On this Forest Sunday, I would like to tell
you about the forest which has become part
of who I am. This particular forest is special
not only to me, but it also stands tall in
the annals of Canadian forests; indeed, it
stands out among all the forests of the world.
It is located just north of West Vancouver
and I’ve been walking in this forest since
I was a teenager. This deep, dark, rich, rainforest
is one of the few remaining old-growth forests
in Canada.
Many of the trees are over 600 years old.
This particular forest has managed to survive
uncut thanks to the building of a lighthouse
in 1875 on Point Atkinson.
The authorities wanted to ensure a dark backdrop
for the lighthouse so they banned logging
in the area. And now, the city of West-Vancouver
has set the forest aside with the creation
of Lighthouse Park.
On my first trip to Lighthouse Park, I was
just thirteen, taken there by my father for
a family outing.
I remember a dark, wet, gentle hike down to
the water’s edge, followed by a half-hour’s
uphill climb back to the parking lot, where
my mother waited with our picnic lunch, of
salmon sandwiches and hot tea. Later, when I was
old enough to drive myself, there were so
many dark, wet, gentle hikes in this forest
cathedral where I often retreated  for solace
from the trials and tribulations of finding
my way in the world.
Over the years, I have often returned to this
living cathedral where the Douglas Firs and
Red Cedars are hundreds, and hundreds, of
years old.
Looking up to see just how far they stretch
towards the sky, that will make you dizzy.
I vividly remember the first time I took my
wife Carol into the depths of this sacred
place.
The sheer pleasure of seeing someone you love
overwhelmed by the splendour of some of the
biggest and oldest trees on the planet, was
matched only by the deep silences which are
possible in such a place.
The Coast Salish, First Nation people, of
the Squamish tribe named this sacred place:
Sk’iwitsut which means “turning point”.
It is without a doubt a Thin Place which has
the power to turn your world inside out; a
place where the boundary between what is known
and what lies beyond the known is so thin
that you can feel the presence of the ONE
who IS both the SOURCE of all that IS and
who is BEYOND all that is.
In this Thin Place, I have laid down burdens,
wept, laughed, shouted, cried, rejoiced, slept,
breathed deeply of the Earth and lost my breath
trudging up the dark, damp, fecund trails.
In this Thin Place, this Forest Cathedral,
I have worshiped the SOURCE of ALL that IS.
I have been mesmerized by that which is beyond
all that is, and I have been emptied of concerns,
trials, and tribulations and in turn, filled
with joy, hope, peace and LOVE.
In this Thin Place, this Forest Cathedral,
over and over again, I have been born anew.
In this Forest Cathedral, and in so many Forest
Cathedrals, I have come to understand what
Julian of Norwich meant when she said that,
“we are not just made by God, we are made
of God.” for in these sacred Thin Places,
in these Forest Cathedrals, in the sheer beauty
and the magnitude of life which abounds from
deep within the forest floors, up through
the steadfast trunks to the skyward canopies,
the ONE who is the SOURCE of ALL, is also
the ONE who is the SOURCE of MY BEING.
But these Thin Places are not for the faint
of heart.
Over the years, I have made various pilgrimages
to Lighthouse Park, only to find a sign erected
warning those who dare to enter that a bear
has been sighted in the area.
Sometimes the authorities have posted a sign
which announces that because of the threat
of a dangerous bear in the area, the park
is closed to hikers.
When I was younger, and much more foolish,
I ignored those signs and I ventured
deep into dark forest despite the warnings.
The sense of danger was palpable and added
to the intensity of the experience of this
dangerous wilderness.
But the wisdom gained over the decades has
of late caused me to heed the warning signs.
So, from time to time Carol and I have travelled
to Lighthouse Park filled with anticipation
only to be thwarted by a warning sign.
It seems appropriate somehow that a Thin Place
should be so subject to warning signs.
The definition of DIVINE MYSTERY, that was developed
out of the work of Rudolf Otto names the MYSTERY
we call God as the NUMINOUS.
Otto defines the NUMINOUS in Latin with the
words, “Mysterium, Tremendum,” and over
the decades others have added the Latin et
Facinam;”
for the ONE whose is the SOURCE of ALL BEING
is mysterious, tremendous, and fascinating.
Mysterious yes. Tremendous, actually makes
you tremble, yes.
But even though you tremble with fear and awe  in the
presence of such great MYSTERY, you just can’t
help but be fascinated, to be drawn in by the ONE who is the
source and ground of your BEING as you are
opened to the LOVE which IS, DIVINITY.
When you reach down to the rich earth on the
forest floor, the mysterious process of rebirth
can be touched as millions of years of decay,
provide the nutrients necessary to give centuries
of life to the ancient rain forest, which
in turn gives life not only to the creatures
which live within the forest, but breathes
life into the very air we breathe during the
magnificent processes which literally cleans
the air.
During these endless months, when we have
been unable to worship in our church building,
I have often allowed my mind to wander the
deep, rich, fecund pathways of Sk’iwitsut,
the Turning Point, known as Lighthouse Park,
precisely because of the power of this Thin
Place to give birth to life out of decay.
Before the pandemic, the christian church
was on life support.
I don’t want to go into all the statistics
here because most of us have seen for ourselves
the evidence of the churches gasping for breath
as the life drains from our sanctuaries.
In John Philip Newell’s book, “The Rebirthing
of God,” Newell tells a story about Carl
Jung…which goes like this:
“Carl Jung is the founder of analytical
psychology.
Even as a boy Jung had prophetic intuitions,
although for many of these he did not find
language, or the courage to speak, until many
decades later in his life.
