Canada

A quick survey of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people brings about the realization of the truth of the situation. The Indigenous people of North America are over-represented in poverty, unemployment, child welfare, education system drop-outs, addiction, sex work, correctional services, and the like. Tent cities line inner-city streets as many of the occupants of these make-shift communities use illicit drugs to numb the pain of the reality of this world. Be careful not to judge, or you will be judged by the same measure.

Over the last few years, my own teaching and discipleship has been most inspired by theologians and practitioners from the Global South and First Peoples’ communities around the world.  These thinkers, writers, leaders, teachers, and artists are broadly connected to the movement of decolonization and post-colonial theology, in which people of faith from the Global South and First Peoples’ communities around the world – including my own, here in amiskwacîwâskahikan (what is now known as Edmonton) - are challenging the legacy of largely European, colonial church traditions.  

Recently, I had an opportunity to meditate on Luke 10:25-37, the passage on the Good Samaritan. Since I was commemorating the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, I read it from the Indigenous people and white settlers' relational lens instead of the first century Samaritans and Jews relational lens. When I read it through this lens, the parable spoke so much truth to our current reality and through this blog, I am sharing three insights that I was able to glean.

“Hope is what you get when you suddenly realize that a different worldview is possible, a worldview in which the rich, the powerful, and the unscrupulous do not after all have the last word.”
― N.T. Wright

Updates from Ukraine

A Russian fighter plane has crashed into a residential building in the southern Russian city of Yeysk, near Ukraine killing 4 civilians. Footage on social media, which has been verified by BBC News, showed a large fireball erupting from what appeared to be a multi-storey building.

I am both a person with multiple disabilities, and a faithful servant of Christ. I’ve been trying my entire adult life to be paid something like equity for the accessibility-advocacy work that I do in the church…and happily, sometimes I’ve succeeded! I have a few thoughts about economic equity for believers with disabilities. So, in this short post, I want to connect part of Paul’s “household code” in Ephesians 6:5-8 to the need for believers with disabilities to experience economic even-handedness. We need to be paid properly for our work!

“Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:16b-19) 

By calculations I recently heard from a sermon at church, Noah spent about 378 days on the ark. In Canada Corrections terms, any sentence two years or greater is a federal sentence to be served in a federal prison, but anything less than two years can be served in a provincial prison. No matter the place or amount of time, I have been told by many guys that the experience is a lonely soul-searching time.

“Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years" - Genesis 1:14

If you had to pick 5 words that expressed who you are- your identity- what would they be? You may choose words like “woman”, “teacher” or “introvert” but what else?  What about the honest, raw words; words you may not want to admit to yourself?

What about “depressed”, if you struggle with depression. Or “unlovable,” if you’ve been abandoned by your partner. Or “Immigrant” or “refugee,” if you were from another country. These identities carry stigma, especially these days as we try to fit in. 

The word reconciliation is often used in conversation when talking about the relationship between Indigenous and non-indigenous people. However, it can also be talked about in the sense that many Indigenous people are in the process of being reconciled to their families, culture, and communities.