I have been reading and thinking a lot about Sabbath. It all started as a challenge from the BUC Book Club at the time we were reading “The Year of Living Biblically”. It was innocent enough. Someone in the group said, “Why doesn’t the United Church tell us to keep the Sabbath?” My quick and professional (and perhaps slightly defensive?!?) response was, “Because the United Church believes in individual, moral culpability. You are in charge of your own spiritual practice. As a denomination we encourage and educate but we don’t demand how you live it out.” But since that question was posed I have read and reflected on keeping a Sabbath time and what that looks like and means. Balance in life can be a challenge. It is too easy to keep busy and to persist in work rather than rest. The mere fact that I am keying this into my lap top and that you are reading it shows that technology now plays an important and persistent role in modern life. So, even if I say to myself, “I think I will just check my e-mail.” I find myself taking my eyes off the screen maybe an hour later having been lost in the technological communication of e-mails and internet surfing. While to some that might be relaxing it is still a form of work and activity, or at the very least distraction from other things, isn’t it?

Why is it so hard to just be? I am currently reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor, “An Altar in the World”. Her premise is that God is in and through all creation and there are opportunities to worship at “God’s altar” every moment of every day in the places we go and with the people we meet in our daily transactions. She encourages balance, while recognizing how hard it is to resist the need to keep busy in a culture that so highly values busyness. In her chapter “The Practice of Saying No” she reflects on the importance of Sabbath. She says, “Sabbath is the great equalizer, the great reminder that we do not live on this earth but in it, and that everything we do under the warming tent of this planet’s atmosphere affects all who are woven into this web with us.”

With this in mind, I am taking Sabbath. The popular way of saying that is, “I’m on holidays.” Even though I know I will encounter situations and think of things that cause me to say, “Oh wow, this would make a great blog.” I am going to spend the next two weeks resisting the urge to write. I am taking Sabbath.

There was a movie made quite a few years ago starring Hugh Grant. It was called “Three Weddings and a Funeral”. Well this week I didn’t get the wedding but I did get three funerals. It was an unusual week. It has given me time to do some reflecting on our traditions at the time of the death of someone we love. Each of the funerals I attended this week was different than the others. On Monday the service was held in a large Roman Catholic Church in Scarborough and the entire service was in Portuguese. The service was for a dear man, a sort-of relative through marriage, who immigrated to Canada and died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 65. He had recently retired.  Carl and I did not understand anything that was said (although we did catch on for the Lord’s Prayer and the passing of the peace).  The second service was held in a rural church. Following the service we went out to the cemetery that surrounded the church and did the committal for this dear 89 year old woman. She had lived in the community all her life and although she had no children of her own she had ‘mothered’ many people throughout her life. And finally, on Saturday, I was privileged to sit amongst the mourners in our own pews as we laid to rest our dear friend and brother in Christ Bob Harper. As his son noted in his tribute to him, Bob was a faithful follower of Jesus, a devoted husband and father and a man who gave generously to the community through his volunteer work.

While each of these services was different from the others there were, at the same time, similarities.  In each case the church was full and there was a sense of worship and a spirit of gratitude for the life lived. I have conducted funerals, thankfully not many, where the only people attending were me and the funeral director. Those are sad affairs. This week each service was filled with love and respect for the one who had passed from this world to the next.  A funeral is an occasion of mixed emotion. But for these three funerals I was privileged to be amongst a crowd of people who met together in a mood of love and respect. The one who had passed on, or as my friend always puts it, ‘had gone home’, was honoured and tributes of love and affection were given. And in each case as I left the service I felt a sense of rightness, not that the person had died, but that their life had been valued and honoured. And I think that is the way it should be.

All the talk on radio and TV this morning is about Michael Jackson. Most call him the King of Pop. He was perhaps one of the greatest influences in the music industry for several decades. His talent is now lost to us. He rose to stardom from humble beginning as the engaging younger brother in his family. In watching the old videos he is a cute little boy with amazing dance moves. By the end of his life he had become a recluse. His skin had been lightened and his face so changed from multiple surgeries that he did not begin to look like the same person. He had become a person of intrigue; suspicion and rumours were rampant and stories were told about him constantly. What made a little boy from Gary Indiana into this unusual icon?  Michael Jackson is an illustration of the power of media. His musical talent is undisputed but it seems that the notoriety and adulation was too much. How else can one explain constantly changing his looks through dangerous surgeries? He went to great effort to try to redefine his face. Somehow fame took him down a road of such insecurities that he could never be content with who he was.

He had a personal support staff of every kind - including a personal physician. He has fame, fortune, adulation but still he was not happy with whom he was and he died an early death.  Many of the healing stories of Jesus tell of him touching the lives of people who lived with insecurity and alienation and bringing them into wholeness. Michael Jackson had all the trappings of success and security but he lived a life of alienation just the same.

A friend of mine once said she had given up on the church. She said she found sitting in a cinema and watching a good movie more spiritually renewing and theologically stimulating than going to church anyway. I have visited many churches and lead worship on a regular basis. I am sorry to say I get her point! While I love the church I too love sitting in a dark theatre and being captivated mind and heart by a good movie.

