Oh Canada

- Oh Canada –

During the recent Presidential elections many thoughtful people would say, half in just,

that they would be going to Canada to live if Trump were elected president because

of his strident election rhetoric. Now, only a few short weeks after his surprising

election victory there is a front-page story in the Sunday edition of The (Syracuse)

Post-Standard, “U.S. border crossings to Canada on the rise.” The story details how

an increasing number of people who have immigrated to the United States because

of persecution in other countries are now choosing to leave the U.S. and cross the

border illegally into Canada. The story indicates that they are doing this because they

now fear persecution here. It is not difficult to understand why they would feel this way

given the xenophobic presidential declarations and tweets emanating from the White

House. Compare the multiple tweets that The Donnie composes with the one that Prime

Minister Truedau recently sent. According to the Post-Standard article the Prime Minister

tweeted, “To those fleeing persecution, terror, and war, Canadians will welcome you,

regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada, …” This is a

sentiment one could have, in the past, expected from a head of state in the United States.

 Sadly, currently that is not true.

      Interestingly, in Sunday’s (2/26/17) meditation in “Forward Day by Day” the author,

 Minda Cox, writes about Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain. She says in the

meditation, “… in Jesus, God is made plainly visible…” She goes on to say, “His [Jesus’]

grace and love and boundary shattering welcome (emphasis mine) are God’s welcome

 too.” Many people in this country claim to be Christians. To “be a Christian” the originally

 meaning was to be a follower of Jesus. A number of people in the United States say that

this nation is a Christian nation. To the best of my knowledge, Canada makes no such

claim. Yet which of these two nations exhibits the attitude and indeed the morality that

 Jesus teaches? Which nation “welcomes the stranger”? Scripture tell us that as Christians

 we will be known by our fruits. What “fruits” is the United States producing and what“fruits”

 are grown by Canada. The contrast is stark! The lesson should be clear.   

Who is it that we welcome?

February 22, 2017

(Ruth1:15 – 2:13)

                                                     

           

Yesterday and today the reading in the Revised Common Lectionary has included sections from the book of Ruth in the Jewish scriptures. Yesterday I was impressed by the loyalty that Ruth exhibited toward Naomi. I also found it very human, and something we all do occasionally, when Naomi said, “… because the Lord has turned against me.” (1:13b CEV) The scriptures, and in this case the book of Ruth, demonstrate human reactions, both good and bad, to situations in the lives of people. In today’s reading in (2:1 -13) Ruth goes out to glean grain from the edge of a field that is being harvested by workers hired by a man named Boaz. Boaz, when greeting his workers, notices Ruth and asks who she is. He learns that she is picking grain left behind by the harvesters; a practice encouraged by Jewish law and custom so that the poor would have food to eat. In verses 8 and 9 the scripture tells us, “Boaz went out to Ruth and said, ‘I think it would be best for you not to pick up grain in anyone else’s field. Stay here with the women and follow along behind them, as they gather up what the men have cut. I have warned the men not to bother you, and whenever you are thirsty, you can drink from the water jars they have filled.” Perhaps Boaz’s kindness is not necessarily completely selfless, because as we find out later, he finds Ruth attractive.

            But there is a lesson in these two verses, and in the book of Ruth, that is valuable for us today. We are in the midst of a climate of fear where we are told to fear the stranger or anyone who is different from us. We are to fence them out, to deport them, and to do this without consideration of their humanity. We are to clutch fear, to hold it close to our hearts, to reject. But much of scripture in general and the book of Ruth specifically tells us otherwise. Boaz welcomes the immigrant and treats her kindly. We know that she is an immigrant from the first chapter and from what Ruth says to Boaz, “You know that I am from another country. Why are you so good to me?” (2: 10b) Boaz’s answer is that he sees her good character because he has heard how good she is to her mother-in-law and also because she had left her own family to, “live in a foreign land among people you don’t know. I pray that the Lord God of Israel will reward you.” (2: 11b - 12a) If we, today, listen to our better instincts and open our eyes to see the vast majority of immigrants from another country as valuable human beings to be welcomed and made to feel worthwhile we will be responding to them as the Jewish scripture instructs us to. Indeed, we will be reacting as Jesus told his disciples to and as he tell us to when he said that we welcome Him when we welcome the stranger. There is, and has been since the very earliest history of the United States, a myth that this is a Christian country. It is not and should not be because we are to welcome and incorporate into our civil life all religions without exception. But let’s fantasize for a moment and view the US as a Christian nation. Given that concept would we reject the stranger, the immigrant? Would we reject Ruth? Or would we welcome strangers and as a result welcome Jesus among us? I leave the answer up to you. I personally am for welcoming Jesus.  

Speaking to the Soul: Meeting the One Who Transforms Us

Back on August 4, 2016 I read a meditation on line in Episcopal Cafe's section Speaking to the Soul. I saw it again today and, like then, was moved by the poetic language, and understanding of encountering the splendor of God exhibited by the author.  The author was on retreat in a desert setting in Colorado and said in part:

"We spent last week on retreat at Nada Carmelite Hermitage near Crestone, Colorado, a magical place at the threshold between very tall mountains and an enormous, high-altitude desert. There, sitting in silence, we were reduced to the basics of being human – the elemental dialogue with wind, sun, clouds and a vast, empty land.

Every morning I watched the sun rise, a gradual amassing of light from below the rim of the world. Turning the mountains to the east to silhouettes edged in salmon, then touching with incandescent orange whatever clouds sailed the sky, it would announce its approach. Finally, after crowning in the crook of a black treeless peak, it would be born, all red with new life. The world would fill with color.  ...

Throughout the week, in hundreds of moments like these, God caressed my hungry soul with mystery. I was reminded that there is no way of containing the Holy in the jars of human understanding. Capricious, prodigious, yet loving as only a mother can, God blasted away my presuppositions and made me new."

My experience with this sort of encounter of the splendor of God's creation occurred some years ago on the shore of Mount Desert Island in Acadia National Park . As I stood at Otter Cliffs looking down across huge rocks that spilled into the sea, saw the vast blue ocean spread out in front of me, heard the lapping of the waves far below I sensed a presence, a viewing of something beyond the normal ability to perceive. It wasn't until much later that I read about Thin Places. Those times and places where, as has been described by others, the veil between heaven and Earth parts or is thinner and one can glimpse ever so briefly that - I stop typing here and consider what word to put after the "that". God doesn't seem quite right because God is an individual triune entity. Land may surfice, but not quite. Probably, another dimension is as close as I can come to a description. A location that is just past our perception but that we are able to glimpse occasionally and ever so briefly if we are quiet, contemplative, and open to seeing, experiencing. 

I think that the author of the meditation was experiencing a Thin Place. A Thin Place is where ever we are sensative to God presence.      

The complete meditation from August 2016 can be found at:
Speaking to the Soul: Meeting the One Who Transforms Us