Cleaning Up

 

Seasons come and seasons go. Some things change, some things do not. My daily walks, even as they continue per usual, now accompanied by the crunch crunch of autumn leaves and an occasional morning with my slightly heavier jacket. I am reminded of a blog I posted a couple years ago. It was entitled “Sidewalk Inspector” (Feb 19, 2021) detailing impressions of my neighborhood based on sidewalks shoveled or not and other related things. This post could be of same title for it is perspective of this inspector who still walks, but I shall be more seasonally specific this time. “Cleaning Up” comes to mind as autumn leaves are falling. 

Autumn leaves make for incredible mess, and also provide interesting vantage on what's important to us. There are those who clean them up slavishly leaf by leaf, and of course those who accept them naturally as a matter of course in windy ordered environment.  [I think I am of the latter category] This has been in my mind these last days as the leaves flutter - not of ultimate importance but ... I think of many things.😉 What a sight to behold; the beautiful green dresses of our huge poplars and birches and other deciduous suddenly ablaze with new colors flowing and floating and blowing all around. Sure enough there he is! This morning it's the sound of my neighbor Richard, gas guzzling air blower corralling his leaves plus his neighbor’s on either side of him into neat piles and then into bags (non-compostable black garbage bags no less … Aargh). It’s his third time out here this year, he says proudly, gotta clean up. “Yup”, I say non-assertively. No need to be sarcastic today. I’ll tease his anality in front of our Tim Horton’s friends one of these mornings.

A little further down the street is another take on cleaning up. This driveway has had little pebble piles and variety of gravel and earth all summer long. This neighbor is so environmentally conscious she is installing a roof drainage system for her lawn and garden so as to utilize rainwater for underground irrigation. And it's a slow process, her trees and garden and driveway looking like a construction site for at least three years by now. I agree with her too - totally affirm her environmental diligence - and also appreciate some pails full of surplus pebbles she has been giving to me. They are now part of the landscaping in my yard!

A couple of blocks down and just around the corner, the other day I discovered another friend. An elderly woman up in her crabapple tree surprised me with the sound of apples plopping into a box as I walked by. My greeting quickly yielded a pailful for an apple jelly project at our place later that evening, plus a few stories of how we used to preserve on the farm back in Saskatchewan (yup we hail from similar open fields), plus in short order she had this younger guy (me) up a ladder to help fill another bucket for her from near top of the tree. I'm thinking her tree has done well this year, just before color change yielding some fine apples and some good neighborliness.

These are specific one by one encounters. And then there is the macro experience. This local sight and sound also brings on a little sentimentalism for me. There is a bigger better picture also in my mind. Who cares who is raking whose leaves anyway? And so what if they don't get all cleaned up? It's better to leave them on the lawns over winter anyway, isn’t it? My wife and daughter certainly say so, reminding me they make a great bed for ladybugs to sleep all winter. 

I live with another set of sensors and leaf memories. None of this Calgary color comes even close to what I gazed upon many times during my long-haul trucking years, especially up and down the Eastern seaboard, Maine, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania; yes also Indiana and Ohio and Ontario – incredible oranges, yellows and fiery reds sometimes right up to top of the Appalachians! Always I was sorry I couldn’t pick up a load of maple leaves and deliver to Calgary Prince's Island Park just for all to enjoy! 

Having been glamorized by those other trees I am considerably less impressed with my leaf-blowing neighbor and all us ordinary leaf rakers. There is no need to get too preoccupied with the temporary mess they make on our streets and curbs and decks. If we don’t get them all raked, no problem. I live next to Fish Creek Park and the wind can blow them in there. It's a natural wild-type habitat, with room even for all of Pennsylvania's leaves, to say nothing of the Calgary leaves we don’t get raked.

It is the season. Short days ago it was flowers galore, some bordered by neatly cut lawns, others with the more 'natural' look. Seasons come, seasons go. My hope is that the next season just around the corner will provide lots of the white stuff to make it all beautiful regardless of who got what cleaned up.

A Lifetime in Waiting

September 9, 2022

Two persons have been uppermost in my mind this last day. One is Prince Charles, heir to the throne of the British Commonwealth, eldest son of Queen Elizabeth, who died yesterday mid-day at the ripe old age of 96. The other is Richard Rohr, best-selling author of many books, including Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life (Jossey-Bass, 2011). According to this book the first half of our lives is devoted to accomplishing something; the second half to reflecting on what has or has not been accomplished!

