Choosing Paths

We’ve been inundated with water these past few weeks.  The Athabasca River has been rising, Edmonton has seen severe flooding that has flooded basements and freeways.  Our Pastoral Relations Minister at Northern Spirit Region, Rev. Adam Hall, has been on the news as the mayor of Tofield, when he declared a state of emergency.  Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

We in Canada are blessed with an abundance of water.  In the 2020 novel “Watershed”, Calgary author Doreen Vanderstoop wrote of what Alberta might be like in 2058.  She imagined the province losing glaciers and the southern part of the province becoming a dry desert worse than the Dirty 30’s. Up in Fort McMurray, there are lush green forests and crops, because it still has water.  The politics and quality of life is impacted in a Mad Max scenario where survival and vigilante behavior is unchecked.  All because of a change in water.

It’s easy to take water for granted.  Living in the arid lands of the middle east, Jesus knew how precious it was.  Rivers were few and far between, wells were the centre of a community, and Abraham and Sarah, travelling through the wilderness, depended upon finding springs for their survival.  Living Water was water that moved.  Water that was still and stagnant, like a certain reflecting pool in Washington, would grow algae and be unsafe to drink.  Water is essential to life, and everyone following Jesus knew it.  Offering water was more than playing nice and being welcoming.  It was the gift of survival. It was radical hospitality.

Hospitality can be as simple as offering a glass of water.  Hospitality is something that can lay the groundwork for community and friendships.  Hospitality can be an invitation to a new way of life.  One of our challenges in the United Church is that we struggle with how to invite.  We think we should invite people to church, but what we are really called to do is invite people to this odd and wonderful lifestyle and philosophy that we call Christianity.

Inviting is not easy if we are unsure of what Christianity is, or why it makes a difference.  It is not easy when the brand of Christianity that gets the most attention is seen as full of judgement and hypocrisy.  When the bible is used to oppress people, we have a difficult time selling it.  When Christian leaders meet with politicians to support legislation that discriminates against people, we have a problem.  The trends that start in the US trickle into Alberta rapidly, fueled by social media that knows no borders.  The Southern Baptist Convention backed away this month from officially ordaining women preachers, and many tictoc influencers, even women, are promoting the idea that women don’t need to vote.  That they can let their men decide on politics for the household.  And this is justified in the name of being a good Christian.

It’s an uphill battle.  No wonder so many people are cautious of churches.  When we develop a culture of invitation and hospitality, we need to be aware of that.  We need to be aware that some people are rejecting Christianity for strong reasons.  Lillian Daniel talks about how people who say they have no religion tend to have four attitudes.  There are the “No ways”, “No Longers”, “Not Yets” and the “Never Haves”. She describes them this way:

The No Longers have drifted from church. Sometimes they return for a big life event like a wedding or a funeral, but not until they feel a lack in their lives.

The No Ways made a conscious choice to leave, often after being seriously hurt by a religious community. Sometimes they find a different kind of church...  When we do welcome newcomers, we do a pretty good job with the No Ways. We're good at telling people what kind of church we are not, and sometimes they like what they hear.

But the Never Haves and the Not Yets have never experienced religious community before. Never Haves are often the grown children of the No Ways, inheriting their parent's anger or pain, nervous about showing up to any church.

The Not Yets are open and curious, and may wander in. Unfortunately, we often treat them like No Longers or No Ways, by answering questions they are not asking. "We're not like this or that kind of church," we say. Meanwhile the Never Haves and Not Yets are simply wondering who we think we think we are talking to during all those prayers.

How we talk about our faith needs to keep these different kinds of folks in mind.  And the translation we heard of the Romans passage is helpful.  It takes the word ‘sin’ and translates it as ‘the path of broken ways’.  Sin has become a weaponized word, full of judgement and condemnation, used to justify taking away human rights, especially for the 2sLGTBQIA community.  Sin is the word that many churches use to try to recruit newcomers, it is a word that pushes fear as the motivation to join their communities of faith.  But the original meaning of the word was “missing the mark”.  A path of broken ways is a fresh original way to think of what keeps us from full life.  A path of addictions to all kinds of things that block us from beauty and harmony. 

