As the weather is warming and the sun is showing herself again, that brings us towards the blessed opportunity of…you guessed it…“Spring Clean Up”. With shovels and rakes and pruning shears, collectively we will beautify Northwood’s grounds further welcoming the neighbourhood. It is a significant act of exercising the church’s vision of: “Embracing all of God’s Creation with the love of Christ”. And people do notice the difference: ‘Hey the Church looks great!’ (people will see) But, to be honest, we will pay the physical price as aches and pains will present the day after our labour. This work of labouring towards new life is not easy, is it! Labour is hard work! Yet, the beauty that is achieved is ALWAYS worth it! Perhaps, you can recall times when you laboured and fostered the creation of beauty? Gardening is, perhaps, a good example. Hiking all day to reach that breathtaking viewpoint, might be another. The hard work of a musician labouring with their instrument to create the gift of beautiful sound. Labour during childbirth that produces the gift of new life. And the labouring efforts of our Olympians in their respective sports is yet another example. When you think about labouring towards the gift of new life, what comes to mind? The image that comes to mind is often unexpected…beautiful…full of wonder. We labour and through God’s grace new life blossoms…beauty unfolds…the unexpected is created. We labour towards God’s birthing of something new.
Another significant labouring that we began considering last week was that internal work of life integration. You will recall (or you revisit last Sunday’s reflection on the website) that we became familiar with Eric Erickson’s final life task of life integration. This entails the inner work of looking at the thread of our life and putting it all together…integrating it. It is the existential work of looking at the ups and downs of life and pondering ‘what was it all about’… ‘where did the Holy One show up’… ‘where do I need to seek forgiveness and healing?’… ‘what do I yearn to do in these last chapters of this life’s journey’. Last Sunday, I shared this important pondering came out of the Death Doula course I attended. However, the thinking that lay behind this work of life integration, I think, is equally important for us to be doing NOW. While this work is something that is often done in one’s last days, I believe that this is the faithful work that feeds our spiritual beings and allows us to further grow. In fact, I think that this is EXACTLY the kind of work that Lent is all about! Looking at one’s life and pondering where God has shown up. Looking at one’s journey and considering where we are seeking healing and forgiveness with self and others. Looking at the thread of our existence and considering how we can move, more fully, towards wholeness.
I will pause here to ‘check in’ and see how everyone is taking this in. I believe that this is HARD work. It is akin to the backbreaking work of the gardener who is cultivating the beauty that will later spring up. It is akin to the challenging work of the musician practicing her craft, the Olympian working on their sport, the mother labouring to bring new life forward. It is firstly, hard…which is why we call it labour. And it is secondly, scary and surprising because we do not know what new life will arrive on the other side.
I wanted to share a parable that has been attributed to Catholic scholar Henri Nouwen. This parable has been shared by Wayne Dyer and Pablo Olinero. And just like the parables that Jesus shared, this is designed to open our consciousness that to the deep and meaningful. It is called “The Parable of the Twins.” In a mother’s womb were two babies. As the weeks passed, and the twins developed, their awareness grew and they laughed for joy, “Isn’t it great that we were conceived? Isn’t it great to be alive?” The first baby asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The second baby replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What would that life be?” “I don’t know, but there will be more light than in here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths.” The doubting baby laughed. “This is absurd! Walking is impossible. And eat with our mouths? Ridiculous. The umbilical cord supplies nutrition. Life after delivery is to be excluded. The umbilical cord is far too short.” The second baby held his ground. “I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here.” The first baby replied, “No one has ever come back from there. Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery it is nothing but darkness and anxiety and it takes us nowhere.” “Well, I don’t know,” said the twin, “but certainly we will see mother and she will take care of us.” “Mother?” The first baby guffawed. “You believe in mother? Where is she now?” The second baby calmly and patiently tried to explain. “She is all around us. It is in her that we live. Without her, there would not be this world.” “Ha. I don’t see her, so it’s only logical that she doesn’t exist.” To which the other replied, “Sometimes when you’re in silence you can hear her, you can perceive her. I believe there is a reality after delivery, and we are here to prepare ourselves for that reality when it comes….” As the weeks stretched into months the twins noticed how much each was changing. “What do you think all this change means?” asked the first baby. “It means that our stay in this world is drawing to an end,” said the second. “But I don’t want to go, ”said the first “I want to stay here always.” “We have no choice” said the second, “but maybe there is life after birth!” And both feared what they did not know. And as the one who was first to be conceived, so he was the first to be born. The other followed. And they cried as they were born out into the light. They coughed up fluid, and they gasped the dry air; and when they were sure that they had been born, they opened up their eyes and they found themselves cradled in the warm love of the mother. They lay open-mouthed, awestruck at the beauty of the mother whom they had never seen before.”
The work of life integration is the hard work of believing in life that is found on the other side. The hardest part of it, I wonder, is the unknown. When we pick up the threads of our lives and consider putting them together: stitching them together with forgiveness, healing them together with love, binding them together with God’s grace, we never entirely know what life might look like on the side. In the story of Nicodemus, he could not begin to fathom the spiritual birth that Jesus was talking about. We see this profound contrast between Nicodemus, an esteemed teacher of the Law, and Jesus of Nazareth who teaches of the spiritual birth that that allows us to glimpse the King-dom of God. “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Nicodemus counters: “How can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit”
Lent is this deep, rich and labouring time where we have this opportunity to be born, even further, of the Spirit…to know the Spirit…to live in the Spirit. The fear of the unknown is always natural. We like the familiar, as did Nicodemus. Yet Jesus offers this wonderful promise of new life that comes through our spiritual birth. Healing…wholeness…life integration. This is truly the work of Lent. So many of us have given up a favourite thing during the 40 days, and this models our disciplined work of creating space for God’s spirit to work, bringing new life.
Abram and Sarai take that uncertain journey, leaving their homeland of Haran. How frightening must that have been? Pack up everything and go…that would have been terrifying. Yet, it wasn’t, because they went with God’s blessing. “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.[a] 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Our Alcoholics Anonymous group meet weekly at the church, and it has been my honour to journey with a few brave souls as they share their 5th step ~ the ‘confession step’ acknowledging the harm caused to self and others. And it is always a further honour to attend cake celebrations where people celebrate the anniversaries of their sobriety. In these raw moments, I hear rebirth stories that Jesus promises us all. I hear movements towards forgiveness, healing and wholeness. I hear the God of grace and second chances showing up and smiling and new life being born.
Jesus went into his 40-day journey hungry, and tempted…yet God’s angels attended. Centuries before Abram and Sarai set forth on their journey blessed to be a blessing. And YOU, especially in this Lenten season, are called to journey inward as you deepen your faith…await your spiritual birth and find God in the spiritual wilderness you walk. And so, we look upon our lives and put them all together…the work of life integration: pondering where God has shown up, where we need healing and hope, where forgiveness is to found throughout this wonderful unfolding life.
Amen.