This
morning we are going to the desert.
...The
Jordanian desert to be exact, up near the Syrian border, 70km outside of
Amman...
imagine a
vast flat landscape that is empty as far as the eye can see, to a point where
the blue sky meets the yellow sand... a
place where Bedouin type peoples have roamed moving flocks and herds, a place
where Jesus types have gone to pray, a place where the demon possessed and
leprous have vanished ...
a place
where the Jordanian government had the foresight to cover the shifting sand
with gravel, to welcome 300 refugees a day as they stream across the Syrian
border under the shadow of night to safety.
The serene
desert has come to life in a refugee camp named Za’atari. The camp is home to 70,000 people, 75% are
women and children; many are of middle class background and tent living is all
new; 12 families share a kitchen, water station, and latrine.
It is winter
in the Jordanian desert and that means rain.
The people running the camp had the foresight to dig trenches to help
desert water move away from the tents and through the camp to soak the sand
outside the perimeter –not always with success.
It also means temperatures just above freezing, and for those without
shoes or shoes that are worn out it means the sand, the gravel, is cold.
The desert
once empty is full of organized chaos, dreams lost, powerlessness over life,
and no sign of an end to war and the continued flooding in of refugees.
...and now
a trip to the desert of North America...
...Where a Rev.
Lillian Daniels, a United Church of Christ pastor in the United States, has a
fascinating take on community and the church of today. Her pet topic of writing and lecturing
reflects on the phrase made by so many people, “I’m spiritual but not
religious.” So many say they do not
need the church or organized religion, especially when God can be seen in the
beautiful sun setting over vast sands of desert, that changes into an array of
colour; and takes ones breath away. Her
snippy remark is more or less that any dummy can see the majesty of God in the
sunset. Her take on being spiritual but
not religious, is that people have chosen to go into a desert of isolation and
individualism. She reflects that this is
the sin of North American society today, the sin of narcissism.
Narcissism
is a self-focus where everything is about me.
It translates into people having problems sustaining satisfying relationships
–one only need look at the divorce rate; difficulty with empathy – consider the
rise of bullying; a hypersensitivity to any insults and imagined insults –
ponder the number of young people who leave home to live on the street because
parents are accused of being insulting. The sin of narcissism includes bragging
and exaggerating personal achievements; pretending to be more important than
one really is; claiming to be an expert in everything; and having the inability
to view the world from the perspective of other people. The sin of narcissism uses and manipulates people
to get what you want no matter what the cost.
While
running yesterday past St. Mary’s University the sin of narcissism struck a
chord as I read signs for their open house for perspective students. The slogan
read: “One university. One world.
Yours.” Advertising is marketed to the
individual. Since when does one own the
university, the world...are both places not ours...a community of academia and learning,
a community of living, a global context, ours.
Reflecting
on the Syrian refugee crisis I see narcissism there too. War, a sign of the times for every
generation; It is a sin that carries
across the ages; a sin that is complete narcissism; a sign that relationships
are all screwed up. War –fighting for
ones believed truth; arguing over what one believes to be their property, their
just reward; taking what one believes they deserve; fighting because it shows
ones’ prowess, power, and superiority.
Most of us
have little idea what the Syrian refugees in Jordan are living through; out of
a desperate situation, what has happened is that 70,000 people have, whether
they like it or not, become a community of people forced to work together, to
relate to each other, to share, to put up with, to solve problems, as a
community.
Lent is a
time when the scripture readings send us to the desert.
...a place
of sand... a place to reflect on sin and what that means in our lives today; it
is a season of journey to wrestle with sin, humanity, our warts, our bumps, our
scales, and all those things which hinder us from relationship with each other. It is a time to consider repentance, a
turning around of our regular practices, to sandpaper off the rough spots, the
judgemental parts, and the pieces of ourselves that put up road blocks to real
relationships.
With
regards to church world, as Pr. Lillian comments, the present world has little
to no respect for knowledge, experience, wisdom, or tradition from outside
oneself. This is sin. The sin of narcissism. It is time for the church to be very specific
that narcissism is not okay. It is not
okay for it to creep into our own lives or the lives of our neighbours, or the
collective society. The message of the
church in her words is that “the church is sandpaper against the culture of
narcissism.” We need to remind and confront the world with the truth that,
“Spirituality is not all about you...and no you do not get to make it up for
yourself.” She argues that the only place one finds God is in mature faith
practiced in community, through somewhat flawed human traditions and knowledge
passed and practiced through the ages.
One sees God when forced to live in community where the God reflected
back to you is not likely to be in your image.
Mature faith
practiced in community is a faith that is:
“reasonable, rigorous, real; grounded in traditions, centered in
worship, called to serve, free to dream.”
In the
Jordanian desert a Syrian family sits on a mat in their tent and talks of their
life: where the father was a business owner and operator of an air-conditioning
shop, where the mom had a job in the education department, they have a little
boy and a brand new home...sounds like a typical middle class family here in
Halifax...
...on a
normal day, the family goes out to work, to daycare, and then returns home to
find their home bulldozed flat after an air strike by their own government...
They leave
with nothing but what is on their backs and each other.
Perhaps we
will never go through the ordeal of this Syrian refugee family, forced to give
up what they had...the possessions they owned, had worked for, felt entitled
to, the power their jobs held, the future promised to them based on status; a loss of any
narcissistic tendencies they held...
in fleeing
with hoards of others, they shed their skin and were/are forced to share,
forced to live in community, forced to live into the realities of the kingdom
of God.
And because
we are not in their place we need to take extra care and perseverance during
this Lenten season to guard against the sin of this society. We, as a community, need to be sanded of the sin of
narcissism.
And then to
collectively stand as a church, and purposefully act as sandpaper –to tell our
culture that individuals do not get to decide for themselves what relationship
with God, creation, or each other looks like.
Jesus
goes into the desert and stands in contrast to the sin of narcissism present in
the culture of his day. He does not
selfishly take food for himself, he does not think himself to be super
important and thus take worldly power for himself, he does not think himself
invincible and make himself God. Rather
Jesus resists the narcissism and its temptations. Jesus leaves the desert and gathers a
community of disciples and followers, grounded in Jewish tradition, worshiping
as a community with liturgy and wisdom from the past, teaching and feeding
thousands at one time –all who want to come are invited to partake; power is
spread through the disciples who become Apostles after the resurrection who
through the Spirit spread God’s power even farther; and in the end Jesus dies
–not invincible –but rather reasonable, rigorous, real; leaving a legacy for
followers to serve each other, and dream – to have hope- that God’s kingdom
will come, ushering in a society built not on narcissism but on right
relationship. ...a community in the desert not fostered out of the crisis of
war, but out of love for each other.
As we enter
forty days in the desert, avoid the temptations of narcissism, think
globally-act locally, step outside yourself and put your feet in the shoes of
your neighbour, do nothing for yourself and all things for the common good. Be strengthened in community and stand in
contrast, as sandpaper, to those who believe they can do it on their own.
God and the
community go with you on this sacred journey through Lent.
Amen.
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