We still struggle with our addictions to everything from drugs to temper tantrums.  But our faith and our community help us with that struggle.   We thirst for peace and love and joy and hope.  We are blessed with an abundance of water to quench our thirst, not just water we physically drink, but spiritual water that helps us on our right path to beauty, peace and love.  God’s love has quenched our thirsts for community, thirst for acceptance, thirst for justice, thirst to make a difference.  May God inspire us to listen for the thirsts of our neighbors so that we can offer them living water. 

Two Wrongs Don’t make a right (Unless God is involved!)

Isn’t it just a bit shocking that Jesus described himself as a provoker of conflict and not the prince of peace?  We have lovely images of Jesus as being all sweet and kind and healing, but that’s not the way he talked in today’s Matthew reading.  Family strife was something he was familiar with, and some gospels tell of his mother and brothers wanting him to tone down his preaching.  And it was something that the Hebrew scriptures talked about too.  Stories like Hagar and Ishmael thrown out of their home to wander in the wilderness until they starved.

This was a tale of entitlement and competition.  Two women striving to make sure their child would be seen as the best.  Two women who have decided that there’s not enough to take care of everyone.  Two women struggling to see who has the most power over the decision maker of the family.

Not sure why this story gets paired with Father’s Day, quite frankly.  Maybe it’s a reminder that families aren’t perfect, that fathers sometimes get asked to make dangerous decisions, and when it comes to our kids, having a favorite can have devastating results. Or maybe it’s a reminder that biblical marriage, far from being a shining example of how our own marriages should be, was often complex and messy.  You don’t get messier than the emotional triangle we see between Abraham, Sarah and Hagar.

It’s unclear whether Hagar was Sarah’s servant or Sarah’s slave.  It’s also unclear whether Hagar had the power of consent when Sarah gave her to Abraham to have a baby.  But what is clear is that when Hagar’s baby Ishmael was born, she went from being the least powerful person in the family, to the one who had provided the continuity of the family, and that gave her more power and influence over Abraham than she had ever had before.  She enjoyed having more say in how things were going in their community.  Of course, Sarah didn’t like that and complained to Abraham, who told her that she was the boss.  So Hagar was back to scrubbing toilets and washing clothes while Sarah got to do what she wanted.  Which included treating Hagar so harshly, she tried to run away.  Then Isaac was finally born, named “laughter” and this baby did not bring peace to the family but even more jealousy from Sarah.

Abraham was worn down by the bickering and nagging, and he didn’t know what to do. God told him not to worry, and so Sarah got her way again.  Power struggles never end well, and often it’s the children who suffer the most. Hagar abandoned her own child rather than watch it die.  But God intervened again.  It’s interesting that the name Ishmael means “God hears” because consistently God, unlike Abraham, is able to hear Hagar’s prayers as much as God hears Sarah’s prayers.  God provides to both children, regardless of who their parents were, whether the mother was Aramaic or Egyptian.  God saw both boys as children of the promise, the covenant, that God had made with Abraham.  And while Abraham wasn’t able to be much of a father to his boys, God would provide what Abraham refused to do.  Because Abraham was, according to the Genesis reports, a very wealthy man with huge flocks, making deals with kings and winning wars.  But he did not win the war at home.  He did not set Hagar up in a separate household with enough to keep her and her son comfortable.  He sent her out with a bottle of water into the wilderness.

God became the parent Abraham refused to be.  God didn’t take sides, God took care. 

We are living in a world with so much conflict people have stopped watching the news.  We have so much strife that family members are estranged from one another.  People are angrily determined to be right.  Children are suffering and dying in the land that Jesus and Abraham loved, continuing the conflict that Sarah and Hagar started. Parades have been cancelled, Taber has had its corn sales threatened, and it’s hard to keep track of how many lawsuits are happening about the petitions.  First nations chiefs are being attacked by people who don’t understand that we are all treaty people, and who don’t respect or care about our constitution.  U S politics doesn’t help.

Another influence from the United States, Martin Luther King Jr., the father of the Civil Rights Movement, said that the way to change an unjust society was through love, power and justice.  “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”  I think that’s what Jesus was talking about.  Peace at all costs is not just, powerful, nor loving.  Jesus wanted us to face conflict, as long as it serves justice, love and empowerment.  That kind of conflict could have prevented Abraham setting the stage for centuries of middle east violence.  When we are tempted to rage, ask ourselves if what is making us angry is unjust, unloving and taking power away from those who need it.  There are many ways for us to act for societal change.  This week, the United Church of Canada started a letter writing campaign addressing Bill C-12 which is limiting or even cancelling refugee claims and hearings, threatening families and causing anguish in United Church congregations that support refugees.  There is a letter online that you can fill in if you have internet, or write your MP directly.  Keep phoning MLAs abut the misuse of notwithstanding clauses. Make the call, write the letter!

