Chapel – Dr. Wilma Nevers
GEORGE SWEETMAN: Just before I read this morning's passage of Scripture, let's take a moment to continue in a worshipful spirit of silence as we consider the words that we have just sung and all that is still to come.
This morning's passage is taken from the book of Acts, chapter 16, verses 25 through 34. "About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and at once, all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, 'Don't harm yourself. We're all here.' The jailer called for lights rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.' Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house, at that hour of the night, the jailer took them and washed their wounds. Then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them. He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God. He and his whole household." This is the word of the Lord. I'd like to invite Dr. Nevers, Wilma, to come forward and just have a brief prayer for her.
God, thank You for my sister, Wilma, as she brings Your word to us. May our ears be open and our hearts be receptive, and then our hands and our feet do the work that You have instructed us. Continue to call us God, for we are here. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
DR. WILMA NEVERS: Good morning, everyone. On behalf of the Wellness Centre, I want to thank you for this opportunity of presenting to you today, as mentioned before, it is Wellness Week, and we encourage you to make use of all the opportunities that are provided to you this week by the Student Development Department, of which the Wellness Centre is a part. At the front of the chapel, you'll see a display, and we invite you will please stop by afterwards to make use of what is there and to learn more about the services that we provide. Just want to give you an idea of, sorry this my clicker is not working.
We talk about that. Okay, yeah, just wanted to introduce a little bit the 25 therapists who are available to see you. They do serve at different times of the day, online and in person, and we have eight languages available. So students make use of the facilities that you do have. I just have to plug in this tiny little bit. The prices are really, really competitive for you students, and after you graduate, it will be almost twice as much. So while you're here, make use of those services. Today, I really want to spend some time talking to you about "Songs in the Night". And I thank you, George, for inviting me to do this. It is a really difficult topic, as you mentioned, but we know that God is able, And he does provide for us. Yep, difficulties happen.
So you might be wondering, what is that about? As Dean Sweetman read, the scriptures are taken from Acts 16, and it talks about. Paul and Silas being in prison. Well, I just wanted to share a little bit about my experience being in prison. No, not as an inmate, but I had opportunities as a university student, like most of you are. We were involved in the university and college's Christian Fellowship in Jamaica and on Sundays, some Sundays of the month, we would go to the nearby Tamarind Farm Prison, and we'd have services with the inmates there. It was a real blessing to be able to share with with the people who are in prison, and many of them were youngsters who committed minor offenses and perhaps couldn't pay the fines or whatever, but ended up in prison. That prison was nothing like what Paul and Silas were in that prison was rehabilitative. And the pictures you can see here are showing some of the things that they do in prison. There are classes, they make furniture, they make buildings. So that was a rehabilitative prison.
My second experience was a little different. This time we went to the Kingston Penitentiary. It is a maximum security prison, and when I went there, it was with a friend of mine who was developing a literacy campaign in prison. And we went early afternoon, everyone was outside dressed in their white garbs, like Tamarind Farm. They had a farm. They had chickens, they had vegetables, but right next to them were armed security, guns drawn, and just waiting for any little thing to happen. One of the guys walked over and started talking to me, you know, his love for farming, and we were having a great conversation, and then a loud, piercing siren interrupted the conversation. And on cue, all the men lined up and walked towards security, and I'm like, "What is going on?" And my friend explained that these prisoners have one hour per day outdoors, and they are locked up for 23 hours. I felt a deep, sinking pain in my heart. I hadn't even lived in Canada where I want to be indoors sometimes 24/7 because of the winter. I was used to nice, bright sunshine every day, so the idea of having to be outside only one hour was really, really hard.
Then I asked about who is that man who was talking to me, and he explained that Mr. X was on death row, and someone represented him at this Privy Council in Canada, and he got his execution stayed for the reason that he had been on death row for so long, so they wouldn't. They would, they would not in, they would not humanely be able to put him to death again. So he was there. After I heard that, I started to shake because I remember what happened. This man was in prison for like some real serious murder, and I'm like, "I was just talking to him", frightening.
But in our story, we're looking at Paul and Silas in prison. That's what prison looks like for them. No outdoors. Their feet were locked in stocks. It was clear they were not having a good time, because the Scriptures say, "The magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received those directives, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks." So my thought is, what were they singing about? What did they find to sing about in prison? You might be wondering the same thing, because here we are in this beautiful chapel, worshipping God, getting tertiary level education. Maybe few, if any of us has any clue what they went through.
