Organ Donation Piece for the Diocesan Times

In this month’s Diocesan Times you are going to meet Will Fougere, the recipient of a double-lung transplant last year. His story is not mine to tell, but the fact that Will is still alive is reason for all of us to have an important discussion with our family and friends. Will is alive because someone else’s life could not be spared and that person, at some point in life, elected to become an organ donor. That organ donation saved Will’s life. The courageous forethought of that person saved Will’s life.

In an era of rapidly advancing medical technologies there are many ethical issues that arise. The Christian nexus for many of these ethical debates reach to the very heart of our understanding of our working out of God’s purpose in our lives individually, corporately and the entire created order. Organ donation is one such area that, as a Christian, I can emphatically support and I would argue speaks deeply to an incarnational God who walked among the muck of the world that we may reflect, or re-present, confident in the ever presence of the Kingdom of God as revealed to us through the life, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

Let us be honest with ourselves and others as we discern our walk, our gifts, our hopes and fears. There is lots of muck, many unseen events which may bog us down, in this wonderful but wounded world (1 Samuel 2:8). Having spent time minding the on-call pager as a chaplain in a hospital I know that loved-ones are heart-stricken and deeply uncomfortable making such decisions for family members for whom death of the body is imminent. Having someone else make this decision near the time of death is excruciatingly painful. It is also unnecessary if we have the conversation now.

The offering of your organs for transplant is arguably an incarnational example of the second great commandment: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (See Matthew 22:37-40 for the two great commandments). We know through parables such as the Good Samaritan that our neighbour extends far beyond the person who lives next door, in our neighbourhood, or even in our country.

But, what about the resurrection? Don’t we need our bodies in the promised resurrection? Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 seems to make a penultimate point – the ultimate being the final victory of life over death through Jesus Christ – that our body is not sown as the body that shall be. Our current bodies of corruption will be raised in incorruption; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. It is reasonable to conclude that we do not need any single part of our body to experience the fullness of the resurrection.

I have briefly, indeed far too briefly, argued that organ donation is consistent with Scripture. It is a blessed, re-presentation of the incarnation to courageously offer one’s organs for donation. It is also an important step to help relieve some of the physical, mental and spiritual pain being experienced by many on the organ donation wait list.

You can help by doing the following:

Firstly, talk to your family and make your wishes known. Talk to them, and your pastor, forthrightly about your faith, your motivations, your hopes and your fears concerning organ donation. This is an important fist step for everyone involved in the organ donation process. Make sure your family knows your wishes. Even if you have registered as a donor, health professionals still need to ask your family for consent before recovering organs or tissue. Donation can only take place if your family consents at time of death. You can make this moment less stressful for your family by making your wishes known now.

Secondly, register as an organ donor today. Please visit the website: www.legacyoflife.ns.ca or call MSI at 1-800-563-8880.

May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upo

Thoughts in Preparation for the Feast of Saint James 2013

A few thoughts from the Feast of Saint James 2013.

Another important day in our liturgical calendar took place this past week – that is the Feast of Saint James, son of Zebedee - that I want to discuss with you. It is an important day because, beyond being designated as a Holy Day in the tradition of our church, it is an opportunity to talk about the act of being called into Christ’s service.

We read from Matthew 20 this morning, but I want to take you right back to Mark 1 beginning at vs 16, where James, among others is called by Jesus.

- Jesus had just left the fasting and temptations in the desert.

Here it is, “As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea – for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.”

Like James, and the others, we are all called into being; being something. We are all called to some purpose within the body of Christ. That inner call on our lives, that we may become what it is we are intended to be.

When we acknowledge that we are called by Christ, by His grace, we must take a moment to think about what we are, but we must also think about what He can make us. After all, Jesus does say, “Follow me and I will make you…” [fishers of people]

This is subtly the language of repentance as acknowledge what we have been, what we are, but also celebrate and bask in what it is we may become. This takes prayerful, discerning and confident abandon of our fears as we leap toward that which is pounding on our hearts; where our passions meet our hopes. Where we become fully alive, without even having the skill necessary to realize that hope, knowing that it will come.

Surely it did not appear obvious to James, like the other three we just read of their calling, that these lowly fishermen would develop into apostles in a ministry of the Messiah of Israel. That men so handy with a net would become at home in preaching sermons and in instructing converts.

