Count the Stars of Heaven!

Count the Stars of Heaven

Have you ever been in the desert at night when the sky is as clear as crystal? I remember a night like that when we were out west not far from the Grand Canyon. We had taken the train cross country when the children were little, and we still speak of that amazing and memorable vacation. I remember one night stepping outside and gazing up to heaven and the sight I saw that night took my breath away. The stars filled the sky as if someone had spilt a saltskaker across the canopy of space, so vast was the multitude of stars. Being a city kid, I had never seen such a sight as this.

When I think of Abram and his encounter with God that night as he poured out his heart in lamentation over his childless estate, I think of my experience of that night in the desert. As I gazed into the heavens, I was immediately transported into the Royal Realm of the Holy One. I heard no voices that night, certainly nothing like Abram's encounter. But I did have a sense of the awesome dimension of God's creative love and mercy. There was a sense in that moment that as God embraced the Universe, so too God embraces the human heart; mine, my family's, and every family under heaven; such is God's abundant love and mercy toward us all.

It is in such a moment as this that Abram heard God's promise. He heard  that God would bless his servant with abundant hope. Abram would come to know that his descendants would be as numerous as the very stars of heaven he was looking at. We know from Science that we are all stardust. Parenthetically, istn't it interesting that stargazing leads to faith and physics, they ways of God and the ways of Science. Our Ash Wednesday liturgy teaches us; "Dust we are and to dust shall we return!" Stardust! God's stardust! Full of God's love, mercy, and hope. And we're told that Abram believed God. It was in that faith that God reckoned it to him as righteousness. 

The Psalmist tells us that the one thing we ask for and the one thing we  seek is that we may dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Here we are today in God's House, and so too in this world where we live, suspended in the heavens among the stars of the universe. Here we live in the House of the Lord forever. Amazing! "To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to seek Him in His Holy Temple". We are God people; we are God's Temple: the Temple of God's Universe.

On a different note, the Psalmist continues in vers 18 "O tarry and await the Lord’s pleasure; be strong, and he shall comfort your heart".

I know that to be true. As Helen Keller once said: "As the world is full of suffering, so is the world full of those who overcome it." During her last journey toward heaven, I asked Cindy's mom what she wanted in heaven; she looked at me as if to say; "What are you smoking?" But then she thought about it. Maybe there is a God. Maybe there is a heaven and if there is, she thought, "I want to be gathered to my loved ones; especially with my mother and my two sons whose deaths broke my heart." That's what I want from God.

What is it you want heaven to be for you? Perhaps it is too soon to ask such a question. God knows, I'm willing to put it off as long as I can. But this I know. The world may be full of suffering, but there are those who courageously overcome it as well. That heaven is in the here and now is what matters. Look at the stars of heaven as Abram did. The Father of Faith. Count those stars if you can, so shall your hopes be! Such is God's Love and Mercy.

The world we live in is full of those who renounce any hope of God, or heaven or eternal life. In today's second lesson, Paul laments those whose "end is destruction, and whose minds are set on earthly things". God knows, every time I do a wedding or a funeral, it is clear that there are many "out there" who have no church, no faith, no hope of anything more than what we know in the here and now. I know them well. There are many among our friends and family. For such as these, last week's memorial service for Nona was patiently endured until we got to the reception where we could greet family and friends and of course eat.

I was so grateful for the church that day. The love of Sarah Kelb, Priest in Charge, the women of St Paul's Church, North Andover who put on such a nice spread. The love was palpable. There were those who would have preferred that there be no service, that we rent a hall and hire a caterer. That's not how Cindy and I were going to do things. Oh no, Nona was going to have a good send off. The church was full of such faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these, as the scripture says is love. Thank you church. Your love is of the essence in setting forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is with such love as this that the stars of heaven shine down upon us and within us with the Glory of God.

But back to earth now for a minute. Jesus understood Jerusalem all too well, then as now. The place that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. Christians, Jews, Muslims, and many more besides. The human heart is so full of violent hatred is it not? And God looks over the heart of humanity with such deep and profound sorrow.

Jesus seeks to bring peace to the place called Jerusalem; the very name of the place means Peace.  

In English; Salem

In Arabic; Salaam

In Hebrew; Shalom

The etymology of Jerusalem means the "dwelling place of Peace" or the "foundation stone of Peace". 

