I enjoy documentary programmes about wildlife and creation. At the moment we have the new series with David Attenborough called Blue Planet 2. We have seen 2 episodes so far and am looking forward the the third and last episode on Sunday. In the first episode, there was amazing footage of an Asian Sheepshead Wrasse. This particular filming was done off the coast of Northern Japan. It first showed a male and female together. The female is the smaller fish in the photo. The male also has a large protrusion on the forehead. The female was trying to get the male interested in her but when nothing happened in spite of all her efforts, she swam off and secluded herself in a hole in the coral reef. Things started to happen with her - enzymes and hormones were released inside her body as she was changing both inside and in appearance. The protrusion on her head became larger and when she eventually emerged from her isolation she had changed from a female fish into a male fish. Creation has its own transgender creature!
The account can be read on http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/blue-planet-2-transexual-fish-david-attenborough-a8026911.html The female then went back and challenged the male and eventually took over his territory as a fully-grown alpha male. Another strange occurrence in nature is the fact that it is the male seahorse that carries and gives birth to the young. For those who believe that God is the Creator of all things, then we must accept that the particular gender of creation does not seem to be important to him. In fact in the Bible we read many, many times about eunuchs. In Isaiah 56:4-5 God says that he accepts their worship and has a place for them within the temple. When referring to eunuchs in Matthew 19:12, Jesus says that some are born that way and some are made that way. 'Born that way' would be what we now call Gays and 'made that way' surely refers to transgender people. Paul teaches us that before God there is neither male nor female but we are all one before him. So, I can't help wondering why some religious people get so obsessed with gender identity when according to creation, many parts of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus it would seem that to God it is not that important. How we live and express our love to God is more important it would seem. Maybe it's time to follow the teachings of Jesus and be a bit more inclusive instead of judgmental.
It would be almost impossible for any person living in Britain not to be aware that this week saw the final of the Great British Bake-Off and know who won the title of Champion Baker. There are those in the media who tried to claim that she won because of her ethnicity and religion to try and make a point that we are an open and accepting country. Actually if those responsible for such accusations had actually seen the wonderful creations that she baked they would have realised that she won because she was a very capable and creative baker who although she began the competition struggling, she worked and worked until she overcame her doubts and succeeded in creating some amazing culinary delights. She is a young mother of three young children, has beautiful eyes, a charming smile, a great sense of humour, some wonderful facial expressions and has come out with some great self-deprecating one-liners. She has endeared herself to the heart of the nation. Well done Nadiya. She just happens to wear a scarf to express who she is. People who cover themselves with tattoos do so in order to express themselves as does a gentleman who wouldn't be seen without a bow tie, feeling it gives himself a certain air of charm. They all express themselves by their appearance. Pope Francis has also been in the news again this week. Last week we saw that during his visit to the USA, he met up with people of many faiths and religious ideologies other than Roman Catholicism. This week the news is that in November he plans to meet up with some leaders of the Evangelical and Lutheran church in Rome and apologise for the way the Roman Church has treated Protestants, bearing in mind that it was Martin Luther, after whom the Lutheran church was founded, who was the reformer who opposed Roman authority and as a result the Protestant movement was formed.
I was brought up in the ways of The Salvation Army and I was also reminded this week by a friend that the co-founder of that organisation once said, 'I don't believe in any religion apart from doing the will of God.' It is a sad fact that over the centuries, Christians have forgotten the truths that Jesus taught about God's all-encompassing love being for everyone. Instead we have emphasized the divisions and differences, making them more important than our walk with God. Another friend this week has said that after 8 years 'outside' of organised church he will be returning as part of the leadership team of a church in order to help out his friend. He wondered what the reaction would be of those who had also left organised religion behind. Is he a religious turncoat? Has he changed his opinion about church structure? Is he in or out? It saddens me when people think that you have to be either 'In' or 'Out'. Why? Which part of the Bible tells us that? On the contrary. Jesus speaks of God's love being unconditional and for all. It was as much for the Roman centurion as it was for Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He preached from a boat as well as in the synagogue. He accepted those on the fringes of society as well as those who were faithfully observant of their Jewish faith. After the resurrection, he walked through walls to join his disciples as they met in secret. No walls or locked doors can keep him out. He also met with them by the lake as they went fishing. He taught us that God is Spirit and we must worship him in spirit. God really is everywhere. The Psalmist so many centuries even before Jesus appeared said that there was nowhere we can go and not be in his presence. There are no walls, whether physical, imaginary or religious that can keep him out. Yet we continue to build walls of division, separation and exclusion. Whatever walls we may build and divisions we think up, they don't mean anything to God because he is Spirit, everywhere. When are we really going to understand this truth?
