Last night we had the privilege of meeting two students in Compassion’s LDP program (Leadership Development Program). These two, Ephraim and Anita, are first year university students who have been sponsored in the regular Compassion program since childhood. When they turn 18, they leave the regular Compassion program and have opportunity to apply for the LDP program but the selection criteria is very strict. Only one or two out of a hundred applicants are chosen! LDP students are sponsored just at the children between ages of 3 and 18, but the cost per month to sponsor the student goes up to over $300/month (compared to $41 per month for a regularly sponsored child).

Both Anita and Ephraim shared their testimonies with us of the challenges of university life while also continuing to serve heavily I leadership and service in their local church. Eprhaim is in an engineering program and is a gifted speaker. Anita is a beautiful young woman who is enrolled in a business administration program. This is quite amazing since both came from impoverished situations to where they are today. To be sure, their testimonies of their faith in God were inspiring!

After a good night’s sleep, our last at Puertolago, we headed off this morning for a two hour drive back to Quito to visit a CSP project. CSP stands for “Child Survival Program.” In this program, pregnant mothers are taught how to have a healthy pregnancy, and basic hygiene and life and spiritual skills for raising a baby. The mother and child are eligible for the program until the child reaches age 3. Each week, the mother receives a visit in her home from one of the local Compassion volunteers, who leads the mother in a lesson on hygiene, in a short Bible study and prayer time, and who does a check both mother and child.

Today we were able to observe a CSP visit in action in what was one of the poorest sites we’ve experienced. Because this was in the city, the area was much more of a real slum and the menace of poverty hung in the area. The area smelled like a garbage dump, and everywhere we look was garbage and the sound of wild dogs barking. Chickens were running in and out of the house and the door (if you can call it that) had panels missing so that there was no real way to close the door. There was, in other words, something qualitatively different, in my opinion, between the poverty of the city and the poverty of the more rural areas we visited early in the week. The mother seemed less healthy and there was much more a feeling of hopelessness in the air. Nevertheless, as the Compassion volunteer taught her lesson and prayed, it was hard  not to feel hope again. The smile on this mother’s face spoke volumes.

After sharing a snack with the mother and children (this time a tamale wrapped in a banana leaf), we returned to the Church where the project is based.  We were served a lunch of rice, chicken, carrots and potatoes and heard more stories about the CSP program. It was heart-wrenching once again–and I found myself wiping away a tear as I heard a  mother testify of her challenges, but again, also of her faith in Christ.

Now I’m writing this post back in Quito at the Suissotel where we started the week. We have a few hours to shower, to rest and prepare for our overnight flight tonight leaving at 12:30 am. Already, I feel like I’m stepping back into the “other” world where I live. The incongruity between what I experienced only hours ago and right here and now is already striking: From utter poverty in what was practically a garbage dump to a coffee maker, TV, showers, and a king size bed, all in less than 2 hours. All I can say is, Praise God from whom all blessings flow! But then again, what these people have taught me this week is that a hot shower apart from Christ is no blessing at all. Better no shower and to have Christ than all the hot water in the world and to be separated from him. The truth I need to grasp, however, is that somehow, I have been privileged to have both.

The pastor of the Church welcomed us and introduced some of the Compassion volunteers and program director. We then broke up into our groups and went for a family visit. Today, my group met in the home of a father and mother with 6 children and a grandmother, all living together in a hut with two beds and no more than 12 feet square. The father was a welder but had injured his eyes and was unable to keep working. He is now trying to train to be a radio technician, so when I heard that, we had a fun conversation about radio and about HCJB, the shortwave Christian broadcaster that operates just outside of Quito. It was fun to see his face light up when he found out I was an amateur radio operator and had not long ago talked to someone from Ecuador! As for the mother, she worked as a weaver, making bracelets and belts to be sold at the market. It was moving when she brought out a bunch of bracelets and insisted we each take one as her gift to us, especially since we knew that each one she gave away represented a significant loss of income for her. (Below is a picture of the family, followed by a picture of their house. And no, we are not standing on a step behind them. Ecuadorians are quite a bit shorter on average than us. Imagine what they think when they see one of our team members who is about 6′ 7″ tall!)

This families’ son, Richard (standing in front to my direct right), had gotten a fairly serious injury to his leg and was the recipient of a Compassion medical fund that allowed him to have surgery on his leg. Though he still walks with a limp, he just finished using his crutches a week ago. We were told that had he not received this aid, he would have likely never walked again. When we asked him what his favourite activity was, he said listening to the Word of God being taught and that his favourite character in the Bible was John. (I’m assuming John the Baptist, but I wasn’t sure!)

After our home visit, a number of us then went into the dining area where we helped to serve the children (there are 290 in the program) their lunch—a bowl of soup and a plate of rice with a small piece of chicken. The kids giggled and smiled at us as we tried to pronounce our Spanish! Lots of them like to touch you or shake your hand or even run up to you for a hug.

