Magic, as Avery Brooke defines it, is a societal issue

Posted by Priest on September 13, 2009 under Sermons |

Did you know we have a “Healing Guild” at St. Paul’s?

Yes, for many years now, a dedicated group of parishioners offers prayers of healing on Sundays at the 9.15 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. services, and of course also at the 10:00 a.m. service on the first Sunday of the month. The same group of people also goes out every first and third Sunday of the month to bring communion to house-bound, shut-in parishioners. It is an amazing group of dedicated men and women, who have taken up God’s call to serve in a ministry that is very much biblically founded and that brings about God’s healing and salvation in the lives of many of our parishioners.

However, this dedicated group of people not only offers a ministry to others, they also minister to each other and with each other as they pray for one another and come together for support, exchange, fellowship, and study.

Just last Friday, we met again. And let me tell you: It was quite the experience! Jo Anne’s home, where we met last Friday, became a thin place, a place where the separation of the reality that is graspable by our senses and the reality of God was very thin. It truly was a blessed evening.

We met to reconnect after the long summer, but also to study a book: Healing in the Landscape of Prayer by Avery Brooke, a lay woman involved in the healing ministry at her home parish, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Darien, Connecticut.

In Chapter 3 of her book, Avery Brooke writes, and I quote:

“The underlying theme of our western culture is magic.¹”

What does she mean? Well, her definition of magic was influenced by Jeffery Santinover, MD, who calls “magic” everything we do in order to be in control. Whenever “[w]e want to be in control, [whenever we want] to manipulate life for our desires,²” then magic takes over.

And magic ain’t a good thing. Magic severs us from the love and compassion of our God, severs us from our brothers and sisters, and severs us from our true identity, from the beautiful self God intends for us.

Now, I need to be clear, this is a different understanding than what we usually describe as magic. I do not want to go back to the times of the “Holy Inquisition,” when the church suspected witchcraft and magic in the lives of so many unfortunate victims and burnt them at the stake. Those were horrible times when due to the deeply ingrained misogyny women in particular suffered and were subjected to outrageous crimes against humanity. God must have wept bitterly at what was committed in God’s name. No, there is no way back to those times of superstition.

Equally, when I talk about the dangers of magic, I do not want to blow into the same trumpet as those who think Harry Potter is a threat to the Christian faith or the church of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it is good to remember the Apostle Paul’s admonition in his First Letter to the Thessalonians, where he writes: “test everything; hold fast to what is good.³” And I, for one, do believe there is good to be found in the Harry Potter books.

Yes, there is black magic in our world. There are people who try to use spells, curses, or other occult practices to gain power and might, fortune and fame, to get back at others, or to simply have some fun. And this kind of magic does indeed create wastelands in our souls and fatal voids for our spirits – wastelands and voids that only our triune God can heal.

Yet, as I read Avery Brooke’s book, I realised she was using magic in a much broader way. Remember, her definition of magic has to do with any control over others for selfish reasons and with any manipulation for the sake of personal interests.

I do believe that the magic Avery Brook speaks of is widespread, even though I do not buy into the fear-tactics of some, who see the devil, his demons, and witchcraft everywhere. Yet, if magic really is any attempt “to be in control [and] to manipulate life for our desires,⁴” then magic must include any form of putting ourselves first, any form of trying to run the show without consideration of the needs of others, and any form of being in charge without regard for God’s will and the good of our neighbours.

Here are some examples:

When I first moved to Canada some five years ago, I was full of ideas and idealism. Well, at least that was my excuse. I jumped into my work as the rector of St. Paul’s with both feet. The rubber hit the road. And there were changes!

Often change is a good thing and sometimes old traditions need to go, particularly if these traditions stop being life-giving in and for the community or the larger society. And there were traditions here at St. Paul’s that weren’t so healthy anymore and there were realities that had made us disconnect from one another and that had made us avoid ministry to the larger community. We needed to remember the words of William Temple, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury, who once wrote, “The church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of its non-members.”

