Call It What It Is

My church observed Pride Sunday today, like we've done for years. We fly the Progress Pride flag for most of June (and a lot of other times for good measure), we have a rainbow sticker on our street-facing sign and on the glass door leading into the narthex, which also contains a small display window we decorated for the occasion.

PFLAG meets in our church and has support met-ups for various groups. Because of the way Christian communities have treated people in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, that makes some visitors apprehensive, which is completely understandable.

What is not understandable to me is how some people think they can cloak bigotry within "religious belief."

At its heart, Christianity should really be about following the teachings and examples of Christ - loving our neighbours, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, etc. We all do some picking and choosing within the tenets expressed in the Gospel - very few of us sell our belongings and give the proceeds to the poor after all - but these ideals of compassion and justice should permeate what we call Christian acts.

So see a cartoon of a person holding a shield emblazoned with a cross over her children to 'protect' them from a rainbow, with the caption, "here's to all the other faithful holding the line this month!", it makes me unreasonably angry.

So let's break it down. 

First, these people should stop quoting Leviticus unless they follow all its other prohibitions, like not trimming their beards, eating shellfish, or wearing clothes made from two different fabrics.

Next, they should recognize that most of the Hebrew scriptures about "wickedness" that they cite to make their case are not referencing two adults in a loving, same-sex relationship, but human trafficking or the sexual abuse of prisoners of war.

Homosexuality as a word doesn't enter the Bible until a particular and comparatively recent translation, the Revised Standard Version of 1946, something I only recently learned.

In fact, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by the Angry Almighty in the O.T. was not due to licentiousness or sexual depravity, but because those communities refused to be hospitable and tolerated gang sexual assaults of outsiders.

Meanwhile, Jesus is repeatedly asking us to welcome the outsider. Consider how one of Jesus' most famous parables, the Good Samaritan, used the outsidey-est outsider imaginable to make his point - that all people deserve to be treated with compassion and respect.

But if you really want to make these people's heads spin, hand them a Bible and ask them to show you a verse where Jesus condemns homosexuality (for example).

Because they can't.

Because he doesn't.

You know what he does frown upon though?

Christians cozying up to power instead of standing up for the oppressed.

Hypocrites who pray loudly and publicly in Jesus' name but who support hateful laws and regimes.

And to be clear here, reasonable people can agree to disagree. I happen to feel that two adults in a loving, respectful same-sex relationship should be allowed to live free of judgement, shame, persecution, injury or death. I don't think two women holding hands in Edmonton should be spat at, but maybe you think that is just the cost of free spech. 

And if you think Matthew Shepard got what was coming to him (for, you know, daring to be an openly gay college student in Wyoming in 1998 and getting tortured and murdered for it), well, we just aren't going to get along.

And no one is demanding you celebrate or even observe Pride! Feel free to ignore it. I fail to understand how two people choosing to love each other (or trans or asexual or any other kids loving themselves for that matter) impacts anyone except them.

But when you speak to condemn these things, please do not hide behind Christianity, because there isn't anything in the teachings of Christ to justify hatred of other people. (Quite the opposite, actually!)

Please, for the sake of honesty and possibly the sake of your soul, just admit it. Call it what it is.  

You're a bigot.

Everyone else: Happy Pride!

Performative Faith

(This post brought to you by a combination of insomnia and the sudden realization I forgot to blog last night!)

American Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is framing up Trump's war in Iran with a lot, and I mean a LOT of faith-based language. He has instituted regular monthly Christian worship services at the Pentagon, and in a recent one, prayed openly for American service members to have "wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy."

No specifics were given as to who specifically might be undeserving of mercy, but we can probably hazard some guesses.

This approach really seems to fly in the face of the teachings of Christ as they have been presented to me (feed the hungry, heal the sick, visit the prisoner, etc.) but it doesn't feel like my place to criticize someone else for how they express their beliefs, however hypocritical and problematic they might appear to me personally.

But luckily even protestants like me can take heart and guidance from the first American pope, Leo XIV, who in his Palm Sunday address said, "(Jesus) does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: 'Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood',"

Citing the Hebrew Testament prophet Isaiah in this way really helps to draw a line between Christianity and Christian Nationalism, a movement we are having to deal with more and more here in Canada as well. Here in Alberta, the former Wild Rose Party and its "lake of fire" Biblical punishment fundamentalists, aided by citizen groups like Take Back Alberta, have rolled back all manner of protections for gay and trans kids and prompted the provincial government to divert millions of dollars in funding from public to private and religious 'charter' schools. 

Federally, MP Jamil Jivani voted against Bill C-9, which removes a religious exemption for hate speech, while dramatically clutching a bible to his chest. 

This bugs me for a number  reasons, not the least of which is because the House of Commons has strict rules against using props of any kind - even buttons with slogans and symbols are prohibited. But most aggravating is the fact that this guy and his party have voted against multiple pieces of legislation that would seem to be consistent with how Jesus would like us to behave: feeding school children, sending aid to Cuba in midst of an energy blockade, supporting a nationwide dental care program for those without other insurance.

None of these endeavours were worthy of Conservative support, but stop allowing people to use hate speech cloaked in scripture and Jivani and his ilk call it an attack on Christianity. And American-owned media like the National Post (who have a virtual monopoly on text-based media in Canada with 130 daily print and digital brands) are only too happy to back them up in this.

