Theology

True confession: I lack rhythm. Somewhere between what my ears hear and how my hands clap, my feet tap, and the rest of my body moves, the beat gets distorted. It’s like watching a video with delayed, out-of-sync audio. Nothing lines up the way it’s supposed to. 

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.

We’ve all responded to the heartbreaks and disappointments of this past year differently. Disappointment has left folks questioning God. Like the driver who ignores the service lights on their dashboard, others have ignored the emotional toll 2020 has brought and continued into their life without adjustments.

If we are to understand that Indigenous people had prior knowledge of God, as stated in Romans 1, before Europeans landed on this continent, might there be manifestation of God through Indigenous peoples narratives? 

Enjoy this look back at the top Do Justice articles written in 2020 (ranked by top pageviews).  It was a big year for us to be reading and praying about justice and you’ll see themes of this year in all of our top articles.  It is our hope and prayer that these articles blessed you and moved you to new action.

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace”  Ephesians 2:14-15

Merry Christmas from the Center for Public Dialogue and the Office of Social Justice as you reflect on joy during the fourth week of advent. 

Poet Malcolm Guite writes, “Christmas sets the centre at the edge/and from this day our world is re-aligned/a tiny seed unfolding in the womb/becomes the source from which we all unfold/and flower into being.  We are healed.”*

My mother called me out of the blue a few weeks ago. She wondered how I was doing since I have a tendency of not calling her frequently. I thought it would be a conversation about weather in Michigan or what she was cooking for herself that night or an update on relatives I’ve never met.  Instead she disclosed things I never heard about her childhood. Maybe she was thinking back over her life since she had her 82nd birthday.

In the first post of this tale, I used a metaphor from Pastor Norton Lages to describe systemic racism: “Canadian culture treats other cultures like an abusive husband who sends his wife to counselling expecting her to change.” 

For me, the ancient proverb, ‘divide and conquer’ has taken on a new meaning. It has surpassed being a formal military tactical strategy of how to win. Every nation had a choice about how to fight the new invisible enemy: Coronavirus. We are still participating in this invisible world war called the pandemic. To fight the enemy, we have to literally hide. Our weapons are new phrases and terminology to soothe our wounded humanness: self-isolate, bubble, physical and social distance.