Listening to this excerpt from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, it’s clear that Paul was a lot. We hear the superlatives of Pauls’ concern for the people of Corinth which we know wasn’t easy. He’s trying to get the Corinthians that the gospel which he has been sharing with them isn’t about a time back in the past or a time in some far off future. The gospel is about what is happening right now. Paul exclaims, “Look! Now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” The gospel isn’t about getting back to Jesus’ days on earth. And salvation isn’t about a far off heaven. It’s what what’s unfolding here and how.
Paul’s emphasis on the present is perhaps the simplest and the hardest thing to wrestle with. And it’s not just the Corinthians. As humans we are the ones who have a tendency to fall into nostalgia for the past or imagine an idealized future. Paul dares us to consider what happens if God is at work in our lives right now. That is the easiest thing to miss because like the Corinthians it’s easy to get caught up in the squabbles of leaders, in disagreements within the church. It’s easy to miss what the Spirit is doing amidst the people of Corinth, just as it’s easy for us to miss what God is doing in our midst today.
This is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. What does that look like today? Often our demonizations put out well intended statements that get lost in the shuffle. They never quite grab headlines and attention. We know that the kind of Christian message that is grabbing headlines is often theologies that don’t represent us. The news tends to gravitate to a brand of Christianity that increasingly allies itself with an unfolding fascism in the US that also as ripple effects closer to home here in Canada and BC as well.
And yet we know there are more choices than these. Christian unity is also wherever Jesus’ love is proclaimed. I remember a small march of Anglicans, Lutherans, and others who gathered at Christ Church Cathedral in March 2020 in order to hold a small prayer gathering in support of the Wetsuweten youth who were camped in front of the BC Legislature. However the event organized by the former Anglican bishop took place the afternoon after the camp was dismantled and Indigenous youth had been arrested the previous evening. We arrived at the steps of the legislature to find grounds keepers pressure washing the steps, erasing any trace of the Indigenous youth and their ceremonial fire. Temporary fencing barricaded the ceremonial gates to the legislature where Indigenous youth had been camping for weeks.
Because of the loud noise of the pressure washing we couldn’t gather near the front stairs. Instead we gathered off to the side near a secondary entrance. There was the feeling like when you show up to the ferry and you watch the ferry pulling away just a few hundred feet from shore, but too late nonetheless. And yet there was joy and a genuine witness of Christian unity in that moment. In the procession from the cathedral to the legislature we passed a lot of folks who asked us what we were doing. We met a small class trip from Sidney who had come to honour the Wet’suwet’en youth as well. As Paul says “now is the acceptable time.” Perhaps we didn’t come late, but rather to point to this action the Indigenous youth had done.
I think about what we can do as Anglicans, United Church folks, Lutherans, and other denominations as we know the Wet’suwet’en leaders remain under siege protecting their own land and water. Like Paul I am heartened that we are given this privilege to be serving as witnesses to the gospel today. We who are so fortunate to bear witness to an incredibly challenging time. To have ministries like Wild Church in the Anglican Diocese that refocus us around creation and its beauty. To have Anglican and United friends in Abbey Church that explore ministry in between traditional church structures, house churches, the ministry of Dorothy Day, and beyond. We think about our friends across the street at St. Luke’s and our history together with them.
I think about doing my Master of Divinity degree at Montreal Diocesan Theological College, an Anglican seminary across from McGill University, where I was enrolled as the first Lutheran student. I think about all the friends so many of us have made in different denominations. Some of us have even been members in multiple denominations or at least felt at home in these churches. In 2022 denominational structures and differences matter less and less. Increasingly our ties are with other congregations and ministries that have shared goals in witnessing to the gospel.
Disruption of Pandemic
At times during this ongoing pandemic it feels as though so many of our dreams have been interrupted. In person activities have been postponed or curtailed so many times we’ve lost count. It seems a distant past when we could simply invite friends from other congregations to a shared event that isn’t over Zoom. As much as we continue giving thanks for online ministry, which is also real church and through which the real presence of Christ always finds a way to be with us.
I wonder how many of us identify with Paul’s words of sleepless nights and other tribulations during these two years. It’s hard to imagine what God is calling us to do as a church when we have so much to tend to on the home front. We have love ones who are sick, needing tending to. Other loved ones have died. Marriages and relationships are increasingly frayed due to stress while seeing so many dreams and plans disrupted. We’re getting a version of cabin fever even though many of us can get outside. But we also yearn for those shared cultural spaces we frequent together, including in person church gatherings without regard for protocols.
In times like these it’s easy to romanticize what the world was like before we ever heard about Covid. When vaccines were things most people got to protect themselves and their children against terrible diseases. Not a political minefield that divides communities. We know there are those false prophets out there exploiting these divisions for their own political gain, including church leaders.
I can hear Paul piping up right now that even though we’re way laid, we keep fighting the good fight. We keep seeking paths towards Christian unity as the Spirit yearns for us, while being honest about spiritual trauma and the ways church history is fraught for us in predominantly white, settler congregations.
Grace in focusing on the present
And yet grace prevails. Paul may come showing his receipts about all the ways he’s suffered on behalf of the Corinthians. But all his ministry is undergirded by the scaffolding of Jesus’ grace. For us living through times of uncertainty around public health, climate crisis, and Indigenous rights, we draw on God’s love for us in this moment.
I notice in myself a tendency at times to escape into a romanticized past or an idealized future, while ignoring God’s gift of today that is before us. And yet that doesn’t serve me well. It doesn’t keep me centred in my spirit. It disconnects me from the people around me, when I’m not fully present. Perhaps you notice these tendencies in yourselves at times. That you’re drifting off into a fog at times. It’s no surprise hearing people reporting not sleeping well, not feeling rested, feeling anxious about the future.
And yet here we are as the body of Christ, who Paul affirms we have been given spiritual gifts to bring us together. Spiritual gifts of friendship in Christ. Spiritual gifts of being able to get through hard times.
One outlet I’ve found for self-care is running. I don’t assume most people enjoy running. I didn’t enjoy it when I started. I only started running after I had kids I looked for physical activity to do at 6 AM and where we lived a running group was the only thing I could find. As tends to happen I formed friendships with the people in the running group and before long I actually enjoyed the running part, but that took awhile.
One thing runners talk about, especially long distance runners, is finding your pain cave. That’s not avoiding the suffering of endurance events but seeking it out. Finding solace in the midst of struggle. I’m not going to pretend that’s a little weird. But I think about the struggles life throws at us with loved ones dying. Children, grandchildren, and others we care about diagnosed with severe illness. Seeing our province challenged with increasing floods and wildfires. I don’t know all that the future will bring, but I know that collectively we’ve gotten through tough times. We’ve gotten through these past two years and we’re still getting through it together. As gospel people we have access to stories, to a theology of the cross, to all the saints who have gone before us, sustaining us today in our prayers and song.
May God grant us the clarity of Paul. May we trust that now is the acceptable time. The Spirit awakens us from our slumber yearning for the past or gazing off into the future, rooting us God’s love for us here together. And may God grant us strength in our diverse Christian witness as all the saints. Amen.