And while NP circumspectly calls it an attack on faith here, I wonder what would have happened had an MP brought a Quran to that vote instead of a Bible.

At the end of the day, I don't feel particularly persecuted as a Christian, and I am grateful to see the religious loophole to hate speech finally is almost closed now that the legislation has passed in the HoC. The arguments never held a lot of water, and as many have said, if the practice of your faith involves hate speech, you should check the instructions again to make sure you are doing it right.

Heck, even with C-9 in the books, I don't think Hegseth's posturing, bellicose prayer meets the threshold for what we would consider hate speech here in Canada - but it's good to know that if it was, scriptural shields are no longer a sufficient defense against accountability.

And who knows what accountability might eventually be rendered by the Almighty?

Unprayed

I don't go to church to be disappointed in myself but it happens from time to time. Usually it is when I am reminded of the tenets of my faith and missed opportunities to apply them better, and during this past Sunday's service, that is what happened.

Most of the service was as one might expect: scriptures were read, songs were sung, and prayers were delivered. During our service, there is an opportunity to light candles of concern or celebration. Two were lit for congregations in our regions, one was lit for the death of a friend, and another was lit for the birth of a great-grandson. Of course someone lit one for the dead in Tumbler Ridge and that whole community, wishing them swift healing from the trauma their community endured. I thought about going up, but wrestled with the idea for too long and the moment was lost. 

I had first had the notion when we passed the peace at the start of the service, shaking hands with other people in the congregation and asking that the peace of Christ be with them. I shook hands with Madeline, a trans woman who started attending last fall with her partner Diamond. I know people in that community have experienced even more expressions of hatred since it was revealed that the Tumbler Ridge shooter was a trans individual, and I told Madeline I was glad to see them.

Then I shook hands with Nicole and Danielle, the couple who joined us as full members about a year ago through profession of faith, and who now look after the supplies for the post-service-fellowship. They are sweethearts and I am always delighted to see them.

But it got me thinking about the communities of faith where the four of them might not be welcome, and the unspoken prayer began to form.

A little while later we got to our reflection, which was not a sermon per se, but a brief talk by the guest invited by our Outreach Committee: Samuel Juru, the executive director of the Newcomer Centre (which was formerly called the Mennonite Center for Newcomers).

He spoke about his experiences growing up in Zimbabwe and being visited by armed government agents there after questioning those in power in a televised Q&A while a student. About coming to Canada as a political refugee, and how his first job here, despite having a degree in international relations, was unloading trucks on the nightshift.

Despite the fact that many other immigrants and refugees in his circle felt having a decent paying job and an apartment meant he had "made it", he reflected on what he wanted to do with his life, returned to school and started two decades of public service helping those trying to come to Canada to make it a better place.

It was a wonderfully personal and inspirational story, that had less to do with faith (although he related praying to God to give him Samson's strength on his first night of unloading heavy, tube-style televisions) and more to do with values, and maybe that is when it hit me:

How many of my fellow Albertans would have been indignat or even angered by the things that brought me joy that morning?

Shaking hands with a transgender woman? Greeting a lesbian couple? Listening to a black immigrant share his story about not only making a successful life with a family here in Canada but helping others to do the same?

It feels like I am continually reading the amplified grievances of people lamenting the way things "used to be," which, let's face it, were probably a pretty good time for white Christian males...but not a lot of others. 

This seems to be the banner that the Alberta separacists (no, I believe that is spelled correctly) are trying to draw people to, and in that moment of realization, a few things came into sharp focus to me:

1) sometimes, the simple act of being a wholly inclusive community of faith and providing a safe space for people is enough in itself, and

2) that being a welcoming and justice-oriented organization is going to feel threatening to some people, and

3) that impasse will be difficult, if not impossible to bridge in our current environment, and we should ask for help.

As people lined up to ask for prayers of both joy and concern, I recognized that what I should do, what I ought to say, is to go up, and highlight that impasse, and then pray - not for us but for the haters.

Pray that the Divine opens their eyes, or their minds, or their hearts, whatever requires broaching. Ask them to see a world that celebrates differences instead of fearing it, to imagine one that embraces diversity as a source of strength and not dilution. Because as entrenched as our positions might seem to be, we won't be able to move forward effectively without some of those on the other side changing their minds.

And with corporate-owned news media and billionaire-owned social media so intent on keeping us divided and antagonistic for eyes and subscriptions and likes and clicks and advertising dollars , the oligarchs and the rest of them can sit back and watch us divide ourselves, and then roll up to conquer later on.

All of this ran through my head as I struggled to pay attention to the other candle-lighters asking for prayers, but when the last one spoke, I was still there, in my seat. Unwilling to stand and make this ridiculous ask that we, as followers of not just the 'brand' but the actual teachings of Jesus, try to find it in ourselves to recognize the intolerant as fellow children of God.

And what has gnawed at my soul since then is not so much the fact that I was unable to do it; the real pain is the lack of regret I feel for not having done it.

Perhaps next Sunday...

Guest Pulpitations: The Work Continues

Last week, Fenya delivered the sermon for our congregation's 11th anniversary as an Affirming Ministry. Our Affirming Team put the whole service together and Fenya was working on her reflection right up until the day before. This is similar enough to my own process that I was unconcerned, but I was also unprepared for just how good it was, as well as the conviction with which she delivered it.