However, there were times and moments over the last five years when I didn’t realize that I was following my own agenda without regard for the traditions of this community and without acknowledging the needs of some of the members of the community. Yes, I made mistakes and let my own control-issues take over at times. There were moments when it was not about us, but about me. I am sorry to admit that magic does get the better of me at times. And I know I am not alone…

Magic, as Avery Brooke defines it, however, is not just a personal, but also a societal issue.

I am not sure if any of you are following what is going on with our neighbours south of the border. There is a very heated debate raging in the U.S. about nationalised health care. And the discussion is getting uglier and uglier.

Now, as a German living in Canada, I could very easily be smug and judgmental, considering how blessed we are both in Germany and Canada with our health coverage. But, that kind of smugness is nasty too. American-bashing is oh-so easy and if we are honest we must acknowledge that other countries have their share of failure and problems – even Canada. We might easily substitute the current debate in the U.S. with our own issues, such as the residential school disaster.

But I do want to speak today to one thing as I watch the debates in the U.S. from a distance. Many of those who oppose the proposed health care reforms do so as Christians. They argue that everyone must fend for him- or herself. For these opponents of any form of nationally mandated health care, the proposals debated by U.S. legislators are just a socialist plot against God and the American Way of Life.

I find this line of argument preposterous! In fact, I think it is a form of magic as it attempts to control for selfish reasons and as it tries to manipulate for selfish desires. This is not the Christian message. Justice for all is central to God’s self-revelation in the Bible. Taking care of the least of our brothers and sisters is at the heart of the message of Jesus. Just remember last week’s reading from Matthew 25! No, the Good News of God in Jesus Christ does not support any kind of selfishness or any manipulation of society for one’s own interests. Yes, any form of magic is a rebellion against God.

And this is why Jesus reacted so vehemently in today’s Gospel story. He was confronted with magic and needed to do something about it: Peter was trying to be in control, was trying to manipulate the events for his own desires. In fact, Peter was trying to manipulate God!

When Jesus revealed the way God’s revelation would be fulfilled in, by, and through his life and death, Peter couldn’t deal with it. He tried to change the outcome. For Peter, God just couldn’t be the way that Jesus revealed Him to be. For Peter, God had to remain almighty, had to stay enthroned in the heavens as the omniscient ruler of all.

Which is who God is: omniscient and enthroned in the heavens.

However, when we humans try to grasp the complete otherness of God, we sometimes graft an image of God that over time gets too big for us, and maybe even too scary. We sometimes place God so firmly in the heavens that God becomes divorced from the reality of human life. It is all good and well to worship God, who is almighty and all-knowing, but far too often we, like Peter, push God far, far away, removed from our experience, removed from our lives, removed from you and me.

This image of God cannot suffer with us and for us. This God cannot die with us and for us, either. It is a manipulated image of God to fit our ideas and our selfish interests. And this image of God turns God easily into a despot, who cares no more and who can indeed justify the disregard for the poor and the marginalized, can justify authoritarian rule and selfish decision-making, and can justify magic as Avery Brooke defines it. Despots want to be in control and want to manipulate life for their own desires.

But God is no magician or warlock. God is no despot. God does not manipulate. God’s M.O. is not control. And God will also not be manipulated or controlled. God won’t be pushed away: neither by my mistakes, nor by the outrageous arguments against societal responsibilities for the weak and the poor, nor by Peter’s misguided rebuke.

Rather, God wants to restore and redeem.

God came into our flesh in Jesus Christ to break down perceived distances. God became close, intimately close. God offered all that God is and all that God has in Jesus Christ for our sake and for the sake of the world. God is all about love and God wants for us to experience the intimate and compassionate love that overcomes all death, pierces all darkness, and heals us all in body, mind, and soul whoever we are, and wherever we find ourselves on the journey.

[1] Brooke, Avery: Healing in the Landscape of Prayer, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996, p. 37
[2] ibid.
[3] First Letter to the Thessalonians 5.21
[4] see footnote 2