All That Is Seen, And A Few Things That Aren't

Last month, as soon as she heard about it, Helen sent a message to Peggy and me about the fire at the Silver Lynn senior's apartments. She asked us to reach out and contact the Baptist Church (which is beside the apartment block) to see if they needed help and to ask our community for prayers. So of course, we sprang into action with emails and social media posts. I emailed Peggy afterwards asking if there was someone who could go take muffins or lend a hand, and she wrote back and said, there would be many people there falling in, as this was the second time it had happened. Then I realized yes, it wasn't just an empty community hall with an open door where victims were gathering, it was a church. It was a community of very caring people who would be all in, a global effort in a specific neighbourhood context. (And, of course, we were still on call if needed with muffins or whatever).

In the Gospel reading today Luke talks about demons. At first I thought how am I going to write about demons, I've never met one and we don’t really think about demons in the same way they did in Biblical times. But when looking up definitions for this sermon I came across a  great piece by a Lutheran pastor named Micheal Rogness who wrote that demons have three things in common: "...they cause self-destructive behavior in the victim, the victim feels trapped in that condition, and they separate the victim from normal living in the family circle." With these criteria in mind, I can see now that many of us live with demons daily, or at least experience them over the course of our lives, maybe in mental illness, addictions or maybe, apartment fires.

Rogness goes on to say, " If we define “demons” as those forces which have captured us and prevented us from becoming what God intends us to be, we are as surrounded by or even possessed by — as many demons as those whom Jesus encountered."

Using this definition too, I saw immediately how demonizing colonization was to First Nations, Inuit, Metis and other Indigenous Peoples worldwide, creating separation, self-doubt and desperation. And upon reflection I realized that I did know demons. And while Jesus stepped in for me and many others, for most, he met them instead, arms wide, outside of this earthly realm. 

One of my favourite speakers Gil Rendel, who very eloquently speaks about the need for change in the church says:

"It is time for the church to speak again because we live in a time of anxiety, and we live in a culture of crisis. In this time/ the truth that the church holds is both missing and deeply needed. /the church no longer feels that there is a place in the public square for its voice to be heard. indeed, at the present cultural moment there is considerably less of a public square for any institution to speak and for its voice to be heard. And so by and large the church has gone home to talk to itself about itself. But the need is greater than ever for the church to be a neighbour, a good neighbour - a Good Samaritan - and speak clearly about what it sees, what it knows, and what it believes. The church must speak publicly in its own neighbourhoods with a conviction that what it says is important. It's time for the church to speak again." 

Forgive me for that long quote, I just couldn’t say it better than Gil. 

And of course, I agree. Now that churches as institutions have accepted the truth of their role in the history of this place, it is time to evolve again to truly be all inclusive, by decolonizing thoughts and ways. Not only inclusive, as in welcoming, but inclusive as in, open to new ideas by people different than themselves, people whose experiences are different than their own. And not everybody needs to be a believer here, regardless of beliefs, the church needs to be a neighbourhood shepherd, in all neighbourhoods where it stands. It needs to promote and model the kinship talked about in the pages of its books, and it needs to be willing to open those books and view the pages through new eyes, as has been done for centuries. The church needs to hear how our kin need to be treated to be truly helpful on the path to healing, because medicine dispensed in only one way doesn't work for everybody.

In my current research where I am looking at the health disparities created in the First People's communities through the practices of colonization, I came across a letter written by an Indian Agent in in 1899, in response to a question by a Superintendent who asked, if all the Indians in his area had received the smallpox vaccine yet? The Agent wrote back and said that because they couldn’t reach all the villages, they instead sent a box of vaccine 'points' to the Chief, with an instruction sheet. Sadly, the Chief did not read English, had no idea what was in the box and as a result nobody in that village was vaccinated.

Medicine dispensed in only one way doesn't work for all, but with God's help, and the help of each other, our neighbours, our kin, we can find ways to help heal everyone. The global effort, within a localized context.

Back to Luke's story. Once the demons had been sent down in the death of the pigs, and the man is healed, or in Greek sozo, which translated means saved, or made whole, he is sent to proclaim the good word, in his own words, and in a language his neighbourhood of gentiles would understand. Jesus said, "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." We have that responsibility too, to share our good news in our whole neighbourhoods, in ways which work for people in their own context, and on their terms, not just some, in a single language. Remember we're not meant to do things on our own, but in community. The Legion is still present if somebody is feeling alone.

During my recent Confirmation, we read through John (10: 22-30) and what stood out for all of us was that there were two sides to the words, those that were written and those that were not. For example, where Jesus said in part, " My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand." Peggy mentioned that it sounds like there is somebody waiting to snatch them out of his hand. There are two sides to this idea, the promise and an unseen threat, and maybe this is where the demons arise, in that dark before the light, the unseen in-between.

If we focus on that unseen rather than the promise, or if we are in a place that has caused us to not believe in God’s promise, or if we have never been offered the chance to know God at all, perhaps demons are all we see. 

While it is in this place that we as Anglican buttercups want to rise up and lead the way, it is also a time for us to be respectful in offering our presence, observing and understanding the local context, and waiting to see where and when our efforts are needed. Like in the apartment fire effort, back at the start. 

In Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem, he writes, There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. And maybe in our case, in the in-between of these places, the light and dark, the good and the unseen, maybe this is where the light gets in, Jesus comes in through the cracks, and in the contrast of light and dark is where we can clearly see the face of God. 

It is time for the church to speak again.

Amen.