She also achieved something that made me a bit jealous - someone found her content a little bit too much, or too political, and walked out. Achievement unlocked, I say!

Compliments from those who remained were effusive and sincere. Many people shared personal stories of bad experiences at churches in the past, and how much they appreciated Fenya's forthright declaration of what being inclusive and welcoming actually means. The title referred to how much work still needs to be done by affirming ministries, from the recent apology by the United Church of Canada to 2SLGBTQIA+ peoples and communities, to the need for support for trans people impacted by the Alberta government's use of the notwithstanding clause to shore up their unconstitutional banning of gender-affirming care.

I can't say what part of it compelled that one fellow to leave, but I know his spouse or partner stayed, so I am hoping there was perhaps a discussion at home later.

If you would like to see it for yourself (and I highly recommend it!), here is a link to the start of it (about 20 mins). Her speaking notes appear below, and you will just have to imagine it delivered with righteous conviction and matching intensity!

So proud.

THE WORK CONTINUES

When I agreed to deliver the sermon for affirmiversary Sunday, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what it means to be an affirming ministry, but I wanted to learn more about how we got to where we are today. We became affirming back in 2014, when I was 15 years old. I was attending St. Albert United Church at that time, but at 15, much of my time was spent downstairs in the youth room, and I wasn’t nearly as in-the-loop about the goings-on upstairs.

Fast-forward to now, and I have become a fully-fledged member of the Affirm committee, so when the opportunity came for me to preach this Sunday, the other affirm committee members were more than happy to fill me in on the important St Albert United Church history that I missed. And now I get to share this information with all of you! I thought it might be helpful for those who have joined the church post-2014  in case you, like me, did not realize the amount of work it took for our church to become affirming. And for those of you who have been here since before 2014, hopefully you enjoy getting a brief review!

St Albert United Church's affirming journey spanned a total of around 9 years, starting in 2005 with the deliberative dialogue process. This involved 7 sessions of intense discussions examining the sanctification of same sex marriages, and at the end of those discussions, a resolution was presented to the church council for an inclusive marriage policy, which is one of the requirements to become an affirming ministry. The resolution was passed at the 2006 AGM with ⅔ of those present being in favour. 

Then in June of 2013 a group was assembled to finish the journey started in 2005 and to complete the application process for our church to become an affirming ministry. This process built upon the extensive work that had already been done while allowing for further necessary discussion and education. This part of the process was a lot of work and effort, and required the participation of the whole congregation. The Affirming ministry program offered educational activities and ideas to help the ministry explore issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, engage with the bible, plan activities to support justice for lgbtq2s+ people, and write an affirming ministry vision statement (which you hear every week when we welcome all regardless of age, race, gender, gender expression sexual orientation, belief, economic circumstance, ability, or background.) 

These conversations and activities challenged peoples’ way of thinking, and when reading some of the activities suggested, I can imagine they were not always the most comfortable experiences or easy conversations to have. And that makes me all the more proud of my congregation for doing them. 

Some of the discussions involved bringing in guest speakers. One of these was the late Dr. Lorne Warneke, a psychiatrist who specialized in helping trans individuals work through gender dysphoria. There was also a panel of lgbtq2s+ individuals and their families who shared their perspectives.

Some of the educational material provided by the affirming ministries program explained how some of the passages cited as arguments against homosexuality also condemn other behaviours we consider acceptable, such as creating images of people, birds, or animals (Romans 1:22) or eating foods such as shrimp that are deemed to be unclean-a practice that is also called an abomination in the Bible (Leviticus 20:25).

One suggested workshop included an activity sheet where people had to indicate how closely they obeyed different bible passages, such as:

(luke 18:22): Sell everything you have and give the money to the poor 

(1 corinthians 14:34) Women should keep silent in the church  

(obviously I’m not following that one particularly closely)

And other passages like:

(Deuteronomy 23 19-20) Do not charge interest on loans, except loans to foreigners

(deuteronomy 22:19-20) If a man claims the woman he married is not a virgin and her family can’t prove her virginity, she should be put to death

There was another activity exploring the concept of texts of terror - biblical texts in which women experience abusive male power - and how the story of sodom and gomorroah can be a text of terror for lgbtq+ folk, used to condemn all lgbtq people when it is clearly a story about multiple perpetrator sexual assault. The activity explored how developing a theology of blessing for lgbt folk also meant coming face to face with the horrors found in the bible. 

When the educational workshops and discussions came to an end, the congregation took a vote at the AGM in June 2014 to officially become an affirming ministry, with 98% of those present in favour.

Now like I said, this process was a lot of work. It required people to face some really horrific things in the bible and things done to people in the name of christianity. But why was it important? Someone might wonder, “you know, we were already pretty welcoming before, why did we need to do all this extra work to become an officially affirming ministry?”

It’s important for a lot of reasons. It’s important because as we heard from our non-scripture reading today, the assumption that we are already welcoming enough hasn’t been the case for much of the church’s history. It’s important because we might think we were welcoming enough before becoming affirming, but members of the lgbtq2s+ community have had enough experiences indicating the opposite that it is understandable that that welcome is not assumed to be guaranteed. And that welcome is still not a guarantee in many churches today. 