However, I cannot downplay or diminish any of our own difficulties, because for us, they might seem like prisons. They might seem like nighttime. In September, Dean Sweetman outlined many dark and difficult issues that we are facing worldwide, as a nation, as maybe different cultures, but as people in general. Today, I can add that the devastation of a large part of my home country, because of a category five hurricane, is really hard for me to even stand here and think of what my fellow Jamaicans are going through. It's even harder to think that category five hurricanes and global warmings are the result of emissions from greenhouse gasses produced in large industrial countries, and smaller countries who are not responsible suffer. Injustice, is how I see it. How can we keep singing? How can we have songs in the night? All around us, there are signs and symptoms of night: mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, relational, and, I dare say, academic. Hope not.
While some of us can sail through our nights with a little bit of problem. Others of us struggle every day, all day, sometimes during the day. And for some of us, our night time, our struggles might sound like this. Too many bright lights. They're just blinding me. 2020, vision. But no, I can't see. So much noise. Don't know what they say. Arrows pointing everywhere, and I can't find my way. The room is so crowded and I feel so alone. No one to call from the hundreds of names on my phone. Thousands of followers I have, but where should I go? All this information, yet I don't know what I know. I want to be unique, but it's sameness I seek. Outside I'm strong, inside I'm weak. Working too hard just to get some rest. Is this my real life, or is it just a test? He who knows not and knows not, he knows not, is this for real, or is it Chatbot? So many questions, oh, where can I find the answer to all these things on my mind? What's holding me in? What's this on my back? What's all that crap in my expensive backpack? Why is the space so large and so open still feels like a large, a large, dark, lonely prison? Is it this, or is it that? Is it real? Or is it not? Am I or am I not doing this or doing that? Am I white or am I black? Going forward or going back? Am I free or in a box? How will I know what I know when it's all done? What do I have to show? How do I untangle? How do I break free? How much of all of this is God's will for me? Too many bright lights. They are just blinding me. I have 2020, vision, but no, I can't see. The sun is still shining outside, it's so bright, yet deep down inside me again, it is night, so help me, God.
You may be wondering what that is all about. I think for some of us, that represents even a little part of the prison of unknowing, the prison of uncertainty, the night of misattunement with ourselves, with others and with God. What is your night? What is mine? What is your prison? What is mine? Thank God the story doesn't have to end in unknowing and uncertainty.
So now I invite you to take with me a journey to "Songs in the Night". The Wellness Centre this year is focusing on attunement, mis-attunement and re-attunement, but our focus primarily is on attunement. What is attunement? Being in touch. Understanding. Being in sync with. Not feeling afraid or dislocated, so we can understand our thoughts, our emotions and our actions and make sense of them. What is mis-attunement? The opposite of that, missing the mark. What is re-attunement? Making repair, getting back to where we feel solid and safe and stable. Just inviting you a little bit to say the Wellness Centre team is trained and willing and ready to journey with you through attunement, getting back to where we have songs in the night.
And for those of us who are in our nights, if you're in therapy, they might ask questions about your past, your present, your goals. They might ask specific information about your families, how you've experienced things. They might want to have some clarification around some stuff, and sometimes they might not get the answers right, and that is mis-attunement. So they'll back up and say, Sorry, I misunderstood you. Can you tell me that again? Tell them in a way that's a little different, so I can see if I can understand you, and then we can go back on track. And sometimes there are things might cause a little disrepair, because we might have to do things like make reports to Children's Aid Society; call emergency. And some of those things might not be comfortable, but they are part of the process, and we can work that through and be re-attuned. So there's an attunement with ourselves, there's attunement with others, and there's attunement with God.
But we are made for relationship, whether it's with ourselves, with us, or with God, all of it. With ourselves we become aware of who we are. Our brains and our minds can keep track of stuff, of the good things, and of the times in prisons. Or they can lead us to where we become so imprisoned that we can't go any further because we don't know where we're going; because it's just us so it can keep us locked in a box. Or our brains can allow us to explore beyond our capacity and our knowledge. Relationship with others very often interrupts that cycle of aloneness and me, myself and I working through everything. And as a body of Christ, we know that we are made for relationship. So when other people are in our lives, like your friends, your professors, your teachers, or whatever, we are part of that one body helping to bring attunement to ourselves through attunement to others.