Next on the agenda was an opportunity to learn how to make bread. We had a blast rolling out buns and croissant-like rolls. We were later served the freshly baked bread together with a milk drink with rice and raisins. It tasted a lot like rice-pudding and was yummy.

At the end of our time at the project, we learned about how Compassion seeks to track each child that is sponsored. Every child has a file that records regular reports about their home life, their schooling, their medical and physical well-being, their spiritual learning, and their financial situation. Someone sitting next to me remarked that there is more intentionality about how these kids grow up that our own children in Canada. Of course, the situation is completely different, but I did begin to wonder if a little more intentionality on our parts would be beneficial!

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the day for me was when we were handing out balloon animals to the children who had all lined up waiting patiently for their own. Regrettably, the time came when there were no more balloons left and about 30 kids stood in line waiting patiently for one. It was hard to fathom how cherished a little balloon would be for these kids, so it broke my heart when we ran out. Once again, it reminded me of just how much we have and how truly rich we are.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

Our day started out in visiting a family at their home. We got a tour of their house, which was probably just a bit bigger than the size of my living room at home. There are at least five people living in this house (though there could have been more—it wasn’t clear to me). We spent time learning about their day to day routine, which included preparing a fire for roasting some dried corn, breaking the corn off the cob for roasting, as well as picking and shelling some navy beans, and learning a few crochet stitches (Let’s just say that I didn’t excel very well at this last job!). After this, we sat down together with the family to eat with them a typical meal which consists of roasted corn, boiled corn, some potatoes, and a small piece of pork. (I don’t recall the Spanish names for these—sorry!). We listened to them tell a bit about themselves (through a translator) and we had opportunity to ask them questions, and also to pray for them.

The oldest girl in the family, Nellie, is a beautiful 15 year old who, from all appearances, runs the household. She spoke about her love for Jesus and for learning about the Bible through the Church. She also told us of her dream to become a secretary for the local Compassion project.

The youngest girl, Shayla, 4, did a fine job of stealing my heart. She beamed when she saw me, told me her name and how old she was. While we were sitting, waiting for the fire to cook the corn, she came and sat on my lap. Later, when we returned to the Church to spend time at the children’s program, she came also and when she saw me, beamed again and came to sit on my lap. Let’s just say that the hardest part of the day was saying “Adios” to little Shayla.

At the church, we had opportunity to hear the children singing songs, repeating a Bible verse (I believe), and then doing a craft. Afterwards, we convened in the Church sanctuary where the pastor addressed us and thanked us for the visit, and promised to pray for us. How humbling…that he would pray for us. And then, to show us their appreciation, they performed a dance and gave us each a hand-knitted cap and braided “friendship” bracelet.

So what lessons did I learn today?

1)     Poverty has different faces, even within the same locale. As I observed the little family we visited, it was abundantly clear that Jesus had made a difference in their home. As a class, we later observed how different these families’ disposition and countenance was compared to even some of the people we saw on the streets who were obviously deeply poor, but had a look of hopelessness and lostness in their eyes. I wouldn’t have believed someone if they told me that you can tell the difference, but after seeing it with my own eyes, I can testify that there was a difference. I’m not sure, in other words, that we can make a blanket statement that to see the poor is to see Jesus; but I do know that for the poor who know Jesus, his presence is much more evident in them than perhaps I have ever seen before.

2)     The dichotomy between “social Gospel” and “proclamational Gospel” disappears when you see the kind of efforts being made in one of these projects. Children are both fed and taught, taught and fed, as a unified effort. Drop off either side and you just know that the whole thing would either fall apart, or really cease to be a true embodiment of the Gospel. Kudos to Compassion for their commitment to the “whole Gospel.”

3)     I was amazed at the patience displayed by these children. My group were with 3-5 year olds at the Church who were making a butterfly out of a recycled bottle which they painted and glued on wings. We helped to cut out the wings for about 20 children and not once did any of them grab or insist that they should get what they came for. It is hard for me to explain, but I am not sure that typical 3-5 year olds in my Canadian context would be quite as patient. I’m don’t know how to account for this except to conjecture that perhaps, for these children, everything they receive is a gift and they do not have a single bone of “entitlement” in their body.

4)     Although I could have said this in theory before, I can now testify that joy does not come about through the abundance of “things.” Nellie and Shayla and Paulina and Vanessa and Rosa (mom) have so very little, yet there was clear evidence of the Joy of the Lord in their faces (especially in Nellie). We might think that those in poverty are “sad” and I’m sure that many, many are. But poverty alone cannot prevent someone from experiencing true Joy.

Foot on right in southern hemisphere, foot on left in northern hemisphere

We are staying at a hotel in the small city of Otavalo called Puerto Lago. Here’s a stunning view through just outside my room.

