The Promise of Presence and a Place – Reflections on Near Death Experiences and the Christian Faith – Part 1

Light abstract photo © 2011 Dennis Hendricksen

When I was a university student at Camrose Lutheran College I took a class in Thanatology – the study of Death and Dying.  This was the late 70’s when there was a surge of interest in this topic.  It was shortly after Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross published her book on Death and Dying which identified the 5 stages of dying and grieving – these are well known today but at the time it was a new understanding.  This was also shortly after Dr. Raymond Moody published his book Life After Life – the book that first introduced Near Death Experiences (N.D.E.s) to the general public. Since that time I have had an interest in this subject, reading articles and books about N.D.E.s when I come across them.

Recently, while reading the book “The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences” by Dr. Penny Sartori, I noticed that some of the common elements of NDEs are reflected by revelations in scripture. It should be noted that all Near Death-Experiences are not the same, however there are many elements that occur in many cases, and it is some of these common elements that I would like to comment on in these series of posts.

First let me explain briefly what an NDE is:  The International Association for Near Death Studies defines a near-death experience, or NDE as: 

“a profound psychological event with transcendental and mystical elements typically occurring to individuals close to death or in situations of intense physical or emotional danger.”

Not everyone who has been resuscitated after a cardiac arrest remembers having such an experience, it is estimated that anywhere from 1% to 10% of people who have been clinically dead, and then revived, will have an NDE. No two NDEs are exactly alike – but there are often common elements experienced. A NDE typically includes one or more of the following elements:

• Intense emotions: commonly of profound peace, well-being, love
• A perception of seeing one's body from above (called an out-of-body experience,  or OBE), sometimes watching medical resuscitation efforts or moving instantaneously to other places
• Rapid movement through darkness, often toward an indescribable light
• A sense of being "somewhere else," in a landscape that may seem like a spiritual realm or world
• Encounter with deceased loved ones, possibly sacred figures (Jesus, angels, saints) or unrecognized beings, with whom communication is mind-to-mind
• A life review, reliving actions and feeling their emotional impact on others
• In some cases, a flood of knowledge about life and the nature of the universe
• Being told it is not one’s time yet, or sometimes being given a choice to return to the body or stay in the spiritual realm
• Near-death experiencers commonly say their experience was unlike a dream, “more real than real,” the most powerful event in their lives. They struggle to find words to describe it, but insist they now know something new about reality, that “there's more than what's here” (in the physical world). Most feel deeply changed in their attitudes toward life, work, and relationships.

A 1992 Gallup poll projected around 5% of Americans have experienced a near-death experience in their life, yet this is still regarded as an unusual phenomena.  Perhaps this is because those who have had NDEs are reluctant to talk about them for fear of being called crazy, or having such a meaningful experience disregarded or minimized.  After I preached on this subject recently I had five different individuals come to me after the service and tell me about their own experience.

How are such experiences related to Christian faith?  To begin with, I believe there are accounts of NDEs in the Bible. I would like to note two of them here.

I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven fourteen years ago.  I don’t know whether it was in the body or out of the body.  God knows.  I know that this man was caught up into paradise and that he heard unspeakable words that were things no one is allowed to repeat.  I don’t know whether it was in the body or apart from the body.  God knows.

  2 Corinthians 12:2-4  (Common English Bible)

In this passage, in which the apostle Paul is likely referring to himself, we have a possible reference to an OBE (out-of-body experience) and a vision of another realm (as it is referred to: the third heaven or paradise).  The phrase “caught up” suggests a sense of rapid movement towards somewhere else.  Thus three elements of the common elements of an NDE are present in this description – a possible out-of-body experience (whether it was in the body or out of the body), a sense of rapid movement into another realm (caught up into the third heaven / paradise), knowledge that is impossible to put into words (unspeakable words).