Becoming affirming is important because open-mindedness is necessary, even if others around us might disagree. It’s important because in 1988 the United Church put out a report recommending that the church welcome lgbtq individuals in all aspects of the church, including the ministry. A poll came out later indicating only 28% of church members were in favour of this, and many conservative members of the United Church ended up leaving. It’s important because in the 4 years following that report coming out, the United Church of Canada lost over 78,000 members. Our decision to become affirming is important because St. Albert United Church lost members after passing the inclusive marriage policy and becoming an affirming ministry.

It’s important because Jesus didn’t tell us just to love each other. He taught us to love each other radically. He didn’t call for us to be “welcoming enough”. He calls us to give all our money to the poor. He calls us to wash each others’ feet. To give the shirt off our backs. “Already welcoming enough” just doesn’t cut it.

Becoming affirming is important because the church has homophobia and transphobia in its history, which has caused substantial harm to members of our community. It’s important because there is a lot of work to be done to make amends for the harms that have been perpetrated towards the lgbtq community. And that work starts with each and every one of us. We have a responsibility as individuals and as a congregation to not just say we are welcoming, but to show it in our actions. And one of the most important actions we can take is to put in the work to educate ourselves and learn how to do better.

In the story of Jesus healing the centurion’s servant, the centurion talks about how he can give an order and it will be done. His faith in Jesus operates in the same way, where Jesus himself doesn’t even need to go to the centurion’s house, but he only needs to speak the word and the servant is healed. We have faith that Jesus need only speak, and his will will be carried out. And when it comes to what Jesus has and has not spoken about, I want to point out that there is not a single time in the bible that Jesus ever condemns homosexuality. But you know what he is quoted saying?

 

Do not judge. 

 

Love your neighbor. 

 

Like the centurion commands his servants and his will is done, so too does Jesus command us, and it is through us that his will is done.

And the work to live out that message of love continues. Just because we became affirming in 2014 doesn’t mean that was the end of the journey. In fact, that was when a lot of the work actually started. Once we had put in the work internally to become affirming, it was time to share our affirming message with the rest of the world, that there are Churches and Christians who love the lgbtq+ community for exactly who they are. 

We have a pride flag flying outside for all to see. We are present in pride events and  parades and have hosted a ton of fantastic events like drag shows, film viewings, and educational panels with guest speakers. Most recently, we helped sponsor St. Albert's Pride in the Park this year, donating $3,000 from a community grant we applied for. And we have built a reputation for ourselves. I’ve heard us referred to as “the gay church on the hill”. 

(…to be honest, when we were called that it was actually done with the intention of being offensive, but I kinda love that as a nickname because that’s what we are known for. *And I also kinda love not letting bigots win at name-calling*). 

 

We’ve also had queer organizations ask to partner with us or use our spaces because they know we support them and that we exist as a safe place for them to be themselves. It’s a reputation I am incredibly proud of.

This reputation has also incited some reactions of opposition. We’ve had angry letters detailing how upset our love of the lgbtq+ community makes people. How disapproving they are of our pride flag. We’ve even had people storm into the church to harass individuals engaging in bible study, arguing that flying that flag means we are promoting pedophilia. Which we know is absolutely not true. And our response to that incident was deciding to fly that flag even more than we had been before. 

Sometimes speaking out can be scary. … Sometimes it can be hard. … But that’s why it’s important. 

 

Oppression thrives in silence. And doing nothing only benefits the oppressors. 

 

Those who are discriminated against fight back in part simply by existing. But allies have to do it consciously. … Allies have to make the choice to do it. 

And it can have consequences. We might not make everybody happy doing what we do. It might make some people uncomfortable or angry. … But the safety of my queer siblings to live lives free of violence and fear is more important to me than people being comfortable. … And you know what? Jesus rubbed people the wrong way all the time. Doesn’t mean he was wrong.

We became affirming back in 2014. … But 11 years later in 2025, our affirming mission is even more important today.

 

It’s important because we are still seeing a rise in hate crimes based on sexual orientation. … It’s important because sexual and gender diverse youth are twice as likely to consider taking their own life. … It’s important because even though lgbtq+ individuals only make up 4% of Canada’s population, they make up 13% of all individuals currently experiencing homelessness.

 

Being publicly, intentionally, and explicitly affirming is important because earlier this year, the Alberta government passed 3 discriminatory laws that prohibit gender affirming care for minors, restrict students from using chosen names and pronouns without parental notification and consent, and ban trans women and girls from participating in sports. … These laws restrict access to health care, limit freedom of expression in schools, and curtail protections against discrimination.

 

And now that these hateful, discriminatory, unjustifiable laws are facing legal challenges, the government plans to use the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to advance these policies and circumvent the legal process entirely, shielding these laws from constitutional scrutiny. … This deliberately undermines the rights and dignity of trans people and sets a dangerous precedent for all Canadians. And that last sentence isn’t from me. … That’s a direct quote from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association condemning these decisions. … The CCLA warns that invoking the notwithstanding clause to advance discriminatory policies threatens the integrity of Canada’s constitutional democracy.