After arriving, we went into the marketplace to barter for local wares. Notice the nice 20 degree Celsius day! We actually had to put on sunscreen!

When we returned from the marketplace, we launched into the first component of the Child, Church and Mission class with a presentation and discussion of the “4-14 Window,” a term coined by Luis Bush in his booklet entitled, The 4-14 Window. Most of you will likely be familiar with the 10-40 window, which was a description of a geographical area centered on the middle east of some of the most unreached people groups in the world–and also a concept introduced by Bush. What Bush has now suggested is the “4-14 Window” which is a demographic designation based on the observation that about 85% of people who come to faith in Christ do so between the ages of 4 and 14. The question being asked by Bush is, Then why is such a disproportionate amount of time, energy and finances used in trying to reach adults? 

Yesterday we left Regina at 9:00 am and arrived here in Quito at about 11:00 pm. We had a few adventures along the way, including almost missing our connection in Chicago to Atlanta due to slow times moving through security and a slightly delayed flight out of Regina. Unfortunately, our two seminary students got way-laid and won’t be arriving until tonight. I also had the very unpleasant experience of arriving in Quito without my suitcase! (They promise it will arrive tonight, but we will see!)

This morning we will have breakfast together and then see a few sights in Quito. We then leave for a town north of the city named Otavalo where we will be spending the bulk of the week.

So far, we’ve seen Quito only at night so the only thing I have is a picture taken from my hotel room this morning. They tell us Ecuador is strikingly beautiful and as you can see, I’m pretty sure they will be right! Keep posted for more this week.

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I don’t know if you’ve realized it yet, but tomorrow is a pretty cool day as far as calendars go because the date will be 11/11/11. It’s one of those rare dates that when you see it in print, you don’t have to ask, “Now which is the month and which is the day?”

Of course, beyond the coolness of the date 11/11/11 to numerologists and collectors of numerical phenomena, tomorrow is Remembrance Day—an annual national holiday that we have been observing since l919 to commemorate the end of the Great War, World War I. A cascading wave of thousands of people across various time-zones will pause tomorrow at the 11^th hour to remember specifically those men and women who have served their country and fellow citizens by seeking to be defenders of the defenseless. Of course, special honour is given to those who lost their lives in the call of duty while serving.

As we draw near to this year’s Remembrance Day, I want to pause to explore two questions. First, “What does it mean to remember?” And, second, “What might this act of remembering mean for us as we shortly come to this Remembrance Day?”

First, what do we mean when we say we are to “remember”? Now, at one level “to remember” means “to recall or bring back to mind.” In the most basic sense of the term, “to remember” is simply an act of brain power in which we mysteriously dig into the reservoir of brain cells or mind (I’ll let the philosophy students decide whether mind and brain are the same thing…), pull out a memory, and temporarily reflect upon it, only thereafter to file it away again deep into our neural filing cabinet. Such remembering, we might say, is a form of selective recall for a particular purpose. When we ask, “Remember that time when we went to Banff for breakfast?” or “Remember when you actually had to ‘dial up’ to get on the Internet?” we are “remembering” for a particular occasion and for a particular purpose. For a moment, we ponder, cherish, or maybe even cringe at the memory. But then, a few minutes later, the memory returns to the depths of our brain where it may never surface again.

That we have to “call up” our memories indicates that we can’t remember and reflect upon everything that is in our brain all of the time. In fact, we are created in such a way that we “forget” more than we remember. If we did remember everything all of the time, we would, quite simply, go insane with information overload. We humans simply could not cope with such all-encompassing, ever present recall of everything we have experienced and everything that we have learned. (We as professors, of course, remind you that when it comes to exams, we do expect you to remember everything. Just don’t ask us to.).

Now there is a right and proper place for this “recall”-type of remembering. And I think there is a sense in which Remembrance Day is at least, in part, an opportunity to exercise this basic kind of recall. Although none of us were personally involved in the World Wars, most of us have learned something about it in school or from parents or grandparents. Having an annual day called “Remembrance Day” allows us a regular occasion to “recall” something that for the other 364 days of the year, we simply may not call to memory. It is important, in other words, to periodically and intentionally “remember” that so many people have served on our behalf in ways far beyond our ability to comprehend and understand.

That said, I am well aware that people in this room most certainly have varying opinions on Christian involvement in war, but there is something important to realize that many Christians and non-Christians alike responded in ways they felt were right and just in the situation. And for that, we do well to be grateful for them, despite the fact that we may personally disagree with their decisions.