Charles was the princely boy whom my brother and I watched not like a hero, but as one who would be king someday and who lived his life way out there up there somewhere waiting for the day. That's quite a while ago. And while we were apparently growing up and trying to make something of ourselves, in our mind Charles just needed to show up with his sister Anne, looking handsome and well-groomed and only needing to behave royally. Then Charles changed a bit, as we probably also did during the growing up years, Charles definitely becoming a little more interesting at least according to radio reports and newspaper and journal articles (no sidebars, no social media, in fact no computers yet in our possession)! He was fascinating, somewhat of a free thinker quite akin to many others our age with hippyish inclinations during the 1960s. Then Charles entered into marriage including some behaviors which caused much grief to his beautiful wife Diana, also his parents the Queen and the Duke, and obviously feeding eager journalists and paparazzi with many a juicy tale. The slow maturation of life then included Diana’s tragic death, allowing Charles to marry 'the other woman', quietly enduring the pain caused to his two sons and the ill-repute which has dogged him ever since, even among his own family members. Now at age 74 he is King!

How can a person with spotty personal life, spending an almost total lifetime in training, learning protocol, riding in motorcades, reading speeches written by others, step up to a position increasingly questioned not only by those who idolized his mother, but also wondering about the man who would now be king. I do not blame a people questioning the state of British monarchy, and possibly the state of a monarchy period. Is it an outdated expense for all concerned? Needless to say, the wrinkles and worry lines on Charles’ face suggest he may have already spent considerable time thinking about this.

This begs the subject many have reflected on, many have agonized about, and yes many have made a profitable profession of, including psychologists, psychiatrists, theologians, and of course historians who have provided the story line (?) for our kids in elementary and high schools in the many countries of the Commonwealth. How Should we then Live? said Francis Schaeffer a Presbyterian minister a number of years ago in his famous book of that title (Crossway, 1976), even then already noting the mainstreaming of religion blended into everyday western life. Schaeffer’s still troubling question probably is why Father Richard Rohr's books have come to my mind alongside the Prince. Rohr’s contemporary wisdom of a doing–reflecting life cycle strikes a chord seemingly for many, religious and non-religious, for persons of faith in many religions certainly including Catholics and Protestants, and interestingly with advocates and critics in both the evangelical as well as the liberal versions of Christianity.

I do not believe Rohr's wide popularity makes him a shoo-in winner for all, but I do find his perspective helpful at this particular juncture of our western history; King Charles lll ascending the throne. Rohr begins the lofty topic by firstly speaking of God. "Aagh" says my thirsty soul. As a Christian I need to hear or read somebody saying that. “You can’t weigh or measure or calculate or dole out the infinite” says Rohr. "It’s time for us to recognize a world of abundance, even among all the scarcity being lamented these days – environment, economies, warfaring." Yes, scarcity limits us to who should be doing what and why isn't it being done - the world of politics, newsworld. He goes on “Stop counting who’s worthy, who’s not worthy. It ends you in a hole, a dead end. It’s stupid.”

Rohr's provocative declarations address all of us in today’s pluralistic society, certainly not only his church the Roman Catholics, nor those within the Church of England! So even as Charles at this point, as required, claims 'the church' as his faith, I see in Richard Rohr's words a good instruct to Charles and to all citizenry. It's right there in the Bible, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). The new head of the Church of England and all of us need this abundance. Rohr's reference to scarcity or abundance in trying to describe God is a good reminder about describing (evaluating?) earthly Monarchs. Whether Charles has ever done anything noble or noteworthy is less important than his state of mind at this time. Recognize that in his lifetime he may have acquired the wisdom and the perspective needed to get us all a good look at monarchy and what elements are still essential and what may need to be scrapped. 

Charles lll may now have precisely the experience and the vantage and hopefully the humility to lead the British Commonwealth as well as the Church of England into a more realistic appraisal of its participation in a new world order. "How should we now live?" Francis Schaeffer's question even more relevant today, methinks. We will be best served if we think abundance rather than scarcity as we honor our new King. It certainly behooves all who still believe in a God who is over all creation. 

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.⁵ Therefore one must be subject, not necessarily because of wrath but also because of conscience (Romans 13:1,5 NRSV).

Perhaps in reverse order of Richard Rohr wisdom, our King’s lifetime of waiting, of reflection and/or acting out may well be what has equipped him for the role he now assumes. May our Creator God grant him the wisdom and the courage to be and to do, significant actions toward the end of his days.

God save our gracious King.

 

Gospel North Gospel South

My wife and I are increasingly dependent upon morning devotional reading, or at least a morning ritual which we know is good for us - and interestingly also for our children. Although they live their lives elsewhere, it seems to us that they like to know "this is what mom and dad do." Also, we continue to appreciate our reading material (Rejoice!, MennoMedia.org) which continues to be both inspiration and guidance coming from none other than the good old Bible and thematically organized on theme of Revised Common Lectionary which guides worship services in most mainline denominations of the Christian Church. I am a Mennonite, neither catholic nor protestant, low-church and including a huge range of theological vantages from ultra-liberal to ultra-fundamentalist. We do not have a pope nor denominational authorities of high office to define unified belief systems or practices, which is why even us (yes die stillen im lande – the quiet peaceable ones) are splintered into divisions and denominational structures almost exactly like political allegiances of the various provinces, states, or nations we live in. We probably don’t like it, but we are quite blended into the world! So a little organizing principle as in lectionary guidance from the larger church does not hurt us a bit.