Some have suggested that this passage is referring to a vision resulting from a trance state, and that possibility is certainly viable as well.  We do know that Paul had many close calls with death, and my own speculations was that during one of these extreme circumstances Paul experienced a NDE.  Some scholars have indicated that 14 years prior to this letter to the Corinthians would coincide with the time Paul was stoned by a mob on the outskirts of Lystra and left for dead (Acts 14:19).

The second account is found in Acts 7:54-60 - the story of the martyrdom of the disciple Stephen, who sees heaven as he is facing imminent death. As Stephen is being executed: He exclaimed, “Look!  I can see heaven on display and the Human One standing at God’s right side!”  There are many people, including Dr. Raymond Moody himself, who believe this to be an account of a Near-death Experience (p.65-66 "Reflections on Life After Life").
 
Stephen looks up and sees a vision of heaven opened up to him, with God the Father and Jesus present.  This is a vision others do not see – thus it seems to be only related to what Stephen is experiencing.  Often those nearing death will see someone, or something that causes them to reach upwards.  Stephen’s vision is located in the sky – upwards as well.  Most significantly this vision seems to give him a deep sense of peace and love – so much so that he is able to forgive his executioners, just as Jesus did.  This profound peace is one of the most common elements of NDEs.

There may possibly be other accounts in the Bible that could be described as Near-death Experiences, but these are the two that I have come across this past year.  In Part 2 I will connect Near-death Experiences with the teachings of Jesus.

Easter Sunrise

I was looking for a simple, contemplative song that could be accompanied with guitar for our Easter Sunrise Service this year, and I couldn't find anything that seemed to fit what I was looking for... so I wrote one. Simple melody, simple words... but sometimes simple is all you need.

Easter Sunrise

Sitting in the shadows,
stripped of hope and light.
Waiting for the sun rise
to bring sight.

Eastern sky is glowing,
flowers raise their heads;
miracle of Easter -
he’s not dead!

Mystery of myst'ries,
wonder to behold;
first the women saw this,
then they told.

Alleluia sing now!
Alleluia true.
Alleluia once more,
praise to you!

Very Nearly a Whisper

The following are the liner notes for my new recording.  A sample of the music can be found here.

Ambient Music for Prayer and Meditation

“Praying is first and foremost listening to Jesus, who dwells in the very depths of your heart.  He doesn’t shout.  He doesn’t thrust himself upon you. His voice is an unassuming voice, very nearly a whisper, the voice of a gentle love… 

This listening must be active and very attentive listening, for in our restless and noisy world God’s so loving voice is easily drowned out. You need to set aside some time every day for this active listening to God if only for ten minutes...

You’ll find that it isn’t easy to be still for ten minutes at a time. You’ll discover straightaway that many other voices, voices that are very noisy and distracting, voices which do not come from God, demand your attention.  But if you stick to your daily prayer time, then slowly but surely you’ll come to hear the gentle voice of love and will long more and more to listen to it.”

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Show Me the Way: Readings for Each Day of Lent

This passage from the writings of Henri Nouwen led to the creation of this recording.  I envisioned this recording as a tool for prayer and meditation.  A prayer of active listening is unfamiliar to many, and because it is unfamiliar it is initially difficult.  This recording seeks to help those who would like to practice this type of prayer.

Listening requires silence, and that is difficult in a society that constantly bombards our senses with sounds and sights.  Silence can be uncomfortable for those not used to it. Silence can become a distraction in and of itself as the ear strains to hear what is going on in the world around us.  This recording of ambient music is intended to help deal with this uncomfortableness with silence, an aid to help maintain one’s focus on active listening for the gentle voice of God.

Ambient Music was pioneered by British musician and producer Brian Eno – starting in the mid 1970’s.  Ambient music is not music in the usual sense – the music does not rely on rhythm, melody or harmonic progression, or at least not as primary elements. Rather ambient music creates an atmosphere that surrounds the listener without drawing attention to itself, creating a mood through tone and texture more than anything else.  In this way ambient music is related to soundtrack scores which seek to enhance the visual scene while not being the primary focus.

