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Justice Prayers - Christmas 2022

An Honest Christmas Prayer 
from one who imperfectly longs for justice.

 

...a thrill of hope,
the weary world rejoices...

 

Are we ever ready Lord, 
to welcome you as you've chosen to come?
A powerless child, 
seeing
learning
redeeming 
the world from the bottom up?  
We might not be ready for that, but we are ready for hope.  

 

Holiday Blues

While most Christmas adages point to the joy of the season (e.g. it’s the most wonderful time of the year), this year I have been once again reminded that November and December are two of the most difficult months for millions of people. Feelings of loneliness and anxiety, a fear of missing out, painful reflection and overwhelming sadness during the Christmas season are so common there’s a special term for it—the holiday blues.

The Lights of Advent - Candles and Kilowatt hours

On the first Sunday of Advent, our pastor spoke on the first eighteen verses of the gospel of John. It has many intriguing references to light and encompasses creation, the new creation and the source of life.

I am a strong believer in the amazing and complex interconnectedness of our life here on earth. For that reason, I sometimes have a difficult time analysing the challenges of creation care without trying to see how it fits together with things like material wealth/poverty and racism.

Thirty-Six Thousand Notes in a Symphony

Sometimes I feel it,
the green fuse that ignites us,
the wild thrum that unites us,
an inner hum that reminds us
of our shared humanity.
Belonging by: Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Do you sometimes feel it too?  Our interconnectedness? The way when ‘one part suffers the rest suffer with it?’  It’s this interconnectedness that makes reconciliation and belonging so important.  

Why Can’t We Do Both? Mary, Martha, and the Myth of Productivity

I’m both a person with multiple disabilities, and a good worker. The problem with holding those two concepts in tension is my distinct lack of efficiency. I can do the things I’m skilled at regularly – in church contexts, I can pray, preach, receive and count offering, sing, and not only assist in but help to celebrate the Eucharist – but, when I do them, all those tasks are slower and more deliberate than they would be when done by able-bodied people. Moreover, all those tasks may have small pieces missing.

Caring for the Whole Person

When speaking with a ministry colleague a few years ago about the complexities of serving individuals who are being commercially sexually exploited, they wondered aloud how we can expect someone to leave their exploiter when the person’s immediate needs are taken care of through exploitation. This ministry colleague reflected on a situation in which a woman living in dire poverty in another country was faced with the decision between being sexually exploited or letting her children go hungry.

Justice Prayers - November 16, 2022

"I pray to God—my life a prayer— and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning." - Psalm 130:5-6 MSG

Jesus Saves

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.

Listening to New Voices: Learning from Post-Colonial Theologians

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.  

Go and Do Likewise

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.

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