Memorial Gathering sermon: Gerry and the Wilderness Camping, Oct 12, 2019

Steven Jenkinson also reflects, “Grief is not a feeling. Grief is a skill, and the twin of grief as a skill of life is the skill of being able to praise or love life, which means wherever you find one, authentically done, the other is very close at hand. Grief and the praise of life, side by side.” 

In his last days, Gerry sought the meaning of his life, to map the journey he had taken through the world. We all knew Gerry’s kindness and quiet joy, the intelligence and deep friendship he shared with us all and the wonderful impact he made on our lives. Yet it seemed to me that Gerry wanted to analyze his life systematically, like studying chemistry, observing a rock, and making a note for himself about what he had discovered. In his last days, Gerry grieved and started reflecting on his life’s journey, allowing compassion for himself to celebrate his life, praise life, as equally as he grappled with finding a way to mourn his ending. Gerry was very courageous and committed in this way, while subtly revealing more and of his innate sense of joyfulness, his unique wonderful ability to appreciate life inside of himself and in the world, in all their glory and magnificence.

Here, I would like to share eight blessings from the Beatitudes in our Bible, known as the Sermon on the Mount: 

The Beatitudes

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Gerry shared with me that he always loved wilderness camping, especially canoe trips. We talked about how, on this trip, our life is dependent on the others we share the canoe with; that image of the canoe made a lot of sense and gave comfort and understanding to Gerry. Our life is dependent on those who are with us. A canoe is the world we live in! Gerry loved solitary or intimate trips because putting ourselves in nature, alone, having an ultimate dependence on the environment and the people we share our lives with is a spiritual experience. In nature, in the wilderness, regardless of whether you’re on foot or in a canoe, you move at the pace the land or the water allows you to go, and the peace of that pace, that place, surpasses any need to exert our willpower to control our surroundings; the fact that we exist there is enough. Listening to the forest, you become part of what you see; rocks and sky become part of you, who witness their magnificence. There’s no shadow; you are the hero. Just watching, observing, you see how God works in all things, provides all things, like the unmoved mover, and in that moment, you understand that you are precious, invaluable, a hero, as all beings which envelop you in that pure peace are heroes in their lives … and the mystery of life flows like a hidden river, the streams flow fresh and renewed, unknown by anyone but nature’s stubborn residents, the moose, the rabbits, the beavers, the great horned owl. 

We miss you, Gerry. May God’s quiet and eternal joy guides you gently to a world of enlightenment and love, which the eternal spirit knows and which we will all return to in our last days, both bound and blessed by our mortality. Blessed are you, Gerry, who has gone before. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Ha Na Park

Immanuel United Church

Sermon: God’s Sourdough Bread (John 6:25-35), Oct 13, 2019 Thanksgiving Sunday

Sermon: God’s sourdough bread

Text: John 6:25-35

My friend, let’s call her ‘Jane’, has a 6 year old son. Jane’s a writer, and her son plays the violin. She’s a young mom, with a full-time job, yet she makes all the bread she and her son eat every day. Jane’s a baker, engaging in the humble yet noble labour of feeding her family with wholesome food. The kind of bread she loves to make most is sourdough bread. You can imagine the wonderful warmth and flavour as you hold it gently in your hands, touching its sturdy crust and smelling it, putting your nose close to the homey smell. Jane’s son loves both the bread and the excitement that is new and fresh every morning in their cozy kitchen. She told me, one day at school, in his Kindergarten class, her son opened his lunch box and took out his sandwich, made with the family’s sourdough bread. His friends asked him, “Why does your bread look like that?” Of course, we can realize  that my friend’s sourdough bread looks different; it definitely doesn’t look like the white bread or Canadian Rye bread, identically sliced and packaged, you can buy from the grocery store. Then Jane told me how she was delighted to hear what her son said next: “Too bad that my friends don’t have parents who can make bread like ours.”. That day, (I imagine) my friend’s son ate his fill before his friends finished theirs, displaying a proud smile as he returned the clean lunch box to his mom in the evening, with thanks and a kiss.  