This is why our visible allyship is important. It’s important because the pronoun restrictions have left some trans youth with an impossible choice: to be outed at home or remain closeted at school. … It’s important because gender affirming care saves lives, is backed by decades of evidence, and is supported by every major Canadian Health Organization. It is important because the canadian medical association says that the healthcare law “requires doctors to disregard clinical guidelines, the needs of patients and their own. conscience.”. Our support of trans youth is important because this legislation is denying them the ability to access gender affirming care in schools and the medical system, which may be the difference between them surviving to adulthood or not.

Like I said before, … sometimes speaking out can be scary. … Sometimes it can be hard. … But that’s why it’s important.

As followers of God, speaking out and working against discrimination is not a choice, …it is a responsibility. … It is a core tenet of who we are and what we believe. 

In the reading from Isaiah, God’s people come to her, saying, “why have we fasted and you have not seen? Why do you take no notice?” and God proclaims that while they have followed specific religious practices, they lack sincerity because the true fast that she desires is not merely a religious act, but a lifestyle of love and justice.

We see from the reading in Isaiah that we can engage in all the religious practices and rituals we want, but if those actions are not alongside action towards liberation and justice, they ring hollow, …and lose almost all meaning. 

I want you to understand that I still believe these practices hold value, but coming here and being here is not the work that God calls us to do. 

Here is where we find community, where we recharge for the week ahead, where we find inspiration and feel God's presence. But the work … is out there. …God’s work is being done more by people of all faiths and no faith in food banks, at protests, and in the volunteer-run queer suicide hotline than it ever will be by any of us simply going to church.

Uplifting and supporting any of God’s cherished and beloved children is a form of worship. … As Christians, this is the fast that we have chosen. To bring the homeless poor into our house, …to cover the naked. … To loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, and let the oppressed go free.

God calls us to action. … Jesus calls us to love one another, and like the centurions servants, he need only speak and it will be done. 

And we learn from the reading in Isaiah what happens when we answer this call:

“If you remove the yoke from among you,

the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

if you offer your food to the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

then your light shall rise in the darkness

and your gloom be like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you continually

and satisfy your needs in parched places

and make your bones strong,

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water

whose waters never fail.”

Thanks be to God.

Pulpitations: Healing Tears

(This is the reflection I delivered on Jun 15, 2025, as part of a service led by our Living In Right Relations Committee.)

Gestalt is a great word. It is a German term that expresses the idea that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

It is more than math; I can tell you with confidence that the numbers one, four, nine and two total up to 16 without surprising you, and the order doesn’t even matter, but if I were to day “Do Do So So La La So,” very few of us would be likely to pick up on the fact that these are the notes that make up “Twinkle Twinkle.” A list of tones is not the same thing as a melody.

I mention gestalt because I initially agreed to preach today knowing it was Father’s Day. Afterwards I learned that it is also Indigenous Day of Prayer, which I thought was a week later. And then I learned that my daughter Fenya and my friend Troy were going to be singing a Gregorian chant associated with Epiphany.

As I reflected on all these things, along with the three scriptural readings we heard, I thought to myself, “surely there must be some sort of through-line here, some unifying element.”

Looking back over my notes this morning, I am no longer so sure, but I will let you be the judge!

Let me begin by admitting that reconciliation has not been a lifelong ambition or goal of mine, and I am eternally grateful to this church, and its leadership, past and present, who have made such efforts to educate me on the need for reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples.

Prior to this education I would never have thought of myself as racist, and in fairness I probably wasn’t, but I certainly hadn’t recognized or come to terms with my own privilege as a white, Christian, settler person. I had never thought about how much advantage I, personally, had drawn from social structures and laws and political systems born out of colonialism, nor the stark disparity between my own experiences and someone born at the same time but on a reserve.

My Indigenous counterpart was far, far more likely to have experienced poverty, food insecurity, diminished educational opportunities and less access to clean drinking water, as well as a much higher chance of incarceration. Indigenous people make up about 5% of Canada’s population, but 32% of Federal inmates identify as such. Since 2022, Indigenous women have accounted for half of all female Federal prisoners.

And this is before you even get to our own church’s involvement in residential schools, including here in our own community. Facing our complicity with a cultural genocide is no easy task and not for the faint-hearted.

It was with these disparities and this history in mind that I took my entire family to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission event in Edmonton in April of 2014. I wanted to learn more, but more critically, I felt it was important to have white faces there in the crowd, in acknowledgment of our involvement in those problems, whether covert or overt, explicit or implicit.

With the best of intentions, I suggested we watch a film called “Rhymes for Young Ghouls”, starring Devery Jacobs long before she appeared on Reservation Dogs. The room was packed, with well over a hundred people in attendance, and perhaps slightly more indigenous than non-indigenous viewers.

The movie depicts a teenage Mi'kmaq girl in the 1970s who uses the money she earns from her uncle’s grow-op the pay a ‘truancy tax’ to the corrupt Indian agent so she can stay out of the local residential school, St. Dymphna’s.

But eventually Aila’s stash of money is stolen and she is brought to the school she has hated her entire life, and in a scene at once both mundane and so shocking that it borders on the traumatic, her long braids are cut off by the nuns at the school.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, long hair is a powerful symbol of wisdom and maturity in many aboriginal cultures, so when those heavy shears start sawing painfully away at Aila’s braids, and you are forced to watch the tormented face of this helpless, angry young woman, the response from the audience was profound.

Gasps.