But this little discussion of remembering at the first level has, I think, shown itself to be an insufficient, or at least unsatisfying, account of remembrance. For if we allow that there is very likely deep difference of opinion even in this room on the appropriateness of military action from a Christian perspective, there is no way to avoid the reality of history. Men and women have served and died on our behalf, and men and women will continue to serve and die on our behalf. In this regard, we do not simply have the option of “un-remembering” them. Nor is there a way to prevent them from acting on our behalf. They do and they will. Consequently, it seems to me that we cannot merely answer the question of what it means to “remember,” but we have to dig a little deeper and seek to answer the question, “What does it mean to remember rightly?”

In putting it this way, of course, I am assuming—and I hope that you will bear this assumption with me—that there are right and wrong ways to remember. For remembrance, you see, is not neutral. For in one case, remembrance may be practiced to extend honour and to enact justice (the Bible might calls this “confession”, an act which is encouraged), while in another case remembrance may be practiced to heap disgrace and to bring about revenge (the Bible calls this “keeping records of wrongs” and clearly discourages it.) Obviously, then, for Christians who live in a country where Remembrance Day is commemorated, we cannot simply “not remember” but must ask, “How, then, should we remember rightly?” (I acknowledge  the subtitle of Miroslav Volf’s book here: The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World.)

There is probably no people group who have done a better job of reflecting deeply upon what it means to remember (or at least, to not forget) than the Jews. The fact that Jews have had to endure centuries of persecution, the pinnacle of which was the Holocaust of World War II, means that they have had to find ways to ensure future generations “never forget” the horrors of the Holocaust. I am convinced that their ability to think deeply about remembering has come about because of a deep theology of remembrance that echoes throughout the Hebrew Bible—a theology which continues has inform even those secular Jews today who no longer claim to believe in the God of their Scriptures. So in the brief minutes we have, I’d like to outline just two components of a biblically grounded view of “right remembering”—a view of remembrance that I think can be helpful to us as Christians even as we come shortly to Remembrance Day.

Turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy where I will be limiting our focus this morning to a couple passages. First, Deut. 5:15: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” What might this passage have to say about “remembering rightly”?

 1)      To remember rightly is to speak truthfully of our history.

You will likely recall from your Pentateuch or Old Testament Literature classes that the book of Deuteronomy was written to remind the Israelites of the Law an earlier generation had received from Moses. As this new generation of Israelites was on the cusp of entering into the promised- land, they needed to be reminded of the requirements of the Law that God had set forth to them. As they prepared themselves to enter the land, in this verse God tells them to “remember that they were slaves.” Indeed, God repeats this reminder at least six times in the book of Deuteronomy (5:15; 6:21; 15:15; 16:12; 24:18; 24:22). So as they stood on the banks of the Jordan, ready to receive the rich inheritance God had promised to them, God expected the Israelites to “remember” (or “never forget”) that they had once been slaves in Egypt.

This reminder to Israel does not merely stand alone as a description of her past or as a bare fact of history. Rather, God goes on to remind them that their rescue from slavery was by his hand. You see, God wants Israel to remember that their rescue from slavery was not as a result of Israeli military commandos dropping in to rescue the people, nor was it a result of political diplomacy—as much as Moses and Aaron tried!—but it was as a result of the YHWH’s direct intervention that Israel was freed from her slavery. It was a result of YHWH’s mighty hand and outstretched arm that Israel was delivered. “Don’t forget,” God says, “It had nothing to do with their efforts.”

But God goes on and commands Israel to do something very specific. He says, “Therefore, keep the Sabbath day.” Now what in the world does keeping the Sabbath have to do with remembering that they were slaves and rescued by God? I think the connection is as follows. I think God is saying this: “I want you to remember you were slaves, freed by my hand, and not by your effort. Therefore, as a regular act of remembering this fact, I want you to keep the Sabbath day, for it is on the Sabbath day, when you do no work,  I nevertheless continually provide. As you pause each week from your labour, you remember rightly that I am the God who rescued you. And by keeping the Sabbath day holy, you simultaneously acknowledge, over and over again, that though you were once slaves, by no effort of your own, I delivered you and saved you from your enemies.”

I find this particular call of God to remember highly instructive for us. I find it telling that God’s command to Israel to “remember” was one rooted in God’s historical action toward them. And I find it especially telling that throughout the OT, the prophets continually are calling Israel to remember their own story of having been slaves and being freed from slavery by the mighty hand of God. The work of the prophets, in other words, was not only to tell Israel what God was saying, God’s present mouthpiece, as it were, but they also help Israel to remember and speak truthfully of their own history.

But, of course, the tragedy was (and, I think, often still is) how quickly and how often Israel “forgot” this story. Their failure to keep the Sabbath (and therefore their failure to remember rightly) meant that they forgot that their freedom was not won by their own hand, but by the hand of YHWH. Beyond this, how often did Israel attribute to idols that which YHWH alone had accomplished? Even before Moses had come down the mountain when he was receiving the Law, the people were already remembering their story wrongly and bowing down to a golden calf—claiming that it was this calf that had brought them out of Egypt.