God's love is unconditional. There are no conditions that we must observe in order for us to be in his presence. In or out? Does it matter? God breaks through barriers, frontiers and divisions. Let's stop building walls of division and trying to box God into our own ways of doing things. He refuses to be forced into our boxes. Just let God be God wherever we are and however we choose to seek him. Does it matter if we wear a scarf or bow tie or have tattoos? Does it matter if we meet with a certain group of people on a specific day in a specific place? As long as we seek God, he will meet with us. Outside appearances and man-made rules don't affect his love for all of us. He only looks on our hearts, what we feel in our spirits. I just seek his presence and to know and do his will. Everything else is not that important and of no real consequence.
The family were all looking forward to the wedding. Family members on both sides travelled from various places to be there. We all know of course that there are different ways of getting from point A to point B. People have different preferences of routes, some preferring the motorways while others opting for the less busy roads, even if it takes a little longer. The groom's mother and brother travelled up from the south by coach while his aunt and cousin travelled from the same place but by car. Others travelled by various means from equally various places. It didn't matter how they travelled or which route they took. The important thing was to get there and enjoy the festivities of the wedding.
In case any reader is unaware, this is the time of year that Muslims fast for Ramadan. A few months ago there was a movement during the Christian time of Lent when a number of Muslims joined Christians in fasting for Lent. The group called themselves Muslims4Lent and now in mutual solidarity there is a group called Christians4Ramadan. I have been following a blog hosted by a distant relative who converted to Islam a few years ago. Having come from a Christian background, she has a passion for Interfaith dialogue, not just between Christian and Muslim but also among those of other faiths and none. During Ramadan, she has guests to post something of their experiences on her blog every day. So far we have had articles written by a Christian vicar married to a Hindu, a Christian married to a Muslim, a Sikkh woman, a Buddhist experience in Myanmar (Burma), a Wiccan, a Heathen and an ex-Muslim. I have found all of the articles very interesting and eye-opening. You can check for yourself here, A Hotchpotch Hijabi in Italy. I can almost see many Christian hands going up in horror at the thought. Surely I've now clearly lost the plot altogether! Actually reading some of these blog posts has made me realise that the many different faiths are each trying to live good lives, aware of the deep spiritual dimension within themselves. Each one is obviously influenced by their culture and life experiences. But I have been aware that we are all on a similar journey to the same end goal except that we are travelling from different starting points and going different routes and preferring different methods of getting there. Jesus showed his love for all with interactions with the Phoenician woman (the immigrant), the Samaritan woman at the well (the one who left the true Jewish religion), the centurion whose servant was ill (the enemy, invader, part of an occupying army) and so on. He didn't tell them to leave their way of life but still had time for them, showing compassion and helping them. The Old Testament also has examples of interfaith living. We are familiar with the story of Naaman the leper, an important official in the country where the Israelites were taken captive. Moses' father-in-law Jethro was not Hebrew and Abraham acknowledged Melchizedek as a holy man. Contrary to what many Christians think, God doesn't actually belong to us or our religion. It's the other way around. We as his creation belong to Him - and that includes all of humanity.
