar with the Caduceus? 

             the symbol associated with doctors and the medical profession?

The most familiar depiction is of two intertwining snakes on a pole

                        topped with two wings.

There are a couple of different stories 

            about what that represents and how it came to be,

but the most relevant is the Greek myth of Asclepius. 

            Asclepius was a healer with his wife Hygeia and daughter Panacea. 

In Greek art Asclepius is depicted holding a staff 

                                                                                    with a snake entwined around it.

 

I have been privileged to explore the classical ruins 

            in Pergamum, Turkey, and Epidaurus, Greece, 

with their ancient temples and places of healing associated with Asclepius.

            These places even today 

                        have a discernable healing and peaceful quality about them.

 

Now don’t you think it most interesting 

            that there can be parallels drawn between this story about Asclepius

                        and the story of Moses interceding for the people in prayer to God?

 

The people cry out with their need for healing

            and God’s mercy provides,

                        and the healing flows as freely 

            as that spontaneous, abundant, free flowing, generous mercy of God.

 

So let us turn to the Gospel reading for today:

            It starts in the middle of the conversation that Jesus was having 

                        with Nicodemus who came to him by night

            and was told that he must be born, not just from a physical mother,

                        but from the Source of all life.

 

And while Nicodemus is puzzling over this, Jesus tells him:

            “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,

            so must the Son of Man be lifted up…”

                                    As indeed he would be – on a cross.

 

This would be for the ultimate healing – the healing of the sin sick soul,

            the healing that would carry you through death to life,

                        life with that eternal quality to it

                                    eternally lively, never fading,

                        life in its fullest expression,

            the life of the Resurrection.

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

            so that everyone who believes in him, who puts their trust in him,

                        may not perish

                                    but have eternal life.

 

We may speak of God the Father and God the Son,

            but what is described in John, chapter 3,

                        is a process of birthing into new life,

                                    of being birthed into new life,

                        by God who births us into new life – God as mother.

 

And here is the Gospel good news that we must never forget:

            “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,

            but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

 

Know that in Greek the word that means saved also means healed.

 

The ultimate healing that we all need – the healing of the sin sick soul,

            the healing that can carry you through death to life,

                        requires only that you have faith, that you trust, 

            that you believe the word of God when your heart hears it.

 

With the ancient healing cult of Asclepius

            there was an elaborate ritual that took place 

                                                in order to access the healing:

            drinking water from a special fountain, 

            navigating an underground tunnel to a chamber

            where you would sleep and dream 

                        and tell your dream to the temple priest for interpretation,

            and a votive offering to be left.

 

But the Gospel puts no qualifications on receiving other than receiving,

            which is an act of faith,

                        like simply placing your gaze on the snake on the pole.

 

The sad thing is that in their sin sickness people preferred darkness to light,

            because the darkness would hide what the light would expose.

 

But God, like a good mother, would much rather see her children happy,

            all freshened up from a bath after playing in the mud,

            filled with a nourishing dinner 

            and tucked into bed with hugs and kisses and soothing bedtime stories.

 

And here is the Good News! – 

this spiritual process at work within us 

is not our own effort and work,

but the work of the Spirit blowing where it will in us.

The work is being done for us.

 

And this is not even at our own initiative.

We are like babies here being born.

            We are hardly prepared for the life we are being born into in Jesus.

Jesus is the One who gives the new birth into the new creation, 

                        the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son

            that whosoever believes in him, trusts in him, has faith in him,

                        will have eternal life.

 

Now in physical birth there is a separation that occurs, 

                                                                                    a cutting the umbilical cord,

            marking a distinction being made between the child from the mother.

 

But in the birth from above, from the Source, from the Spirit,

            there is no separation.

            There are no spiritual belly buttons.

 

Rather – and just try to get your mind around this – 

                                                            there is a state of continuous birth.

            Nothing separates from the Source.

 

The truth of the world is that it is born of God.

            This is the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is all of the one Life, of the One who said I am the Resurrection and the Life.

 

From the reading today from the Letter to the Ephesians, 

            these words say it all:

 

God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, 

made us alive together with Christ

-- by grace you have been saved—

and raised us up with him 

and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 

so that in the ages to come he might show 

the immeasurable riches of his grace 

in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith, 

and this is not your own doing; 

it is the gift of God

-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 

For we are what he has made us, created [as we are] in Christ Jesus…

 

This is eternal life – to know, to experience, to have heart knowledge 

                        of God, and the one sent, Jesus.

 

We each face another birth

            when we can then say that we are born again.

It is the birth that occurs at death,

            when the time is ripe for each of us.

 

This birth is natural.  It doesn’t require our understanding.

            It will happen in its time.

 

But we can already come to the realization of this new birth.

We can already know eternal life as being born of water and the Spirit,

            being in that eternal moment of creation in Jesus.

Bias

 Imagine the scene.

Jesus goes to the Temple in Jerusalem, the big cathedral in that day,

            and what does he find there, what does he see, 

                        where does his attention go?

Not to the Holy of Holies, 

            not to the altars of incense and of sacrifice necessary for prayers to God,

            not to the clergy in procession or the Psalms being sung by the choir, 

but to the animals for sale there, animals doomed for sacrifice,

            and to the money changing tables 

                        where filthy Roman coins were exchanged for righteous shekels.

And what happens next is dramatic, disruptive and attention getting.

 

Sometimes the spiritual master has to go to drastic measures 

            to get our attention.

 

What was the purpose Jesus wanted to get across?

More than one thing, several actually, 

            in fact we could spend a lot of time plumbing the depths of this passage

                        and still have more to discover.

 

Put it this way.

Jesus was shifting the attention of the disciples that were with him,

            and of the people there at the Temple that day,

            and most especially the attention of the clergy and Jewish leaders.