So, I think, the first lesson we need to learn is that right remembering is to speak truthfully of our own history. You see, God knows that with the passing of time and due to our own fallenness and human pride, we have a tendency not so much to forget our history as we have a tendency to rewrite our history in such a way as to either emphasize ourselves, our own accomplishments and works, or to emphasize the idols of our own choosing as the most important pieces of our history. But of course, either way is still idolatry and is still a failure to remember our history rightly.

As for us, as we stand on the eve of Remembrance Day, there are two equally harmful ways that we may fail to remember rightly by failing to speak truthfully about our history. On the one hand, it may be tempting for us to ignore our history altogether, to pretend as if our national involvements in the terrible wars of the past century were simply to be forgotten, or worse, to be despised. But such a dishonest non-telling of our history is to pretend that somehow, God had abandoned his people, the Church, in times of great distress. Whatever your personal theology of war and military involvement may be, to fail to acknowledge our forefathers’ and foremothers’ involvement is to inadvertently to insist that for a period, at least, God’s providential hand had been lifted from his people, and indeed, from this world. For in the end, whatever justice was served, however minimal we may perceive that to be, to fail to speak truthfully about our history is to fail to give glory to the God who brought us through.

On the other hand, and this is probably the bigger temptation for many these days, it may be tempting to so glory in the feats of heroism and victories over perceived evil that those who served the military become idols themselves. To tell the history of these global conflicts in such a way that all glory is given to military strategy, to battles, and to individual heroism is itself to remember wrongly. For there is no political authority except as set up and torn down by the hand of the Almighty, Sovereign Lord of Creation. All authority in heaven and earth has been delivered to the Just King, Jesus, alone, and to tell stories of military might as the primary means by which justice is delivered is to remember wrongly.  Just as Israel was commanded to keep the Sabbath day—a day when they did no work—so, too, for us, to remember rightly means that in the midst of, and sometimes despite,  military heroics and dictatorial heinousness, God alone reigns. In our day, to speak of freedom won on our behalf but to forget to mention the God of freedom is already a wrong remembrance. Thus, we remember wrongly when either annihilate from memory those men and women who served, or to set those same men and women up on pedestals as idols to Western freedom. But we remember rightly when we honour the service these men and women played, while continuing to give God glory for any and every justice that was won.

2)      To remember rightly is to exercise yesterday’s justice today.

Turn quickly now to a second passage in Deuteronomy, this time 15:15. “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.”

For this verse, it is especially important to look at the immediate context because it gives us further clues about what it means to remember rightly. The verse falls in the middle of a chapter describing the practice of the Sabbath year. Every seventh year, under the Law of God, debts were to be cancelled and slaves were to be freed. The reason? Vs. 4 – “There should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you.” Notice that God wasn’t saying that the Israelites weren’t allowed to lend to one another, nor was he even explicitly forbidding the ownership of slaves. What he is forbidding, however, is a system where the poor and the slave have no opportunity to break out of their poverty or slavery. The Sabbath year (at least in theory) was supposed to free the poor from debt and the slaves from being slaves—and all this as a sign of the generous blessing of God to the Israelites as a whole.

Thus, when we get to verse 12, we find out that if a fellow Hebrew, for some reason, fell into hard times and had to sell himself as a slave to make a go of life, God required that such a state of affairs would be only temporary. Every seventh year slaves were not only to be set free, but also, upon being set free, were to be given a liberal supply of livestock and grain so that he could go and start supplying for himself in the years to come. I want to suggest here that this is the essence of biblical justice—generosity to the disadvantaged and down trodden, to the ones who were incapable of supplying, and dare I say, defending themselves. Justice is not about the government making sure everyone is equal; justice is about making sure that those who have are being generous toward those who don’t. To be just is to be liberally generous to those who have nothing to give in return.

It is in this sense, then, that God finally reminds the people (back to verse 15) that they were to practice the Sabbath year (an extension of keeping the Sabbath in chapter 5) and that this practice of cancelling debts and freeing slaves served as a reminder to them that they, too, had been slaves, and that because the Lord had freed (or redeemed) them, they were to do likewise to their fellow Israelite. So, the Israelites rightly remembered when they passed on justice to their countrymen as an act of participation with the justice they and their forefathers had, in an earlier generation, also received directly from the hand of God. In short, to remember rightly is to exercise yesterday’s justice today. Just as they had been slaves and freed from their slavery, to remember rightly was to participate in the history of their forefathers who had been freed from slavery yesterday and today to free others who were under a different form of slavery. In other words, the principle of extending justice as generosity to others was the same, even though the context was different.

