SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 2024 - HEART MIND SOUL STRENGTH
Carolyn Smith
Heart Mind Soul Strength
October 27, 2024
Halloween - spiritual origins - - makes perfect sense as the sun sets earlier and shadows
rise and the cold wind blows, the bare trees wave their creaking branches and the
clouds shift ominously against the moon...and the lanterns that would have been lit
made flickering lights that hid what lurks in the shadows: a sense of gloom could shift to
a sense of doom ....no wonder we play at being frightened, and try on a persona of
being frightening, with disguises of demons and angels, imagining the creeping rise of evil,
and all that pushes back. The stuff of legends.
But instead of being scared, it’s much better to have the laughter and warmth of the
people who have fun with it, push back the creepiness and brighten the night. House
after house lighting the way, neighbours and community and fun. And the origins are hazy,
most of us don’t give it much though.
The Old Testament rises up as the stuff of legends - battles and epic treks across the
lands, kings and slaves, gods smiting mighty armies and fire and brimstone. Not just
centuries ago now, we’re talking thousands of years... so the origins get hazy. Like the
costumes of Halloween, We could dress up as Joseph in the dreamcoat or Jonah in the
whale - those are fun. But some of us dismiss it as anything useful anymore, too old, lost
to the sands of time.
Or worse - you point out - & rightly so - the violent battles, awful archaic ideas that get
thrown around like biblical sledgehammers against diversity, cultural difference, and even
women. The Promised land stories with an underbelly of domination and genocide, the
real religious wars that seem to continue from all those thousands of years to right now.
And for all the faithful followers of different religions, we see corruption and flat earth-
ers encouraging climate change and instituting laws against rights of health and love and
life. With all your Mind and broken hearts, we say ‘look at the evidence! To heck with
this stuff.’
We are fed up with all the evidence of division in the world around us now. It makes us
get defensive. Our resilience and trust has taken a hard hit and it begins to flavour how
we live and move and act in the world around us. What does fear and cynicism do to
our work, or our interactions in our community? What do our kids and grandkids see in
us, and what do they learn from our example? If that defensiveness is familiar in us, in
our circles and communities, and in our politics and business, it’s around the planet.
We’ve even got it pretty good here. But wherever you look intentionally, I promise you
will find evidence for cynicism.
So what on earth are you doing here? Each of us woke up today and made our way
here, said goodbye to warm pillows and wrestled the kids into clothes, got our aching
bones into the car and came in, mostly smiling, or at least hoping to. What sign on the
wall or memory or hope - what belief did you hang onto that got you here?
And I bet that belief, that hope - you see it in other parts of your life, and I bet you bring
it yourself: family visits and hearing their adventures. Laughter at work and jobs well
done, A walk in the woods feels good, and voluteer work worth doing. Carving a
pumpkin and giving out candy.
- How many families have some fun signs on the wall in their homes like this one?
What are you trying to say? Here, in THIS house, we do Love. Despite the squabbles
and real troubles these days - what about this decision to Put LOVE on the wall so
everyone sees it? It’s not always tangible, but the choice, the decision to put Love and
a Way of life front and center guides our own life, and serves as a beacon when
people, communities sense it in one another.
I’m pretty sure ( I really. Hope) that’s why you came today. I feel the light-hearted
flavour or the persona of St. Paul’s, we talk about the flavour of Affirming churches and
the United Church of Canada championing reconciliation and diversity and all that... If
people feel it and respond, it must be deeper than a costume we try on.. That love and
bravery has shown up enough that that’s what we feel and DO in this circle. It doesn’t
mean life is rosy - I think it stands in contrast - as hope whispered, or maybe even
standing in defiance against a world can be anything but hopeful.
And we can find evidence everywhere and every time of the disconnect and fear in
society, I promise - When you intend to find it, you will. But I promise -we can find the
opposite too. When you are intentional about seeing goodness, finding love, you will.
And being here is part of being intentional about finding it, AND sharing it.