We have always spoken out when unjust laws target powerless people, and this is one way to do so.  May we be reminded that Jesus wanted us to bravely speak up for those that Society does not love, and that when we do so, we are living the way Jesus asked us to.  Amen.

Surprised by God

Imagine having to wander into a new town or city where you don’t know anyone, and you need to find someone who will trust you enough to welcome you into their home?  And the only thing you possess is the idea that God is coming to set things right.  The only skill you have is the ability to say, "God is getting ready to surprise you!"  How would that fly in Fort McMurray today, or Athabasca, or Smith or Wandering River or Boyle?

Probably better in the smaller places than in the larger ones.  Wandering into the local burger bar might be easier to strike up conversation than at a casino or hotel bar.  Travelers would have to step carefully, not knowing what the local hot button topic might be. Should we buy Taber corn or should we boycott it?  Was it the women’s shelter or the homeless shelter that shut down in Lac La Biche? And so on.

The challenge of connecting has become difficult.  Even the disciples would have a hard time finding people open to new ideas, new understandings, new opportunities.  Since Covid, it seems like we are locked into polarized attitudes.  Even walking into a Dairy Queen for a chocolate dipped cone may end up in a stressful debate about politics, healthcare or human rights.  It’s heartbreaking.

Abraham was not interested in having a fight with total strangers over the dangers of vaccination, or whatever the equivalent of his time would have been.  One of his core values, his spiritual practice, was practicing radical hospitality.  Hospitality that was generous even while struggling to survive in the wilderness.  Generosity that was radically compassionate, dignified, and respectful.  Generosity that was so kind that his guests gave him and Sarah a special blessing.  The blessing of a child.  A blessing that seemed so ridiculous that Sarah laughed. 

The longing for a child can become debilitating.  Abraham and Sarah were beyond desperate.  They had tried, they had grieved, they had hoped and they had given up on hope.  Sarah had even given her servant Hagar to Abraham to have a baby with.  And to hear these strangers promise her long-buried dreams would be fulfilled would have seemed like salt poured onto a wound.  Her childlessness would not have been only a matter of infertility, it would have been a personal and spiritual failure of epic proportions.  To this couple who had fled the big city life to start a family in a tent in the wilderness, the dream of a new way of life of deep spirituality and bold discipleship would have been centered on having future generations.  The pressure on Sarah would have been both part of her culture and part of her understanding of herself as a woman.  No wonder she laughed.

Laughter is surprisingly healing.  It can come when we least expect it, and it can soften angry hearts in ways that debates, logic, facts and opinions fail to do.  Patch Adams, made famous by the movie starring Robin Williams, discovered how much more effective he was when he made his patients laugh.  They healed faster, and the hospital became a much more pleasant place to work.  Laughter can shift our brain chemistry and help with the healing process.  Our brains are mysterious and complex things.  Who knows how the experience of laughter changed Sarah, but it did.  It so changed her that she named her son “Laughter”.

When we are struggling, when we feel there is no hope and no future, when we see the divisiveness in the world, when we don’t know where to turn, it’s easy to laugh off the idea that there may be hope coming just around the corner.  A baby coming to a childless couple, a heavenly leadership plan coming to the world, they may seem laughable.  Yet the reign of Heaven surprises us when we least expect it.

We have been waiting for the reign of Heaven to surprise us for a long time.  In many ways we need it more than ever before.  As the conversation around separatism gets more intense, it may be overwhelming for some.  The rise of racism, sexism and homophobia online is scary.  It can leave us feeling paralyzed and terrified. But we are also able to find surprises when we entertain angels unawares.  Surprises like the kind hospitality of a nomadic city slicker living in a tent with no hope for the future, who serves their best food to unexpected strangers.

