Sermon: Touching Our Strength
So, as many of you already know, I came here from Manitoba, the vast and wide prairie land, which, in Cree, means “Where the Creator sits”. My family — Min-Goo, myself and our two children — , arrived in Victoria on August 31st, after a long and beautiful road trip west. The city we lived in, Winnipeg, is recognized as the place where the “two rivers meet”: the Assiniboine River and the Red River. The Assiniboine flows east from Saskatchewan, and the Red river flows north from Minnesota; they meet at The Forks and flow together into Lake Winnipeg. As the rivers flow through the land, they change it; they reshape their banks, they bring nourishment and sorrow. The rich history of the Metis Nation was born along these waters; these rivers have nurtured and changed the lives of so many in myriad ways.
When we move and migrate, we arrive with stories – stories we’ve heard, but also the stories we’ve lived. We embody them; they are stories we continue to write and rewrite, and they rewrite us as well. I am really curious and excited to imagine what story I will become, what new chapters will be written, together with you. On this new land, and in this new context - it is an exciting time for me and my family. I hope it is the same for you!
Before my family moved to Winnipeg in 2014, we found a home in Ladysmith, about a hundred kilometres up-island. Min-Goo was called to Ladysmith United Church in 2010, and shortly after, I was appointed to serve Chemainus United Church as their supply minister; that allowed my two-year student internship to happen. Before then, our first home in Canada was in Burnaby, in 2007, when Peace, our older son was 8 months old. We moved shortly after, and lived in the Vancouver School of Theology’s residence at UBC for 4 years. So, it is really 4 years in Vancouver, 4 years on Vancouver Island, 8 years in Winnipeg, and now we are back to BC, to the island, to this beautiful city. Our migration story as a family, and as myself, makes a circle of returning this time. How I find a home in each place, how I develop a sense of belonging to the land, to the prairies and the island, is also a story… Which I would love to share as I engage with you more personally over time. I often tell my friends that nature is God-given, and therefore the land of the prairies and the island each have their own profound transformative majesty.
I share a bit of my migration story today with you, because, first of all, I would like to be an open book to you. I would like to introduce myself to you as a story, and meet you as a story too. That’s my hope, and it would be my utmost joy to hear your story. Please tell me how your sense of belonging to the land and your sense of belonging to the community have evolved — if you have some extra time to tell me. Those two questions are my first inquiries to make; learning your stories are my personal goal this year. I would like to hear the stories of this land — the traditional territory of the Coast Salish people, specifically, the Lekwungen-speaking people — and the stories of people living on the land, especially, as you and I, together as BVU, as people of faith, will continue to write a new story, merging and emerging like two rivers meeting.
It’s been 18 days since my return to Vancouver Island, to Victoria, and now I worship with you, BVU. In the past two weeks, I have been asking myself: What I am called to? It’s an exciting question, a heart-trembling one, and at the same time a sacred one: What am I called to here? To this land, to this city, to this community. What am I going to be? How shall I be inspired, nurtured, led (love + equity driven), challenged, transformed by you and by the land?
In August, our staff team, Min-Goo, Pat McKay, Margaret, Mark, all the Mighty M people and I, met on zoom and brainstormed our new theme for 2022-23, and everyone welcomed, ”Telling Our Story, Sharing our Faith.”
Last Monday, the BVU congregation voted on the budget for the renovation and a decision to move forward.
On the following day, I joined the Just Like Family board meeting and received a warm welcome. A member commented humorously that I came to BVU in the middle of a “tornado” this past week. I laughed because it was so true: as I started to be involved in a real way, I encountered many astronomical numbers (7 digits!) and equally large-scale decisions relevant to the Cedar Hill site renovation and social enterprises. Then, I started to ponder… What about … What if what we are building is not just numbers, but stories? As we ponder numbers, we also carry stories. Amalgamation, renovation, possible funding — these are not just numbers; they are the narratives with which we write the story of Broadview, even now. Questions like, “Why here, why now?” inspire stories. They do not just explain what has happened and will happen; stories are interesting and spark the imagination. I am interested in learning and hearing more about “Why we do what we do”, and believe that only when we know and can answer why we do what we do, and why we are proud of what we do, we can love ourselves. And the confidence of loving ourselves opens up more room, (like a renovation of the heart) for loving others.
What I admire about Broad View is that you’ve already written many pages and many chapters in the story that you have been creating together: amalgamation, renovation, social enterprises, worship, outreach, many areas of ministry. This hard work and joy of co-writing are composed of many facts that are translatable to numbers in financial statements. I am excited in working with you in bringing these facts and this work together as a storyline, too. The hard work and joy of co-writing, co-creating… How does it work for you? I have been personally inspired by the work of Jennifer Aaker, at Stanford Business Graduate School. She said, “Everyone needs a signature story. It’s a story that, after you tell people, those who listen to it somehow look at you differently. And the most powerful signature stories are those that take the audience where you want to go. One of the most powerful stories is the vision story. The vision story is about where YOU want to go. For many of us there’s a gap between how we see ourselves and where we are going, versus how others see you and where you are going. Story is the most effective way to close the gap. The story brings other people along on your journey.”
