I’m pleased to introduce to you to my friend, Lana, who is peace-n-justice’s first guest blogger. Lana is a Canadian living in Vancouver, British Columbia. As a favor to me, she has regularly and faithfully “pre-read” my blog postings. This hardly means that I have routinely won her stamp of approval -- far from it. What I have mostly sought from her is her objective criticism born of a spirituality in her that has blessed my life many times over. Below, you will hear from her how that spirituality came into being and how the prophetic nature of it brings joy and empowerment to those that society and culture cast aside.
Some twenty years ago, Lana awakened a similar call in me to be courageous and prophetic while serving as her pastor in British Columbia. Because of her, I have never turned back though Lana and I would probably agree that sometimes I’m a bit too edgy and don't rejoice enough in my blogging or consider often enough what lies beyond indignation or frustration that I have expressed. In a recent phone conversation together about these things, an epiphany took place and I felt I should ask her to guest blog at peace-n-justice. With a little persuasion, Lana agreed and this Sunday’s lectionary from Isaiah worked out as the perfect opportunity. I think you'll agree that in what Lana has written there are some wonderfully inspiring thoughts. So with no further ado, let’s turn you over to Lana, one of God’s blessed children. -- Brad Shumate, Vancouver WA
"Rejoice in God's New Creation"
Lectionary Reading - Isaiah 65:17-25 (New International Version)
"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach [a] a hundred will be considered accursed.
They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them.
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the LORD.
"Rejoice in God's New Creation"
A man I love shot a wolf this past week. I never would have believed it had I not seen him beside the lifeless animal in a photo emailed to me from my mother 600 miles away.
As I stared at the hunter’s smiling face, I could not make sense of what I was seeing. I found myself trapped in the space where feelings begin and the thoughts that finally articulate them. In my family we had been raised with an honor code of hunting values. One of those core values is that one does not kill animals not sanctioned for eating. We would no sooner harm a wolf than shoot the family dog. When words finally came to me, I emailed back and asked, “Why did Dad shoot the wolf?”
For as long as I can remember my dad always wanted to see a wolf up close. He would share about hearing their soulful cries and following their tracks. Once or twice he had even seen where they lay or left other markings, but always that close up sighting eluded him.
As a result of my father’s sharing and hunting experiences, he instilled in me while I was quite young a sense of awe and wonder while in the presence of nature. Sometimes he did this through funny tricks of getting birds to land on his hand and eat bread crust stolen from our sandwiches. At other times, he taught us how to catch fish with recycled milk bags. There were also the challenging times of being perched on a fallen log or out-cropped rock to see who could be quiet the longest. In this way we could hear (and later identify) the sounds around us.
Dad always took time to appreciate every beauty of nature, even the death of a lone wolf which I eventually learned he had not killed but simply happened upon it while hunting. His smile in the photo resulted from his happiness seeing this wolf close up before Mother Nature reclaimed it back into the earth. Compelled by his love of nature and love of wolves, Dad examined and marveled at what had always eluded him. The photo captured that moment of joy in his life.
For all his love of Nature, what amazes me is Dad’s non-belief in God. He is absolutely unable to credit God for the beauty he reverences in Nature. Ironically, the moments he provided me atop mountain peaks as a child left indelible marks on my soul. I came therefore to a faith in God that my father never intended. In time, I found a community with whom I could share that faith.
One of the central values of my faith community is an appreciation of the inter-connectedness of the whole of life. In the spring of 2000, I co-led a Northwest Washington youth retreat with Paul Lucero, an Oneida Elder and Native American Ministries Leader in my faith tradition. During that retreat, Paul shared with us a sacred story from his Native American tradition. It’s a story that communicates the value of all that has been created in the eyes of the Creator. The story goes that….
