Lent 3 — Holy Space Travel

March 14, 2004 Rev. Dr. C. DiNovo
Scriptures: Isaiah 55:1-9, Luke 3:1-9

Once upon a time, a child woke up and the first garment they put on was the garment of gender. They put on male or female. Then he put on the garment of race, then nationality, then language, then religion. Then he added opinions, "I like Brittney Spears, no I like Christina Agliera, I like the "Passion of Christ" according to Mel Gibson. No, I didn’t like the "Passion of Christ according to Mel Gibson," and then the little child put on some experiences, trauma and joy. You can imagine that all these layers. If you can think of little children as we all have been one or had one, putting on their winter stuff before they walk out the door. As each layer goes on just before they have to go to the washroom of course, they do the Frankenstein walk out the door.

So this little child walks out the door into the cold and dangerous world, he’s got all these layers on and guess what the little child discovered? It wasn’t cold, it was warm, it was so hot — there was this big sun, this sun of God’s love beating upon that little child and the little child started to sweat. He started to peel off some of the unnecessary layers. He kept peeling off layers, more and more and still they were hot, but they were getting a little nervous because as they got down to the last few layers, they were a little concerned about what would be left. Who am I they thought? Who am I really once all the layers are gone? But it was so hot in that light of God’s love that finally the little child took off the last few layers, the last one being their very body. Then they were really scared and they said, "Who am I now?" And a beautiful voice came out of heaven and said to the little child, "you are what you have always been, you are my beloved child." The End.

So it’s Lent and in Shannon’s wonderful Wednesday nights, we’re learning how to turn the volume up on that still small voice. And what I thought I’d focus on today is how to turn the volume down a little on all the voices coming at us from the world because we’re going to be talking about Holy Space Travel. The travel in Holy Space and that is a space where all those other voices from the world that tell you who you are and what you are and what you should believe, just turn the volume knob down on them so that we can discover who we really are. And if that is true, that which Christ tells us that who we really are is a beloved child of God, nothing more, nothing less, then what is it that we should do, but carry that message to everyone else in the world.

A couple of weeks ago, Shannon mentioned a funeral that we did in the sanctuary and it was a glorious day. It was a combined Christian Muslim funeral and in the funeral car, travelling with the bereaved El Farouk, he described how he had picked our church and me to do that funeral — a great honour, a great blessing and he said some things that should make all of you very proud. He said, well first of all I knew you would and I didn’t know any other church that would host a joint Christian Muslim and Jewish funeral and I knew you would. El Farouk said a friend of his said, "Oh that’s because the United Church is the least Christian of all the churches", and El Farouk said to them, "No, it’s because the United Church is the most Christian of all the churches." Remember this was a Muslim speaking. We have a Muslim joining us in membership next week and I asked him why he, an Iranian would want to join a Christian church, and he said because you are known for your love, your passion and your forgiveness. How joyous is that?
I was told by my mentor when I thought of going into the ministry that the job of a minister, and we are all ministers, was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I try my best on a good day and I was thinking how badly we’ve done at that as church and we all bear some responsibility for this in Lent — how badly we have done that, how much we have comforted the comfortable and added affliction to the afflicted. How much we have added guilt to the afflicted, how much we have added "the told you so’s" and shame to the afflicted and how we’ve patted all the comfortable on the head and said you’re fine just the way you are, which of course is not Christian at all.

It’s very cultural, but it isn’t Christian, that’s the message that we hear out there, we hear it on television, we hear it in the media all the time. We hear out there and sometimes in here, we hear the message that if something’s gone wrong in our lives or if we’re suffering, it’s our fault. It’s something that we somehow brought on ourselves and then if we’re not rich and we’re not successful and we’re not healthy and we’re not thin and we’re not blah, blah, blah. Then somehow it’s because of something we’ve done, but Jesus in the story says wrong. People do not suffer because of something they’ve done. We all suffer he says, all of us suffer, but he said in so many words, get with it and get with it now because this might be your last day. Get the message and get it finally, firmly and fast, you are a beloved child of God. That is who and everyone else truly is, truly is.

Repent, it’s kind of a heavy word, it implies guilt you know. But, there’s a little bit of guilt to be shouldered here and it’s the guilt in not recognizing that. We have walked so long, not getting that message and not giving that message. We have walked so long thinking there’s something we should be so sorry for. There’s something that keeps us from God’s grace, something we did or didn’t do. We’ve walked so long thinking that if it’s not us, that surely that bad person over there has done something that’s kept God’s grace from them. We‘ve shouldered that burden so long that Lent is a time to just give it up, to create some space.

