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.