One person that surprised many is Romaine Patterson, who made angels costumes with wings seven feet high and wore them in front of protestors from Westboro Baptist Church so Matthew Sheperd’s family couldn’t see them.  She went on to become an advocate and public speaker. Another story of surprise is of grassroots organizations like Ofewa, a group of a dozen people meeting in a country where same sex relationships are illegal.  They got together under a tree to talk about what they could do to build a safer future in a dangerous country.  They built a coalition of more than a dozen organizations—some focused on intersex rights, some on media representation, some on legal support. They quietly meet with police officers, judges, lawyers, anyone who will listen, to influence change.  There’s Rev. Will Campbell who was a white Baptist minister and strategist for Martin Luther King Jr. He was asked to share his views on capital punishment at a public debate. The majority of people there believed that the death penalty was the only way to build a civilized country.  They were surprised into silence when Campbell said that he was against Capital Punishment “because it’s tacky.” The moderator asked Campbell several times to explain himself, and he eventually said, “Hell, everyone knows what tacky means.” And that ended the debate.

What if we said something surprising, like “I think that arguing is unCanadian.” And get back to that common understanding of Canadians as kind, welcoming and compassionate people.  People who hope to build a land of peace and hospitality.  People who follow in the footsteps of Abraham and the disciples, nurturing hospitality, generosity and kindness.  Let’s surprise the world with love and generosity and watch how God surprises us!

Will the real God(s) stand up?

As some folks know, I have a love of inspirational card decks.  I have ones on leadership, art, labyrinth walking, discipleship and more.  I’ve taken them to workshops and council meetings, scattered them around the Sanctuary with miniature Jesus figures, used them for Coffee time conversations, and even handed them out in worship randomly. 

When I went to the first of the Blazing Walnuts Workshops, the minister that was helping Moderator Lansdowne with the course was Northern Spirit’s Office of Vocation minister, Rev. Laura Fause. She’s responsible for helping ministry candidates go through the discernment and education process that helps them decide whether or not they are being called by God into ministry with the United Church of Canada.  She’s also the author of five sets of inspirational cards that she sells on a website store (Affirmation Cards for Disciples – My Blessing Studio).  There’s one for disciples, there’s one for flourishing, one for pride folks and one for kids.  It’s a playful, joyful way of finding a thought to inspire our day.

At one time, playful and joyful were not words that we applied to Christianity or our understanding of God.  Many times Christianity is painted as a “Get out of Hell free” card, and the literature going out to recruit disciples is all about the torture and punishment of rebellious, wayward souls.  And at one point, the use of shame, fear and guilt seemed to bring people into the church and keep them there.

But since the 1960’s, people have been rejecting that.  They have been deconstructing this rigid understanding of God as the divine grumpy king sitting on his throne, pitching people headlong into fire and brimstone. And to be honest, the Bible is full of a diversity of images and names of God far grander than a miserable bearded codger on a glitzy chair. 

Genesis One is a good example of this.  Anyone who takes the Bible literally might consider looking at the ancient Hebrew names for God.  "Elohim" is now translated by some as plural, and "El Shaddai", used in the song of the same name, can mean both God of the mountaintop or anything cone shaped, especially women’s endowments, "The many-breasted God".  Elohim is the creator of humans in God’s own image.  Then in Genesis 2, we have Yahweh not Elohim, and it tells a different story of creation where humanity is made first before the plants and the animals are made last.  There are references to God as being a baker, a king, a woman in labor, a wind, a still small voice, and something so vast humans can’t even see God’s back side without risking their sanity.  All these images point to the human experience of God being complicated, and God being surprising.  God shows up in wondrous ways, or as our Song of Faith puts it, "above perfect knowledge, beyond perfect explanation, a holy mystery".

Humans have been trying to understand God as mystery for a very long time.  Some were people like Hildegarde of Bingen, and Julian of Norwich.

Hildegarde became the leader of a convent when she was very young, and dabbled in God language that shocked many, especially men in positions of power in the church.  She was a musician, a writer, a dreamer, a philosopher and a psychologist who wasn’t afraid to talk truth to politicians.  She was born 20 years after William the Conqueror took over England from the Anglo-Saxons and had many surprising ideas. She thought that women should strive to be more masculine, and men should strive to be more feminine, in order to become a balanced Christian. God was called Divine Feminine and Divine Wisdom.  She wrote of God speaking surprising words to her, “I am the one whose praise echoes on high.  I adorn all the earth.  I am the breeze that nurtures all things green…  I am the rain… that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.”[1] Her ideas of God were shared throughout Europe even though they were not conforming to traditional understandings.