As a twelve-year-old boy in Switzerland, walking
home from school one day past Basel Cathedral
with its shining new spire, the young Carl
Jung became aware of an image rising up from
the unconscious.
He was so horrified by it that he tried pushing
it back down.
But it kept insisting on coming forth.
When finally, as he explained years later,
he allowed himself to name what he was seeing,
he saw that above the spire of the cathedral
was the throne of God.
Descending from the throne was ‘an enormous
turd' that smashed into the spire and the
walls of the cathedral crumbled.”
Newell insists that, “We are living in the
midst of the great turd falling.
In fact, it has already hit the spire, and
the walls of Western Christianity are collapsing.
In many parts of the West that collapse can
only be described as seismic.
In another twenty-five years, much of the
Western Christianity, as we have known
it, will be no more.
One only had to look around on a typical Sunday
in most of our mainstream Christian churches
before the pandemic.
Who will be there when it is safe for us to
return?”
Newell writes “There are three main responses
or reactions to this particular collapse.
The first is to deny that it is happening.
The second is to frantically try to shore
up the foundations of the old thing.
The third, which Newell invites us into, is
to ask what is trying to be born which requires
a radical reorientation of our vision.
What is the new thing which is trying to emerge
from deep within us and from deep within the
collective soul of Christianity?
Newell goes on to tell of an encounter
“a few years ago after sharing Jung’s
dreamlike awareness of the enormous turd at
a spirituality conference in the United States. At this conference,
a woman came up to him at the end of his talk.
She explained that, she was a midwife and
that in her twenty-five years of midwifery
she had noticed that the turd nearly always
comes before the birth.
In other words, what is it that we need to
let go of to prepare for new birthing.”
The author of the Gospel according to John
speaks of the need to be “born anew” or to be "born again."
The religious right has highjacked the phrase
born again and to hear some Christians tell
it, being born again requires that we become
something other than ourselves.
I’ve heard and read too many sermons which
call us to deny our human nature, turn from
our sinful nature and be born again.
I have grown to hate the term born again.
But this idea of new birth lies at the heart
of Jesus’ teachings and points not to denial
of who and what we are, not a turning away
from our humanity, but rather allowing that
which lies deep inside of us to come forth
again.
Julian of Norwich reminds us that we are not
just made by God, we are also made of God.
All of creation sprang forth from God and
is of God. Being born anew is setting free
that which lies deep within, what is at the
heart of all things—made of God—being
set free to emerge in radical new ways.
As Newell puts it, “The Rebirthing of God
is precisely this.
It is to point to a radical re-emergence of
the DIVINE from deep within us.
We do not have to create it. We cannot create
it.
But we can let it spring froth and be reborn
in our lives.
We can be part of midwifing new holy births
in the world.”
Within us IS the likeness of the ONE from
whom we have come and of whom we are made.
We are made of the LOVE which lies at the
very heart of reality.
We are made of the light which was in the
beginning.
We are made of the WISDOM which fashioned
the universe in all its glorious interrelatedness.
We are made of the LOVE which longs for oneness,
for justice, and for peace.
Imagine if you will, a church born anew, a
church which seeks to be a midwife to the
rebirthing of the sacred; a church which seeks
to facilitate the rebirthing of relationship
among all that IS of DIVINE MYSTERY.
A church that not only celebrates Creation
but presides at the birth of emerging new
relationships between the Creatures of the
Earth and the Forests of the Earth.
I know that there are those who prefer to
go to Lighthouse Park when the weather is
bright and sunny.
But if you have the courage to go to the Lighthouse
Park when it is raining; if you can see past
the gloom of a west coast drizzle, then the
Forest Cathedral will reward you with a rare
glimpse of the Earth’s womb.
There’s a wonderful aroma emitted from the
moist earth which hints of centuries of decay.
If you venture up along the Juniper Trail
you will come upon the most amazing maternity
ward.
Lying upon the forest floor you will see the
rotting remains of a cedar which must have
lived some 500 or 600 years before falling
to the Earth.
The dead cedar has laid there on that spot
for another six-hundred years or so.
We know that because out of the rotten decay
of that giant cedar has sprung new life; that
is if you can call a 400-year-old fir tree
new life.
The thousand-year-old remains of a cedar tree
out of which grows a 400 year-old fir. The
decaying cedar is known as a nurse-log. It
is a mid-wife of sorts, providing the means
for new growth.
There is so much we can learn from deep within
a Forest Cathedral.
Not the least of which is the reality of our
inter-relatedness with all that IS. Newell
reminds us that, “We are Earthlings.
We do not have the capacity in and by ourselves
to save the Earth.
We do, however, have the capacity to serve
the Earth and to nurture its deep energies
for healing, and to allow it the space and the
time to renew itself.”
Newell insists that the church is uniquely
placed to be a blessing to the world.
Newell writes: “The church’s role is to serve
that deep knowing and to help translate, translate  it
into how we live together with the Earth.”
He invites the church to, “a new humility,
to serve the HOLY WISDOM that is already stirring
in the hearts of people everywhere, the growing
awareness of Earth’s interrelatedness and
sacredness.”
I am reminded that the word humility comes
from the word humus, which means Earth.
The church is being called to humility, to
remember it’s earthiness.
To call all of us to a kind of sacred midwifery,
to facilitate the new birth of that which
lies within the Earth and deep within the
heart of humanity.
The humility to which we are called is to
serve the Earth and her creatures for we are
ONE.
Yes, there are bears in the woods, but even
the bears have wisdom to teach us.
If Christianity is to be born anew, we must
be about the work of rebirthing DIVINITY,
the ONE in whom we live, and move, and have
our BEING.
Let it be so among us. Let it be so.
