St. Barnabus Church Morning

Laura and I were up early on a Sunday morning. Sleeping in is such a temptation. But Gilbert likes to get out and have a pee. It’s healthiest not to sleep in more than an hour. We wake at 7 am weekdays so there we were 8 am, sharp , crawling out of bed to dress and go to church. We’d watched Straw Dogs Thriller the night before.  Rank evil with lots of urban and rural Hollywood predjudice.  Good movie.

For the first time we didn’t get lost finding the church so we arrived only minutes late.  Rev. Emilie was about to begin.  Gilbert appeared and her greeter dog gave off two great barks with both wagging tails as Gilbert dragged me into the church. 

We grabbed  a  church program and a Common Praise hymnal. I love the church architecture. Lots of wood.  Holy ground.  Churches are consecrated. When they close them up and sell them for other purposes they have to be ‘deconsecrated’ .  I doubt that really doesthe trick.  People praying and singing praise change the very fabric of the local universe. Grass grows better. People are happier. The sun, when it shines is,brighter. I just love the spirit of this church.  Lovely people in the congregation too. Old and young.  I learned some spoke Spanish.  A truly lovely lady, classic Anglican elegance,  was born in the 1920’s.  Another gentleman hails from the same between the wars era.  An infant always likes to be held by her loving father’s arms.

I like the Bible Readings.  I love the prophets and the psalms.  I like the repeatitive format, like a good story. The service unfolds.  Gilbert loves the peace. We walk about and shake hands, look in each other’s eyes, smiling. Christianity is about joy. There’s joy here. Gilbert rubs noses with Rev. Emilie’s dog. He’d do more but I hold him back with the leash.  Laura is giggling behind me.

The sermon is about Pontius Pilate questioning Jesus.  Pontius Pilate is the Roman Empire’s man in Israel at the time of Jesus, when Herod was king of Israel. He’s asking Jesus about his kingdom and Jesus is responding he’s not of this world.  The essence of Christianity is that God became man in Jesus, lived ,died and was resurrected.  There is heaven and earth and Jesus declares the Kingdom of God is beyond the limits of this world.  The leaders of the world are worldly and arrogant and ride into towns in chariots, tanks or step off great planes. Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey.  He died by crucifixion. There’s that pesky ‘Thy Will Be Done. Not My Will’ element in Christianity.  Jesus asked on the mount to take this death from him.  But he followed the story to the end. One imagines he could reign missiles and napalm down on Rome and light it up with laser fire.  Rev. Emilie didn’t get into this but focused on the humility of Jesus and the choice one made in life. She ended by quoting Bob Dylan’s song, you’ve got to serve someone, maybe the devil or it may be the Lord.  She says we serve the Lord at St. Barnabus. 

The coming of the king, Advent, in the calendar begins next week and the whole season of Christmas, the birth of Christ, is a coming together of the church and community with feasting and song and ritual.  Her enthusiasm is palpable.

Communion, eucarist, is the symbolic or actual sharing at the table in Christ. He said, at the last supper, Taking the bread, he said, this is my body, shed for you, and taking the wine, he said, this is my blood.  So we all join in what materialists untouched by faith, outside of the insight of grace, take as an ancient cannabilistic feast.  Yet Jesus has become the cosmic Christ and creation is imbued by the soulfulness of Jesus. Together we participate in the soul feast.  At least that’s what it is subjectively to Christians. And who cares what the ‘unwashed’ think To quote a teacher at Regent College who laughingly said, ‘they’ve been wrong before.”

Laura holds Gilbert then I take over and she joins the feast.  Soon the service is over and we’re filtering out to another weak. I always feel lighter, healed in some place, touched by the community, by the ritual.  It wasn’t ever thus. I’d just participated like doing exercises of any kind till one day a miracle happened and I liked it.   It was the same with study.  Lust is for everyone but love is for those who stay.  I liked the C.S. Lewis book Four Loves, and definition of love of God as charity.  I can’t command God’s love but I sure do feel it.

After church Laura and I walked Gilbert, and had Mexican breakfast at the great Mexican restaurant in New Westminster. (I’m not telling anyone where it is because it’s already so popular that there’s a line up each time we go.) Then we went next door to Vision Bookstore, now owned by the daughter of the great man I’d visit and chat with 20 years ago.  His grandson was there. I love family businesses.  I bought a little Brother Lawrence book for a friend while Laura was pleased to get Christmas gift stocking stuffers and a little angel for her 18 inch tall Christmas tree she plans to put up this week.

Now we’re reading with Gilbert and George fighting over who gets to sit closest to Laura.  I’ve just been reading about the monozygotic Newman brothers separated at birth who both become firefighters, both had steel rimmed glasses and identical moustaches as adults. Genetics and neuroplasticity are fascinating reads.  I’ll never forget being married to an identical twin who became ill at the same time her sister did thousands of miles away. It’s hard to ignore God when the foot prints are all around you. 

 I love McGill’s Neuroscientist Mario de Beuregarrd’s book Spiritual Brain where he discusses the PET scans he did of meditating Carmelite Nuns.  Rev. Emilie had compared Black Friday with the traditional Sunday years past when it was a day of rest like the Sabbath I celebrated in Safed Israel.  No phones. No business. No liquor stores.  Contemplation, family and quiet.  It’s good to go to church. I’m thankful for St. Barnabus.