Some bread is made and baked with love, and it’s different. It looks different. Smells different. Tastes different. We sometimes give to our friends who bake compliments such as, “Oh, I really thought this bread was from a bakery, or a restaurant - it’s so perfect.” believing that we’re giving them a true compliment. When we say that, we truly mean it. But really, it’s not true. Everything made in love, baked with love, is different from something you could buy from a store. The reason for the difference is not just a matter of skill or being hand-made, but something else. What is that?

In today’s reading, Jesus encounters a crowd and surprises them with what he says. These are the same people who were at the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. They had an unexpected feast last night with five loaves of bread and two fish supplied by a child, when they were so hungry and it was close to sunset. Jesus and his disciples, and the crowd, were far away from a village where they could get any food. After Jesus blessed the small amount of food the child brought forward, everything became enough for everyone, feeding all, while leaving 12 baskets more for the next day. Then, even before these people, who were not only fed but surprised, stimulated, maybe even shocked by this unexpected miracle, could come together again to discuss and understand what they experienced, the sun rose again and their mysterious host of the feast, Jesus, vanished, leaving the crowd behind.  Perhaps he even left them feeling confused and disappointed by his disappearance. Naturally, you would want to get to know your host better. Certainly you would have many questions to ask! And so they followed Jesus, finding him, finally, on the other side of the lake. Then, the sun was already over their heads, and they asked, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” In response, he gave them several answers. “You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life… The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The people said to him, “Give us this bread always.” Jesus answers them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” 

Jesus wants us to know the difference that the bread of life has from other kinds of food. What he tells us is that the bread that Jesus gives, the true nourishment from heaven, the right kind of spiritual knowledge and activity, has something to do with a quality and substance that endures. Something that lasts until the end of our lives, something that can be tested and true, enduring generation after generation. Something that is persistent and stubborn enough to live, and stay alive, even if it suffers persecution, persistent and stubborn enough to resurrect and rise again to endure until the world ends. It has great stamina to endure and go to the last. The love of God towards us is like that; it endures to the last to reach us, despite our resistance, because of us, within us, and beyond us, through grief, through despair, never dying, but living through our lives. The kind of love God has for us is persistent, stubborn, and so, eternal. It lasts forever, coming all the way “down from heaven” to the earth “to give life to the world.” What makes my friend’s sourdough bread, the product of her honest and diligent labour, because of her love for her son and herself, different, is the persistent, stubborn, eternal love that she has for her son that would last to the end of her life and beyond. God’s song of blessing never ends even after our life’s individual end. The song existed before our birth; it is like the unrecorded cosmic melody the Universe plays before the Big Bang and after the universe’s collapse. If the crowd knew that the bread they ask Jesus to give them “always” is God’s never-ending love song for all humanity and all things in her creation, they wouldn’t need to ask their question, because they are already filled; never hungry and never thirsty. 

Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Here’s a question I would like to share: What helps keep your love towards your people, God, and the world, and yourself, persistent and stubborn, enduring to the end? How do you ask for God’s guidance, help, and support in order to share your life more fully with your family and friends, with those you know and those you don’t, in a life-giving way? Can you see, smell, and touch the bread of life… in your life? How? One recent morning, I asked my partner, “How were you so kind and loving to me, today? Why do you love me so much?” And Ianswered, “Well, I just loved myself a lot today.” If Jesus, Living Bread for the world, has the enduring love for all humanity and living-moving-things and beings, equally and a lot, (all are fed, everything is enough, enough to leave 12 baskets of extra, extravagant love even after being broken for billions and billions of blessings) our answer to his love should also be returned by loving ourselves a lot, despite our situations, despite our grief, despite our despair, for the healing and wholeness of our living and being. Just like the great stamina that God has, with an enduring and lasting love for the world, we just need to keep asking, persistently, stubbornly, “Give us this bread, always, Jesus”, the bread of heaven, God’s sourdough bread made in the Mother Baker’s loving, gentle hands, her fingerprints on the soft dough of her making, giving life to the world and singing billions and billions of blessings to our lives.