You know that we’re mostly space, a scientific fact. This is all illusion, we’re mostly space. We’re like 98.9% space in this body and so are you — holy space. The world is mostly space, the universe is mostly space — holy space. And when we divest ourselves of all the layers we’ve been told we need to carry, we create holy space, space in which we can actually see each other, talk to each other, love each other.
I was thinking of the prophets of perfection I call them, the media is full of them you know. The prophets of perfection who tell us what we should do so that we can have the perfect life — who we should become and how we should become it so that we can be happier, healthier, blah, blah, blah. I heard a Buddhist, he called himself a Buddhist, he wasn’t very Buddhist I don’t think speaker the other week and he talked about how we should all be striving for actualization, awakeness and awareness — the three A’s and I put my hand up and said, "So if by definition, very few people could spend all this time doing this spiritual path, if very few people are awake, aware and actualized, then that means everybody else is asleep, unaware and unactualized." Great. What kind of compassion is that?

We Christians are called to stand with the unawake, the unaware and the unactualized. That means us! Folks stand, side by side, look in the mirror, we’re all there. That’s who we are. We’re called to love everyone as they are, not as they could be. But we hear this message constantly. Now, I’m sure he’s done a lot of good things for a lot of people but I was thinking about Dr. Phil. Don’t ask me why. I was thinking about what would it look like if Dr. Phil had Jesus on his show. And I pictured Jesus and Dr. Phil sitting across from one another, and I pictured, you know Dr. Phil saying, "Tell me Jesus. What’s happening in your life?" and Jesus is saying, "Well, you know, wandered around, healed some people, taught some people, told some stories, raised some people from the dead, led services at synagogue. That’s what I’ve been doing." And I can see Dr. Phil looking at him, poor, thin, scrawny Jesus wearing rags, beaten up feet and matted hair and saying, "How’s that workin’ for ya?" And then I can picture Jesus saying in response, "Well, best friend’s gonna sell me out. All those that I love are gonna betray me. They’re gonna torture me and kill me. Guess not very well." That’s our saviour. Hardly a success story. Hardly a success story. In his early thirties at that. Bummer! Where did he go wrong? What did he do? Did he not buy the stair master? What happened? Jesus is saying to all those people back then, "You, as you are, just as you are, are God’s very image of perfection. Right now. You may be addicted, you may be nasty, you may be Saddam Hussein, you may be Hitler, you may be who you will be, but just as you are, you are a precious child of God. You, just as you are, are loved, forgiven, accepted." Can you imagine if everyone walked around feeling that and gifting that to someone else?

So here’s what I think for Lent. Here’s some things we can all give up. First of all, let’s give up the notion that we get what we deserve. No we don’t. No we do not. Some of us are lucky, and some of us are unlucky. End of story. Those kids who are sleeping on the street tonight in Toronto, they didn’t get what they deserve. Those children that are dying in wars, they’re not getting what they deserve. It’s an absolute disgrace that we have people sleeping on our streets because of this notion that people get what they deserve. They do not. Our mission and our ministry as Christians in Lent is to let them know that they are precious and loved children of God. And to stand up and afflict the comfortable who think that they’re not.

Let’s give up for Lent this idea that violence brings peace. No it doesn’t. No it does not. You know, just like your mother told you when you were two, violence never solves anything. Why doesn’t the world learn that. Violence doesn’t solve anything. It does not bring peace. Let us take the message to our enemies. Let’s have those conversations. You know the conversations we should have. Let’s root out our enemies and for Lent let’s tell them, "You are a precious and loved child of God."

Let’s give up the idea that in Lent it’s all up to us. It’s not up to us. We’re just human. We’re just children of a God who loves us so much. It ain’t all up to us. Things happen to us. Things happen around us. But guess what? The Bible promises heaven is the end of the story. Heaven is the end of the story. Heaven on earth is the end of the story. It's a Biblical promise. No act of kindness and justice, compassion and love will ever go unrewarded. Justice well be done. We don’t have to worry about it. God will do it. God will judge. We don’t have to. We’re just precious beloved children of God.

And finally, let’s give up for Lent this kind of perfectionism that’s just sweeping through our culture. Let’s be the befores in the makeover shows. You know the after and the before. Let’s have rooms that are messy, the befores in the home decorating shows. Let’s do silly things with our money. Let’s be the befores in the how to get rich quick shows. Let’s look out with compassion over those befores out there just like us. Just like us. And let’s take them the message that we finally get. Just as we are, completely, absolutely, beautifully, profoundly imperfect, we are the beloved children of God. Amen.