Endings and New Beginnings

What terribly confronting readings this week which for many of us seem to describe the times we are living in, or at least witnessing! These readings (Twenty Third Sunday after Pentecost. Proper 28 (33). Luke 21:5-19; Isaiah 65:17-25; Isaiah 12; and 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13.) not only describes the fearful situation of the first century world in which the disciples would find themselves in but also describes the brokenness of our world! And the prophet Isaiah still speaks to our longing for the new heaven, the kingdom of God, being realised in this world. 

Some of the alarming events we see in our world are one off events but many have a cyclical aspect: be that in sociopolitical processes, or the physical seasons (here in the southern hemisphere it is the beginning of summer and our often-terrifying fire season), and of course it is the ending of the church year. It is a time when nature and community invite us to consider the end of the old order and to desire the new life which can come out of change and endings.

You may like to read what I wrote three years ago.

A New Heaven

For the first hearers of the gospel according to Luke these were not merely poetic images for although borrowing some of the language of the old prophets Ezekiel and Daniel there was the literal destruction of the Temple and the beginning persecutions of the church in their mind. For them the terrible overturning of the world they knew and risk to life and liberty were very real possibilities.

And tragically, human nature and history being what it is, there have been many times since when sacred buildings have been destroyed, and human beings imprisoned or worse for their faith.  Indeed, still today there are many places in the world where people are persecuted for their faith and places of worship are not safe or a refuge from the strife outside.

For much of recent history those of us in the west have not had to suffer particularly for our faith. But of late we may be feeling less confident of our exemption and safety.  And having marked Remembrance Day so recently we might reflect that we are only ever a decade or two, a generation or maybe two, away from having our known world shaken apart!

But part of the sacred and inspired nature of Scripture is that it has relevance across time and circumstance. For into each life tends to come to occasional cycles of change and destruction and a deep shaking loose of how we thought life and faith was. This is true both externally and internally. As individuals and as a community.

Often the change is initially experienced as destructive: the loss of someone we love; a betrayal by a friend or family member; a life threatening illness in our selves or someone we love; financial disaster; and all those other losses of work, position, status and our identity. And also the destruction that we contribute to: unhelpful ways of relating to others which again and again lead us into situations of being hurt or hurting others; addictions to substances that we thought were our helpers and friends; ideas and beliefs that don’t seem to be big or strong enough anymore for the situations we find ourselves in.

So where is the life abundant, life eternal – which is the goodnews of the gospel – in this particular reading, in the image of collapse and destruction and unravelling? Maybe it is helpful to remember that Advent always begins (in just a few weeks) with images of being shaken, consumed by fire, destruction. It would seem to be a spiritual truth that there can not be a new heaven, or a return of Christ, or the coming of the kingdom, unless room is made. The old must give way so that there can be the new.

Father Richard Rohr said it this way: “To change people’s consciousness, we have to find a way to reach their unconscious. That’s where our hearts and our real agendas lie, where our mother wounds, father wounds, and cultural wounds reside. The unconscious is where it all lies stored, and this determines a great deal of what we pay attention to and what we ignore. While it took modern therapy and psychology for us to recognize how true this was, through apocalyptic literature, the Scripture writers were already there. We can’t get to the unconscious logically, literally, or mechanically. We have to fall into it, I’m sorry to say, and usually by suffering, paradox and the effective use of symbols. Until our certitudes and our own little self-written success stories begin to fall apart, we usually won’t touch upon any form of deeper wisdom.”

This spiritual and psychological need to have the old shaken loose would seem to be true for the individual and for the community or nation.

But maybe more than anything the good news is that the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus demonstrates that life emerges out of death, that no destruction and suffering can kill the love of God. It is not simply that after the wild fire there will be new growth for those creatures that survive and can wait long enough, but that destruction, even death, is not the final story. And suffering is not evidence of unimportance or forgottenness. The ordinary, the broken, the vulnerable are all precious and included. None are left behind.

And importantly times of disturbance and destruction are an invitation, or initiation, for each of us and all of us to step forward, to proclaim mercy and hope, and to participate in making justice and opportunity for all our neighbours. Every time the earth shakes, or the fire sweeps through, or the tyrant thunders, it is an opportunity to grow in compassion and the sort of courage to love the other even when we are fearful.

We may start out thinking salvation is about our personal relationship with Jesus. Important though this is salvation is really about us being transformed from the small insular self into the soul that embraces all that God loves and knowing ourselves gathered up in same oneness. And for most of us such transformation requires a good deal of being shaken and blown about until we no longer imagine that we are in control, until we give ourselves over and into the embrace of God – the beginning and the fulfilment, our source and destination. This is not to say that I think that God sends suffering our way in order to teach us compassion and justice but rather that when the flawed and broken world we live in brings us into the place of suffering we are invited into the love that is greater than fear and death.

Even so, come Lord Jesus the Christ, grant us desire and courage for the work, and times of rest and grace. Amen.

With Advent fast approaching you may wish to consider two courses I have written:

Advent Year A Course

The Gift of Incarnation

 This is my work based on all that I have heard, read and experienced. I am indebted to the wisdom of others. This week I am especially grateful to:

Father Richard Rohr at https://www.cac.org/daily-meditations/stirring-the-imagination-shaking-the-unconscious-2021-04-28/