Reflection by Frances Olsen

Roxboro United Church   Nov. 18th, 2007

 "Being Co-Creators" 

                     I'd like the thank Helen Shepherdson and Marg Madsen for inviting me to speak today and for giving me the opportunity to share the hymn "The Garden of Life" with you.  I'd also like to thank Lynda-Jean and the choir for their beautiful rendition of the song.  Many thanks to Rick and Linda, as well, for sharing the leadership of worship with me.

                    The talk today is in three parts, first a little about how this hymn came to be, second what the words to the hymn invite us to reflect on   and third how we are all called to be co-creators.

                     Five years ago, I travelled to France to a monastry called Plum Village, to spend three weeks meditating with a Vietnamese Buddhist called, Thich Nhat Hanh.  I had been following his particular meditation practice for several years.  While there I decided to make a commitment to the five mindfulness practices which are:  To not kill, to not take what belongs to others, to be mindful about your sexuality, to practice loving speech, and lastly to be mindful about what you put into your body(not only in terms of food and drink but also books, films, etc.).  After going through a short ceremony I received a spiritual name: Peaceful Song of the Heart.  The names are something to aspire to rather than a statement about you.

                   After returning home I began to think, "Well, I don't have a peaceful little song of my own",  so I decided to ask to receive one and to open myself to this possibility.  About one year later, while meditating one morning,  I felt a kind of fullness in my belly and thought hmm, "I think a poem wants to come."  This is one way that I often receive poems.  So I took pen and paper and began to write down the words I was hearing in my mind.  When it felt finished, a voice in me said, "It's not a poem, it's a song."  I replied,  "How will I know how to write the music?".   The voice said,  "Just sing it."  So I did.  Then I said, "But I'll never remember the tune."

About two weeks later I sat before the words again and lo and behold I sang the very same tune!  Later I sang it for a friend who writes music and he wrote it out for me.  Later still,  another friend Donald Patriquin, offered to harmonize it. 

                    To some, this might seem like a remarkable occurrence, but  if you talk to songwriters and,  in fact, poets and writers of all kinds they'll tell you that most of their work comes in this way.  That was a big surprise to me even though I had been receiving poems and some artwork this way for almost 40 years.

                   Now I'd like to reflect a bit on what the hymn says, you all have the words in your bulletins.  (Read the words)

                   It reminds us that all of life is a garden both the world around us and the life that is within us.  It suggests that there is a relationship between these two.  So if we want to change the world, we can work on our relationship with the outer world, what we put out there, what we nurture, and/or we can relate to our inner world and ask ourself what seeds are we sowing.  We might also ask, of the many seeds that have been planted in the world and in the ground of our being, which ones do we choose to water?

                    This is a very profound teaching when you think about it.  It points to the fact that we are all part of the on-going work of creation and we have a choice about what we allow to grow in ourselves and therefore in the world.   Do we foster the growth of love, justice and compassion or,  of hatred, jealousy and greed?

                  The thoughts we feed, how we act or react, these are all ways of watering seeds.  We all have the same seeds planted in us from our ancestors but,  because of differing experiences, opportunities, gifts and choices,  we can have very different internal gardens.  The main point is that we are responsible for what we are creating NOW.  We are all invited to participate in the co-creation of this world through the tending of the garden both within and without.  Creativity, in it's broadest sense, is the Creator creating and acting in the world through us.  A pretty humbling thought!

                   So how are we in relationship with this inner guide?   I have had a rather lukewarm relationship with my creativity, in terms of painting and writing poetry, hesitant and tentative at best and downright distant at worst.

                   Call it insecurity, lack of self-confidence, a shortage of trust, bottom-line I'd say it has been a lack of faith.  Faith being the ability to walk blind in unknown territory, with a willingness to be lost, to stumble, to look foolish, but to continue following an inner knowing, an intuition, a thread, which in the face of the impossible affirms the possible.

                   A guidance which says, "Come play, let go, trust me I won't mislead you, let's step outside the known and move into the unknown, the uncharted.  Let's stay with what is arising in the moment, let's not judge it, listen with your heart.  Use what you have, practice what you know and more will be given.  You'll have what you need when you need it."  This is the process of co-creating.

                   How many of you know what I'm talking about?  How many know this voice?  How many have trusted it implicitly?  What kind of relationship do you have?