How often Jesus would have gathered us within his embrace as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. But we would not. And we still won't.

It is not just religious differences, but racial, ethnic, gender and orientation that divides us. The "we/they" phenomenon is operational in our political and religious lives and it goes well beyond that simple good natured ribbing that has always been part of our mixing it up with one another. It spills over into vitriolic hatred, violence and ultimately warfare. 

As people of faith, we are called in Lent to repent; to prayer and fasting, self examination and denial. All people of faith are likewise called to repentence as Jews are at Yom Kippur, the holiest days of the year. At Ramadan, Muslims are called to prayer, fasting, self accountability, and works of charity. All people of faith are called to repentance.

How can we get it so wrong?

As with Abram, the Father of the three Great monotheistic Faith traditions, we all find ourselves under the same stars of heaven, and under the same authority of God. It is the same God who calls us all to look up to heaven and count the numbers of the stars if we can.

We are also required to pray, to fast, to examine ourselves and to acts of charity during our high holy days. And not just then, but throughout the rest ofour lives as well. 

In Judaism, God calls us to Obedience.

In Islam, God calls us to Mercy.

In Christianity, Jesus calls us to Love one another.

Obedience, Mercy, Love; these are not suggestions, these are our commandments! Yes look up to the stars of heaven; the words are written not just there in a far away place light years away, but within every human heart.

Perhaps we might remind ourselves as Paul does that our "citizenship is in heaven". I ran across these words of meditation in my prayers earlier this week in "Celtic Daily Prayer". They speak well of that kind of this kind of citizenship

Go peaceful

in gentleness

through the violence of these days.

Give freely.

Show tenderness

in all your ways.

Through darkness,

in troubled times

let holiness be your aim.

Seek wisdom.

Let faithfulness

burn like a flame.

God speed you!

God lead you,

and keep you wrapped around The Holy Heart!

May you be known by love.

Be righteous.

Speak truthfully

in a world of greed and lies.

Show kindness.

See everyone

through heaven’s eyes.

God hold you,

enfold you,

and keep you wrapped around The Holy Heart.

May you be known by love.

~Paul Field, Celtic Daily Prayer

In the Name of God; the most holy, undivided, and everlasting Trinity.

Amen.

Fr Paul

The Conversion God Requires

The Conversion God Requires

By Fr Paul Bresnahan

Yesterday was an epic event for mathematicians at precisely 9:26:53am. That’s because when you place the numbers 3.141592653 you describe a mysterious number in the mathematical world and because yesterday was 3/14/15, the number only happens once in each one hundred years. MIT sent out notifications of acceptance yesterday at precisely that moment by email. Harvard kids held Pi parties. Mathematicians were beside themselves with delight. The number Pi represents the ratio of the radius of a circle to its diameter and is referred to an an irrational number in mathematics, since an irrational number is any real number that cannot be expressed as a ratio of integers. Wrap your head around that one. No matter how many times I read the words, my mind tumbles in humility before the concept. And yet without the concept we would be unable to calculate many essential equations and thus have our hands tied behind our backs in some rather fundamental human endeavors. After all, any homemade pie would be impossible without the number and that is an obvious and everyday application. The history of Pi is found in ancient Greece, India and the Muslim mathematicians allowed irrational numbers to be treated as algebraic objects an important step forward in the world of calculus. 

I find it interesting that Pi is thus called a transcendental and algebraic irrational. The very universal application of the number intrigues me. Its purity and mystery hold humankind under its authority and as a theologian I am intrigued by the very idea of the thing. I cannot help but wonder what it is that dwells in the Mind of God particularly when we try in our own meager way to plumb the depths of God’s being in any comprehensive way.

It makes me smile at the wonder of it all.

What then does God require of us all, in a universal way? That question cannot be answered quite so simply with either mathematical precision or purity. It is easy for us to get bogged down in our specific religious traditions and then maintain that we are the only way to the truth the way and the life.

Micah took a good stab at it when he said “And what does God require but to do justice, love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” ~Micah 6:8

But humankind doesn’t seem to warm up to such universal claims that God makes upon us.

In following the trial of the Boston Marathon bomber we read with interest the misguided words of the young man whose brother he says looked down the barrel of a gun and did not see death but heaven.

