PANHANDLER JESUS

 

There is a statue of Jesus outside of the Church of St. Stephen in-the-fields in Toronto. It is the creation of artist, Timothy Schnaltz. It captures the imagination of everyone. The artist first named his creation, “the Homeless Jesus.” It only took a brief time for the artistic creation to be nicknamed, the “Panhandler Jesus.”

 

As you can see from the photo above it pictures Jesus as a panhandler/a beggar. His hand is outstretched to receive a donation. Why would Christians be so brave as to depict their god as a homeless man begging for food?

 

The people of this church community are trying to make a statement. Many people will be very angry that such a depiction of Jesus should even exist. 

 

During this Christmas season we need a pause over how we depict the story of the nativity. This is not about power and well-being. It is all about the poor trying to survive and get by. Jesus and his parents are homeless. They cannot even rent lodging for the night. He is born in a stable. You would be shocked to hear of any baby today being born in such primitive conditions.

 

And then they were refugees in Egypt. This does not get the attention it deserves. Our divinity was a refugee: without home and power. Was there employment during this refugee period?  How many thousands of displaced persons could identify with the ‘refugee Jesus?’

 

The life, personality and mission of Jesus cannot be depicted in one single image. Jesus is too big for that. Pay attention to the parts of Jesus life and ministry that are not depicted in our religious art. Why do we not see on our church walls pictures of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples? What has that been overlooked?

 

Our Christian faith leads us to not only see the poor amoong us but also to be able to see the very face and person of Jesus in the poor, the neglected and the marginalized. Panhandler Jesus places Jesus right among the homeless and the down-and-out. The street people count in the heart and the plan of Jesus Christ. 

 

Christians may look the other way but the reality of Jesus identifying with the poor and the forgotten does not disappear. 

 

When people study the statue of the panhandler Jesus they discover a change of heart. They begin to reach out a helping hand to those who are at the bottom of the society. 

 

Small gestures of kindness make all the difference.

 

We had a parishioner,  a businessman whose company serviced the much larger construction companies. Every week when he went grocery shopping he would always pick up a jar of peanut butter to bring each Sunday for the food bank collection. No one noticed his weekly donation but over the years the number of jars of peanut butter added up. He lived in a very quiet way a his strong concern for the people who had to use the food banks to make ends meet each month.

 

 What reactions are you feeling when you study the statue of the Panhandler Jesus?

 

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

 

 

We love to decorate. But each decoration carries a message. Each decoration is an extension of our values, our hopes and wishes for the good of others. Decorations are beautiful but they are first of all, meaningful.

 

Spend a few moments in meditation before your Christmas tree. What are the most beautiful decorations on the tree? What carry more meaning than just some pretty and colorful bobble manufactured by a factory in China?

 

Touch the first decoration. This is the wonderful service your own mother gives her aged mother in the nursing home. She is there almost every day to help feed her mother, change her clothes and just be present to your grandmother. Where does your Mother find all the patience to hold her mother’s hand when there is barely any response? The most beautiful decoration on the tree is your mother’s patience.

 

Your second decoration is your own sister who finds time to donate two mornings a week to work at the food bank. She cheerly packs hampers, sorts through all kinds of canned goods and helps the clients with her infectious laugh. And she never expects any recognition. Your family knows that she is the unsung hero of the family. Her service makes the Christmas tree smile.

 

And then there is Mary, our retired elementary teacher, who volunteers several days each week to help the kids who have difficulty with their reading. The kids love this one-to- one attention. The only ones who will notice the improvement in the children are the parents and the teacher. This is true giving where hardly anyone will every give you recognition, but the service will make a difference in the skills of the children.   

 

And then there is Philip, eighty-five and going strong, who will drive any of the seniors to their appointments in Regina and Saskatoon. Calgary is not considered to be too far. Everyone kids him that he likes to drive his Cadillac around but he certainly helps the elderly who do not have any family close by to drive to their appointments. 

 

It is not things that are beautiful. We use these bright Christmas decorations to express our gratitude to what is truly beautiful: the love and service that we give to one another. The Christmas tree can carry much deeper meaning if we but look for it.

 

Today, give your Christmas tree some attention. See the beautiful compassion and service that the people of your family, your church and your co-workers are giving to others. 

 

May your Christmas tree shine with goodness and jolly. Have a wonderful Christmas.

 

 

 

 

THIS IS LIGHT SHINNING IN THE DARKNESS

 

People who were brought up in the church are often surprised when you indicate that God will probably upset their apple cart. Encounters with the real God (not the one of our own construction) is always a God who will disturb us.

