It has been a tough week in Canada and for the NDP in particular. With the death of Jack Layton, Canada has lost a deeply compassionate individual and truly caring man. The words at the end of his letter will be etched into our collective memory:
My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair.
So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.
Like many people, what I appreciated about Jack was his boundless energy and enthusiasm. He genuinely believed in love, hope and optimism. His death was certainly a shock and will be an inspiration to young people to get involved in politics, and ironically, an inspiration to others battling cancer. I always appreciated, and this is reflected in his letter, Jack's undying hope for a better world.
I recently was sent a reflection that came out of the Iona Community about all of the unrest in the world, including the rioting in the UK. What surprised me about this reflection piece was that it seemed to me to be unduly negative. There is undoubtedly a large disparity in the world between the wealthiest and the poorest, but what the reflection missed is the incredible hope that many in the world are discovering and living out—the hope that things CAN change, the hope that repressive governments WILL topple, the hope that there CAN be a future for young people. The one place I did agree in this Iona reflection was the idea that as Christians and people of faith the world over, we have an alternative narrative.
The alternative narrative is rooted in justice, love, compassion and hope. For many of us it isn't alternative; it is the main narrative by which we try to live our lives. As we are loved, we want to share love with others. But when it comes to the dominant social construct, and it has always been this way it seems, it wants to emphasise wealth and success; our path of faith emphasises service and giving up one's life. Where the dominant culture emphasises power over, the alternative narrative emphasises power with. Where the dominant culture wants to suggest that there is a reward for everything, our faith-based narrative emphasises sharing and mutuality. Where the dominant culture speaks of fear and scarcity, our alternative narrative speaks of hope and abundance.
Another reflection sent to me this week was also very interesting. I had a look at a TED speech given in 2009 by Dan Pink. TED is an online community of individuals who have made contributions to the welfare of the world in the areas of Technology, Entertainment and Design. Dan Pink gave a talk about motivation. According to psychological studies, motivation doesn't work.
Pink cited the research task given to people that involved a candle, a box of thumb tacks, and matches. The idea was that people were timed as they sought to attach the candle to the wall in such a way that it did not drip onto the table below. Usually people would figure it out in 10 minutes or so, and they would start by trying to melt a bit of the candle and stick it to the wall, try to tack the candle to the wall before finding out that you can dump the tacks out on the table, tack the box to the wall, fix the candle in the box so that it catches any wax that might drip. This isn't the interesting thing about this study, though. The interesting thing is that when incentives are applied—promising to give money to those who are fastest, it ends up takes longer for the final solution to be discovered. People get fixated on an idea and can't see the broader issues. Incentives make it more difficult to discover a solution to some problems; when you really, really want that reward, your thinking gets fixated rather than broader and you take longer to accomplish your task. Pink suggested that our whole Western society is built around the idea of rewards, and it doesn't work. It works when the path is fairly clear, and when it is about following the obvious steps ahead of you; but when the steps are not clear and the solution requires creative thinking, the promise of a reward makes things worse.
Peter reflected some of this dominant culture thinking about rewards and incentives when he told Jesus that he wouldn't be put to death. Jesus' glory and power must be protected, for that is the way of the world, isn't it? But Jesus said no. It is not the narrative that we are living. The way of the world is not the story of compassion, self-giving love. "If you want to follow me, you must take up your cross and follow. If you want to save your life, you will lose it, but if you lose your life for the sake of the gospel, you will find it. What will it profit you if you gain the whole world but lose your life?" Peter was stuck in the way of rewards and incentives; Jesus opened Peter and others up to the possibilities of creativity and compassionate living.
So what are the implications for our congregation when we open ourselves to think creatively and from an alternative narrative of compassion and self-giving love? There has been some uncertainty over the past couple of months as we both try to discover a new path for our congregational structure and what to do about additional staffing. I know that I have engaged in some of that fixated thinking that Dan Pink talked about. I can get quite fixated on an idea or a concept and miss the bigger picture. I'm notorious at home for doing cross-word puzzles; sometimes I can't get a clue because I'm too fixated on the obvious solution that doesn't work. And what really drives me crazy is when Janet comes along and says, without batting an eye, that's such-and-such; and the answer is so obvious!
I'm not going to give us any answers here in this sermon with respect to the direction we should take as a congregation; there aren't any obvious answers. I do think we have a real opportunity to try some creative things. And we need to try and not be afraid to make mistakes. A pastoral care giver? A youth worker? A part-time minister? Someone to help with administration? An outreach worker? A combination of possibilities? How do we free up our organizational structure so that we can engage the bigger questions in life and support people as we live our lives in abundance and be together in the living out of Jesus alternative narrative of self-giving love and compassion. Jack Layton is right: when we are loving, hopeful and optimistic, we can change the world. And that's what it's about, being changed, knowing we are loved, living out of a place of love and changing the world one life at a time. Rather than success and reward, may the hope of abundance and the possibility of transformation be our motivators for our congregation this day and in the days and months to come.
Amen.
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