Ha Na Park

Immanuel United Church

"Prajna for Your Grief Walk", Minister's musing, in Oct Newsletter, 2019

1. Prajna

Last night, before going to bed, my younger son Jah-bi told me something he had been thinking about lately. I said to him, affirming his words, “The truth is relative.” I was not sure if he understood the word, “relative”, but I trusted that he would remember my words in the future. Then, I also went to bed, and had a dream just before waking up the next morning. In the dream, I saw different forms of gods just like I was watching a slide show, while the dream vividly communicated the word “prajna” to me through visualized intuition. Prajna means the highest and purest form of knowledge, intelligence, understanding or wisdom in Buddhism and Hinduism. I wondered why I had come across this word, ‘prajna’ in my dream. The last time I read or studied about prajna would have been when I was researching for my Master’s degree in religion nearly 16 years ago. Have I been seeking some form of the “highest” or the purest form of wisdom these days? Have I dreamed it because I am seeking it internally and also need it? What can be the prajna in my life and in my ministry, as something I can share with people? God visits us as Wisdom, the purest and highest form of understanding. We should look for prajna, in our life’s journey, our walk as a pilgrim to find the place of wisdom. 

2. There’s no Absolute Prajna

I pondered why I dreamed about prajna. I enjoy dream work and often get insightful benefits from it. Prajna means the supreme wisdom, knowledge and understanding about how we truly find ourselves, our happiness, the purpose and the meaning of life. The key is, I interpreted after my dream, that even if it is prajna, the highest truth, there’s no single perpetual truth that is the same to everything, to every person, in every place, in every culture. Truth changes over time, and what is considered ‘truth’ is different and unique dependent on who has reached it, in which era, in which culture, in which part of the earth. This diversity is beautiful. No absolute claim of a single universal truth should exercise dominion; that rigidity has functioned as a vehicle to displace through colonization the truth that other societies possess. Some teachings are land-based, and they belong to the people who have passed them from generation to generation on their ancestral land. 

3. God’s Wisdom … in Our Life

We have so much grief and sorrow going on in our Immanuel community right now. Grief, loss, death and deep sadness, so often a part of our life, seem more prevalent today. Someone has lost their best friend. Someone just let go of her youngest sister whom she cared for like her own child. Someone’s dying and the family’s gathering to help her go, bringing their love, watching her with loving eyes. Someone was grappling with questions about his own life’s meaning, before he chose medically assisted dying and slipped away. We all try to accept death, to understand it with our hearts and carry on with love, yet it is not easy. We rely on our hope and faith in God, or the Holy Mystery, for answers and guidance.

When I ministered at Chemainus United Church, one church member really struggled with the blows of losses that kept coming one after another; she got very tired of wrestling with the deaths of her beloved friends and relatives. She came to prayer meetings with her husband, who suffered from multiple sclerosis and had difficulty walking; they never missed a session. One day she said, “I used to go square dancing with this group of lovely people and came home with the flowers of laugher. And none of them is any more. I counted. I let go of 21 people only within the last year. Grieving is very hard.” Her name is Marian. I met her 6 years ago. And she’s still as active as she used to be, and is on Facebook! She has grieved, but her reliance on God has stayed strong.

4. Griefwalker 

Seeing Marian’s grief, I suggested a film for her to watch. The film is Griefwalker, a National Film Board of Canada feature documentary film. It is a lyrical, poetic portrait of Stephen Jenkinson’s work with dying people. “Filmed over a twelve-year period, Griefwalker shows Jenkinson in teaching sessions with doctors and nurses, in counselling sessions with dying people and their families, and in meditative and often frank exchanges with the film’s director while paddling a birchbark canoe about the origins and consequences of his ideas for how we live and die.” (from Orphan Wisdom’s website) A few of the themes appearing in the film: Where does our culture’s death phobia come from? Is there such a thing as good dying? Who are the dead to us? How can seeing your life’s end be the beginning of your deep love of being alive? You can watch this film free (and safely), if you go to: https://www.nfb.ca/film/griefwalker/ (1 hour and 10 mins.) Jenkinson says, 

“Grief is not a feeling, it is a capacity. It is not something that disables you, we are not on the receiving end of grief - we are on the practising end of grief.” 

“Grief is the midwife of your capacity to be immensely grateful for being born.”