Thus the music on this recording, while subtly shifting over time, does not use elements designed to hold the listener’s attention. At the same time this ambient music provides an anchor for the ear that is not used to complete and intentional silence.  What follows is a description of how this recording can be used to enable the type of praying that Henri Nouwen writes of.

Each track on this recording begins and ends with the sound of a bell.  Each track is a different length, allowing for the user to choose how long to engage in listening prayer.  The times noted below are from the sound of the first bell until the sound of the two bells at the end of the selection:

• Track 1 – Trinity - is 3 minutes long
• Track 2 – Sabbath - is 7 minutes long
• Track 3 – Dekalogos - is 10 minutes long
• Track 4 – Inner Circle - is 12 minutes long
• Track 5 – Wilderness - is 40 minutes long

I intentionally made the length of time for each of these tracks to be a holy number – such numbers show up repeatedly in scripture. The final selection, both in length and in title, reflects the 40 days in the wilderness that Jesus spent at the beginning of his ministry. It is that wilderness time that gave shape to the season of Lent.

Perhaps at first one can only manage 3 minutes of active listening prayer, but with persistence and practice the length of such prayer can be increased.  I do not anticipate anyone using the final track to engage in 40 minutes of listening prayer – but this track could be used as an open-ended time of prayer – allowing the listener to pray as short or as long as circumstances and attention permit.  Another suggestion for track 5 is using it as background music for devotional reading or Bible study.

When using this music for prayer or mediation do not set the volume too loud. It should hover in the background, loud enough to be present in your consciousness, but not so loud that you focus on it.  Think of it as the wallpaper in the room where you are having a visit with Jesus – it is there, it makes the room a comfortable place, but it is not like a painting that draws the eye to it and calls out to be looked at closely.

This project started due to my own desire to develop a better prayer life during the season of Lent.  It is my hope and prayer that you will find this recording helpful as you seek to listen to the gentle voice of God that is “very nearly a whisper”.

_________________________________

This recording is available as a download the the Aurora Productions bandcamp page.  For folks interested in obtaining a physical CD - contact me directly.

Funeral Sermon for Bob Leeson

Written and preached by
Pastor Dennis Hendricksen and Pastor Lynn Robertson

Intro:

Today the sermon for this funeral will be done a little differently, Pastor Lynn Robertson and myself will share some thoughts with you from different perspectives.  Both Pastor Lynn and myself have been serving in a pastoral team with Bob Leeson – Lynn for over 5 years, and myself for close to 28 years.

Bob and I have shared much over the years, but that didn’t mean we always appreciated or enjoyed the same things.  In many ways we were quite different from each other, but one thing we had in common was a deep appreciation and love for the writings of British author C.S. Lewis.  For my portions of this message I will recount a scene from one of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia, and then make a few comments about Bob’s faith, life and ministry related to that story.

For those not familiar with the 7 books that make up the Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis wrote them imagining what Christ might be like in a different universe.  The great lion Aslan, who shows up in every Narnia story, is the Christ figure of Narnia.  Bob was such a fan of Aslan, and what Aslan represented, that he had an image of the great lion tattooed on his arm. It was a permanent mark of faith.

Dennis – Segment 1

I begin with a scene from The Magician’s Nephew.  I have edited these readings to include only the necessary material.  In this first scene Aslan the great lion brings Narnia into existence in a most creative manner:

In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing… Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself…

Far away, and down near the horizon, the sky began to turn grey. A light wind, very fresh, began to stir. The sky, in that one place, grew slowly and steadily paler. You could see shapes of hills standing up dark against it. All the time the Voice went on signing…

The earth was of many colours: they were fresh, hot, and vivid. They made you feel excited; until you saw the Singer himself, and then you forgot everything else. It was a Lion. Huge, shaggy, and bright, it stood facing the risen sun. Its mouth was wide open in song…

The Lion was pacing to and fro about that empty land and singing his new song. It was softer and more lilting than the song by which he had called up the stars and the sun; a gentle, rippling music. And as he walked and sang the valley grew green with grass. It spread out from the Lion like a pool…

With an unspeakable thrill, [Polly] felt quite certain that all the things were coming (as she said) ‘out of the Lion’s head’. When you listened to his song you heard the things he was making up: when you looked round you, you saw them.