Julian of Norwich lived in England about three hundred years later and also pushed the boundaries of God images.  She lived through wars, the Bubonic Plague, losing her husband and children in her early thirties, and surviving an illness that nearly killed her.  When she recovered, she had herself bricked into the local church where she was given meals through a slot in the wall and never came out in public again.  She listened to daily worship and many people who came to her curtained window outside.  It makes me wonder if she had neurodiverse characteristics.  Her routine would have been constantly the same, she never had to make eye contact with anyone, and she could write down her visions in solitude.  Even though she had lived through immense personal tragedy, she’s most famously remembered for saying “All Shall be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” She said it because she believed that God is Love and as creator, God’s love will triumph. She described God as the trinity God: Maker, Keeper, Lover, or Might, Wisdom and Goodness.  She described Jesus as a breast-feeding mother, explaining it as “our precious Mother Jesus can feed us with himself… with the blessed sacrament,” how the bread and wine is as essential to us as a mother's milk.  She also had a vision that God’s creation is so precious that it is held in God’s hand, who loves everyone and everything in creation.

Whether we use Father Son and Holy Spirit, or as our Song of Faith puts it, “Mother, Friend, and Comforter/ Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love, our old understanding of God the angry emperor is rejected by many people.  They see Christianity as a weapon of control, and a tool of oppression.  We won’t go forth and make disciples if we cling to these feared images of God, more like the Greek god Zeus or the Roman God Jupiter than Yahweh, Elohim or El Shaddai.  But many people hunger for hope.  They still need good news.  They yearn for the tender love of a healing and caring God. They long for a community that will love them into healing.  Maybe it’s time for us to redraw our deck of cards when it comes to describing our God as closer than a loving parent, who feeds us like a tender mother and cares for us with a love that is unshakable.  May God's love, however we describe our higher power, our great mystery, continue to inspire, empower and encourage us and others.  Amen.

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[1] P. 5, Earth Prayers edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon, Harper San Francisco Press, 1991

Fill me up!

There’s nothing that says “Summer Fun” quite like a humble beach ball.  For children, it was a big soft ball that even the smallest of toddlers might be able to play with as it was big and slow and quite soft compared to the hard red rubber balls that were used for endless games of dodgeball.

Beachballs were more durable than balloons, and could be used on land or in water.  They could be used for volleyball, or water polo, soccer, and if there was a hollow plastic bat, it could be used for a pick up game of baseball.  Mind you, no one over the age of 8 would be impressed with how far the ball might fly.  Even fully inflated, beach balls would never break windows or leave bruises after a hard game of soccer.  They couldn’t knock kids off their feet or break a tooth.  They were gentle and soft and caused no harm to their users.

But beachballs depended on someone having a good set of lungs.  Without having some serious air volume, the beach ball would eventually go soft and not be nearly as much fun, as bouncy, as responsive to the actions of younglings wanting to have a good game of catch.  The balls were only as good as their ability to keep air locked inside.  Sometimes they needed to be patched with some good old duct tape.

In our John reading, the gospel tells us of the first Easter Sunday experience, after Mary Magdaline found the tomb empty but before Thomas asked questions and got answers.  The disciples were deflated from the events of their beloved Rabbi’s crucifixion.  They had gone through immense trauma as they ran away or witnessed his humiliating treatment by the temple leadership in a secret trial at night. Some witnessed the state-sanctioned torture and execution by Roman law enforcers.  Never mind that the trial was unjust and the interrogation was done by a corrupt politician, the disciples felt like the wind had been knocked out of them.  They had lost their bounce and playfulness.  They were deep into depression and grief.  They were tired and traumatized.

Then Jesus appeared, greeted them with peace and breathed on them.  They were filled with joy!  Just like a beach ball that is pumped up to the brim, they were ready to bounce and have fun and spread joy.  They still were not ready to go out into Jerusalem to share their good news.  That’s where our Acts reading comes in.  Pentecost is a Hebrew festival 50 days after Passover that celebrates the first harvest of grain for the year.  Pente means 50.  What were the disciples doing for those 50 days? Luke described Jesus telling them to wait.  Wait until the Spirit let them know what’s next.  So they waited. For two months of questioning, conversation, experiences of the risen Christ, debates, decisions, praying and wondering what would be next. 

