12/18/22

Today's service at Spirit of Grace was incredibly moving, both due to the nature of the readings and to the emotions, prayers, and thoughts that were offered by the community.

There was a tearful children's homily at the beginning about the birth of Jesus and the meaning of the name Emmanuel, 'God is with us.' Obviously there was something deeply felt by the presenter, Katie, about the idea of God walking with us, crying with us, and being present with us in good times and bad. (The community has certainly suffered its fair share of hardships and loss, as well as its joys and blessings, this past year.) And the theme of waiting appeared repeatedly throughout, particularly in Fr. Jack's homily—waiting for the birth of Jesus and for the ideals he embodies, waiting for a better future, for liberation, for the presence of God that'll change our lives and the world, a presence that's paradoxically already present.

But what I think we so often forget is that what we're really waiting on is ourselves, for our own awakening and transformation. The way we treat one another is up to us. The way our world appears is up to us. Ultimately, we've been given the "keys to the kingdom of heaven," and it has to be our decisions and actions that bring it about here on earth. God doesn't impose a just or unjust world upon us; we create the world we experience. This is our power, our gift. And the closer we are to God, Dhamma, Tao, Nature, or whatever we want to call it, the more our actions will be characterized by love and harmlessness, and the closer we come to realizing a more just world.

Many of the hymns and bible passages that are sung and read every Sunday mention waiting for God and for a world that's more egalitarian and compassionate, where no one suffers from want, from hunger or thirst, from lack of access to healthcare, from loneliness, oppression, imprisonment, etc. And we sometimes need to be reminded that this new world we're waiting for isn't going to come about through magic, unexpectedly overnight, like Christmas presents waiting under the tree for us as children when we believed in Santa and our parents would hide them while we were sleeping for us to find in the morning. It'll only come about when we consciously and collectively decide to do things different—to not follow our impulses that arise out of greed, aversion, or delusion, but cultivate those arising out of non-greed, non-anger, and non-delusion and lead to long-term welfare and happiness; to not promulgate and support any political or economic system that creates inequality and disadvantages anyone rather than providing for the needs of all.

We're waiting for God to deliver us from all this pain and messiness, but we're the ones who must be vigilant and follow the way forward—we're the ones who are called to love our neighbour as ourselves (Mt 22:34-40), who are called to see those who are hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison and minister to their needs (Mt 25:31-46).