“Rejoicing Always"

A Sermon Preached by Rev. Bruce Sanguin
Oct 7th 2007

 Philippians 4: 4-9

I remember my grandmother, Beryl, for many things. But one characteristic stands out on this particular weekend for me. She was always expressing gratitude: “I’m so lucky, Bruce”, she would tell me. “Your parents are so good to me!” Or she would survey the food on the table before we started into a family meal and exclaim: “Aren’t we lucky. Just look at this food!” I think I remember this because this feeling of profound gratitude wasn’t one I was familiar with. Yep, the food was good. And when I compared my parents to my friend’s parents, I did think that I got dealt a pretty good hand. But mostly I took these things for granted, whereas the tears that welled up in my Grandma Beryl’s eyes let me know that she didn’t.

Taking our blessings for granted is one thing that gets in the way of gratitude. Another factor that makes it difficult is a culture that is constantly telling us that we don’t have enough. The engine of our economic system is the myth of insufficiency (Radical Gratitude, Mary-Jo Leddy). This is a story we tell ourselves about the meaning of life. We never have enough and the point is to get more. Grandma lived through the depression. She knew she had more than enough. But my generation? If we only had one more room in our home – then we’d be happy. The answer to the question, how much is enough, is always “just a little more” – a little more space, a little more money, the latest model of this or that, one more pair of shoes. Let’s face it. We’re all hooked on this story we tell ourselves about the meaning of life.

It’s not only that we are caught up in the story that just a little more would make us happy. This myth of insufficiency quickly morphs into a belief that we are not enough. I don’t have enough bleeds over into I am not enough. This is even more damaging because we unconsciously walk around with this voice of judgment telling us, “I am not smart enough, creative enough, thin enough, muscular enough, enlightened enough, good enough. This hamster wheel of insufficiency causes us to engage in two fundamental life projects: getting enough and being enough. It’s possible to spend one’s whole life lost in the frenetic game of chasing after the elusive Holy Grail of “enough-ness”.

There are problems with this game. First off, if this is the game we’re playing with our life – imprisoned by this myth – then we’re being diverted from other more worthwhile projects. The Romantic poet, Wordsworth, wrote – “getting and spending we lay waste our power”. To this we might add, getting and spending and proving ourselves – we lay waste our power. It’s a massive expenditure of our life energy. There’s nothing left over for the really important things.  The universe wants to evolve and develop through the exercise of our creative faculties. The first casualty of this myth of insufficiency is gratitude. The second is our capacity to give anything back by way of our own creativity and self-expression. 

The third casualty is our beloved planet. Our over consumption is unsustainable. We’re taking too much and throwing away our refuse. Ann and I have been taking in some of the Vancouver Film Festival. One of the films we watched over at the Ridge was called, The Green Warrior. It’s a documentary about an ecological architect, Mike Reynolds. For thirty years he’s been building ecologically sustainable homes in the desert of New Mexico. He calls them Earthships. Each one has been built on the model of a cell. A cell, as we know, is completely self-powered, producing everything it needs for life. These homes are off the electrical grid. Each home takes care of its own needs for water, sewage, electricity, and food supply. They are living homes - architectural organisms. They mimic natural processes, producing virtually no waste that is not of service to the earth. In fact, they act like trees or anything biological life form. They put energy back into the ecological system, rather than sucking energy from it. What’s even more stunning is that he builds them from the by-products of our consumer society – used tires; pop cans, plastic bottles, old refrigerator doors. The only use he has for cities as they are currently structured are as sources from which to harvest our refuse.

I was fascinated, not just by what he is making, but by this man’s creativity. He had so completely exited the carousel of the myth of insufficiency – he had everything he needed – that he became virtually a center of creative emergence. He wasn’t worried about getting or spending or proving himself. Night and day he was liberated to simply imagine alternatives to our current architectural assumptions about housing and about cities. He is literally involved in the project of reinventing what it means to be human. Mike Reynolds is a 21^st century hero. He was present for the screening, and when he came up afterwards to field questions, the audience gave him a 10- minute standing ovation.

In today’s reading, Paul exhorts us to rejoice. Well, there we were, over 1000 of us rejoicing in this center of creativity who name was Mike Reynolds. We all left the grid of hopelessness, as this man showed us a 21^st century version of a holy life. He didn’t mention God or Spirit, but he’s a holy man in my books.  I will add him to my list of exemplars for what life can look like when we deconstruct the story we tell ourselves that we don’t have enough or that we are not enough.

There’s another reason why it’s so difficult to feel gratitude that’s alluded to in today’s reading. It’s related to the myth of insufficiency. The stories that continually bombard us on the news and in the media tend to remind us not only that we are not enough and that we don’t have enough. They give us the impression that we’re flat out bad. Crime, drugs, murder, greed, corruption, and all manner of violence – these are the stories that make the headlines and are perfectly suited to the sound-byte. No wonder human beings suffer from chronic low self-esteem. Christian preachers reinforce this with a theology that tells us we’re all sinners. We don’t hear enough good news stories – of people who shine out like a light on a hill; beacons of hope.

Last night we went to another documentary film called We Are Together. It told the story of orphans in an African Township who had lost their parents to Aids. They lived together in an orphanage called Agape. Despite their terrible unspeakable pain, they rejoiced. And rejoiced. And rejoiced. They started singing and never stopped. When their brother died of Aids, they sang songs of lament. When they got up in the morning, they sang songs of thanksgiving for the day. When they were playing together, they sang. When their orphanage burned down. They sang. With the help of musical directors they made a CD of their music, traveled to New York, and raised money to build a bigger one so more orphans could come and live with them. They are the Agape singers.

You see, Paul had a strategy for rejoicing always. “Whatever is honourable. Whatever is pure, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise – think about these things.” Perhaps on this Thanksgiving weekend we can exercise a spiritual practice of thinking about our capacity for goodness, resilience, excellence – all that is worthy of praise. And then don’t just think about it. Praise somebody! Praise God! Praise your children. Rejoice in the goodness of life.

Think about this. The power and dynamism and creativity of this 14 billion year old universe is within you. It’s within me. The Spirit that gives it all life is within you and within me. After 14 billion years, this Spirit drenched universe assembled itself into a creative bundle that bears your name. We don’t have enough?! That’s just silly. We are not enough?! That’s just not true. We’re bad?! Well, at worst, we’re lost. Or asleep. We don’t know that all of this power, all this love, all this creativity that fashioned a universe, that courses through Mike Reynolds and the voices of those children that can’t stop rejoicing, is also in us. When we forget that, it’s true we do dumb things. Really dumb things. But can we wake up to this excellent, honourable, commendable, praiseworthy story that is our life?

Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is within us. How can we not be enough?  Think about it. Think about the possibility that you could flick a switch anytime you choose, and the Spirit of the Holy One could light you up with rejoicing and gratitude. Think about what our sign out front says: It’s never too late to build a new world. It’s never too late to be the person you always dreamed of being. Think about how much power resides within us individually and then multiply that by the number of people sitting here this morning. Now that’s an excellent thought. Let’s spend the day rejoicing, shall we?