It is a sad thing that during WW2, a war in which the allies sought to battle against the crazed ideologies of the racist actions of a megalomaniac against the Jews, that in North America, Germans and Japanese-though fortunately not taken to the incinerator ovens, were nevertheless sometimes rounded up and put in concentration camps, wrongly accused and mistreated. It is amazing, in other words, how justice served across the seas was justice denied in our own back yards. (For more, see How Silent were the Churches? Canadian Protestantism and the Jewish Plight during the Nazi era.) In the struggle for justice that many were called upon to undertake on foreign soil, it is all too disconcerting to think about the injustices that we stood by and allowed to be perpetrated here on our own soil. This doesn’t negate the fact that there are cases of extreme injustice against which we are called to fight (however you might define “fight”), but right remembering acknowledges that we, too, have a role to play. The danger is that in lauding and remembering justices won in the past, we far too often stand aside and are complicit in the face of our present-day injustices.

As we extend that thought, the historical context in which we find ourselves today is obviously quite different than the context in which our forefathers and foremothers found themselves during the wars of the twentieth century. For us to remember rightly on remembrance day is not simply to recall, as a matter of historical curiosity, what justice our forefathers were fighting for and to give them a virtual “atta boy!” for a job well done. Such a “remembrance” is paradoxically in danger of lulling ourselves to sleep and thinking that justice has already been won. On the contrary, today we remember rightly when we identify justice that has been served in the past and then seek to extend justice to those of today who are defenseless and voiceless, who have either voluntarily or involuntarily given themselves over to slavery of all kinds.

And so, as uncomfortable as it is to ask, we must ask: How many unborn, defenseless, voiceless children will die in Canada and the US today? How many young girls and boys will be sold into the slavery of prostitution on the streets of Moose Jaw, Regina, Vancouver, and Toronto today? How many children without parents or stable homes will need to eke out an existence on the street today? We remember rightly when we not only acknowledge the works of justice won yesterday, but when we participate in acts of mercy and justice today.

So tomorrow, let us not fail to honour the role that our forefathers and foremothers may have played as instruments of God to serve justice against evildoers, as Paul seems to indicate in Romans 13. But in remembering their role, let us not then fail to seek to do today, by God’s help, what is merciful and just and right. For to do so will be to remember rightly that we too were slaves to sin, to corruption, and to injustice, but we have been now freed to be servants of righteousness, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

It’s Not Fair, But… (by Chiante, age 12)

It’s not fair, my country was invaded.
It’s not fair, my freedom was faded.
It’s not fair, soldiers had to sacrifice.
It’s not fair, parents had to pay the price.
It’s not fair, when families have to say goodbye.
It’s not fair, when people die!

But, I’m glad that it is done!
I’m glad, that I don’t have to worry about anybody’s gun.
I’m glad, my freedom is restored.
I’m glad, for this reward.
I’m glad, that I am free.
I’m glad, my father came home to me!

A Sacrifice (by Sierra, age 9)

They march in single file to the battlefield.
Their family hopes that at least they would come home alive.
The weapons come out, the tanks start roaring, the battle has begun.
They come home from the war, never the same as they were before.
Their families are thankful they came home, some with wounds, some without.
Their lives forever changed.
We are thankful for the sacrifice they have made.

A couple protesters are shown here taking a break in the midst of the protest.

What exactly are they protesting? We’re told “corporate greed.” Ok. I don’t particularly care for many of the greedy practices of multinational corporations and big banks either. But it’s hard for me not to be skeptical about what this particular protest will actually accomplish. (I hear similar protests are being planned in Canadian cities, including Regina and Saskatoon here in Saskatchewan…the fact that this is a different country with significantly different economic practices doesn’t seem to matter–let’s protest anyways!)

Anyways, I simply can’t imagine that some corporate CEO sitting in his lavish Wall Street office tower is sitting there telling his executives, “Hey, guys, look at all those protesters in the street way down there. We better stop being greedy. From now on, it’s Folger’s coffee for everyone–no more triple espresso latte machiatto frappacinos!”

Now look closely at the picture. What are these two doing? Both (one of whom is apparently a “homeless blogger”…?) are enjoying a drag from (presumably) a cigarette produced by some massive corporate tobacco company. Both are catching up on their Facebook accounts (no greed going on at that company, right?) while checking their Gmail, and Twitter accounts, and Googling the latest news of protests in other cities. Thankfully they were able to tap into the public wifi service provided by some such corporate entity like Verizon! Oh, and aren’t we so glad that Facebook and Google and Twitter, at least, are all about doing what they are doing for reasons other than corporate profit? (But I digress…) Of course, this is all accomplished on the latest laptops produced by non-greedy corporate computer manufacturers. (Do a quick count of how many laptops show up in this picture representing no more than 50 square feet…I found 5!) Hmmmm…

Well the good thing is that these two won’t get thirsty. Good ol’ Coca Cola and FIJI bottled water imported direct from Fiji by a US-based company! Ya, the drinks of corporate greed protestors!