Last night I did just that. Upon the recommendation from a friend’s blog I went to see the movie ‘Up’ at our local Norwood theatre. (By the way, we are so fortunate to have such a great little theatre right here in town.) Seeing the advertisements some might think that ‘Up’ is a kid’s movie. Yes, it is animated, but based on the audience, mostly all adults; people have figured out that this movie is not made just for the kids. Although kids will enjoy it on one level, it is colourful and fun, and they will enjoy some of the antics and adventure, the true depth of the story is something only adults will fully appreciate.

‘Up’ tells the story of Carl, an elderly widower, who longs to satisfy the dream he and his wife held all their lives to go on an adventure. His circumstances finally force him to, as the Nike advertisements say, “Just do it”. What he doesn’t account for are the companions he encounters on his adventure. ‘Up’ is a story about unlikely friendships and finding them when we need them the most. ‘Up’ illustrates that possessions aren’t what bring value to life but the relationships and people who fill our life and give it meaning. It is about caring and risk and sacrifice. It also reminds us that sometimes the ones who need us the most are the very ones we need too. I think Jesus would agree.

Did you stay outside last night until the daylight was finally gone? We tried, waiting and watching for the first star, but finally the mosquitoes drove us indoors! But, not before we saw a fire-fly glimmering as the darkness settled. I love the longest day of the year. And even though the calendar tells us it is the longest day and that from now on the days will grow shorter, we know that the promise of long, summer evenings is still before us. I consider languid, summer days our reward for all those days of shovelling snow and scraping ice in January and February.

Yesterday at BUC we kicked off summer in grand style. Even though it was Father’s Day some of our dads were put to work early as they set up a huge canopy on the church back yard and dragged in their bar-b-ques. It was well worth their effort when we saw the crowd of happy picnickers after the service. The kids ran about trying out the different games, slurping on their freezies and have Kare-Kare, our clown, paint their faces. Meanwhile, the adults sat in the shade of the canopy tapping their toes to the great music of our Olde Tyme Gospel Band. It was a perfect day. HUGE THANKS to all the folks who helped make our second annual Street Party such a wonderful success.

So now summer stretches before us. I like that everything seems to take a shift for the summer season. Here at BUC we give ourselves a kind of Sabbath for the months of July and August by taking a break from many of our meetings and activities. This is the time to kick-back, relax and just enjoy the wonderful creation God has given us … right here in Muskoka.

Happy Summer!

I have a dilemma and I wonder if it is something you struggle with too?

A couple of weeks ago all the news was about Sri Lanka and the terrible inhumanity that is happening there. I saw Sri Lankan Canadians protesting on Parliament Hill when we visited Ottawa and saw the reports of their days of protest on the streets in Toronto. Members of our local communities were moved to action out of respect and concern for neighbouring ministers Charles and Ratna Arasaratnam who have immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka. Charles and Ratna have many concerns about family members who have disappeared in their home land. But, now the media attention has shifted to Iran. Television and radio broadcasts and newspapers are filled with reports of the citizen uprising that is happening there as a result of the recent election. I support the Sri Lankans who are calling for humanitarian aid and independent investigation into the conditions in that country. I also support the upsurge in freedom of expression that is happening in Iran. The issues being protested in each of these countries are not the problem.

My problem is how do I react to the shifting, ever-changing topic that is the ‘flavour of the day’ in the media? Just because Sri Lanka has “fallen off the radar screen” of our news coverage does not mean that the atrocities in that country have stopped.  We know that as soon as a new situation arises somewhere else the cameras and microphones will shift to a new country and Iran will be left behind. As a Christian what is my response to these global concerns? How do I become informed and act responsibly when each day there is something new is clamouring for my attention? Perhaps more importantly how do I fight off compassion fatigue? Sometimes the needs and concerns are so great and so complex that I shrug them off rather than dig into the challenge of the issue. I think of the stories of Jesus when he was overwhelmed by the crowds.  He sought a quiet place for solitude and prayer. But there is a big difference between Jesus and me. I feel paralyzed by the need; he was renewed to move back into the challenges and needs around him.

What do you think? How do you keep faith as you consider global concerns?

I know a number of people who have met their partners on-line.  Several couples that are getting married at BUC this summer got all the information they needed about their wedding from our web site. Recently we learned that a woman from England read our web site, followed the link to the “History of Our Stained Glass Windows”, where she discovered a family name in one of our windows. She sent an e-mail inquiry to Barb in the church office and after a little flurry of e-mails back and forth ‘across the pond’ she found a missing branch on her family tree! When I was doing my grocery shopping on Monday afternoon I bumped into one of our young mom’s. She said, “I have to get into the office to pick up a registration form for Vacation Bible School. I said, “It’s on the web site just go on line.” She replied, “Now you are talking my language.”

All of this is to day that electronic communication is the way many of us relate to one another these days. I still firmly believe in face-to-face community but I also know the convenience and day-to-day reality of technological communication. So, what better way than a blog to share in our spirituality as we wonder about faith and the mystery that is God? Welcome to Nancy’s Blog! Here you will find brief, thought-provoking, spirit-nudging reflections posted on an occasional basis every week. The blog will reflect events in our congregation and happenings in the world from a faith perspective.  And, if you can, take a couple of moments to post a comment. I hope you enjoy this on-line reflection.