Last July, while my family visited Korea, we were able to travel to Japan for three days as well. Our older son Peace is fascinated by Japanese animation, and travelling to Japan has been his number one dream in recent years. We visited Osaka, and the tour guide said, “There are many reasons why many people dream of visiting Japan in their lifetime, and one of the attracting factors is that visitors know/learn the story of each place from books, movies, etc. Because of the story they learn, they become more interested, and as a result, the stories attract more travellers. Every corner of this tour is built on a story.”
Stories have power. Our brains are hard-wired to hear and interpret stories. Stories stick to our brain like Velcro. Stories open up people’s heart and interest, and makes them want to engage more. That’s how our brains work. If anyone comes to our door and asks about Broad View’s signature story, what would you say? What adversity have you overcome together, what dreams have been met like two rivers meeting and flowing richly to nourish us? What are you proud of, and what do you love most about our community? How do you love our purpose together? Can we move from asking “What do we want to achieve?” To “Why here, why now?” in order to co-write, co-build the story: “What is the story that we are, together, writing, creating, building, or even innovating and renovating — here and now?
Writing is both hard work and a great joy. It is so similar to building a home. To do the hard work and joy of co-writing… Here are the foundations, here are the walls, here we are, together, building a new story.
I believe that “Telling our story, sharing our faith” can be hard, because we are telling about ourselves. Telling “our” story really well is a deep work, because for any good story, adversity plays a key role, and in order to share it, the storytellers, the storybuilders, you and me, Broad View, will need to be willing, need to be open, to be vulnerable. Reflective. Learning.
Touching our Strength, by Carter Heyward, is one of my favourite books. I am honoured to use her book’s title to explain the process of telling our story. I believe that the hardest part, and at the same time the most rewarding part, in telling our story is “touching” our strength, because the place of strength is deep. Strength and vulnerability share the same origin, connected in love and struggle all at once, and touching both strength and vulnerability is really the same as daring to love ourselves. Touching is skin to skin, deep to deep, an intimate action. It is the courage to truly love ourselves, and as a reward, loving ourselves becomes the foundation we need in order to love others as ourselves. Hayward says in Touching Our Strength, “In fact, loving is hard because learning to share our passion, the exuberant yearnings of our erotic/sacred power, requires of us, ‘revolutionary patience’ with one another…It takes a great deal of time and love for us to learn how to let go of our senses of separateness, isolation, and self-control, and risk not only reaching out to touch others but also allowing ourselves to be touched deeply by them.” Hayward continues…
“We are not the same, not in the beginning, not in the end. We are not one, not a merger, not a unity of look-alike-think-alike-act-alike-be-alike.
In the beginning is the relation, not sameness.
In the beginning is tension and turbulence, not easy peace.
In the beginning, our erotic power moves us to touch, not take over; transform, not subsume.
We are empowered by a longing to not to blur the contours of our differences, but rather to reach through the particularities of who we are toward our common strength, our shared vulnerability, and our relational pleasure…”
In today’s Gospel, the Samaritan woman is a story-builder. In the story, she develops the storyline through questions, such as:
“You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan—so how can you ask me for a drink?”
“Sir, you don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get this life-giving water?”
In the beginning, the Samaritan woman starts her questions based on her habitual binary thinking of either/or. Black and white.
For example,
There’s Jacob’s Well and we get water from it — OR we remain thirsty.
Worshipping God on this mountain as Samaritans do — OR in Jerusalem as Jews do.
And yet, she evolves each time with Jesus’ answers, and Jesus and the Samaritan woman, together, build a revelatory story line.
Jesus proclaims who he is by answering the Samaritan woman’s questions. Like two rivers meeting, Jesus teaches and affirms that the way of God is not either/or. The way of God is like the sea or a big lake that transcends and embraces opposites (two rivers flowing from different directions). The water Christ gives is Living Water, which does not come either from Jacob’s well, or someone else’s well. The location it comes from is not the issue, because it is about Life. Living Water is about quenching and nourishing the spiritual side of thirst. Christ also shows the Samaritan woman that even if we may be more interested in determining who is more right and what is more appropriate, ultimately God is interested in authenticity. Honouring God and one another, in spirit and truth.
Understanding what that means is the foundation to building our own transformative storyline in our individual lives and here at Broad View. At the end of today’s story, the Samaritan woman reaches an understanding of who Christ/Messiah is. She invites her community to come and see and ponder with her: “Can they be the Messiah?” In her story, the ending is an open-ended question, and invites us to ponder the question ourselves.
Circling back to the question, “Why here, why now?”, let us ask ourselves again: What is the story that we are, together, writing, creating, building, or even innovating and renovating, here and now, with me, with you, even at this moment? If anyone comes to our door and asks what Broad View’s signature story is — What is the storyline of the beginning and the adversity, the celebration and hope, the memory and faith — , what are the open-ended questions that keep pushing the story forward, what would you answer?
Come and tell us.
Let us build our story of revolutionary patience.
Let us build the story of two rivers meeting.
Let us build the story of touching our strength.
We need your story to build OUR story.
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