What has challenged me this week has been words of the Heathen on the above mentioned blog. He helps friends find their own faith even if they disagree with him and end up believing something completely different. Would I do that? So often we make friends with someone of a different faith really in order to convert them to ours, if we're truly honest. We think we are right and we have the only true way and we remain friends only as long as there seems to be some glimmer of hope that they will convert to our way of thinking and come to our place of worship. That's the main problem in the world, that there is upheaval and wars between those of different faiths, fighting it out as if that would prove who is right. It's not about watering-down our own faith but it is about really accepting that maybe there is more than one way; that we all belong to God; that we are all on our own different journey of faith; that God loves us all. Acceptance, not just tolerance. Very difficult at times but much better than killing each other to try to prove a theological argument. As Richard Rohr says in one of his meditations this week, 'If you really believe in the values you say you believe in, then put them into practice. Don't waste any time trying to prove someone else is wrong or evil. Just live what you believe.' Amen! We are all on our own faith path of discovery and I am sure that as God guides and directs me, so he is more than capable of doing the same in the lives of others, whatever faith they seek to follow. Having listened to the horrors on the news yesterday, I am even more certain that interfaith dialogue is a need for our time so that we can have discernment and be able to know the difference between those who truly seek to live out their faith, cultivate that spiritual inner being and seek to help others and not confuse them with those who twist and misuse the name of a religion and words of Sacred writings in order to inflict terror and killing any who don't see things the way they do. Such people are not true to the religion they profess. Tit-for-tat killing gets us nowhere except deeper into the horrors of war. So, those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus, maybe it's time to put into practice the way he showed us, really follow him in actions as well as words and have a little more interfaith dialogue and understanding. Love not hate.
I have been greatly impacted by a couple of videos that I've seen shared on social media this week. The first one was a deliberate ploy to see how people would react when they discover that someone had dropped his wallet. A number of people were very honest and immediately called after the young man to tell him he had dropped his wallet. However there was one young man who picked up the wallet, looked around but didn't see who had dropped it so he put it in his pocket. He then proceeded to do some shopping using a credit card that was identical to the one that had been in the wallet. He bought a number of things before continuing on his journey. He kept taking the wallet out of his pocket and looking through it and also phoning presumably some friend. The man was probably in his twenties and had one prosthetic lower leg that was clearly visible and so I thought that maybe if he was classed as disabled then maybe he was struggling financially, unable to hold a full time job and so this wallet that suddenly appeared would seem like a piece of good luck for him. Eventually the video clip ended when he actually went to the house of the person whose wallet he had found. He was taking it back to its owner. He had not used the credit card from the wallet but his own credit card that was identical to the one that had been dropped. He had not used any of the money from the wallet but all the time had used his own money. How wrong I was to prejudge the young man as were many others including the person who set up the ploy in the first place.
The second video that left a lasting impression on me was by a lady called Yassmin Abdel-Magied. She began by asking what people's reactions were when they saw her dressed with a hijab and typical 'Muslim' style clothes. Hopefully most would not judge her just because she was obviously a Muslim but would be open to listen to what she had to say. She went on to ask what they would think of her if she said she was a mechanic. I guess a few smiled, thinking 'no way!' She proceeded to take off her outer garment and hijab to reveal underneath the bright orange work clothes of a motor mechanic and put on a hard hat over her hair that was tightly fastened with a scarf. She said that actually she designed racing cars and that this was her day job. Surprise! She went on to talk about how often we are not openly biased but that actually deep inside we still have prejudices and biases that are so hidden that we're quite unaware of them. She went on to tell a story of a man and his son who were in a car when they had an accident. The father died on impact and the son was rushed to hospital. The surgeon came to see the young man before operating but said 'I can't operate on him. That is my son.' I must admit that my first reaction was that the man in the car must have been his step-father. Yassmin then went on to say that the surgeon was his mother. Ouch! I've done it again.
The thing is that my late husband was not English, European or from North America and I lived abroad for about 10 years. I have mixed freely with many people of different cultures and all walks of life, from highly professional to those in abject poverty. I also have a person from my extended family who converted to Islam a few years ago. So I really consider myself to be totally non-biased and accepting of those from other parts of the world and other cultures. So for me these two videos made me see again that there are sometimes things that are just part of who we are and how we think because we have been brought up in a particular culture or from a part of the world with a certain way of looking at things. For me it was a wake-up call to check my reactions to people and situations that might concern religion, gender, sexuality or disability. I must never presume anything about someone without getting to know them. As Yassmin says in her talk, very often our first reactions and judgements about people turn out to be wrong. It was also a reality check for me to not think I'm above having such reactions and thoughts. Some things are so ingrained in us that it is difficult to acknowledge their presence. What do I think? I think I'm not as free from bias as I thought I was. There is still work to be done and room for improvement. And you? What do you think? Please try to make time to watch the videos. You'll find it worthwhile.