                   Mine has been an on-again-off-again relationship.

                   Just think, every person, every idea, every thing that came into being,  moved from the invisible to the visible and began with an intuition, an imagining, a dream, an idea, a seed, all of which arise from the dark, the unconscious, the unknown.   If we're not comfortable going there we may have trouble co-creating.

                    In reflecting on what it is that helps us to be co-creators I realized that the answers lie in the scripture readings that I chose for today - this really surprised me.   The teachings are this:

From Psalm 37,

                 "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently" (it took a year for my song to come.  Spirit doesn't show up on our timeline.)

From Samuel 3

                 "Speak Lord for your servant is listening"  (if we don't show up, be present,  and empty our minds we won't hear.  The servant part is a willingness to follow.)

From Matthew 7:

                 "Ask and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you."  (We have to be able to ask for what we want, and to know that we will be answered.  This also says to me if I want to paint or write,  I have to make the time and space to sit down (show up)with the tools needed and get started .  I have to make myself available and enter into the process.  This is part of the asking, searching and knocking.

So to re-cap:  be still,  empty to make space, ask, seek, knock, listen, be patient, and be willing to follow.  Not just on Sunday mornings in church, but everyday.  Build a relationship even if it's just 5 mins a day.   Better still,  learn to listen often throughout the day. 

You may be pleasantly surprised by what wants to come through you.

Thank you.

Children's Story

It says in the Bible that in the beginning of time God created the world as a beautiful garden for all the animals and humans to live in an enjoy.

And we were all asked to be the gardeners and take care of all of creation, the plants, the animals, the air, the water, the earth, the stones, everything.

How do we get things to grow in a garden?  What does it take?  (seeds, earth, air, sun and water and the potential for life that lives in the seed.)

What happens if we don't water the seeds?  (They die)

Did you know that we have a garden inside us too where seeds of a different kind have been planted?

Can anyone think of what kinds of seeds I'm talking about inside us?

What about seeds of love, hope, kindness, creativity, and seeds of anger, sadness, and fear?

So what do you think we need to do to grow a good garden inside?  Like what might we do to grow the seeds of kindness?

(Water good seeds not bad)

What do you think waters the seeds of anger?  (Getting angry and yelling at people or fighting with them calling them names etc.)

What can we do with our angry feeling to take good care of them but not grow them?  (Talk calmly to someone about what is making us angry,  maybe write down what we're feeling, or paint a picture of our angry feelings, these all help to take good care of them without growing them)

What might you do to grow the seeds of creativity?  (Make things, paint, draw, dance, sing, play an instrument, take pictures, etc.)

These are all ways that the creator, the Mother and Father of everything

creates through us and watering our seeds of love and kindness towards all things helps to take care of God's garden, our world.

Prayer:  Creator God help us to water loving seeds in ourselves and to spread our seeds of love around the world to the plants, the animals, the people and everything.  Help us to take good care of your garden.  Amen

*Hand out seeds.

Call to Worship: 

ONE:  As we gather on this November morning

        During the season of shortening days and long dark nights

        We reflect on Nature's lessons of rest and turning inward.

ALL:  We come to find that quiet center

        To make space within our thinking for Gd to speak to us

        So that we may be strengthened and nourished

        And bear fruit to share with the world.

Benediction:  Go now from this quiet place

                  Remembering who travels with you.

                  Water the seeds of this relationship

                  So that you may grow strong in Spirit

                  And become a co-creator.

                  Nourishing the world

                  With the many gifts

                  That long to flow through you.

Reflection by Frederick W. (Rick) Sheffer
Roxboro United Church
November 4, 2007

“Is God a Delusion?”

I don’t know if you have been browsing through bookstores over this past while. If so, you will have noticed many titles referring to God in some fashion. Two weeks ago I was in a New York bookstore near Columbia University where featured books included: “God and Gold”, “After God”, “On God” and “A Secular Age” the latter by our own Charles Taylor who these days is doing duty as one of the two Commissioners on the Reasonable Accommodation Commission touring our province. Yes, this is the mention of God being featured in the heart of Gotham City itself !!!