Bob Leeson loved two things woven together in this scene – creation and music.  Bob experienced the presence of God in the beauty and power of nature.  Often he would drive out to the Qu’appelle Valley, park his vehicle and simply soak in the peace and wonder of creation – sitting in this natural setting he would write letters to God – his most meaningful form of prayer.

Bob also sensed the presence of God in music, and he understood the healing and transformative power of music.  His guitar was an important tool in his ministry – whether he was singing at a Senior’s Care Home, or in a hospital room, or at a funeral, or with Prairie Spirit during a Country Gospel Service – Bob knew the power of music to change things for the better, to bring consolation or healing, or to be a prayer for those who were having trouble finding the right words to express their thoughts and feelings.Like Martin Luther, Bob saw both creation and music as great gifts from God, and he sought to be a good steward of these gifts, in both his life and his ministry.

 

Lynn – Segment 1

The scripture reading from Psalm 40 also speaks of a song, a song of praise to God for God’s help. Bob experienced God’s help in many ways in his life and through his many families: his clergy family, his church family at Christ Lutheran, his AA group, his family at the Christian Motorcyclist’s Association, and of course through his immediate family.

In Bob’s own words that he wrote down for his funeral notes he refers to each of these families, in turn. Bob experienced God’s help, as reflected through Psalm 40, through the people he describes as the important and formative clergy in his life who he named as: Bill Nelson, Marvin Gertz, Ralph Odegaard, Wally Kurtz, and Orville Kaminski. Bob also experienced God’s help through the people of Christ Lutheran who he describes as his second family who were very caring during his illness, as well as  Prairie Spirit, a family within the church family. In addition, Bob wrote, “A.A. gave me a new life – God worked through the program to rebuild my life. Doc Woolsey was a great sponsor and the Lumsden Valley AA Group made a life with some serenity possible.” He also mentioned how much his biker friends meant to him who were too numerous to name.

Bob’s own immediate family was, of course, also a tremendous help and support, particularly in the last weeks of his life.  During one of my visits to Bob and his family while he was in hospital, I shared with the family how touched I was by how generously they shared their dad with everyone who walked in that hospital room, stepping aside so visitors could sit beside Bob and even offering to leave the room if anyone wanted time alone with Bob. You shared you dad (and Sandy, your husband) so generously with everyone in the last days of his life and you obviously must have shared him equally as generously your whole lives to have enabled him to spend so much time ministering to so many others. It is partly through your own love and generosity that Bob was able to touch so many lives, do so much for so many, and to be there so often for others during the times of crisis in their lives.
 

Dennis - Segment 2

The most loved book in the Narnia series is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  The dramatic final chapters tell of Aslan’s deal with the White Witch, allowing for the traitor Edmund to be freed from the White Witch.  Aslan ends up bound, tortured and killed on a great stone table, a terrifying event witnessed by two sisters – Lucy and Susan.

‘I’m so cold,’ said Lucy.

‘So am I,’ said Susan. ‘Let’s walk about a bit.’

They walked to the eastern edge of the hill and looked down… The country all looked dark grey, but beyond, at the very end of the world, the sea showed pale. The sky began to turn red. They walked to and fro more times than they could count between the dead Aslan and the eastern ridge, trying to keep warm…Then at last, as they stood for a moment looking out towards the sea… the red turned to gold along the line where the sea and the sky met and very slowly up came the edge of the sun. At that moment they heard from behind them a loud noise – a great cracking, deafening noise….

The rising of the sun had made everything look so different – all the colours and shadows were changed – that for a moment they didn’t see the important thing. Then they did. The Stone Table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end; and there was no Aslan…’Oh, it’s too bad,’ sobbed Lucy; ‘they might have left the body alone.’