 

The function of any religious faith, of prayer, is not to make us comfy and secure. It is not the function of God to give us the good life. God has a very different agenda from the thoughts of so many of our fellow Canadians.

 

As we come to celebrate Christmas we want to get in touch with the plan of God. At this time of the year when the afternoon sun is so very low, I remember having a cup of coffee at about three o’clock and looking up at the kitchen window which had the sun streaming through the glass  for these two weeks of the year. The rest of the year the sun was higher up in the sky. But at three o’clock it streamed through the window and I could see so clearly: “My, that window is very dirty.”  The bright sunshine named every speck of dirt chinning to the glass!

 

The light shone out the darkness!

 

Do not sugar coat any part of the Christmas story. What was God doing? 

 

God chose a young woman, Mary, to be the instrument of the salvation that God planned for the world. God did not choose a well-educated, rich person of prestige. He chose Mary; without power and significance. She was poor and unknown. 

 

We need to free our minds of the royal blue that we depict Mary in so many of our drawings. Rather, she should be dressed in the dull, brown working clothes of the peasants of the day. Mary was an ordinary, unknown woman (without power). She stands for every human being. Even though all societies are structured according to the rich/poor, the educated/uneducated, the strong/ weak, the choice of Mary is God’s new standard. 

 

The poor, the little ones, the people who get pushed to the margins are significant. How societies structure themselves is turned upside down. The people you think important, are not! Your system of human valuation is rejected. God measures by a new way: all count. No one is cast aside as worthless.

 

There is nothing sweet and sentimental about the birth of Jesus. He is born in an over-flow area of the local inn. This could only happen to poor and migrant people. Try to imagine how difficult the birth would have been. Who could guarantee security?  Was there a mid-wife, a helper?

 

Be awed  this Christmas by the decisions and working of God. The Spirit of God has not come to make you feel wonderful but to lead us into God’s great world where every human being is valued.  How God operates upsets us.

 

There is a new way to live. God wants to expand the hearts of every human being to live and love like God lives and loves. Religion is not about making you feel good. It is all about us getting involved in God’s way of doing things. Your plans will be upset but there is a much greater plan being revealed this Christmas. 

 

 

 

SPIRITUALITY IN A TIME OF EARTH SURVIVAL

 

On Thursday, November 30, COP28 (2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference )  opened in Dubai. This is an international meeting with all the big names and players present. King Charles III gave the opening address.

 

What will be discussed is not only  political and scientific issues  but it also presses hard as  a spiritual issue that affects all of the world religions. Religious faith touches the very center and meaning of all human life. There can be no such thing as religion over here and science over there. We are confronted with the question: will the atmosphere heat up so much that life will become extinct? How well will humans being able to survive in a world that might warm up by three degrees?

 

Even if you have many members of your own family and friendship group who will not deal with this issue, do not step back in fear. Do not allow anyone who claims to believe in God or a higher power off the hook. What does their religious faith and religious

interpretation contribute toward the survival of the earth?

 

Christianity is rediscovering a part of our spirituality that has laid dormant for almost a thousand years. The Christiaan spiritual quest narrowed more and more over the centuries to focus only on the salvation of the human being.  We are now waking up to our belief in creation (the natural world) as the first revelation of the life, love and work of God.

 

When I was doing my theological studies the question of justice for the future generations never came up. Now, after sixty years of serious study of the warming of the earth’s atmosphere, we are warned that if humanity continues to burn the same amount of fossil fuel, we will bring catastrophe to all our great-grandchildren. Justice for the children who will be born seven generations from now is a pressing issue. What kind of world will we hand on to them?

 

Christianity has been blest by the publication of the encyclical (official church teaching) ‘Laudato si’ by Pope Francis in 2015.  He did not address only Catholics but people of all and no religious faith. He first challenged us to once again come to love the earth, all creatures, clouds, every rain drop and all the insects of the earth. Everything is kin to us.

 

The first message is to  rediscover a love for the earth. We must not see the human being as over and beside all creation. Human beings are part of creation. We are all connected. The survival of the human beings is closely tied to the survival of the bacteria, the hawk flying about us and the little chickadees foraging for food during this winter season. 

 

You will never try to preserve and nourish what you do not love. The challenge in front of us, as Pope Francis has taught, is to see all parts of creation as our kin. We are cousins to the sun, the wind, the soil and every bird that flies. We are being challenged to grow into a spirituality that overflows in love for every part of creation.

 

What will be discussed at COP28 is vitally important to our faith.

 

As you grow in your concern for the earth watch your faith and joy grow. There is a new awareness in your spirit waiting to burst forth into flower!