A great celebration took place where all the animals were asked to gather so that the Creator could bless them and give each of them a distinct gift. Rabbit being, both highly distractible and highly fearful (even of the Creator) chose to avoid the ceremony. When the Creator finally sought him out, after all the other animals had received their unique gifts, Rabbit was found hiding with his bottom sticking out of a hole in the ground. The Creator, not to be cheated out of an opportunity to bless Creation, allowed Rabbit to keep his jitters and keen fears. The Creator then gave him strong legs and the ability to warn his community with a firm strong stomp.When I hold this sacred Oneida teaching and the above Isaiah scripture in my mind at the same time, I am struck with the thought that perhaps we are not wholly in God’s image as individuals, but together in community we are the whole image of God. Like Rabbit, we are often too busy, too afraid, or feel too insignificant to “show up” when there are blessings to be had, or when God calls us to some specific task or responsibility. Each of us must therefore learn how to live out our calling. And we must each show up to be blessed and sustained by the community that forms God in us. In short, none of us can escape the blessing or gifting intended by our Creator.
My journey toward accepting my gift and blessing began at age nineteen. At that time, God impressed upon me a spiritual calling to bridge together people of differing faiths. Philosophically, I embraced the call easily and in different employment and social situations, I try always to live out that perspective. When I met Elder Lucero however, he also discerned a call in me to “prophesy”. On hearing that from him, I felt very much like Rabbit with his bottom sticking out of the hole. And as the retreat wore on that weekend, there was much laughter as I learned that even though I was young, I still had a very old fashioned view of what “prophetic” is.
On that note, I was reluctant to embrace the idea that I might be gifted with prophesy. “What would that mean?” I wondered. Elder Lucero discerned and clarified for me that I “carry with me” a very large idea of what God could do with people’s lives no matter what the circumstance. So my calling to be a bridge between people of differing faiths was only one small part of a greater gift or responsibility of “prophesy”. The next thing to embrace in my life’s work would be seeing and speaking of God’s possibility in the world where it often seemed impossible or unspeakable. In the past five years, this task has become quite clear for me in my work as an employment counselor in the poorest postal code in Canada where I have been helping people to invent new possibilities for themselves. In no uncertain terms, it is a place where people are labeled “addicts”, “sick”, “unemployed”, “criminal”, and “chronic”. For me however, it is a place of unlimited grace, for each day brings an opportunity to meet new people for whom a relevant infusion of Isaiah’s prophetic message is sorely needed, particularly in the following:
"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered,Long and short of it, we are free to put our past behind us and to confidently claim a new future. I have witnessed this process many times as I saw people leave behind labels and claim new lives. Sometimes this process happened by finding work. Other times it occurred through finding shelter or simply being received into space that fostered healthier alternatives to the person’s current reality. For the past year I have worked on a mental health team exclusively devoted to helping persons with mental illness envision new space, new lives, new careers and healthier alternatives that give meaning and purpose to their lives. My work on this team involves advocacy with employers and communities to change how they view persons with mental illness so that new and greater opportunities and possibilities are continually created. Prophetically, I am compelled to find and create hope where others do not. What carries me through this demanding endeavor is my firm belief in the Spirit revealed in Isaiah 65:24-25:
nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy."
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the LORD.This scripture is a prophetic call to action for me and for you. The Spirit claims “the wolf and the lamb will feed together”. When, one might wonder? Well, it will be when we make it so. Earlier I mentioned that I felt a bit like Rabbit when I was learning from Elder Lucero as what his stories teach about is the animals and their relationship to the Creator. In turn, those lessons teach us about our own natures as human beings.
In the above scripture, we are therefore called to look at alternate possibilities for our own natures. For instance, if the lion can eat straw like the ox, perhaps we can do a better job of feeding the hungry in our cities? If the wolf can feed with the lamb, perhaps we can have a better relationship with our ex-spouse? What situations are we living with where we are seeing only the typical or stereotypical solution? The Isaiah passage is a call for us to look into our lives and see where we can make new lives through being agents for reconciliation, transformation, even creation.
I do not know the nature of your individual calling. I do believe the teachings of Elder Lucero that the Creator will find and bless you wherever you are and that your gift is meant to be shared within the community gifted to you. Find something that seems impossible to do, and go take it on.
Lana
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada
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