Faith to Face The Perfect Storm of Change(s)
Sunday, November 1, 2009: All Saints Day/Reformation Sunday
Mark 12: 28-34
Several weeks ago a good friend and I had lunch together and beside the menu for the meal we talked about the menu of life that the first decade of the 21st century has given to us. His thesis is that this decade has given us more change than any decade in history. Think about it:
The tsunami of change began in 1999, with the false alarm about Y2K. Would all the computers in the world crash because their internal programming would not be able to change from the 1900’s to 2000’s? Well, airplanes did keep flying and computers adapted, but it was a warning flag of what was going to sweep over us.
There is the continuing tsunami of technological change. New ways of communicating: face-book, U-tube, twitter, text messaging, and 300 or is it 400 channels to choose from. Cell-phones.
There was 9/11 which has forever changed our sense of safety and security here in North America. 9/11 has also awakened our awareness of the dangers of extreme fundamentalism on all fronts.
The tsunami of climate change, with weather that brings more extreme storms and the specter of melting polar ice caps caused by global warming is another change we are experiencing. Whether it’s global warming or just another cycle of weather change, the weather change is noticeable. The lack of cold weather winters has given permission for the pine beetles to devastate forests.
And then there has been the tsunami of economic chaos and turmoil. Greed, inadequate safeguards to our financial markets, along with people believing they could buy anything on credit and not worry about paying the bill has combined to severely damage the North American dream that each generation will have more than their parents.
Then, there’s the tsunami of food nutrition and agricultural economics.
“You are what you eat” has become not only good sense for health, but also can be a fanaticism of a personal nature. Eating “organic” is an attempt to avoid pesticides, but there is no consensus on what “organic” really means. 7,000 people went to pick free potatoes in Northeast Edmonton, off the Manning Freeway. It was a political event to show us how much agricultural land is in Edmonton, and to be careful not to use that land only for housing and commercial development.
There are incredible changes in entertainment with the internet being a source of free, or stolen, music, videos. What’s allowed in entertainment since I was a child is like a tsunami. In my childhood a married couple always were shown in their bedroom with separate beds and always fully clothed even in their pajamas. Now many shows at all hours state: “The following program may contain scenes of explicit sexuality, violence and mature themes..” Anything goes, and everything shows.
How about the tsunamis in the worlds of fashion, style and retailing. The radical idea of “casual Fridays” has morphed into “casual and even careless every days” in dress code. I’ve been told one bank, maybe more, has insisted that their employees dress to a higher standard. Why? Because their research revealed that casual, careless clothing resulted in treating customers casually and carelessly also.
Lately, even at dressy, fund-raising dinners I notice than many men are no longer wearing ties. I have to tell brides and grooms to tell their photographers to “dress appropriately for their wedding. One photographer arrived for a formal wedding wearing spandex shorts and a tank top. Is nothing sacred anymore? Women’s fashions constantly change with hemlines going up and down, but it seems lately that necklines only go down.
Retailing is changing too. Internet commerce is huge business and now Walmart is selling caskets. I ask: if you buy a casket, how do you get it home in your car? Where do you store it?
And then we are facing a health crisis of major proportions the H1N1 flu. Maybe it’s history just repeating itself, but it surely is shaking the foundations of our ideas about immune systems and our false sense that a pill, or a shot or washing our hands will protect us.
And then there are changes to the systems of health-care, politics, education, and religion. Life has always been change, but you can make a good argument that this 1st decade of the new millennium has been incredibly dramatic.
Too much change at one time can create the PERFECT STORM. In nature, a coming together of the elements of waves, wind, current and temperature can create chaos in the waters.
All these change factors can create stress, tension, burn-out and damage to our lives and to our relationships. Lauressa and I celebrate our wedding anniversary this month and I thought we had a good relationship, but change causes me to wonder. I had to have a tooth extracted this week. When I went in the oral surgeon asked me if I knew that she had called and asked if she could come with me to the appointment.
The doctor asked her on the phone, “Do you want to hold John Henry’s hand to comfort him?” She replied, “Oh no! I just want to help you pull? Change is everywhere.
Jesus’ time was also one of change and the religious leaders wanted to know what he was saying about changing things. They asked, “What in your teaching is most important?” And Jesus answered “You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul and your strength.” And they nodded in approval, because that was the old Torah—the old unchanging ways. But, then Jesus added, “And you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Again, we may not hear that as radical change, but when he told stories and gave examples of who their neighbors were the people reacted to the changes he was pointing to: A despised Samaritan being the hero of a street mugging? Way too much change! Loving your enemy instead of seeking revenge, again, way too much change.
And loving yourself and realizing you are a worthwhile son or daughter of the Creator God, instead of being a worthless, guilty wretch of a human being? Way too much change! So in a predictable fashion, instead of dealing with change, they killed the messenger bringing the message.
Today, I believe that the tsunamis of change call us to use two life skills: (1) Develop our ability to keep our heads above water and go with the flow of the waters of life. And (2) Develop our ability to know how to stand firm on solid ground, knowing who we are, what our values are, and being able to make ethical decisions about life that reflect those core values. Two different skill sets: the ability to be flexible and able to change and adapt to life. And the ability to be firm, unshakable.
This month of November we are going to explore how our faith will help us face the tsunamis of change that are creating a Perfect Storm. It’s really very simple, at least in understanding, not so simple in living it.
Love is the core. Love of God means keeping life sacred, special, holy. Let there be holy times, sacred times and places, times to get off the fast pace of today’s treadmills and reflect upon what is of ultimate importance.
I believe Christian spirituality is a life-time adventure, not a once and done coming to a belief and then resting on our laurels. It’s a life-time adventure because in loving other people and loving ourselves we have a life-time challenge because like all living things, people change and we change.
It’s also a life-time challenge for us in the Christian Spiritual community because church is changing, it has to change, or it will go the way of last years fashions, last year’s music, last years best-seller list.
Have faith, the wisdom of the scriptures and of faith history is that out of the chaos God creates. This may be one of the most exciting times in all of history, because of the tsunamis of change.
Rev. John Henry Weinlick