The OT is full of fire and brimstone- but the thread that weaves from a beautiful garden
in that early legend of Eden- biodiversity and flourishing life and goodness - weaves
through those old testament stories. When people were fearful and fighting and divided,
they were brutal. And that is Universal truth. AND- when they paused and hoped for
what was possible, prayed and turned to each other, when they looked at what made a
difference - suddenly good things happened (or the legends were written ) that brothers
were reconciled. Women danced. Queens saved their people. Food was shared
abundantly. Even with (legends, my friends) of mighty floods washing away the horrible
evil of the world, the sun came out and a rainbow appeared in the sky and the message
was “God will be steadfast down through the generations.” To be “God “is to be
steadfast, divine in love and abudnacen, to make sacred the beauty and power of life, to
give rest and reason for celebration, not enslavement to fear. The Holy presence means
love and possibility. It’s there as a thread down through all the ages...
But people - well, we have bad days. We do lousy things to each other. As a whole, as
systems and economies and nations, we take a long time for enlightenment, and when
some have it, others challenge it, some build civilizations, some tear it down. So our
scripture today started with Deuteronomy in the OT, except “Deuteronomy” is a greek
word that means “repetition” - in itself - it was written to clarify and repeat what had
been said for centuries before already... Love the Lord Your God.. - yet again — and
then 500 or so years later, Jesus was taking the local know-it-alls to task yet again
clarifying, repeating the same message. The New Testament wasn’t a NEW thing that
did away with the old, it was a modern update, taking forward the best, and helping leave
the rest - the fire and brimstone- behind. Jesus’ folks faced new challengers and
challenges, and a fearful defensiveness had seeped into rules as Romans inflicted their
outside laws. The book of Matthew is written in a way that says “these old Hebrew laws
we’ve followed for so long still matter, and here is how we can read them.” The book of
Mark is a bit more raw, about “really folks, we need to get back to the right ideas..”
Luke talks about “all these good things? they’re for other people too - here’s how we
spread the word and change the world!” And John - ‘in the face of destruction, have faith
that this is still where hope lies.” Through it all, Jesus and the followers of that Way, of
the thread - they left behind the fire and brimstone and wove instead the thread of ...
the one thing above all else: Love.
We like the clear Ten Commandments or a recipe for cookies or clearly labeled traffic
signs - but funny enough, people still look for ways to mess with them. Changing a
recipe from chocolate to coconut isn’t a big deal, but skirting the meaning of a traffic sign
can be. What matters is the spirit you bring to those choices you make. We make.
Nations make. It’s clear that the spirit of cynicism and division is easy and real and if we
bring that to the world around us, guess what? we get the misery what we expect to
find.
What spirit do you WANT to bring to your life and choices and impacts? What spirit
did you bring here today, or to work or as you read the paper?
Instead of a recipe and specific steps, Deuteronomy 6 and Matthew 22 - focus us back
on a spirit, a lens for our world view. In the midst of the mess of biblical times, they’re a
repeated reminder like the sign on the wall of a noisy family home, probably tilted and
smudged with fingerprints... if we’re honest...
Like that sign that says “we do LOVE here”
Teach your children, carry this with you, post it on your walls -and come back to it again
and again - the universal and greatest commandment that resonates down through time:
With all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength and soul and might.... Love
your God, and yourself and your neighbours - love is this divine way that sings of love
and abundance down through the ages.
This is a tall order - Fear and frustration will always come first -
But we know something more.. We have faith in something more than that, and the
evidence for it as well. Universal truth that love is bigger than fear, a truth resurrected
again and again over division and hopelessness. So in your corner of the universe today
- what do you start with? Are you going to be using your mind to solving some issues
today? Bringing your best and innovating for good in the world? Maybe you’re steeling
your spirit in a tough week and seeking resilience, a bit of a smile and sense of Humour.
Maybe you’re bringing strength and action and energy to a project that can serve people
around you. Maybe you’re just learning and looking around you for examples - parents
or mentors or real life prophets, and choosing what is worth following. Friends, the
Deuteronomy people talked about teaching their children all the time, being the example
of hope and purpose for a reason... our kids, our communities are begging for hope and
integrity and a brave way forward.
I want you to take this moment and see the place, the purpose, the person... that you
are going to bring a spirit of love to. What person or purpose needs your intention this
week? Maybe it’s yourself even.
...
With all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul,
Love, steadfast down through the ages, rising against the tides, It’s here if we make it so!
Thanks be to God.