“Grief is not a feeling. Grief is a skill and the twin of grief as a skill of life is the skill of being able to praise or love life, which means wherever you find one, authentically done, the other is very close at hand. Grief and the praise of life, side by side.” 

5.  Prajna 

Of course, some of the wisdom in Griefwalker is prajna; supremely wise, but not an absolute, prescriptive truth for everyone. Yet, I hope if you are interested, you can watch the one-hour film, Griefwalker, and see if someone else’s prajna can accompany your grief walk … and help you find your own wisdom and truth. 

Ha Na Park

Immanuel United Church

Covenanting service sermon for Susie: "Blessed are You" (Matthew 5:1-12), Oct 6, 2019

Sermon: Blessed are You

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

My name is Ha Na Park. As the minister of Immanuel United Church, it is my great happiness and honour to be here and share my reflection with you, in the beautiful sanctuary and sacred space of Steinbach United Church. Congratulations, Steinbach congregation, for celebrating and covenanting your pastoral relationship with Susie and Paul, and with all who gather tonight, in the presence of God. I met and began to love the gifts Susie brings to the church when, along with a group of intercultural/indigenous leaders in this region, Susie and I worked together to plan a panel discussion at last June’s Inaugural Regional Council Gathering. Today is the first time for me to meet Paul; I hope to get to know him better, as I see Paul’s gifts shining among you already! I see that you’ve started some significant decolonizing work and study. I encourage you to continue. That is so AWESOME. I am excited to return here next June, when you host the next Regional Council Gathering. 

I am beginning to learn that in the indigenous world view, God has never been a God. God or Sacred Mystery is manifested and people see the presence in duality: the sky and the earth, grandmother water and grandfather rock, in matter and in spirit, and all things under, above and in between as relatives, as female and male, never a God, simply as one in the brilliant diverse relationships in the world. The Osage theologian, George “Tink” Tinker says, in an indigenous vision, Jesus is Corn Mother (Mother Earth, just like Jesus has Sophia Wisdom as “her” in the early Christian vision.). Jesus is also a historical man, yet still the mystery, the parable, as any human being can be when their divineness is revealed. Jesus was born, lived and proclaimed to people extraordinary blessings, as shown in today’s reading, the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount.

In today’s story, Jesus walked to the mountainside along with the crowd who followed him. I imagine the crowd as a multitude of people with different life experiences and backgrounds. Some of them are fairly well off, others are not. The majority may be Jewish, but some may be Canaanites or other ethnic, cultural identities. Who are the Canaanites? Canaanites are the original people who lived in the land, Palestine, before the Hebrew people, in their exodus, conquered it, believing that this is the promised land given by Yahweh. The Bible records that Canaanites still lived in Jesus’ time, side by side with the Jewish settlers. Jesus, a Jewish settler, healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman. Just like our lives, the Bible is full of “contact zones”. It invites us to look at the stories, hear the stories, read the stories as narratives that happened in the “contact zone” between settlers and the native people, to engage in the act of reading through Canaanite or other non-dominant eyes. (Laura E. Donaldson, Cherokee, USA). 

Today’s story continues. After Jesus spent some time with the crowd, he sat down. Then, the disciples came to him, and he began to speak and teach them through the eight Beatitudes. 

I chose this passage for tonight, for Susie, for Paul, for the people of Steinbach, for all of us, because Jesus’s sermon on the Mountainside urges us to ask important questions: 

What will you do, who will you be, if you must preach the Beatitudes, especially proclaiming the first blessing, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” to those who are actually poor, those who suffer from the real impacts of devastating poverty, spiritually and materially? How can we proclaim, how can we say to them, “Blessed are you”? What would this act of blessing mean in such moments and how will it change us and those who hear it? The Beatitudes are not just blessings but a call to action. We must go and actually meet those who are poor in spirit, and be accepted as their friend. 

The second blessing also calls us to ask the same question… 

What will you do, who will you be, if you must preach the Beatitudes, proclaiming the second blessing, ““Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” to those who actually suffer from long-term grief? How can we proclaim, how can we say to those who see their loss with pain-filled eyes, deep sorrow or even inexpressible anger, “Blessed are you”? What would the proclamation of that blessing mean in such an encounter and how would it change us and those who hear it? 