Waiting is not easy as anyone will tell you who has been pregnant or is waiting on the results of a biopsy.  Waiting is an uncertain time.  It can be stressful too in its own right.  People who rush too soon to decisions can find themselves dealing with unintended consequences, something we saw happen this week when a committee released their report to the public before they had even finished their meeting!

Waiting is hard.  Yet the disciples waited as Jesus asked.  They rested, they reminisced, maybe they planned a committee meeting or two. They prayed, they sang, they talked and they listened.  Then on that 50^th day, something happened that changed their world.  Wind and fire and God!

Things happen that change our world too.  Wind, and fire sweep into our lives unexpectedly.  10 years ago on Pentecost Sunday, Donnalee preached in Athabasca United Church with several folks from Fort McMurray United in attendance, which was the first time we did a joint worship together.  At that time, Athabasca omitted all references to Pentecost flames. We knew that this was a resting time, a waiting time for the whole city in exile, waiting until it was safe to return.  Even when the fires were out, more waiting happened, waiting to hear if their homes had been spared, and how they would rebuild.  No one had the time or the energy to bounce back.  They lost more than homes and possessions, they lost any sense of order, security and stability they might once have had.

Now much of the world also feels like it has lost stability and predictability.  We hear news of politicians making confusing decisions, building ballrooms while people struggle to pay the bills, plans to round up unhoused people and force them into detention centres, plans to change AISH and plans to hold a vote on whether to hold a vote on separatism. No plans whatsoever to repair the loss of privacy for millions of Albertans.

They are rushing to make decisions which will have unintended consequences.  Do these decisions have the ability to restore our bounce?  To help us feel joyful?  To give us space to be playful, loving, hopeful and kind?  Somehow, I doubt it.

Time and time again, Christians have lived in chaotic seasons of political instability.  They have lived through seasons of plague, times of persecution, years of drought or famine, decades of war or oppression.  They turned to God in their distress, turned to deep spirituality through reading the bible, praying with words and without words, remembering hymns that encourage them, and sharing stories of times when God filled them with hope, love and yes, even joy in the midst of terrors.  They have waited for Jesus and been sustained in a community of broken but hopeful believers practicing deep spirituality together.  They have found inspiration that has filled them up until they are able to not just survive but thrive and encourage others to thrive.  We are living in such times again.

We wait, we pray, we sing, we share, we gather together to be inspired and to inspire others.  Sometimes we wait quietly, sometimes we wait joyfully.  And we wait together to find God’s breath filling us up until we are able to love and serve others, seek justice and resist evil, and proclaim Jesus crucified and risen.  In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is filling us with love and hope and joy.  May God restore the bounce in our step and inspire us to thrive in these times with wisdom and compassion. Amen

Courage and Innocence

Have you ever been arrested for doing what is right?  Have you ever had to go to court to prove your innocence?  Or gotten a call from a loan shark looking for someone who shares your name but not your credit rating?  If you are truly innocent, you probably took it calmly and cheerfully.  Hopefully it didn’t end up in court, where a judge had to make a difficult decision of who is telling the truth.

Both scriptures sound like somebody is going to court.  John’s gospel even had Jesus describing the Holy Spirit in legal language.  “The Advocate” in the original Greek, was the term used for lawyers in charge of protecting a defendant. When we pair these two scriptures up, we hear the call to live lives of truth and honesty.

Our world needs innocent and good people now more than ever.  But how do we be brave and trustworthy?

When we face challenging times like these, some people try to ignore everything bad.  Just do your job, keep your head down, and mind your own business, they might council.  

Some people might rage and join in the conflict, going below the line in anger to prove that they are the smartest person in the room.  They blame, judge, complain, even lie or exaggerate.  They don’t like it when they get a letter telling them to cease and desist or when a judge rules against them.  

Then there’s the third group of people.  They are taking the command to be innocent and courageous to heart.  Even when they know that bad actors might have their personal addresses, they still make the tough calls in the courts or tell how they really feel about current events.  Not everyone who is brave and honest gets their five minutes of airtime, but some folks might just surprise you with their courage.  One such courageous action that recently took place was an organized letter against an event in Red Deer.  This event wanted to connect politics with right wing Christianity, excluding all other faiths.

By the time the Alberta Christian Leadership Summit with Danielle Smith took place on May 4 in Red Deer, 205 faith leaders had signed the Statement of Conviction. It started with 50 signatories on April 20. I was part of the original 50.