Talk about religious delusion!

On the other hand he does lament the death of the innocents, the victims of warfare inflicted on the Islamic world by the west. Yet, there is no such compassion or mercy in the heart of this young man for the innocents he wounded, maimed and killed by planting explosives in the midst of a festive unarmed crowd. What of that act of violence and terror? And such acts of terror are on the rise around the world.

It made me wonder what God thinks about the bloodshed inflicted by Christians, Jews, and Muslims on one another in the name of the one and same God. Sheiks and Hindus oftentimes do likewise and all of human history is stained with such religious fervor and in its wake leaves many souls so broken with grief.

Does God want everyone to be Christian? And if so what kind of Christian; Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran or my own personal favorite, Episcopalian?

Or would God rather we all be Muslim? And if so which kind? Sunni or Shia? 

Perhaps God would rather we all become Hasidic Jews, or Ultra Orthodox, Conservative or Reformed?

Then again, like so many in our modern world, God may be fed up with the whole bunch of us and like Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens decide it is not worth the risk of all the warfare, violence and terror to have any God at all to worry about and trust the world to the hand of Science and Secular Humanism.

That is a tempting alternative and many of our contemporaries have turned to it. As tempting as it may be for God to consider washing his or her hands of the whole thing, God cannot leave us merely to our own devices. For I believe with all my heart that when we turn our backs on God we turn our backs on the essence of human nature itself. For who is more at the center of the human heart than God?

No. 

The conversion God wants can be seen in all the great prophets. Again and again God has called us to return and then in the fullness of time we believe that God did something quite decisive in Salvation history.

In our tradition, it is seen most vividly in the person of Jesus whose claim on our conversion rests quite simply on the one essential Gospel Proclamation.

“Love one another.”

And then as is so exquisitely stated in today’s Gospel, “ When I am lifted up upon the cross I will draw the whole world to myself”

After all, in that cross is God’s forgiveness of us and God’s mandate that we forgive one another. That’s the only possible way forward.

When Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father by by me,” many take that to mean that there is no salvation outside those two syllables “Je-sus”. Frankly, that just doesn’t quite have the ring of truth to it.

But if you were to say to me that the way of God and the way to Salvation is through the kind of life taught to us by Jesus

Love one another

Love your enemies

Be reconciled

Be forgiven and forgive

Then I would say, “You are not far from Heaven”.

Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness to remind the people that God brought them out of slavery in Egypt into freedom in the promised land. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness to remind the people that the Evil One is still everywhere.

Mohammed, may peace be upon him, taught that is God is the All Merciful, so we are to have mercy and "Thou shalt not kill".

In the words of the Holy Koran we read as follows; "anyone who murders any person who had not committed murder or horrendous crimes, it shall be as if he murdered all the people. (5:32)
"You shall not kill any person - for God has made life sacred"(17:33)

Therefore the Conversion God wants is not so much a conversion to or from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism or Atheism and so on, but to stop the violence in the Name of God, or Science or any other ideology.

Stop the violence.

Stop the warfare.

No more terror.

But instead

Quieten your hearts and be silent before God

In the Name of Justice and Peace

Feed the poor, visit the sick and those in prison, bind up the brokenhearted. And if you discover that you are persecuted for doing so, give thanks to God and rejoice, for great is your reward in heaven.

The struggle we face in our modern context is indeed a “holy war”; a “jihad” and our young people are being drawn to decide between the extreme of the so-called “Islamic State” or the way that leads to Peace with Justice without violence.

Many fall into the hands of the Evil One who seeks only to kill and destroy.

So too we in the west must turn our backs on so much warfare on foreign soil.

When Jesus tells me to turn the other cheek that’s where I get stuck. How can I thus defend myself?

That’s why this conversion is so urgent. 

Unless we find a way to Silence the human heart and bring justice and peace onto the stage of human history, then history merely teaches us that non only will the bloodshed continue, it will ultimately bring us all to naught. For as Gandhi is reputed to have said “The only thing that an eye for and eye and a tooth achieves is to make the whole world blind and toothless.”

This is why the only way to the Father is the way of Jesus. Shhh…not in the name by itself but the way of life for which that Name is shorthand. 

Therefore you shall 

"Love one another."

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Fr Paul