Listen, I don’t have a neat answer to how to change corporate greed. It probably has something to do with the propensities of the human heart, one would think, and there’s not many things from a human perspective we can do to change that apart from good ol’ repentance and turning to God. That said, I don’t necessarily want to insist that the Wall Street protests are pointless. Maybe they will have some good effect.

But I do want to insist that I have little hope that these protests can have much effect when they are opposing something as slippery and abstract as “corporate greed.” At least protesters in places like Libya were clear on what they were hitting the streets to protest–the ongoing tyranny of crackpot dictator. It isn’t all that clear, however, in the case of the Wall Street protests exactly what concrete thing is being protested. What is supposed to change, other than some faceless corporate CEO’s and cronies taking a substantial pay cut? Frankly, even if they do take a pay cut, I have significant doubts that the root problem of greed will have been dealt with. Indeed, if the protests actually are able to succeed in concrete reduction of the greed of the corporate leaders, these leaders will likely do so only to retain their customers’ loyalty to their product.

In other words, if  Dell and Coca Cola leaders, for example, made a public announcement that they were going to cut salaries of the top 10% of salaries in their company, wouldn’t it finally be in hopes that the two individuals in the picture noted above would choose a Dell for their next laptop and to drink Coca Cola, in good conscience, at the next protest?

]]> http://dguretzki.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/irony-in-the-wall-street-protests/feed/ 14 DGG Protestors Continue Wall Street Occupation http://dguretzki.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/philippians-2-restated/ http://dguretzki.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/philippians-2-restated/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:24:01 +0000 David Guretzki http://dguretzki.wordpress.com/?p=1199 Continue reading →]]> I’ve been working through the first couple of chapters of Philippians with one of my seminary classes this week. The following is a paraphrase and prayer of response in today’s vernacular that I wrote as I reflected upon the great christological hymn of Philippians 2:5-11.

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Jesus, you didn’t come from God’s side as a big shot, going around trying to prove to us that which you already knew to be true. You knew you were God and didn’t see a need to chase after our accolades. Instead, you blended in amongst us as God incognito. We didn’t even recognize you, you were so much like us. Yet something about your pure humanity repulsed us, so much so that we thought the best thing to do was to get rid of you. And so, we acted the judge and sent you to the executioner. Yet you went willingly and quietly. To us, such willingness to die is human folly. But to you, it was God’s sovereign will that you should accomplish what you did by submitting yourself to torture and the grave.

But…no sooner were you gone when God took action and by His Spirit brought you back to life and recalled you to his side. Once there God appointed you by his authority to the highest political office—the King with jurisdiction over all kings, dictators, presidents and tyrants alike. Indeed, a day is coming, and is nearly come, when your simple name, Jesus, will mean that no one—no one who has lived, is living or ever will live—will be able to deny what you long ago already knew: That you are God. You are King. You are Creator. You are Judge. You are Saviour and there is none like you. And even in that highest of all positions, you now rule in humble honour to God your heavenly Father.

But you say our attitude should be like yours.

If that be the case, then guard me against the pride that makes me want to impress people with greatness, when all you ask of me is to live as I was created to be—a human creature reflecting your image. Rather than seeking ways to stand out, help me to seek ways to stoop alongside others, to perceive, and to accomplish, what needs to be done in service to them. But above all, let me be ready to share in your death. Even if it doesn’t mean I need to die a martyr’s death, nevertheless let me be a living martyr every day—a witness that continually says, “Not I, but Christ.”

And Lord, give my spirit the hope that you yourself had. Yours wasn’t a hope that sought for more stuff and greater comfort, but a hope in the raising of this corrupt and fragile body from the dead. And give my me a yearning for your true justice today in the midst of all present injustices perpetrated by human judges and criminals, and indeed, myself, alike. Let my voice be one that exalts your name above my own, a life that seeks God the Father’s Kingly purposes. And let me do it all in your mighty Name. Amen.

It’s been a while since Canada has had a majority government. What can we expect?

Given the fact that the official opposition has lost their beloved leader who brought them to this point, it will be fascinating to watch how both Government and Opposition function in coming days. Will the Government take advantage of this moment and ram through a bunch of bills that have been difficult to pass in past years? Will the Opposition come out, (registered) guns a-blazin’, with new found confidence in the force of their numbers? It’s too early to tell, but stay tuned!

But here’s another question. What should Christians be doing as this new session of Parliament begins? Is there anything we can do to become actively involved in the political process? Or is all we can do is sit back and let the cards fall as they may? I hope readers opt for the former rather than the latter. But to encourage a more active and responsible Christian involvement, no matter what one’s political stripe, here’s seven things we can do as Christian to keep from becoming politically apathetic in between now and the next federal election some four years hence…

1) Pray for our MPs.
Scripture doesn’t give us direct insight into the kind of political stances we are to take on many issues as a Christians, but it is very clear on one thing: We are to pray for those in authority over us (1 Tim 2:1-3). Indeed, Paul tells us that to do so is “good” and that praying for our leaders “pleases God our Saviour.” How much more direct political instruction do we need?! Praying for our leaders also has the added benefit of keeping the edge of cynicism out of our voices when we speak about politicians. It’s pretty hard to pray for a politician one moment and then mock her or him the next.