‘Who’s done it?’ cried Susan. ‘What does it mean? Is it more magic?’

‘Yes!’ said a great voice behind their backs. ‘It is more magic.’ They looked around. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane… stood Aslan himself…

‘But what does it all mean?’ asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.

‘It means,’ said Aslan, ‘that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’ stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.

This is the story of a resurrection.  Like Aslan, Jesus rises from the dead, and by this wondrous event changes the course of human history, of human destiny.  It was his faith in the resurrected Jesus that enabled Bob to bring hope to so many people over the years.  It was his trust in the promises of Christ that shaped his life and his ministry – it even allowed him to say to me on a number of occasions “I’m not afraid to die, I know where I’m going” – but this confidence was tempered with a desire to not cause grief or hardship for his family.

Today we can celebrate, even while we grieve, trusting that Bob, even though he has died, will live again. That he has been joined to the death and resurrection of Christ, and that he now has entered into that glorified existence where there will be no more pain, no more illness, no more suffering, where death is working backwards.
 

Lynn - Segment 2

The return of Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a reflection of the hope in the resurrection, a hope that Bob believed in and that sustained him. This hope is reflected in the scripture reading from Romans that Bob chose and it reminds us that this hope is not something that we have to wait for, but a hope that we have in the present. It is a hope that assures us that we have complete victory now through God who loves us. We are assured that nothing can separate us from God’s love, neither death nor life, or anything in all of creation.

This hope and how we live it out is one of the ways we live out our baptismal mission and let our lights shine so that we reflect God’s glory in our lives. At baptisms, baptismal candidates receive a candle that is lit from the Christ Candle that today is at the head of Bob’s casket. Every time Bob would hand a baptismal candle to the family of a child being baptized, he would talk about how important it is to live a life of faith because our children watch what we do more than they listen to what we say. Our actions are how we shine our lights, how we glorify God in our day to day lives by what we do, not because we have to or are supposed to, but because we desire to live lives in response to God’s love for us.

Bob had many passions, but what he was most passionate about was letting his light shine through sharing his faith and living out his faith in many pastoral and practical ways. It was this legacy of living out his faith helping others that resulted in him receiving a Queen Elizabeth the 2nd Diamond Jubilee Medal this past year.  And for those of you who read the Leader Post yesterday, Bob was also included in a list of 32 fascinating people that Regina lost this past year. The newspaper recognized Bob as someone who did enormous work as a Lutheran minister, but also touched many others through his counselling and warmth.

Bob’s light continues to live on in each of us whose lives he touched.
 

Dennis - Segment 3

The brave mouse Reepicheep is first encountered in the book Prince Caspian, but it is in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader that he has a significant part. Remembering a prophecy spoken over his cradle – that he would find what he sought in the Utter East – Reepicheep joins the crew of the Dawn Treader which is sailing east. Near the end of the book, after entering a sea of sweet water, and covered with white lilies, Reepicheep’s journey reaches its conclusion.

Then up came the sun, and at its first rising they saw it through the wall and it turned into wonderful rainbow colours. Then they knew that the wall was really a long, tall wave – a wave endlessly fixed in one place as you may often see at the edge of a waterfall…  now they saw something not only behind the wave but behind the sun...  What they saw – eastward, beyond the sun – was a range of mountains… And the mountains must really have been outside the world. For any mountains even a quarter or a twentieth of that height ought to have had ice and snow on them. But these were warm and green and full of forests and waterfalls however high you looked…

No one in that boat doubted that they were seeing beyond the End of the World into Aslan’s country.

At that moment, with a crunch, the boat ran aground. The water was too shallow now even for it. ‘This,’ said Reepicheep, ‘is where I go on alone.’…

They helped him lower his little coracle…  He bade them good-bye, trying to be sad for their sakes; but he was quivering with happiness… Then hastily he got into his coracle and took his paddle, and the current caught it and away he went, very black against the lilies… The coracle went more and more quickly, and beautifully it rushed up the wave’s side. For one split second they saw its shape and Reepicheep’s on the very top. Then it vanished, and since that moment no one can truly claim to have seen Reepicheep the Mouse. But my belief is that he came safe to Aslan’s country and is alive there to this day.

