Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral
New Westminster BC
In the latter half of 2007 Bishop Jim Cowan, then Bishop of British Columbia, invited me to join him on a trip to Myanmar. Since his diocese had a ‘companion diocese’ relationship with the Anglican Church in Myanmar, Bishop Cowan had been asked to lead a small delegation for four people to represent the Anglican Church of Canada at the installation of the newly-elected Archbishop of Myanmar in mid-February 2008. The Archbishop-elect had requested that a seminary professor be included in our delegation. I lived on the Pacific coast and had a reputation for travelling well in overseas climes, so off I went.
I must say that I went with some apprehension. The military junta was still in power and there was a growing movement of Buddhist fundamentalists who were hostile to both the tiny Christian and Muslim minorities. To these Buddhists Christians and Muslims represented religious practices and ideas alien to the majority Buddhist society and culture. For example, Christians and Muslims were forbidden to use the Burmese-language word for ‘God’ in worship. But despite my fears I went. Although it was a relatively short trip, about two weeks or so, I am still processing a life-time’s worth of memories.
My thoughts and prayers have returned to Myanmar over the last weeks. The military coup is a tragic miscalculation which will hurt all the people of Myanmar, including those who believe that the coup will benefit their entrenched interests and bolster their power. The violent repression of civil protest can only add more wounds to a country that seemed to be healing, even if that healing was slow and the persecution and expulsion of the Rohingya people in the western part of Myanmar has been a blot on recent democratic government.
What gripped my attention was the photograph of Sister Ann Rose, a Roman Catholic nun in the northern city of Myitkyina (mitchinar). When police arrived to disperse a crowd of protesters, including a number of children, Sister Ann Rose approached the police. She knelt before them with her arms outstretched as if she were on the cross. ‘Shoot me, not the children,’ she is reported to have said. The police hesitated. Two officers knelt in front of her, their hands held in a Buddhist prayer gesture. The other officers stood with their weapons lowered, uncertain of what to do in the face of her courageous witness.
I wish that I could tell you that all went well, but I cannot. A short time later the police used force against the crowd. Some protesters were injured by projectiles, whether rubber bullets of live ammunition is not known. There are reports of deaths. Faced with a witness to the Light, the police chose the shadows.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” (John 3.16-21 NRSV)
What God offers us through the Word made flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, is eternal life. Eternal life is not just a future promise; it is a present reality made available to all. It is a quality of life that renders impotent our fear of death. Eternal life is what enables us to live with both the sorrows and joys of our mortal lives. Eternal life is what empowers us to face our challenges, even when they seem insurmountable, with hope and commitment. Eternal life is what refreshes us when we are tired, discouraged and uncertain.
Eternal life comes from knowing that we are made in the image of God, each and every one of us. At the heart of that image is the ability to love as God loves, unselfishly, generously, passionately. Because of that image indelibly imprinted upon us, Paul is able to write that
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8.38-39 NRSV).
These words, so often read at funerals, are written to living disciples of Christ who are facing the same potential of persecution and oppression that the people of Myanmar face daily. I cannot help but think that these words empowered Sister Ann Rose to walk so confidently towards the police. She was walking in the Light and she offered the police officers a choice.
This Light is not only known by Christians. We believe that the whole kosmos ‘declares the glory of God and the heavens the handiwork of the Lord’ (Psalm 19). Every human being, made in the image of God, is drawn naturally to this Light, this pattern of behaviour. What our baptismal liturgy calls ‘ . . . Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God’, ‘ . . . the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God’ and ‘ . . . the sinful desires that draw [us] from the love God’ (BAS 154) can attempt to hide the Light, to block the Light and to cast shadows to confuse us, but they cannot overcome the Light. All of the so-called ‘great’ religions know this truth and teach it.
But being made in the image of God has an inherent risk. Just as God is free to choose, so are we. We can love or we can hate. We can heal or we can wound. We can give life or we can take life. We can build one another up or we can tear one another down. The choice is ours. Last week Sister Ann Rose chose life. Last week the military and police chose death.
The consequences of such choices touch the soul as well as the body. With each act of violence and oppression, the souls of the perpetrators are diminished. They become increasingly distorted and reclamation becomes ever more difficult – but never impossible. Despite the damage done to the image of God embedded in each one of us, the Spirit of God and the Light of God can cleanse and renew our birthright. God’s condemnation is not eternal; it is the consequence of our choices and it can be remedied. Why? Because God’s love is eternal and is more powerful than evil, hate, darkness and death. Nothing can erase the image of single nun, kneeling with arms outstretched, pleading with her brothers to come to their senses. That image continues to plead for them and for us. Why? Because that image was of Christ himself pleading for all of us to walk in the Light.
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