Indeed, over this past year a number of books decrying the very notion of God have been run-away best sellers for months on end both in North America and Europe. Some of the titles include “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, “God is not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything” by Christopher Hitchens, “In Defense of Atheism” by Michel Onfray, and “Letter to a Christian Nation” and “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris. Of this list I have read “The God Delusion” whose author, Richard Dawkins, is regarded as the oracle in the movement to dissuade the very notion of a God. Richard Dawkins, a Professor at Oxford, is a very articulate spokesperson for this view.

So, the subject of my reflection this morning is really a question “Is God A Delusion?” This I acknowledge is, perhaps, a strange question to ask
a worshipping community but I pose it anyway as it is a pertinent question for many including some among the faithful who are struggling with their own faith.

In choosing the hymns and Bible readings for today I have tried to strike a balance. The reading from Psalm 22 asks a question asked by many “my God, my God why
have you forsaken me? … I cry by day but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest”. I am sure that many of us have asked this question from time to time when things look particularly bleak or hopeless or when bad things seem to happen to good people. In her journals, Mother Theresa herself sets out her anguish in not receiving answers in her pleas to God. The reading from Matthew on the other hand is one of hope and says have your life priorities straight, trust the Lord to provide, ask and it shall be given. The hymns remind us that we are part of a family of faith and of the presence of God throughout Creation.

But, is God a delusion? From our own experience we know that church attendance is not a chosen priority for most people, in particular for the so called “missing generations” of 30 to 45 year olds and younger. In fact, mainline churches in Quebec, including our own, experience the lowest attendance of anywhere in North America. We observe other priorities being chosen by our children and our grandchildren, and by many of our family, friends, and acquaintances. But, it seems to me, the
very nature of God as a delusion takes this to a different level. This, in effect, says flatly that there is no such thing as God. Studies regularly show that though interest in organized religion is lacking, interest in things spiritual is very high. In fact well over 80 percent of people are searching for spiritual connection. Is there a disconnect here? Can we have spiritual connection and not have a transcendent presence we, in our faith, call God?

This is not something that I am going to settle today in the next 12 or so minutes. The most I can aim for is to raise some thoughts and encourage you to do the same for yourselves. Relationship with God is, after all, a very personal relationship so each of us has our own journey.

Stepping back for a minute, in some ways it is not surprising that many blame organized religion for a number of the world’s ills from child abuse in Residential
Schools, to resistance to the use of condoms to combat AIDS in Africa, to the so-called War on Terror, to the genocides and often faith-based ethnic cleansing in places like Darfur and Rwanda. There are angry debates about abortion, same sex marriage, stem cell research, and on. Can there be a God which has allowed the atrocities and tragedies we have seen over the ages? Indeed, many have been severely hurt by moré traditional religious teachings of a judgmental God and have had a heavy sin-trip laid on them. Many more have stepped away from or not set foot in church as we know it for fear of being judged. I am sure that many of you have encountered those who have had these experiences and, perhaps, some of you have had these experiences yourselves. Also, for the many who interpret the Bible literally and who regard it as an accurate historical account, the Hebrew God of Yahweh is often portrayed as “one tough judgmental cookie on high”.

For me, these writings and discussions of God as a delusion are a natural progression from what we have seen over many years. A literal presentation of many of the Biblical teachings including the virgin birth, original sin, physical resurrection, and creation do not resonate with what we now know from science. As such, they are not seen as relevant to present generations at least in the West who have grown up with the results of scientific discovery and who have learned to question. Many, quite simply, do not believe some if not all of these basic tenets.

What we are also seeing is the tension between “mythos” (the mystical, spiritual, ritualistic) and “logos” (the rational, scientific) aspects of religion. Early Christianity, Islam, and Judaism incorporated mythos as an important part of their practice. Since, in particular, the Enlightenment and age of scientific discovery religion, reflecting society, has focused almost exclusively on logos, the rational, scientific. Western democracies have consciously separated church and state, and our governments are secular.


Among the principal reasons for the rise of so-called Fundamentalism among at least the monotheistic faiths has been a concern that secular society has brushed God aside and with it the mythos surrounding the concept of God. Mankind/Personkind has been placed at the center of what we have created as a kingdom of personkind and not of God. Fundamentalism has strived to reverse this process (be it for example, the Muslim Middle East, Israel, or Western democracies) to fill a void at the heart of societies based on scientific rationalism and not a Kingdom of God. It must be noted that in doing so these movements have frequently distorted the teachings of compassion, inclusivity, and tolerance and replaced them with exclusion, hatred and even violence be it the Ayatollah Khomeni who displaced the discredited regime of the Shah in Iran or extreme rightest Christian movements in the United States. (for those who may be interested I suggest Karen Armstrong’s excellent book “The Battle For God – A History of Fundamentalism”.)

