Sermon (Sep 16)
Choosing Life
At the Call to Worship this morning, we praised that the heaven tells the glory of God and it proclaims the wonders of God; the skies communicate beauty day after day. The regularity of the Sun’s journey, from East to West, morning to night, manifests how wondrous are the laws of God. We praised how magnificent God’s all the creations are.
However, the God’s glory and magnificence of the God’s laws are manifested not only in His grand works. William Blake writes “To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and Eternity in an hour.” God’s glory is also revealed in even smallest things.
What I hear from William Blake’s phrase, “hold Infinity in the palm of our hand”, is that God’s world and everything in it are not the objects of possession and exploitation to be digged up and used up for the benefit of human profits. But even every smallest things in it - a grain of sand, a wild flower, a stream of water, …. is Infinity or held in Infinity which resists to being possessed, exploited and used up. Today’s Psalm reading says very clearly that they are what “revive our souls”, by “giving us wisdom and loving joy” and by “enlightening our whole being with truth and righteousness.” “They call us forever to treat all the God holds dear with awe and respect.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “for what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”(NRSV)
Seeing our world today, the long-term global economic depression or stagnation has been pressuring the minds of political and economic leaders and people world-wide and has driven them to choose any appealing projects which promise to boost their economy; It’s all same to the First World and the rest. If anything gives a hope for economic growth, they would take risks damaging our environments. In other words, they would choose economic health of their nations at the expense of ecological health and justice for all. I sense that at the bedrock of these, there are fear and concern that if we want to make sure our life and the life of our next generations be sustainable, we should secure our economy’s well-being first.
For example, our government is vigorously pressing forward Northern Gateway Pipeline project. It is a 11 hundred kilometers and 6 billion dollars project; Its plan is to pump over the half million barrels of unrefined bitumen, crude oils from Alberta tar sands a day, and send them through pipelines, across the heartland of BC, over the rocky mountains, to reach to port Kitiman. From there some of the largest oil tankers will be sold away to China and to the United States. John Carruthers, , claims that “Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline projects can safely export oil from Kitimat to new markets in Southeast Asia and California and contribute significantly to local, regional, and provincials.”
However, there are overwhelming evidence which clearly shows that introducing oil pipeline and supertankers will threaten and endanger the fragile coastal waters which are very susceptible to any change, not to mention the possibility of oil spills, the risks of the pipeline itself which crosses over thousands of rivers and streams, and the Alberta tar sands which produce 1.8 billion litres of waste waters and the huge amount of carbon emissions every day. The North Pacific Coast of Canada, alternatively known as the Great Bear forests, is our Canadian wilderness and also one of the largest green forests on earth. It’s the place of roaming wild wolves, grizzly bears, mythical Spirit Bears, wild salmon, orcas, humpback whale. And, and...not only the incredible wildlife diversity and its delicate eco-system, but also indigenous communities really depend on the ocean for their survivals. Their culture is inseparable to their relationship to the land. The immediate village at the port of Kitimat might be considered as a very little isolated community - a hundred and sixty people - but in their clan system, their relatives live all up and down the coast, meaning all are affected by what we do.
The coastline is not only irreplaceable resource - in terms of its beauty, its wealth of sea food, as a site for homes and communities, and its present and future value for tourism. This coastline is not simply a resource, but life-blood; meaning without it we wouldn't be the people we are.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul”. What shall it profit us if we shall gain the security for Canadian economic sustainability and even superiority over the other underprivileged countries, but lose our integrity and the identity as the followers of Jesus Christ and keepers of our brothers and sisters (see Genesis.)
Thomas Merton claimed that “there is in all things... a hidden wholeness.” When we taste wild berries, when we smell the scent of sun-baked pine, when we see the sight of the Northern lights, when we hear the sound of water lapping their shore, when we lie down on a bedrock integrity which is ‘eternal and beyond all doubt’ we hold the infinity and touch the hidden wholeness; the delicate and fragile perfectness preserved, in themselves.
There is in all things.... a hidden wholeness, and so is in our souls, the wholeness, the ‘image of God’. We are created to delight with what God delights with, and to be joyful where God is joyful - the laws of God is in our souls. The image of God, the wholeness is who we really are - our integrity and identity.
But when we return to our everyday lives, our business, our political world, a human world that is transient and riddled with disbelief and fear and doubt and desire, we are easily distracted from what we have just discovered about who we are and what we have just heard - our deep yearning for being whole and caring. We often lose sight of what we have seen and lose a new heart for loving and a seedbed for new life.
What is interesting about today’s Gospel is that it is not quite for a carefully outlined sermon. This is a text that moves us far beyond information to commitment. Today’s Gospel demands from us a decision: will you choose to “take up your cross”? Will you choose to take up cross and follow Jesus who says to us all kinds of uncomfortable reversals like ‘living death is living life’, ‘saving life is losing it, and losing it for Jesus’ sake, and for the sake of the gospel, is saving it.” Are you really willing to follow this person Jesus who shouted sternly, “get behind me, Satan,” to his most avid disciple who confessed a perfect statement of faith “Jesus, you are the Messiah!”?
It’s a great challenge to lose one’s life when everyone wants to save their life.
We do confess as Peter did in today’s Gospel, “Jesus, you are the Messiah!” But what do we actually believe?
We believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again. We believe in the powerful witness of his death and the vindicating good news of resurrection. Jesus says, “a disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.”(see Luke) If Jesus took up his cross, then our destiny is also to take up our cross. The gracious God will abundantly reward it - the way of cross, the way of self-denial, by blessing us with a true gift of “life” and reviving our souls.
%5EJ%202023.jpg)