Like Reepicheep, Bob has gone on before us, crossed over into Aslan’s land, or as we would say in this world ‘into the eternal Realm of Christ.’  For those left behind on the boat it is a sad parting, for Reepicheep has been a good companion on the journey, he has helped them through many difficult situtations.  In a similar way, we too are sad at this parting of the ways. Bob who has been a good companion in our journey of life and faith now leaves us, and we are sad to see him go.  But the sadness is ours, not Bob’s – he is free from pain, he is receiving his reward, he is meeting his Lord and Saviour fully and freely.

Our journey must continue here however, we still have a mission before us.  Like the crew of the Dawn Treader who still had more to do in Narnia, we also have more to do.  But we will be able to do the mission ahead of us better because of the legacy that Bob leaves us.  As we remember his faith, his acceptance of all people, his caring and compassion for those in the midst of struggles, his generosity of time and resources, his commitment to truth, his concern for those less fortunate, – as we remember his example, and how his life reflected the grace and mercy of God – we will be encouraged to press on, to be more committed to the things of God, to be brave and to make a difference, even if we feel we are little more than a mouse in the big scheme of things.  Bob made a big impact in the lives of many, you here today are a testimony to that – but he never saw himself as something grand and wonderful – he was simply an average person with a calling – just like you and I.
 

Lynn - Segment 3

Just as Reepicheep crossed over into Aslan’s land, so now Bob has crossed over to a new life with God, leaving the rest of us behind, for now. We hear about this in our reading from John when we heard, “I am telling you the truth: those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged, but have already passed from death to life.” This passage is actually reminding us that we receive eternal life even before we die, that it is through our belief in Jesus that we pass from death to life.

Few of you would know that Bob had a vision of this about a month before he passed away. At our weekly staff meeting, after his recent trip to Calgary to visit his brothers, Bob was telling us about a unique cloud formation that he saw while him and Sandy were travelling to Calgary. He described the clouds opening up and rays of sunlight coming down in such a way that it looked like a staircase or a ladder. He said he had never seen anything like it before and at first it was disconcerting but then he took it as a sign of comfort from God. Pastor Dennis refers to this vision as the Highway to Heaven. I’d like to think that Bob is travelling that highway as we speak.

Even though we can take comfort that Bob is at peace and finally free from cancer, some may wonder why it is that God took Bob at such a relatively young age when he did so much good for so many people. I want to be very clear that God did not take Bob from us, cancer took Bob from us. Cancer is one of the diseases that are part of our hurting and broken world. God didn’t take Bob from us, but God is present through the positive impact Bob had on our lives. God is with us comforting us, upholding us, enfolding us, and giving us peace. God is crying with us. That is where God is and what God does. The passage from Luke that was read, that is known as the parable of the loving father, and better known as the parable of the prodigal son, reminds us of this God who never turns his back on us, who always welcomes us home and desires for us to be with him in his loving and forgiving arms.

So it may feel as though Bob has left us, but he will continue to live on in our hearts and minds, in our memories and in our conversations. But because Bob has crossed over to a new life, we grieve losing him in this life with us. The deeper we love someone, the deeper we will grieve the loss of that person. Bob touched so many lives in so many significant ways his loss is deeply felt by us. Grieving will not be easy and it will not be quick, but Romans promises us that God is with us and that nothing will separate us from God's love. There is no quick way around or through grief and it is important to remember that we will grieve differently. Some will enjoy sharing stories about Bob with others, while others would rather be alone in their grief. Some will shed many tears, while others will shed none. Some will appear to move on quicker, while others will seem to re-visit the different stages of grief. The wisdom that Pastor Bob would give us is to be patient and accepting of each other in the different ways we grief.  The only thing that is the same for us is that grief is a valley through which we each must travel in our own way, at our own pace. It is equally important to remember that we do not travel this road of grief alone. We have each other for love and support.
 