The statement read in part: 

We are faith leaders from across Alberta - from many traditions, many communities, and many ways of understanding the sacred. What we share is a conviction that faith, at its best, moves us toward one another - toward the neighbour who looks like you and the one who doesn't. It calls us to lead with humility, to welcome the stranger, and to stand with those the powerful would rather ignore.

We also believe in pluralism - not as a compromise, but as a gift. Alberta is home to people of many backgrounds, many faiths, and many ways of living a good life. That diversity is not a problem to be managed. It is what makes our communities more honest and more compassionate. A public life that only makes room for some voices is diminished for everyone.

The Premier's Annual Christian Summit… claims to bring faith into public life... But the event's structure - its cost, its curated guest list, its exclusive framing - means that many voices will simply not be in the room. Smaller congregations, racialized communities, younger leaders, and those without means or connections will be absent. That is not a gathering shaped by the values of welcome and humility. It is a gathering shaped by access and privilege.

We are also concerned by what this event represents more broadly. When any government aligns itself with one religious identity, it diminishes the independence of every other faith community - regardless of tradition or theology. No single tradition, congregation, or political movement speaks for all people of faith. And the faith we know - across our many traditions - has never been most itself when it is closest to power. Rather, it has been most itself when it is closest to the people that power overlooks.

This letter was drafted by Affirm United, which is an organization that includes churches that publicly choose to welcome and include people that are not always welcome in other churches.  They reported that 

“Those 205 people didn't just push back against one event. They stood for something: a vision of faith and public life in Alberta and across Canada that is expansive, pluralistic, and unwilling to let one narrow interpretation of one religion set the terms for everyone. That's the opposite of what was being promoted in that room in Red Deer, and it needed to be said out loud, by name, on the record.

"It also appears to have had some effect. Since the statement was released, the summit made three changes without explanation: the lowest ticket price dropped from $349 to $199, the application-and-approval system was replaced with direct public purchase, and the event's name changed from the Premier's Annual Christian Summit to the Alberta Christian Leadership Summit. We're not claiming sole credit... But 205 faith leaders speaking clearly and publicly has a way of making things harder to ignore."

Another minister, who also leads an affirming church in Northern Spirit Region, The Reverend Blaine Gregg, attended in his rainbow shirt.  To put this into context, there were some 700 attendees, and mainstream reporters from the CBC, the Edmonton Journal, CTV and the like were not allowed in.  Talk about brave and innocent! Blaine wrote an article for Broadview Magazine, and said, 

"I noted four areas of concern: banning abortion; restricting or eliminating medical assistance in dying; promoting anti-transgender views; and opposing changes to federal legislation, including Bill C-9’s religious exemption in anti-hate laws…There was a clear sense… that ‘real’ Christians shared the same… opinions on societal issues and ethical values, and that aligning with the provincial government would translate those beliefs into policy.

"This… included a palpable shared fear and worry that… Christianity was losing the battle for the soul of the nation. "

Blaine went even though he knew he might not be welcomed.  He went even though the other people were potentially hostile.  He took Peter’s words to heart, “Who is going to harm you if your goal is to do what is right?"  But even if you do suffer for what is right, count it a blessing. Don't fear what they fear.  Don't be afraid, and don't worry.”

When we play small, or if we lash out in anger, we act as the world expects us to act.  But when we intentionally do our best to live out values of compassion and justice, our witness threatens those who would bully the vulnerable, attack the rights of minorities and intimidate those who are isolated.  When we speak out, we discover we are not alone, and the bullies are silenced, the powerful are challenged and the selfish face justice.  Christianity is not a private club for comfortable people, it is a call to stand up for those who have no voice.  When we are brave and innocent, we will find that God is our judge who will dismiss the case against us.  God is with us, we are not alone, thanks be to God!

Corrupt Generations

One phrase that jumps out of today's scripture is "save yourselves from this corrupt generation". Peter preached this as part of his Pentecost sermon, and it resonated with his listeners. How many of us feel like we are living in the midst of a corrupt generation? With stories about some grocery store chains adding the meat packaging when they calculate the price of chicken thighs, or the government rejecting recommendations for constituency boundaries for the next election, or Canada Revenue Agency being scammed for millions of dollars, who wouldn't want to be saved from a corrupt culture? Peter’s audience sure did.