It is within an increasingly non-denominational evangelical, ecumenical, interfaith, liberal, conservative, secular, sacred environment that we read on and we go on, a movement that began as the 16^th Century historical Anabaptists. Today we are among hundreds of other Christian denominations and also among many other faith practices and traditions! 

Fortunately the Bible is still available to us all. Today’s reading is from Acts 8:26-40. Acts is one among 66 books in the Protestant canon of scriptures (yes we’ve leaned toward the Protestants on this, designating another 15 books into a section labeled Apocrypha, which the Catholics include in their canon). This book, sometimes subtitled “The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” is a very formative document, as close as we get to a play-by-play of the beginning of the Church after the ascension of Jesus (Acts 1) and outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).  

Acts 8 pushes in all directions as the early church becomes a force. Onward and outward! Yes, it’s Philip the apostle who is protagonist in this chapter. Although Jerusalem has been the scene of the confrontation (as in death and resurrection of Jesus and early outpouring of the Holy Spirit), Philip the freshly spirit-enabled apostle has already been up in Samaria, mixed race territory just above Jerusalem. Doing what? Taking some orientation classes? Nope! He's already doing it; proclaiming the Messiah, and crowds paying close attention because there were healings and shrieks as impure spirits came out of people (:5-7). The crowds of this territory were a hodgepodge of those Hebrews who had not been exiled to Babylon in 722 BC and promptly got into misunderstandings with 'family' when the exiled ones returned 70 years later to try and rebuild Temple in Jerusalem. In intervening years mixed in with locals (labeled Pagan in Google!), they believed the Temple belonged on Mt Gerizim (not Jerusalem). Many differences! Into all of this comes Philip doing visitation 😇 and dealing with all that comes up. Then it's southward to some more adventure. 

Down the road to Gaza - as per angel dispatch (:26). To this very day a trip in that southerly direction may still be dangerous and at least always interesting. [My memory still testifies to that as I recall a trip to that part of the world some thirty years ago!] Who does Philip meet on the desert highway but an envoy, an important official from even further down. Two things about this important person from Ethiopia. Firstly he is a eunuch, and secondly he’s enroute to Jerusalem to worship – an official in charge of the treasury (yes) of an African country already knowledgeable about Christianity and wanting to learn more! All this in today's devotional reading!! A person of high responsibility physically altered to help him to be focused on his job? And not only that, but he is totally interested in what he’s been reading.

³⁰ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

The old and the new is still strangely mixed. Even as today we hear about civil war wreaking havoc on the citizens of that early Christian nation, Ethiopia. Even as Palestine-Israel remains a hotbed of world sabre-rattling, one may wonder what was accomplished back there.  So what was? I'm thinking it was perfect illustration of ongoing world history, ongoing work of God. Did I also mention, just prior to these encounters there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit? In today's intercultural interfaith environment it is still so very important. No amount of historical explanation or even religious and political dialogue or diplomacy is adequate if there not be a recognition of ongoing spirit of God. Not all things were definitively solved but all things totally moved forward in Acts 8. How can one speak with impact in Samaria among Jews and Arabs trying to understand each other? Philip was the man. How might one address a strange official from another country come up to Jerusalem seeking answers to his query? Philip was the man. Philip was the man, but it was a work of the Spirit of God blowing in and among this new movement taking hold – as promised. This is quite in keeping with Jesus’ explanation to his disciples of upcoming things even before he was crucified, ^7 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. … if I go, I will send [the Advocate] to you” (John 16:7). There are so many ways yet to learn and experience the ongoing everlasting intercultural Holy Spirit empowered presence of Jesus the Messiah. 

This north-south Acts 8 story ironically reminds me of quite a few years back. Once upon a time when I was a longhaul trucker I walked into a coffee shop in Estevan, SK, just before border crossing and on to some way-down-south U.S. destination. Sitting at a corner table was a young man reading his Bible. On impulse (and perhaps a holy hunch) I asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He looked up at me with a smile, “How can I unless someone explains it to me.” Needless to say that became occasion for two pastors, one young and eager and the other slightly shopworn, to immediately engage in animated conversation. Our shop-talk (or work of God), was really a celebration of the occasion, really many occasions, when it is a privilege to speak with one another as the spirit urges us to. I enjoyed his hospitable heart, understanding and possibly even envying this older preacher and his truck out there in ‘the world’. With a knowing smile and almost in code I asked him if he had already been baptized. He assured me he had, also with a knowing smile (see Acts 8:36 😏). We did not get into intricacies of mode, pouring or immersion! Then we blessed each other in our ongoing ministry, me the Mennonite going to be among the Americans, and he the American Baptist to preach to the needy Canadians.