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Isaiah 1:15-17 – When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. (NRSV)
I am privileged to be the Presbyterian member of the Canadian content writing team for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18-25. One of my tasks was to reflect on the themes for the eight days and give them a Canadian context. It wasn't a difficult task, as each day takes us to the very heart of issues that Canadians need to address daily. As the introduction to the Canadian content reads, "We are no strangers to the issues that arise from these studies! Although Canadians often speak of building a diverse, inclusive and just society, we know that racism is deeply imbedded in our society and that we have seen great violence against people of colour and against ethnic and religious minorities."
Each of the eight days invites us deeper into a world we know well — the world of Truth and Reconciliation, the world of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the world where Black Lives Matter and Every Child Counts, and where we explore the world of the marginalized and/or oppressed in our society. We are invited to bring the honest questions and reflections that come when the light of the gospel illuminates the truth of both our past and our present.
As Canadians and as Christians, we have been struggling with our past, especially in relation to the Indigenous peoples of this country. We are seeking a way forward as we reflect on the 94 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation hearings which ended in 2015. We are asking ourselves how best to implement the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, officially passed into law by Canada in June, 2021. Canadians are haunted by the Residential School legacy and the horror embodied in the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls which gave its final report on June 3, 2019.
Whether or not we are Canadian, regular readers of this devotional will see the challenge to hold these and similar issues before God in our prayers, to become better informed on these topics, and to seek ways to live our lives following the path of Jesus which takes us to the poor and marginalized of our society.
Prayer: Lord, give us the strength and the courage to stand up to the pressing issues of the day with the love and the gospel of Jesus Christ to guide us. Amen.
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Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the challenge, Kenn.
Thank you, Kenn, for your devotional today. God bless you!
Thank you for your devotional and prayer today!
Keep writing!
The PCC made a wise choice for Rep!
It’s so hard to be even-handed when you hold a phone in your hand!
Will be praying for you, Kenn!
(BC)
Thank you Kenn for your special devotional today. I’m sure it has been an interesting week for you on that committee and work sure has to be done in our country here for more reconciliation and respect for people of other colours and races. Lord bless you for your participation in the meetings.
Good morning, Kenn!
Thank you!
I could hear parts of the Old Testament and the New Testament in your message today. Thank you for sharing what most people are not able or willing to talk about. It is important to remember what happened then and the current state of affairs in our society and world today.
Peace!
Thank you for that thoughtful and challenging devotional.
It was a timely reminder that we have much to do on our home front!
´How to go about it´ is often the dilemma, wanting to be a positive influence but not sure what path to follow!
We have the same issue with trying to be of assistance to our homeless in our midst.
May God guide us, show us the avenues open, help us to be motivated to act. Amen
Well put. You’ve opened my eyes – one can so easily limit one’s prayers to personal relationships and issues; and issues faced by our own loved ones and friends, neighbours, and acquaintances. There’s no end to prayer needs – organization and routine are essential to keep things manageable.
I didn’t mean that as a criticism at all – it’s a confession. I have slipped into more narrow prayers, and I’m thankful for this reminder.
God bless.
I read with much interest your timely devotional on January 22, 2014 – “Do good, seek justice”. As Canadians we have a tendency to be Gungho when we are dealing with injustice but quickly forget when some new issue takes precedent. Thank you for reigning us in and reminding us of our responsibility not to forget. May God forgive us for our shortsightedness as we place again on our prayer lists outstanding issues and responsibilities to love our neighbours as recorded in Mark 12:30-31 NKJV – “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” May God help us!
We are influenced by the values and goals of our age. It is unfair to condemn people of another period in history with the values of today. Change is achieved by understanding the past and changing the present.
Sir John A Macdonald laid the foundation of a new nation. Canada. Public education implemented by Egerton Ryerson prepared Canada for a new Industrial Age. We now know that all this was achieved with much sacrifice to the Indigenous people loss of land, language, culture.
Today we are trying to rectify this injustice, but it is not easy. Life for all of us keeps changing and we are forced to accommodate change that is not easy and sometimes we don’t like.
Unfortunately, we can’t tell truth from lies in media and even government reports. If you disagree with the prevailing view, you get forced out or your life made so miserable that you leave.
Dwelling on past mistakes also leads to retribution (burning facilities of those who are trying to help), hatred and reverse discrimination which is a decidedly unchristian response. If that was the case I should hate all Roman Catholics, especially those from France. We can learn from history without using it to create more problems.
Unfortunately, Christians get sucked into this name and blame game.
Fortunately we have some folks actually working on the root problem. The Caribou House churches and Northern Canada Evangelical Mission immediately come to mind.
Blessings.
Oh WOW !!!
Kenn, you hit the nail on the head !! We know because you hit the nail on the HEAD. We adopted 3 children from Aboriginal communities, and followed the lead of the CAS, including “no correspondence, in case the original parents try to “steal” them back ” tell them the stories of their adoption, according to CAS records, and hopefully let them believe that we were their “original” parents.” We never bucked that system, because we did not know anything about it, but still kept them in touch with their aboriginal heritage, through pow-wows, etc, and supported their efforts to find their birth parents: for our one daughter, it came too late, for our son it has led to a very enriched reunion with his birth mother and family, and for our youngest, a reunion with her original “grandfather”, and a sense of belonging to someone, some culture, rather than our own white expectations — for her, and him. We are still trying to build back that relationship with this youngest, neither of whom they totally believed we just did it to help children who did not have parents able to care for them at that time, and we never hid the facts from them. Second child thought we had kidnapped her.
We cry when we think about all the sorrows these children have had, and still have, being wrenched from their roots, even though it appears, and still does, that it was for their safety and quality of life. That is what our Lord Jesus would want for them!!
Thank you, Kenn. We have similar issues in the United States that need our prayers and actions.