 2) Find out who your MP is.
I am amazed at how regularly I meet someone who doesn’t know who her or his own Member of Parliament is. Given that our MP is supposed to be our representative in Ottawa, it seems a bit odd that we wouldn’t know to whom we are supposed to turn when we want to be represented. So, if you don’t know who your MP is, and you know what your postal code is, go here to find out.  Once you’ve found out who your MP is, why not pray for her or him, too?

Oh, and if you’re interested, you can also find out where you MP sits in Parliament here. While it doesn’t tell you everything, you may be interested to know how far away from “centre” (Prime Minister or Party Leader) the Member sits. This may suggest the level of influence the Member has toward the Leader.

3) Find out what’s on the docket for the next Parliament.
While there are always matters of discussion that come up unexpectedly in Parliament, there is nevertheless a basic plan for what it going to be covered. You can find the proposed bills here. It is worth taking a few minutes scan through the titles and see what catches your eye. I did a quick scan and found Bill C-233 entitled (somewhat optimistically), “A Bill to Eliminate Poverty in Canada” (!).  While you’re in the area, you might want also to head over to the Parliament of Canada home page that gives a lot interesting information, including some great educational resources for teachers of primary and secondary students.

4) Do some research on a legislative Bill of your interest.
Whatever your bent, you are sure to find something in the parliamentary docket that piques your interest (or raises your hackles!). Do a bit of reading on the bill to see what is going to be proposed. Are you in favour of this approach or not? Outline two or three things that makes you want to support, or signal opposition to, the proposed legislation. Oh, and while you’re at it, as a Christian it would be good to find out what Scripture has to say on the issue! Scripture doesn’t, as previously mentioned, always give us direct instruction on how we should view any particular piece of legislation. But surely as Christians we would be remiss if we didn’t at least try to discern what the Bible might have to say.

5) Write a letter to your MP supporting or opposing an upcoming piece of legislation.
I think it would be disheartening to know how many people have ever contacted their MP about anything. I suspect the percentage is rather low. This despite the fact that MPs tell us regularly that they consider one letter equivalent to the opinion of several hundred constituents. Indeed, MPs are often asked what their constituents are thinking about a matter, and the communication received from their constituency is one of the main ways they gather this information and pass it on to the party leaders.

So, using the address of the MP you found above, take the time to write a brief letter expressing your opinion. Yes, you heard me correctly–write a letter, not an email.

Now for some of us, we probably haven’t written a letter in years so you might want some tips on how to do this effectively. I’d suggest a couple of sites that describe effective letters here and here.

Why not an email? It isn’t that emails aren’t appropriate, but email is a less formal medium and a letter, complete with an actual envelope and actual paper, communicates just how seriously you take an issue. Oh, and the good news about writing a letter your MP–you don’t have to put a stamp on it! Canada Post guarantees delivery of letters to Members of Parliament and Ministers without the need for postage.

No matter what, don’t be afraid to identify yourself as a Christian in your letter. You have a right to be heard not simply as a citizen in Canada, but as a Christian. Just remember, though, that what you say in the letter will also influence, rightly or wrongly,  the MP about what he or she thinks about Christians. Be honest, in other words, but remain polite and respectful.

6) Write your MP a letter of encouragement.
This is a bit different than #5 above, so let me explain. A few years ago I attended a session in Ottawa to listen to several Christian MPs from various parties speaking on their perspective of the intersection of faith and politics. I’ll always remember what Bill Blaikie, a highly respected New Democrat MP who served the House of Commons for many years, said. He spoke of how rarely he had ever received letters of encouragement from constituents. That is bad enough, but worse yet was that he said that the most hurtful–indeed, hateful–letters he ever received were penned by self-professed Christians. How sad!

It is easy for us to criticize and blame at a distance, and we surely shouldn’t automatically agree with everything our MP does on our behalf. But surely as Christians we can remember that we should be the aroma of Christ (2 Cor 2:15), or to use Jesus’ metaphor, salt and light (Matt 5:13-16), toward our political leaders. Remember that once you’ve identified yourself as a Christian, you are also acting as a representative of Jesus Christ himself itself. Make sure your witness is Christ honouring and faithful to the Good News of the Gospel.

7) See #1 one above!

So there you have it. Seven things Christians can do during a majority government. But now that I think of it, these are things we can do no matter what kind of government we have! So don’t wait for the next minority!