Dennis - Segment 4

The last book of the Narnia series is The Last Battle – what seems to be a terrible defeat in a battle on Stable Hill instead becomes a gateway into Aslan’s land. There the Narnians and Children are greeted by none other than Reepicheep who says “Welcome, in the Lion’s name.  Come farther up and farther in.”  Farther along the group meets Aslan.

Then Aslan turned to them and said:

‘You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.’

Lucy said, ‘We’re so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often.’

‘No fear of that,’ said Aslan. ‘Have you not guessed?’

Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them.

‘There was a real railway accident,’ said Aslan softly. ‘Your father and mother and all of you are – as you used to call it in the Shadowlands – dead. The term is over:  the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.’

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

May we who have yet to cross into the promised land find comfort and strength in one another, may we find enjoyment and encouragement in our memories of Bob, and may we find hope to carry on in the promises of God.  A God who Bob believed is faithful and gracious.  A God who welcomes home all - with a loving embrace and a forgiving heart.  A God who is generous – one who gave us the gift of a beautiful creation, the gift of writers like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, the gift of Bob Leeson – father, pastor, friend, and much more.  Bob believed in a God who came to be Emmanuel – God with us.  May God’s presence bring peace and comfort to our hearts.

Bob Leeson has turned the page and has now begun the Great Story.

Thanks be to God!

Crazy for Crèches (or Nuts about Nativities)

I am a collector by nature – if you saw my CD collection, or my personal library of books, you would know what I mean.  I married a woman who also is a collector, but it wasn’t as obvious at first.  A number of years ago I realized that Beth had a number of crèches that she would set up around the house during the Advent and Christmas seasons.  As each year went by she would acquire more and more of these nativity scenes – each one different from all the rest in some way.  When we travelled she would look for nativity scenes unique to that region and if such an item was found she would purchase it and add it to her collection.  She eventually acquired so many that she has begun to put on a special display at our church every Advent.  While other members of the congregation also bring their crèches to put on display, Beth’s nativity sets make up the bulk of the display.

Upon seeing this collection many folks have asked where we have room for all these crèches, and indeed storage is a challenge.  We have a number of plastic totes that are dedicated exclusively for this crèche collection. I realize that at some point in the future down-sizing will be another challenge to face, but for now the collection continues to grow with a few new nativity sets added every year.

You might think that such an obsession might be a source of tension in our marriage, that I would be frustrated with this growing collection of items that typically only get displayed once a year.  But that is not the case at all – I don’t mind my wife’s enthusiasm for nativity displays, in fact I rather enjoy them myself.

Some might suggest that Nativity Sets make a terrible mish-mash of two very different incarnational stories, that they tend to romanticize the Christmas story, that they are nothing more than Christmas kitsch. On one level each of these accusations are legitimate observations, but they are not enough to over-ride my enjoyment of this crèche collection and what they represent.
 

The reason I enjoy looking at nativity sets from around the world is that they reflect in some way the culture and customs of the people who created them.  A few of my favourite crèches from my wife’s collection include:

• From Venice, Italy - the Holy Family in a gondola, crafted by a local glass artisan.
• From Mexico - brightly painted figures on embossed metal of some sort.
• From Switzerland - hand carved wooden set, complete with a music box mechanism.
• From Peru - hand painted clay set, the whole nativity set held in a pair of hands.
• From Africa - carved black wood, the Holy Family as black skinned people.

What these nativity sets represent to me is an expression of the truth that Christ is for all people, that all races and cultures can claim Jesus as one of their own.  The variety of crèches in this collection attests to this diversity. Jesus is not relegated to one place in time and space, rather Christ transcends all culture and history.  The incarnation means the God took on human flesh and came to be one of us, the incarnation means God identifies with us deeply - regardless of our cultural, racial, or historical identities.  I can’t think of a simpler way of expressing that message than to show the Christ child in a variety of settings, and our crèche collection does just that.