We must go and meet those who mourn, and be accepted as their friend. 

One definition of friendship which makes sense to me from my lived experience comes from Beverley Harrison. “Friendship is a relational mode in which security can be felt in intimate equality.” Equal, reciprocal, sensitive, caring friendship between two peoples, two groups, two worlds… I find this definition of friendship useful and meaningful, because first of all, we meet each other every day, and we also live in the "contact zone" of different cultures and different life situations all the time, especially in pastoral ministry.

“Tink” Tinker says God is Healer. It makes so much sense, then, that Jesus is the healer, too. I believe, in today’s eight Beatitudes, being blessed, or the “blessedness”, means being “healed". Jesus is a healer, therefore preachers and pastors must be healers too. In a real sense, in a good sense, in a right sense. In the first Beatitude, “poor in spirit” does not just mean humility. It speaks about the condition of where people are and how they are doing; the dispossessed and abandoned people of the world. Those who suffer from financial poverty. Those who have been deprived of their rights, land, resources, history, culture, language, and because of the wrong, colonial forces of deprivation, those who have lost hope, therefore, those who have become poor in spirit. Being “Poor in spirit” is not so much a characteristic one would seek; it is, rather, a characteristic of who God cares for and embraces as her people. 

In this sense, what Jesus is teaching with the first Beatitude, “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” is that the kingdom of God is the promise of healing. Being blessed is the promise of healing; its sign is the rising of the kingdom of God among these people. Healing and peace must come by two roads. Healing at an individual level, which is the healing journey that finds its way in every person’s heart. Its signs are restoring beauty, peace, harmony, hope, spirit, tradition, and culture. Societally, in terms of healing in the world, “blessed” means the reversal. In the Good News, reversal of status is at the heart of what happens when Jesus and the kingdom of God appear. The proud are scattered; the powerful are brought down, and the lowly lifted. The system will be turned over, and in the space that the change creates, the light of God will shine stunningly above everything, opening the eyes of all people on the earth to see: those who mourn are comforted. Those who have been “humiliated (the meek)” inherit the earth, the land. (It means that their deprived rights and lands are restored and returned.) Exodus is reversed. People in this land find a home in harmony, learning how all can live together on the Creator’s holy mountain, no one hurt or destroyed, the wolf and the lamb feeding together. And in this peace, those who have been hungry and thirsted for justice are filled in satisfaction, anticipating the hopeful future. 

I chose Jesus’ beautiful preaching to be our scripture tonight because these Beatitudes are the model in which we learn from Jesus how being prophetic and pastoral should be one, can be one and are one. My blessing and hope for Susie and Paul and for their ministry, together with the leaders and elders and children at Steinbach United Church, is that tonight we will promise to each other, whilst proclaiming the Beatitudes, that we will be prophetic and pastoral to one another in true spirit, in this region and in the world. We need more decolonizing leaders. This call is not just prophetic; it’s pastoral because we live side by side, with “contact zones” in our daily lives. I believe this commitment, this covenanting, this communion is at the heart of why we gather tonight. God’s people. Her people. God is wonderful, reciprocal duality and multiplicity, and manifest in relationships. I wonder if we sometimes treat covenanting or a covenanting service as a passing one-time event, something like a rite of passage, rather than a set-aside time to reflect deeply on how communities can enact the Beatitudes for one another and in the world. Jesus looks at us, and points his finger to us and says, “‘Blessed are you’ who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.” 

Today, a myriad number of churches, like the countless number of stars in the night sky, celebrated World Communion. So, communion is a very appropriate and timely metaphor for what we do now. Communion is the manifestation of relationship in the Circle in which no one is higher or more central. In the circle, in the communion, everyone practices friendship as a "relational mode". True security and hope are sought and felt in our intimacy in equality. Steinbach, congratulations again. May you be a blessing as you are blessed. Continue to participate in God’s continuing creation, especially through your prophetic and pastoral ministry, in this region, and on earth as it is in heaven. 

Ha Na Park

Immanuel United Church