To an outsider observer one could understand how people would say, “You cannot make churches with these unsophisticated peasants from Galilee.” But that is exactly what Jesus did.

Jesus encouraged and taught others to follow him, that in spite of their own sense of unworthiness, we sense our own, God-given worthiness and encouraged to become what it is we are meant to be.

1 Samuel 2:8 says, “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes.”

We cannot tell what God may make of us. But we can get glimpses of it along the way as we learn to breathe the creative breath of God.

Do we not hear in our own hearts the inviting, sweet, loving voice calling you and saying, “Follow me…”

We follow because we know we are not made as a completed project. We are not made all that we shall be, not all that we can desire to be. We have not attained the fullness of the Christ-life in us unless we have opened to this forgiving, restorative grace of God.

“Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” [let us listen to this invitation in our hearts]

“Follow me”…there is something for us to do…to follow.

And the second part, “I will make you fishers of people” Listen to this… “I will make you”… “I will make you” You will not need to grow into this new role, this new vocation by yourselves, but in saying this, Jesus is actually tasking himself… ‘I will make you”

We do not need to go through this life thinking we have to do it all ourselves. What we have to do is to learn the spiritual disciplines of how to follow so that we can open ourselves to being led into the fullness of life; led into an imitation of the holiness of Christ; of being led into the kingdom, which we can participate in now with the fullness and sweetness of it still to come.

It should not surprise us that Jesus called fishermen first. Likewise, Saint Paul often used the metaphor of athletes to describe the Christian life.

I grew up in rural Newfoundland. I don’t think that I need to remind people here of the hard work, early mornings, uncertainty and danger of life on the ocean fishing. But, like St Paul’s discipline of an athlete, I think there is much we can learn from fishermen, and much Jesus taught us by first choosing fishermen as apostles:

a. A fisherman is hardworking – Being a fisherman is not an easy way to make a living. It is not an armchair kind-of-job. Not all days are lovely, sunny days on the ocean. Likewise, if we shall only do the work of Christ when we feel up for it, we not do much. If we feel that we cannot pray, we will never pray. Sometimes life, the Christian life in particular, necessitates that we dig deeply and work hard.

b. A Fisherman is trustful – Especially in the days before fishfinders and draggers, fishing is a combination of experience and faith. Experience in knowing the ocean, the weather, the shoals and how to properly use the gear but to mention a few. It is also an act of faith in that sometimes, unpredictably it seems times, the catch is vast or empty.

c. A fisherman is patient / perseverant – I can actually close my eyes and hear the fishing boats in the harbour, early in the morning, heading out to the fishing grounds. As long as hands will work, fishermen will fish. In the morning they catch and in the afternoon they process the catch and repair their gear.

d.  The fisherman understands risk – A little sea water in the face will not hurt him. Likewise, in response to God’s call, we are entering on a path of risk wherein we must learn the language of trust. We will hear the roar of distractions like the roar of a storm at sea but we must learn to trust the silent, still power of God’s voice calling us forward.

I am sure Saint James, in responding to Jesus, did not expect he would be part of a project that re-made the world. He probably did not expect that he would be killed by Herod not long after Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

None of us, regardless of age, knows when and how our lives will end. I know a seemingly, healthy, non-smoking 47 year old wife and mother who on May the 5^th went to the doctor with a headache and on June 2^nd she died of tumors on the brain and in her lung.

Does the reality of life and death cause us not to live?

Does the reality of life and death cause us to be afraid from taking any risk whatsoever? Not taking and risk is, of course, an impossible way to live. We take risks when we walk to the grocery store. We consciously and unconsciously make decisions that involve risk every day. So, what…that’s life.

But like the fishermen called by Jesus, we can re-shape our lives, re-organize our lives, repent from the past with the total assurance of forgiveness and hope and peace offered to us by God through Jesus. We can listen to that silent invitation which calms storms and brings us fully alive.

I do not know what God has in store for you, or for me, in this life. But I do know that like James, and so many others who said ‘yes’ to Jesus, so many others who said ‘yes’ to the Holy Spirit, that there is a purpose for your life.

I want you to hear this; “There is a purpose for life.”

Jesus said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

Feed on Him, in our hearts, with thanksgiving. Amen.