A ragged, shuddering intake of breath.

A low moan.

Sniffling.

A muffled sob.

We had been warned that there was some violence in the film and that many of the scenes could be triggering for survivors of residential schools, so they had passed around boxes of tissues beforehand. I took two or three, maybe four, but still ended up having to use my shirtsleeve, which I am sure comes as no surprise.

Most interestingly though, they asked us not to dispose of these tear-soaked clumps of paper in the garbage, but to place them into paper bags to they could be burned in the sacred fire burning outside the conference centre, as a sacrifice and offering to Creator.

After adding my own tear cloths to the collection after the movie, I reflected on the wisdom of imbuing them with such significance, the humble sincerity of being joined together by empathy and sadness, and recognizing the importance of this shared catharsis. And I felt salved by this, and realized I was encountering God - epiphany.

And I wasn’t the only one. The movie had become much too intense for 11 year-old Glory well before this scene, so Audrey had taken her out of the viewing room, which, I have to tell you, did not make me feel like a very good father at all. An Indigenous woman saw Audrey comforting Glory and asked to speak to them.

She revealed that she was a residential school survivor and had also found the movie too much for her to take. But she also looked directly at Glory and told her how proud she was that someone so young would come to the TRC to see what she could and to show support and to be seen. Out of this seemingly random connection between a family and a stranger, more tears were shed. And when I heard about it afterwards, I thought - yet another epiphany.

Epiphany, sometimes called theophany, means the showing of God in the world, and it is most commonly associated with the visit of the Magi to the newborn Jesus, the first recognition of Christ’s divinity by Gentiles. The feast of Epiphany also recognizes Christ’s baptism and the wedding at Cana where he performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. In all three of these events, the presence of God is inarguable, while in my own experiences it is far more subjective, but no less definite in my mind.

God, though unknowable and undefinable in many ways, is undeniable in others.

Paul’s experience in our reading from Acts illustrates this pretty well. In the preceding verses which we didn’t hear today, it is established that Paul and the Athenians approach spirituality (and perhaps life itself) from drastically different perspectives. Paul is dismayed by the idolatry o n display in the massive Greek city, and while he debated with Epicureans and Stoics, others said, “What does this pretentious babbler want to say?”

A sentiment some of you may be experiencing at this very moment…

Paul goes to the Areopagus, a prominent hill in Athens whose name means ‘Hill of Ares’ (the Greek war god). Biblical scholars are unsure as to whether Luke is referring to the hill geographically or to either of the Athenian councils that resided there at times. Regardless, Paul gets a chance to make his case, telling the Athenians that God does not live in any shrine, and that the altar inscribed ‘to an unknown god’ might well be referring to his own deity, the creator of the world and everything in it. He reminds them that God lives within each one of us, and how even their own poets have claimed to be His offspring.

Paul underscores his argument by explaining how God has raised humanity’s ultimate judge from the dead, and if you press on to verse 32, you hear how some of the Athenians scoffed at this - but not all of them.

Some others said “We will hear you again about this,” and some even ended up joining Paul.

I don’t believe the excerpt from Acts 17 is there because of the promise of judgement or event he conversion of some Athenians, I think it fits today because of the notion that God does not exist solely among one group or tribe or race of people - God exists within every one of us.

Those of us fortunate enough to recognize this are both proud and humble and grateful for it, as we hear in Psalm 103. He is compassionate and merciful, which is reassuring when we reflect on the wrongs we have done to others, both collectively and individually, often in His name.

How good to hear, “He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. “ But when we hear how “the Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly,” it is not enough to sit back and just wait for it to happen. Furthermore, it is not enough to wallow in guilt about the sins of the past if you are unwilling to work on solutions in the present.

Which brings us to our reading from Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, where he urges everyone to look forward and not back. “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of he who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

The past wrongs must never be forgotten, but there is a chance they can be forgiven. I can’t think of a better example of this than a residential school survivor telling an 11 year old white girl that she is proud of her for coming to bear witness, to participate in reconciliation.

Reconciliation comes from the Latin, and literally means, ‘to bring back together’, to restore friendly relations. It implies that people with differences were not always, and certainly do not need to remain, separate and apart. The 2nd Corinthians passage is actually referring to the reconciliation between humanity and their Creator, but there is no reason it can’t apply to the mending of earthly relations as well.

And so, on this Indigeneous day of prayer, this is my prayer for us:

That while we acknowledge our involvement in the wrongs of the past, including residential schools, we do not remain paralyzed by it.

That our interactions, both collectively and individually, with Canada’s first peoples is guided by the knowledge that the damage done by those wrongs echoes on, and that healing will take the work of generations.

That while injustice still pervades the relations between settlers and indigenous peoples, we work to address it, starting with the 94 Calls to Action given to us by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

And that the gestures of reconciliation that we have adopted, such as the land acknowledgement that opens every service, never be allowed to devolve into rote recitations but remain an opportunity for sincere reflection.

When we do these things, I am confident of the resulting Epiphany. God will be shown to us, just as They were shown to the Magi. Just as They were revealed to those who saw Christ baptized in the Jordan, or who witnessed His miracle at Cana. Just as my family felt God’s presence while weeping in the presence of strangers.

