Indigenous Ministry Sunday - June 18, 2023
God is a God of justice and mercy. He formed His people, Israel, to be a community of hospitality, and to care for the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger. Some Biblical scholars say this is in fact the defining characteristic of Yaweh’s people, in contrast to the other nations around them – their call to, and care of, the weak and the marginalized. Through a number of Old Testament prophets God called Israel out often: I don’t want your songs, your worship, or your sacrifices if you aren’t going to be people of justice and mercy and care for those on the margins.
In the New Testament, Jesus showed us what a perfect “people of God” looks like in his mercy, compassion, love, and inclusion of all those that the religious folk of the day deemed un-worthy (women, children, lepers, tax-collectors, prostitutes, beggars, Samaritans, sons who squander their inheritance, to name a few). Jesus fulfilled God’s purpose in calling Abraham out and forming a community to do God’s work of helping all people (and creation) flourish; and we are called to this ministry of right-relationship as well. Biblical justice is my starting point.
My short journey into Indigenous and Racial Justice and Reconciliation began only about 5 years ago, and included these events:
· CRC Inspire conference in Windsor where I heard Soong-Chan Rah teach on the Doctrine of Discovery1 (the CRC denounced the Doctrine of Discovery as heresy at Synod in 2016).
· George Floyd murdered by police in May of 2020, recorded for all of us to see
· Calvin Seminary on-line course on “Faithful Christian Anti-Racism during the Pandemic”
· 215 Indigenous children’s bodies found on a residential school property, in Kamloops
· Welcoming a Jamaican-Canadian into our family
· Our son’s learning in Indigenous studies at McGill University
· Reading Indigenous authors and stories
· Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King – book club here with some Mountainview folks
· Participating in a Blanket Exercise2 held at Mountainview
· Learning that our denomination has been involved in reconciliation with our Indigenous family for decades already (See https://network.crcna.org/topic/justice-inclusion/biblical-justice/indigenous-justice/what-have-we-said-crc-about-justice-and)
· Hearts Exchanged3 – CRC’s program for learning about reconciliation
· The Truth and Reconciliation Commission4 (the CRC adopted a number of the articles in the TRC as goals for our own denomination)
· Participating in the Canadian National Gathering last month and hearing deeply faithful, Christian Indigenous folks tell us their stories, lament with us, and call us to action and right relationship
I invite and encourage you to do some listening and learning, too. I invite you to get curious. Why are our jails full of Indigenous people (32%) when Indigenous people make up just 5% of our population? Why do so many Indigenous women and girls end up murdered (almost 5x more than non-Indigenous women)? Why are the social services system and foster homes full (58%) of Indigenous children when they only account for 7.7% of the child population in Canada? If we don’t get curious, if we don’t wonder, if we don’t look at the history of how this country was colonized, if we don’t listen with our hearts to the stories of generational trauma, we will make the usual, easy, and careless judgments that Indigenous people must be inherently more lazy, more criminalized, bad parents, addicts, and/or simply inferior, less gifted, less able humans. Right? We’ve all thought it (maybe even said it).
How did we get here? Let’s look back, let’s listen to the stories of people who were disregarded as inferior human beings and therefore could be (and were) disposed of. Let’s dig deep into the history of how settlers came to this continent, claimed “discovery” and used and abused its first peoples. It wasn’t an accident, or simply a side effect of “industrialization” – it was intentional, and it can be found in print, in black and white, in words from the churches and governments – we need to “get rid of the Indian problem” or “take the Indian out of the child.” We are in the mess of injustice now because of the horrific ways Indigenous peoples have been treated since Euro-white settlers arrived on the scene. While we did not personally participate in the attempted-extinction of the first peoples, we have benefitted from this history (In my own life, I consider that my Dutch grandparents and parents were called by the Canadian government to come and fill up this land – land stolen from our Indigenous family). And we are called to be people of justice and mercy because of the God we follow, demonstrated in the life of Jesus.
On the Sunday morning of the Canadian National Gathering, our final worship time was shaped around the Cree ceremony called "Standing Stones"4 - Harold Roscher (Director of the Edmonton Indigenous Center, a Cree man adopted into a CRC family as a child) and the Anglican church developed a liturgy to aid Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to explore God in an Indigenous Context. We come to worship Jesus, infusing Cree symbols into Christian ceremony. (this is called contextualization - emphasizing the truth of the gospel while simultaneously recognizing the value of the culture where the gospel takes root.)
It's basically a 4-part liturgy: (see how familiar?)
· Confession (smudging5 and prayer)
· Healing (water), prayers for ourselves and the community
· Wisdom from scripture and the elders
· Thanksgiving, sharing a meal.
We will follow this basic pattern on Sunday morning, June 18, the designated Indigenous Ministry Sunday of the Christian Reformed Church. We won’t do anything that will be too uncomfortable, I promise! Come with open hearts and open eyes and open ears.
Ruth Ann
1 The Doctrine of Discovery is a legal and religious concept that has been used for centuries to justify Christian colonial conquest. It advanced the idea that European peoples, culture and religion were superior to all others. Through a series of Papal Bulls (edicts) by the King of England (and later other countries) and with the church’s blessing and approval, colonial powers were given complete permission to eliminate non-white peoples (who were agreed upon to not really be full humans) and take their land.
2 Blanket Exercise – In 1996, the Aboriginal Rights Coalition worked with Indigenous elders and teachers to develop an interactive way of learning the history most Canadians are never taught. The Blanket Exercise was the result. Based on Indigenous methodologies, its goal is to build understanding education and empathy about our shared history as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada by walking through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance.
3 Hearts Exchanged is a learning and action journey designed to equip Reformed Christians to engage with Indigenous people as neighbours and fellow image bearers. This co-learning setting models the sacred journey of reconciliation, preparing us as Christians to build relationships with Indigenous communities that are marked by mutual respect and reciprocity. Participants are transformed in their minds and hearts as they are invited into honest dialogue about the harms of colonialism, and encounter ‘hearts broken’ stories and experiences. *If there are enough interested persons I would love to lead this course at Mountainview, beginning in September. Contact me!
4 Truth and Reconciliation Commission “Mandated to reveal to Canadians the complex truth about the history and the ongoing legacy of the church-run residential schools, in a manner that fully documented the individual and collective harms perpetrated against Indigenous peoples, and honours the resilience and courage of former students, their families, and communities; and guide and inspire a process of truth and healing, leading toward reconciliation… The process was to work to renew relationship on a basis of inclusion, mutual understanding, and respect.” (summary of final report, p. 23)
5 Standing Stones comes from the Cree culture in which stones were placed as location markers for food caches or graves and other ceremonial sites. As the plains people traveled up and down the Great Plains these markers helped guide them to these often- sacred places (think OT Israelites)
6 Smudging – the smoke from sage or sweetgrass is wafted over a person’s head, face, hands in order prepare for prayer - to purify our minds, hearts and spirits in order to come to a clearer understanding of God.