– Quite a week we had. Lot of emotions. Most of them not precisely positive. Disturbing emotions!

I have one of those little tables at home you may have seen to teach children (and adults) about emotions, it’s called: “How are you feeling today?” and there are representations of facial expressions with naming all the feelings we may experience. I thought it might be interesting to check the feelings of the week. Those I have witnessed in the press, social medias, in conversations with friends and with some of you, and also those I noticed when I have been in conversation with myself!

So how have we been feeling this week?

Aggressive, Angered, Argumentative, Apologetic, Bitter, Confused, Depressed, Disappointed, Disapproving, Disbelieving, Disgusted, Distasteful, Engrossed, Enraged, Exasperated, Exhausted, Frightened, Frustrated, Grieving, Guilty, Hopeless, Hostile, Horrified, Hurt, Lonely, Miserable, Nauseous, Negative, Obsessed, Pained, Paranoid, Perplexed, Puzzled, Sad, Shocked, Sorrowful, Steaming, Stressed, Traumatized, Worried, Withdrew?

Have you checked any? How are you been feeling this week? And how are you feeling today?

The reading of Genesis reminds us today of another week, a week that happened a long time ago, even if most of us don’t believe it was an actual week. The week the world was created and every living thing and creature and humankind brought into being and blessed by God. And I thought it was kind of funny and touching to realize that each day of the week, God saw that is was “Good” (“Tov”: good and beautiful – used 7 times in the text). Each day, how did God feel? God felt contented, and how was the world? The world was contented. And humankind, man and woman were created in the image of God – and they were contented too!

And I would like to make a first observation about that:

– I think it’s more important than ever to remember that the world was created good and that we were created good. And we were created for peace, harmony and contentment. And it’s so easy to forget about that. Not only because there are so many disturbing events taking place these days. It’s easy to forget that we are made for goodness because religion throughout the ages has been quite responsible for presenting humanity as guilty, lawless and enemies of God. But Genesis reminds us that first of all, we are good and made for goodness. I heard once a preacher saying that the world was wonderfully made because the color the most soothing to the human eye is green and so God created everything green so we would be soothed. Well, I am not sure about that. Green is soothing to our eyes because our eyes have evolved surrounded by the green of nature. But you get the idea: There is harmony in nature – not necessarily a harmony where there is never suffering or death, but there is an equilibrium, a balance. No distress and despair. The world is brought into being by leaving the chaos behind.

I was amazed to realize this week that even in the midst of the pandemic people were not doing too bad. They were worried of course, but even when nature acts hostile towards us, we have experienced ways of coming together and finding solutions. I had a sense that these past couple of weeks, the shift in our minds came with the racial violence, the protest and the looting and the repression and all of that was not just worrying, it felt traumatic. We can face uncertainty and danger together but hate and violence that create division are traumatic. Because we are made for goodness and harmony.

And so, if like me you’ve been wondering about those emotions we’re going through right now, I think that’s it: Our brains are traumatized, because deep down we are wired for goodness, harmony and peace and it does not make any sense. I heard so many people this week saying to me that they could not make sense of hatred and physical violence, about the racism, but I’ve also heard about the looting, the verbal violence against the authorities, the politicization of the church, Christians condemning other Christians…

We are not meant for chaos, we don’t thrive in the chaos and actually God called us out from the chaos.

“In the beginning (…) the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep”

So I think one of the things we can hear in the passage of Genesis today is that we have to stop. Stop trying to make sense of the chaos, stop obsessing with the chaos, and sort of “making friend with the chaos” when we spend most of our days watching or scrolling through the chaos. Today and from the beginning, God called us out of the chaos.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend who told me she didn’t really like the role the National Church was playing in the crisis and my friend told me that she felt bad because “She didn’t know how to react” – and it really hit me – this expression. I said to her: Well, you don’t have to react.

We have to act, oh yes indeed, but we don’t have to react. We certainly have the right not to react and it is actually recommended not to react. When under pressure, we have the right not to know how to feel or what to think – and it would actually be quite normal. God called us out of the chaos because we’re never going to be out best selves in the chaos. We’re not going to be our best selves when our mind are on alert, our bodies tensed, our brain overloaded and our nervous system overstimulated.