Peter’s solution? Repentance, baptism and commitment to a life of discipleship. Baptism was free to everyone, no strings attached. And of course, that was just the start. Baptism welcomed the new disciples into a big, vibrant conversation about faith, God, and personal and cultural transformation.

Peter invited them to be transformed as he had been transformed. Peter had witnessed his beloved leader going through the farce of an unjust trial where the decision was made by a court more interested in political popularity than justice and fairness. And Peter ran away, afraid for his life. Then he hid behind locked doors, anxiously wondering when his arrest and execution would happen. The transformation from coward to leader was unexpected and he attributed it to his Easter experiences of the Risen Christ like some disciples had on the road to Emmaus.

Unexpected transformation can come in many ways. It can be dramatic and instant like Mary and Salome finding the tomb empty. It can be quiet and slow like on an eleven-kilometer walk as described in our gospel reading today. That's not a five-minute stroll down to the mailbox!

Today we're most likely to experience a long journey with a stranger by carpooling to an event or taking a bus tour or airplane trip, but back then folks were expected to travel to Jerusalem for Passover. And unless they were rich or had mobility issues or were pregnant, they didn't use donkeys. Donkeys were a luxury, not for regular people. And regardless of how you travel, a stranger traveling with you can be the worst thing or the best thing for such a long trip. Like astronauts flying around the moon and back for days in a tiny space with a broken toilet, the time spent together can be transformative. Just as Jeremy Hansen said in their recent press conference, the astronauts now have become good friends and also have new perspectives and hope for the future.

The disciples picked up a hitchhiker and had no idea what was coming.  They discovered that the more they talked to the stranger, the more surprised they were at his ignorance of current affairs, and then amazed at his thorough knowledge of scripture.  They were trying to figure out what had happened.  Was Jesus resurrected?  Was it a hoax?  Was it a hallucination? They weren’t sure.  But they called themselves disciples, and although they are not a part of the official list of 12, they too had followed Jesus, they too had learned his teachings, they too, knew his methods of thinking through complex issues.  And they too knew what disciples of Jesus were called to do.

Disciples are called to test the insights and ideas that come their way.  They are to ask questions.  They are to explore the scriptures, the sacred texts, not as a law book with rules and regulations, but as a road map that may need some redrawing from time to time.  Like astronauts seeing the world from a different angle, scriptures help change our viewpoint.  And scripture helps us explore what God is calling us to through conversation, through logic, through experience.  The disciples said, “this is what we experienced, this is what we know, the tomb is empty.  This is what others are saying.  Now stranger, help us understand what is happening.  Help us make sense of our upside-down world. Help us understand this corrupt generation and how we are being called by God to respond.”

Notice that they didn’t get their full answer until they practiced that first, fundamental Christian discipline of offering hospitality to the stranger.  It was only after they invited him to stay and eat with them that the revelation of who he was transformed them.  It was only when their simple meal of bread and wine was turned into the sacrament of sharing abundance that Jesus had practiced with them that they realized his true identity. This revelation transformed them so much that they ran back the 11 kilometers in the dark to testify to the disciples that Easter was real, Jesus was risen! Transformation was possible, both for individuals and for their corrupt generation that had murdered an innocent man.

Some will say that our generation is not corrupt.  And yet the Guardian newspaper reported this week that the world’s largest oil companies are making more than $30 million an hour in excess profits. Exxon will earn an extra 11 billion, Shell will get 6.8 Billion, and Chevron 9.2 billion if the price continues. The Alberta Government is dismissing the non-partisan report on where to draw political boundaries, and they are excited about new legislature that will protect children from pornography in public libraries while cutting grants to family violence programs.  Now I don’t know about you, but I have never seen a copy of Playboy on the magazine shelves, nor have I ever seen 10 year olds sneaking blue videos out of the libraries, or librarians gleefully lending 12 year olds piles books on how to make money as a sex worker.  Our definitions of what a corrupt generation is may vary from church to church, but we are all called to be disciples that are transformed away from exploitation and manipulation to justice and compassion.

Peter called us to turn from a corrupt generation, by repenting, remembering our baptism, celebrating God’s presence, welcoming strangers, feeding the hungry, comforting the lonely, and being open to new encounters with Jesus when we gather together in the breaking of bread, the celebrating of communion, and the gathering of disciples to celebrate Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope. In Life, in death, in life beyond death, He is risen, halleluiah!