Imagine if you're part of a body and the parts don't work, or if your hands weren't connected to your shoulders and your fingers were connected to your toes and all that kind of disjointed thing, we would not be able to function. But each of us in the space that God has put us, in your life, in my life, is there for a function. So attunement in relationship, in others, is an important piece. Which suggests to me that we should get to know who are the safe people, who are the people who can help us as we go through life, and get to know other people around us. Loneliness, solitude is a huge crisis in our society. And like the poem says, we have so many people on our on our phones, but we don't have anybody to call because a relationship is not there. So it's not just a number of people, but who in your life is safe, who in your life can you have a relationship with?
And then there's a relationship with God. You know, God is the one who made us. God knows us. He knows how we function. So it's like you get a brand new iPhone, and you don't know how to turn it on. You don't know anybody who can help. But you have a phone. This is like, you have God at your your disposal. I don't exactly use God on disposal, that doesn't sound right, but God is available to you for everything in your life, and so if you don't use the opportunities that He's given you, you might be missing out on a lot. You will be missing out on a lot. And God doesn't just want to talk to you. He wants a relationship with you. He knows you. He wants to connect with who He has made. Psalm 139, He knows us before we were even conceived. John 15, He wants us to abide in Him. And you know, Liz and the Abide, use that opportunity. And Jeremiah 29, I know the plans I have for you. God isn't just sitting there with no plans for you. He has great plans for you. He wants you to be part of His life.
I want to go back to Paul and Silas. The Scripture said about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. Allow me to propose a little bit of how they could get to the place of singing songs in those difficult times. If we look at Paul and Paul's attunement to himself, Paul knew himself. Philippians 3:5, you know he can reel off, "circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteous law, faultless." He knew who he was, but he also knew that he was the overseer of the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. And I think sitting in prison, he might have recalled Stephen saying, "Dear God, don't hold this against him." Paul also, not only knew that part of himself, but he knew the transformation that he went through on the road to Damascus. His life was changed when God struck him down and he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he carried the same zeal of persecuting the church into his new life of being a child of God. His aim and his purpose were clear, "Whatever was gained to me, I count as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, and having my own righteousness from the law, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to Him in His death, and so somehow to attain resurrection from the dead." So Paul knew himself. He knew what he was. He knew what he is. He knew what he wanted to be. Paul's attunement to others in that prison.
There was Silas, there, he was not alone. He had a companion. Together, they understood faith in Christ. Together, they were walking in this burden, this imprisonment, and they prayed and sang hymns at midnight together, supporting each other. But he was also attuned to the jailer, believing that the jailer was going to kill himself, he stopped him and said, "We are all here". But we'll see further that he, not only the jailer, but the jailer and his family became part of the result of Paul's attunement to the jailer. And then there were other prisoners in there. Demonstrating power of God and kindness was part of what he was doing, so you had he was aware of and attuned to all the other people around him, and then his attunement to God.
Now, Colossians 1:24, "Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what was lacking in regard to Christ's affliction for the sake of the body, which is a church." 2 Timothy 1:12, "I also suffer these things. Nevertheless. I'm not ashamed, for I know who I have believed, and I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that day." Philippians. 3:10, "I want to know Christ again. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to Him in his death. And so somehow to attain from the resurrection of the dead." So in that dark place, can't move feet in a stock in the night.
And as if that's not enough, there's an earthquake now. I think Paul and Silas could somehow relate to the song, Breakdown, from Andrew Ripp. "See my friend, this is not a breakdown, it's a breakthrough. It's not a midnight, it's a brand new morning when it dawns on the dark. No, this is not the moment when it all falls apart. It's a beautiful place to start, because, in their view, rock bottom is not a rock bottom is a firm foundation." When you hit rock bottom, there's no further down to go. It's an opportunity to move up when you're in your dark prison, it's an opportunity to sing. So what is your prison? What is your night? Today? Just like Paul, I invite you into attunement with yourself, with others and with God. So we can find a song in the night. We cannot always change in the night, but we can sing while we are there.
So, dear God, open my eyes. I want to see Jesus. I want to see myself. I want to see others. Open my ears, Lord, to hear my own heart, but to hear others who are around me that you have sent to be near me. Open my heart Lord, to get to know myself, to love myself, to pay attention to who I am, and to take time to know and love others. And open my heart to ultimately, surrender my whole being to You, Your plan, and Your purpose, so I can trust You in or outside of the prisons and the night times I may face. Amen.
GEORGE SWEETMAN: As we close, hear these good words. "God enfold us, God to surround us, God in our speaking, God in our thinking. God in our sleeping, God in our waking, God in our watching, God in our hoping. God in our lives, God in our lips, God in our souls, God in our hearts. God in our sufficing, God in our slumber, God in our and every living souls, God in our eternity. Amen." Go seeking shalom and go in peace.