So where does this leave God? According to Dawkins science is the only way to gain knowledge. Nothing about God is needed to explain the world. For Dawkins, God is a supernatural creator that is appropriate for us to worship, the best known of whom is Yahweh. For Dawkins, at best God is a matter of personal belief; at worst a superstition that blocks progress. His position is that science can explain nature without help from supernatural causes like God. There is no need for a Creator. The
power of the human mind and scientific process of discovery to unravel life’s secrets and, perhaps, creation itself is unrivalled.


What writers like Dawkins do is set up an either/or paradigm. Either you accept their scientific, rationalistic, logos approach representing progress, modernism and optimism about the future or you accept a religious, mystical mythos approach

which represents unreason, reactionary resistance to change and progress, and a clinging to mysteries that only God can solve. It’s “us versus them” which squeezes God into a corner. Either you think that there is a personal God, a superhuman Creator who made the world literally according to the Book of Genesis or there is no God at all.

I don’t see the world in such black and white terms. Clearly in our society there is room for both and we continue to encourage and support scientific discovery. I, for one, am thankful for the strides made in medical research as one example. In our society we have long since passed the practices of slavery, subservience of women, and have legalized same sex marriage to name but several taboos to the writers of the Old Testament. In line with more recent biblical scholarship I do not interpret the Bible as a literal or historically accurate document but rather one which is highly symbolic with a need for contextual interpretation. For me, there is much room for such as the theories of evolution and the Big Bang to explain our universe.

But, our life is much more. It transcends the rational. Although science can likely explain the process of smelling a rose it cannot capture the rapture experience of appreciation of the rose, nor of the feelings of love for our new granddaughter, nor our awe of the intricacies, interconnectedness, and majesty of creation itself. This gets us back to the mythos/logos conundrum. There are things in life which rational thinking cannot fully explain. That is the wonder and mystery of it all and, to me, part of life’s joy. Today’s children’s story of the ice cube, water, and steam/vapour, illustrating the tangible and intangible, the finite to the infinite, matter, thought and feelings, and spirit touched on this.

My God is not a Judgmental God standing “over” but one of love and compassion being “part of and with”. I think that one of the key blockages we face and, indeed’ a true God delusion, is the continued perception of God by many as the Yahweh

God, a God of Judgment with a capital “J”, a God of retribution and power over, one with a heavy message of sin. This delusion is not a God of tolerance, love, forgiveness, and compassion. a companion with each of us. Dawkins’ God model is that Yahweh, judgmental God. Although our individual relationship with God is a personal one, God is not a person. I find it hard to put in words but “transcendent spirit”, “consciousness”, “mystery”, and “friend” come to mind. The hymn “God of the Sparrow” used words like “awe”, “grace”, “care”, “love” and “joy”. Indeed, I am sure that many of you too have experienced God’s grace, that unconditional love that is there for the asking, and the awe of creation.

I’d like to close by quoting Satish Kumar the editor of the excellent magazine “Resurgence” which fuses together ecology, spirituality, and art.
“Before the Age of Reason, before humanity invented science, before the theories of gravity, relativity, and evolution – and long before the idea of explaining existence in terms of measurement – prophets, poets and philosophers around the world were searching for a word, a principle, a concept, a truth, a theory that would embody all words, all concepts, all phenomena, all truths, and all realities. They were looking for a word that would encapsulate the visible and the invisible, the tangible and the intangible, the physical and the non-physical, the material and the non-material. They were looking for a word that was universal, powerful, and all-encompassing.
After a long search, a word was found, and it was God. Some called it Allah, others called it Brahma. Some called it Dao, others called it Mystery, or even Dreamtime. (Our First Nations called it Manitou). In essence all meant the same thing. They had discovered a way of making sense of the world.”

I started by saying that the subject of this reflection is a question which only you can answer for yourself.

So, I ask you. “ Is God a Delusion?”
Thank you. Frederick W. (Rick) Sheffer