 

Shifting their attention and their perspective.

How each would respond to his outrageous actions

            would reveal where they were coming from in their own thinking.

Their bias would clearly be revealed in how they reacted.

 

His disciples linked his actions to the Psalms and the Prophets.

            Jesus was a new prophet calling the people to an energized zeal 

                        for the purity that was called for within the Temple courts.

His actions affirmed their hopes for a Messiah 

            who would lead with boldness and strength.

 

The Jewish leaders wanted more signs to spell out clearly who he was.

            They had to think about the fragile balance that needed maintaining                                     between themselves and the Romans

            so that, at least in name, they could maintain their positions of ruling

                        without bringing a heavy military response down upon them all.

So it was important that they had more signs to confirm that Jesus was legit,

            or so that they would have grounds to outlaw this wild man

                        and shut down his growing but suspect influence on the people.

 

You see, each were looking at Jesus from their own perspective,

            from their own mindset, from their own bias.

 

Monday of this last week I read the daily devotional 

            from the Center for Action and Contemplation, as I do every morning.

I have found these particular daily devotions to speak more deeply to me

                        at this particular time in my life.

Usually it is Richard Rohr, the Catholic Franciscan priest,

            writer of so many highly acclaimed books,

                        who is the author of the day’s devotion.

But this Monday, Richard Rohr was highlighting the work of Brian McLaren,

            another very good writer and spiritual voice.

 

He quoted from McLaren’s book, Why Don’t They Get It? 

            Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself).

McLaren wrote:

We all have filters, [such as] What do I already believe? 

Does this new idea or piece of information confirm what I already think? Does it fit in the frame I’ve already constructed?

…My brain (without my conscious awareness, 

and certainly without my permission) makes incredibly quick decisions 

as it evaluates incoming information or ideas. 

Ideas that fit in are easy and convenient to accept,

and they give me pleasure because they confirm what I already think.

But ideas that don’t fit easily will require me to think, and think twice, 

and maybe even rethink some of my long-held assumptions. 

That kind of thinking is hard work. It requires a lot of time and energy.

… Wanting to save me from that extra reframing work, 

my brain presses a “reject” or “delete” button 

when a new idea presents itself. 

“I’ll stick with my current frame, thank you very much,” it says. 

And it gives me a little jolt of pleasure to reward me for my efficiency

… People can't see what they can’t see. Their biases get in the way, surrounding them like a high wall, 

trapping them in ignorance, deception, and illusion. 

No amount of reasoning and argument will get through to them, 

unless we first learn how to break down the walls of bias …

 

Then McLaren continues with a list of 13 different types of biases that are very subtle to awareness, but also very pervasive.

 

These are not the kinds of bias you would expect,

            those biases that have to do with race, gender identity, politics.

 

I will spare you the whole list of 13 hidden biases 

                                                            (this is not a 13 point sermon!)

            but I will share some

because when I read the list 

            I immediately saw a mirror held up in front of me.

And I also know that you too may recognize yourself in this list.

 

Confirmation Bias: We judge new ideas based on the ease with which they fit in with and confirm the only standard we have: 

            [which are] old ideas, old information, and trusted authorities. 

As a result, our framing story, belief system, or paradigm excludes             whatever doesn’t fit.

 

Community Bias: It’s almost impossible to see what our community             doesn’t, can’t, or won’t see. [This is cultural bias.]

 

Competency Bias: We don’t know how much (or how little) we know 

            because we don’t know how much (or little) others know. 

[We assume our own knowledge level to be adequate 

            for whatever we are judging.]

 

Consciousness Bias: Some things simply can’t be seen from where I am right now. But if I keep growing, maturing, and developing, 

someday I will be able to see what is now inaccessible to me.

 

Catastrophe or Normalcy Bias: I remember dramatic catastrophes 

            but don’t notice gradual decline (or improvement).

[In other words, we will recall negative events in our history,

            and tend to overlook the long, slow progress or decline 

            that had a more lasting effect upon us.]

 

Contact Bias: When I don’t have intense and sustained personal contact with “the other,” my prejudices and false assumptions go unchallenged.

 

Cash Bias: It’s hard for me to see something 

            when my way of making a living requires me not to see it.

[ The pandemic certainly has shown us this.

When my way of making a living is threatened,

            it is harder for me to see the danger of the pandemic.]

 

So here we are with a mirror for examining biases we didn’t even know we had!

            We now have some freedom to look deeper

                        and ponder how these discoveries of bias

                              have impacted our own decision making and our relationships.

 

The mirror that is held up before us here 

            plays the same role as Jesus purging the Temple.

His actions, as I said earlier, get the attention of everyone around them,

            and their reactions all reveal their biases,

and the reader of the Gospel would get this too.

            Am I shocked by what Jesus did?  Why am I shocked?

            What do I now see about myself?

            What can I repent of?            What can I let go of?

 

Now back to the Gospel story.

Everyone had their back story and incipient bias about what Jesus was doing,

            but what does Jesus say next?

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

 

But at that time nobody got what he meant until after the Resurrection.

 

In the action of clearing the temple 

of the sacrificial animals necessary for the practice of the religion, 

Jesus is making a radical shift, 

a radical shift away from the Temple and the whole religious enterprise 

to himself, his own body, 

as the Temple, the Holy of Holies, the House of God.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, would become both Temple, the House of God, 

                                    and the sacrifice.

 

There was only one sacrifice in that Temple, 

offered once and for all, 

full, perfect and sufficient, 

            as it says in the word of Scripture and the Book of Common Prayer

and we all eat of the flesh of that sacrifice in the Holy Communion.  

 

Now, is that a shock to our sensibilities?

            What bias is uncovered now?