And make no mistake: there will be tears yet to come. But by God’s grace, they will turn from tears of anger, and frustration, and shame, and sorrow into tears of gratitude and tears of joy, and those tears will heal every one of us who weeps.

Amen

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    Readings

ACTS 17:22-31 God who Made the World and everything in it.

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,‘For we, too, are his offspring.’

“Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Psalm 103 vs 1-13 God fills life with good things

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and do not forget all his benefits—
who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works vindication
    and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
    his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always accuse,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far he removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion for his children,
    so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.

2 Corinthians 5:16–21

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be 

sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Pulpitations: An Age for All Times

I only preached once in 2024, and it was on the last Sunday of the year. I had lots of warning and time to prepare, and as I was doing so, I asked Glory if she would come to hear me. 

"Probably," she said, "what are you preaching on?"

"Second chapter of Luke," I replied, "where 12-year-old Jesus wanders off for the better part of a week and they find him talking with the scholars in a temple."

She narrowed her eyes and said, "That sounds kind of familiar; did you preach on that once before?"

So I checked, and sure enough, I had... 5 years earlier.

"Hmm," I said to my daughter. "I guess I need a new angle."

It took me a while to come up with that alternate angle, and I was mostly happy with it, but not really sure how my sermon would land with people. (Clicking the title below should take you to that part of our recorded service.)

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REFLECTION: AN AGE FOR ALL TIMES

And so we prepare to draw the curtain on 2024. A new year is right around the corner, and while it is full of uncertainty, remember - it wasn’t all that different last year. Or the year before!

There is no questioning that the world could be in better shape, right? War still rages in Ukraine and Gaza, there’s a trade war brewing with our closest neighbour, inequity and anger seem to grow daily, I am certain there is another smoky dry summer coming our way…

I’m gonna level with you - I am indulging myself in a lot of what some folks would consider age-inappropriate behaviours of late: reading superhero comics, playing Dungeons & Dragons, enjoying videogames… Midnight Suns lets me combine all three, in a way, so it is a wonder I even made it to church today, to be honest. Escapism has become my primary preoccupation the past few months.

“But Stephen!” I hear you say, “haven’t you always done that kind of stuff?” And you’re right; I totally have!

But when I did it before, it felt like a pastime - now it feels…therapeutic.

Years ago, I worked with a fellow who told me something so sublime when we were talking about a similar topic, it has stuck with me nearly four decades later. Gaston was his name, and we worked at the airport together as pre-board screening officers. This was at a time when the gates at Edmonton International Airport would close periodically between flights (if you can imagine!), and you would have some time to while away playing cards or just chatting in the office.

We were discussing something about childish things, and Gaston shook his head and said, “Most people have maturity all wrong; maturity doesn’t mean acting like an adult, it’s knowing when it is appropriate to act like a child."

This profound principle of ‘contextual maturity’ really, really stuck with me, a fact which I am confident comes as no surprise whatsoever to many of you in attendance, or watching at home. And yes, Howard, I am thinking of you specifically! And hi, Joan.

Finding time for those other aspects of yourself is a tremendous benefit for your mental health.

And so, yeah, my interest in comic books featuring tights 'n' fights waxes and wanes like the moon, but I have always gone back, and now that I do it from a subscription on my iPad it is unlikely to ever stop. If you like hunting and fishing, good on ya, but getting together with my friends or family in a pretend dungeon with make-believe monsters to roll a few dice and have a few laughs - just like we did in junior high - is my idea of a great time. Heck, I got to do it in-person four different times this December!

But maybe that’s not your thing, and that’s okay. Maybe it’s collecting dolls or action figures, or scouring used bookstores for that out-of-print classic you got at book club and can’t find any more. Or maybe it is something even simpler…

Every time you laugh, an earnest, joyful laugh, that is probably your inner child expressing itself. Even when it is the driest, most erudite or even political humor, there is a snort coming from your inner schoolkid.

And you should keep in touch with that inner kid, because they understand a lot of stuff that us adults tend to forget. I’m willing to bet the last time you actively looked for a four-leaf clover, the grass wasn’t nearly as far away as it seems now!

My point is, we can relate to the holy in a multitude of ways. Very commonly, when we approach God the creator we do so as children, as supplicants. But there have been times in prayer where I have spoken to Jesus in my heart as a brother, someone else who’s been a kid.

And like I told the younger folk earlier, I firmly believe everyone has some of that holy spirit in them; in some folks it’s a candle, and others it’s a bonfire, but for some people it is a single spark that struggles - not to stay alive, in my mind but a struggle to be seen. The spark is God’s, but we can create a space and oxygen and fuel for it - nurturing it, as it were.

In our Gospel story, I continue to be amazed at how chill everyone is when Mary and Joseph find their child in a temple who has been missing for three whole days. I mean, okay, Jesus, sure, he gets a weird kind of pass because he is part of the Infinite Divine that we can’t possibly understand AND also is a kid, but the teachers? Maybe there wasn’t enough space to write, “And one of those present said unto Jesus, ‘truly, this is not cool - thou art twelve’...”, but most likely Luke was trying to keep the emphasis on the startling response of Jesus to his parents.

When Jesus replies to Mary, expressing surprise at her concern, does he sound more like a child, or a parent? How much of what he is saying, this calm reassurance, is God the parent speaking through him?