And so it is our job to bring back peace into ourselves and into the world. The harmony God wanted to bring from the beginning. To bring back goodness. It is not the goodness of the status quo. It’s a goodness that brings life and enable all creatures to thrive. We don’t have to react, but we are called to act and actually if we really want to act, we have to stop reacting – whatever is our way of reacting (withdrawal and indifference or anger and panic). Psychologists call that the “blue zone” (withdrawal, indifference, depression) and the “red zone” (anger, fear, panic). The “green zone” being the one where we can be balanced and truly ourselves. There is nothing wrong with being in the blue or red zone, that’s just the way our nervous system work, and maybe it’s even harder for some of us who are more sensitive, but we have to come back in the green zone to make rational decisions, act with love and compassion and be fully engaged in the world.

In his letter today, Paul reminds the church to live in peace. I am really amazed to realize how often this message of peace comes back in the first Christians writing, whether in the passages about Jesus’ resurrection, in Acts and the Epistles. The first Christians insisted on peace, not because they were dreamers and idealists but actually because they had plenty of good reasons to freak out! Roman persecutions and also Christians divided against each other.

How do we do that? How can we achieve peace so we can be fully engaged with the world and one another?

Well, of course, we have first to be mindful or our physical and mental well being. Sleep, eat, exercise.
Do something that connects us with the world, brings us relief, joy and even fun if we can. Something that keeps us grounded. (I’ve been experiencing quite unsuccessfully with Art, but at least it brings me peace, one of my neighbors told me she watches all the romantic movies she usually really does not care about). It’s not always superficial to be superficial. We also need to be mindful of addictive behaviors (food, alcohol of course but also social medias). We have the right to remove ourselves from stressful situations, toxic people and toxic conversations. If we’re feeling overwhelmed, we need to talk to a therapist as surely as we would visit a doctor if we are sick. It’s not weakness. We cannot cure ourselves of mental disease as surely as we can’t cure ourselves of a physical one. We can certainly do things that help or not with our health. But there are also specialists and medications out there that are meant to help us. I have put a list of resources in the announcements.

Now today what we need to talk about is spiritual well being.

– Genesis: Surprising that it is not so much about telling us that God is good than God is the one who creates, see and seek goodness. As I’ve said, let’s not be caught by chaos, evil and toxicity to try to “react” to it. We need to turn our eyes towards the good, constructive actions, constructive people and then respond to it, build on it, make it happen with others. “Be the reason someone believes in the goodness of people”

– The first commandment God gives to humankind is to be “Fruitful and multiply”: Fruitfulness is not all about multiplying, about physical reproduction. It’s about the reproduction of God’s act of goodness. God name “good” what brings life and growth, what promotes life. We can help other people, do our part. (“Tov” means “Beautiful and good” – but also, mostly, in this context: “What brings life”. Good is not just something pleasant, comfortable and nice, it is something that brings growth and expansion and novelty.)

– Paul asks us to live in peace. Not so much about remaining undisturbed. PEACE: Presence, Engagement, Affection, Calm, Empathy.

Presence: Show up / awareness/ openness / invite connection
Engagement: Actively listen – to understand, not to be right
Affection: Express your affection, make people feel loved and affirmed
Calm: Be the adult in the relationships / Act from a place of calm
Empathy: Feel with people, make them feel felt.

– Remember Jesus’s last words (not just the words on the cross!): “I am with you always.”
Do we really believe that?

Today is Trinity Sunday: We are reminded that we believe in a God who is not a sovereign God who acts like a ruler who wants us to obey orders. God came to be in relationships with us in Jesus and still is. God hasn’t abandoned us. We can talk to God from our heart. God is not that interested in our formal prayers. Rather God is interested in what’s going on in our hearts (You don’t want your lover to read you poetry / you want to hear words from the heart)

– Psalm 8: “You are mindful of human beings…” We need to rest – even God rests! Rest our body, but also quieten our soul and our heart knowing we’re in God’s hands.

– God as Trinity share God’s spirit with us: God fills us with God’s spirit to know when and where and how to act.

Conclusion: Be like God! The only response to chaos is goodness! It’s not so much about justifying ourselves, trying to find out if we are the good people or not, it’s seeing goodness, not despairing about humanity, having a sense that there is still room for love and justice in the world. And trusting that God still brings goodness out of chaos if we’re willing to make room for it and receive it.