I hear Jesus the child in his incredulity, his bewilderment that his mother and father didn’t automatically think to look for him in the temple. Again, this contextual maturity, this dynamic relationship that feels so relatable to me.

Likewise the teachers, spellbound by a child’s understanding and wisdom; is the connection between them strictly cerebral, or is this bridge between them a product of the holy spirit? Like the bridge to the Hebrew scriptures that verse 52 gives us: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years[l] and in divine and human favor.” If you go back to the first book of Samuel, another special youth, verse 26 of chapter 2 tells us that “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people.”

These relationships, these bona fides, the callbacks and prophecy - what we might call ‘foreshadowing’ in fiction - they help us to shift our perspective and find different ways to approach this spiritual knowledge that we don’t just know, we feel.

Our adult selves give us the maturity and insight we need to understand in our heads, but our inner children let us experience God with our hearts. This notion of contextual maturity is not just good for our mental health, but for our relationship with the divine.

And when you experience that fully, it becomes easier to be grateful, and to offer praise in gratitude, in spite of the current challenges and contexts!

Once again, we can take our cues from the young dolls in our lives here, because when it comes to praise, it is difficult to equal the honesty, enthusiasm and energy of children.

The first four lines of today’s psalm end in exclamation points - how’s that for enthusiasm? And there is no room for spectators; everyone is encouraged to participate:

Praise God from the earth, great sea creatures and ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and frost, gales that obey God’s decree,
all mountains and hills, all fruit trees and cedars,
wild animals and cattle, creatures winged and earth-bound
sovereigns who rule earth and its people,
all who govern and judge the world,
young men and women alike, old people and children together!

As we close the door on 2024, the new year either looms or beacons, depending on your perspective. There are probably some adversarial ties ahead for our neighbours to the south, but don’t feel too smug about it, because an election is headed our way too, maybe sooner than some people want!

I still have a few more days at home before I return to work, and I am giving my inner child as much room to play as I can. My family is around and there are games to play, meals to share, and company to enjoy. Soon enough it will be time to shoulder the responsibility of adulthood again, and that’s okay too. In addition to nurturing my own holy spirit, maybe I will have the privilege of helping someone else re-discover their own?

God exists within each one of us and we can relate to the Holy from an endless variety of perspectives, including child, peer and adult. Being infinite, this is easier for God than it is for us sometimes, but it is worth the effort.

Talk to parent God about your most complex thoughts. Share your innermost feelings with your sibling, Jesus. And never forget that spark of the divine that is all God and yet uniquely yours, the Holy Spirit.

Leave room in your life for contextual immaturity, especially in your relationship with the holy. Let that Spirit remind you to experience joy, to savour simple pleasures and to express gratitude and praise earnestly and enthusiastically!

Let the whole creation cry,
“Glory be to God on high”

Amen

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After the service, an unfamiliar gentleman introduced himself to me and asked what I did for a living. When I told him I work In pensions administration, he smiled and shook his head. "I would have bet money that you had some sort of theological background," he said.

"Gosh, no," I confessed, "I like to read and I like to ask questions, and we had a tremendous lay worship leadership training program here a few ministers ago we've tried to keep going. Rev. James and Rev. Mervin outlined a ton of resources like The Text This Week and I try to get a few other perspectives or insights before traipsing off on my own, but no formal training. I'm flattered you thought so, though!"

"Listen," he said, "I preached 28 years in the same church and I have heard and read a lot sermons in my time, and that is one of the most interesting takes on Luke 2:41 I've ever heard."

Well!

Let me tell you, I am grateful when anyone at all tells me they found something useful in one of my reflections, but a genuine compliment from a professional preacher that I don't even know was not something I was prepared for.  

I thanked him profusely and told him I hoped to see him back at some point; it never occurred to me to ask if he was visiting or to get his name or anything. When I told Audrey what he had said to me as we drove home and how gratifying it was, she positively beamed at me, which felt pretty good as well.

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Luke 2:41–52 (Lexham English Bible): Jesus in the Temple at Twelve Years Old

And his parents went every year to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the feast. And after the days were completed, while they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. And his parents did not know it, but believing him to be in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. And they began searching for him among their relatives and their acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.

And it happened that after three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting in the midst of the teachers and listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his insight and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astounded and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have been searching for you anxiously!” And he said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that it was necessary for me to be in the house of my Father?” And they did not understand the statement that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was submitting to them. And his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with people.

Psalm 148 (Responsive)

Refrain

Let the whole creation cry,

“Glory be to God on high”

Praise God from the heavens; give praise in the heights!

Give Praise, all you angels; praise God, all you hosts!

Praise God, sun and moon; give praise, stars and lights!

Praise God, farthest heavens, and all waters beyond heaven!  R

Let all things praise the Holy One at whose command they were created, who established them for all time, setting bounds, which cannot be passed.

Praise God from the earth, great sea creatures and ocean depths,

lightning and hail, snow and frost, gales that obey God’s decree,

all mountains and hills, all fruit trees and cedars,

wild animals and cattle, creatures winged and earth-bound

sovereigns who rule earth and its people,

all who govern and judge the world,

young men and women alike, old people and children together! R

Let all things praise the name of God,

the name above every other, whose splendour covers heaven and earth.

You give strength to your people,

songs of praise to your faithful,

to Israel, the people dear to your heart.  R