The Realm of God is Like……. A sermon based on Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Preached at Leaside United Church July 27, 2014

Remember the TV series called Touched by an Angel, which ran from 1994 to 2003? In one episode called “Netherlands” Monica the angel finds herself in conversation with Satan; she has become disillusioned with people, following the bombing of a building in which several people die; she despairs. Satan in this episode functions as the adversary, the one who encourages despair, trying to get Monica to give up on God, and the realm of God.

You turned your back on God – he says. She replies, I turned my back on humanity. The adversary replies “humans, maybe, not humanity.”

As he tries to convince her to abandon God, he says “Don’t think of me as the enemy, but the alternative. Remember, I know how it feels, I’ve been there too, I’ve been where you are.” Monica sees a vision of what might have been were she human – having children, a husband, love – a peaceful and fulfilling life, a vision of the realm of God. She feels as if she has lost it somewhere, and in a particularly poignant scene, in tears, she says “I don’t understand any more.”

We humans think of evil as strong because we perceive it as focused negativity, and that’s probably correct; in this episode of “Touched by an Angel”, the negativity is focused, but it is masked as the voice of reason which says “but I can help you understand”. The Adversary presents all the arguments against God’s realm, the destructiveness of humanity, the little voice which whispers into even an angel’s ear “I could do better – leave this, come with me, I understand.”  We think of good as unfocused benevolent feelings but without definite aims or goal, and that’s where Monica finds herself – a being called into existence to love with a goal, suddenly lost and without a goal, and unable to find God any more, and unable to see the realm of God, close at hand.

In some ways I think we’ve spent too long with ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild”. Yet Jesus confronts us with a clear and definite challenge of the power of God's love as the basic element and goal of the universe; it is not the muddled and twisted notions of power we humans have, and continue to try to live out in bombing and war and violence, and political manipulations, and fear-mongering.  

In today’s text, Jesus says the realm of God is like a mustard seed that grows into a shrub, then a tree, so that the birds come and nest in it. To us, centuries and many cultures away from Jesus’ time, this seems like nothing at all. A tiny seed which grew into a tree and provided shelter for birds. How ecologically wonderful. Yet for the Hebrews listening to Jesus, it is an offensive statement. Nations compared to trees, just as we compare nations to animals. How can a shrub become a tree? Nesting birds are a sign of dirt and pollution, contamination. So we have Jesus really saying that the realm of God is not like earthly notions of power; what is small and despised becomes greater than what reality would predict, and those considered unclean or outcast come to make a home there.

In traditional Jewish culture, purity laws were and are extremely important – and Jesus spent a lot of time contradicting the purity laws when they were a hindrance to a vision of the realm of God. He says it is like yeast that a woman mixes with three measures of flour until all of it is leavened. Jesus compared God’s realm to a woman! That was offensive then, and would be considered offensive by some even today. The realm of God is like yeast? Yeast is considered unclean on holy days, and must be thrown out to maintain kosher purity – hence on high holy days unleavened bread only is to be used. So, Jesus said the realm of God is like something impure that permeates the flour and changes it. Three measures of flour makes about one hundred pounds of bread. Why would a woman make one hundred pounds of bread?

The realm of God is like a treasure someone finds in a field; that person sells all he has in order to buy the field. Does this sound right? Aren't we supposed to work for what we get? Is it right for someone to trespass on another's land, find a treasure, and then buy the land for the treasure? In Jesus’ time, there weren’t banks, although there were money lenders and changers. The acceptable and normal thing to do is to bury a great treasure somewhere to keep it safe. That was the acceptable thing to do. So what is the point? Is Jesus perhaps leading us into places where we can see that the treasure of heaven is greater than anything we could have on our own. The realm of God is like the pearl of great price. If we truly see the value of God's realm, would we do anything to possess what is so rare and precious. 

The realm of God is like a net that catches good fish and trash fish. The net of God is thrown wide to catch everything, and God will do the sorting. Jesus asked His disciples, "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." Jesus asks us, "Have you understood all this?" What do we answer?

Well, don’t worry. I don’t think the disciples really understood, because ideas of power and reality are turned upside-down and inside out and every human since almost the dawn of time has been misled about what power is, and what it is meant to be; misled about the nature of humans and the nature of God.

So what is Jesus really saying here? Does it need a specific explanation, that we can just walk away and say “Yeah, the realm of God is……?” This whole series of parables uses everyday objects… was that Jesus’ point… that the realm is not something lofty and ‘out there’, but present and down here, right at hand.                                                                                        

I think we’ve tended to take the easy road, and turn these parables into proverbs of some kind -  “big things sometimes have small beginnings” or “don’t judge something based on its size.” Makes sense on a superficial level, as each parable talks about something small – a mustard seed or a bit of yeast – blossoming into something much grander. Then we have to pull ourselves up short and remember that neither mustard seed nor yeast was viewed positively in Jesus’ world. Mustard was a weed, dreaded by farmers the way today’s gardeners dread kudzu, crabgrass. It starts out small, but before long has taken over your field. Similarly, yeast was a contaminant considered unclean for the high holy days, and was often used to represent the worst of evils.

So why compare the realm of God to a pernicious weed and a pollutant? Might God’s kingdom be like that – far more potent than we think, able to spread to every corner of our lives? If we consider that Sunday worship, or Bible study,  might lead to our lives being infiltrated, changed, and taken over by God’s reality, how do we feel?

Each of these parables might mean several things. Perhaps to some they may function as a warning: Be careful. People infected by the gospel have done counter-cultural things like sharing all they have, standing up for their values, caring for the underprivileged, and sharing their faith through action. To others they might serve as a much-needed word of encouragement: Hang in there! God’s realm is closer than you think, already changing your life. They might be a profound promise: Don’t be discouraged, God’s realm will prevail. In the face the senseless violence and anger of humans, we claim God’s peace. When faced with hate, we proclaim love. 

Several years ago, Starbucks Coffee launched a campaign called “The Way I See It.”, and various quotes from different sources were printed on the coffee cups. Let’s try an experiment – I want you to take the piece of paper you have, and a pen or pencil, and fill what the phrase “realm of God” or “Kingdom of heaven” means to you – and perhaps some of you will be able to share what God’s realm is to you…

When Bad Things Happen preached at Leaside United Church July 20th, 2014

Romans 8:37 – 39 (based on The Message)

I am absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love because of the way that Jesus has embraced us all.

Revelation 7:17 The Lamb on the Throne will shepherd them, will lead them to spring waters of Life. God will wipe every last tear from their eyes.”

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This week the community of Leaside suffered a tragic loss, senseless in every possible way. A child of seven, crossing the street, was killed. Everyone, her family, those who knew her, those didn’t – was touched by the tragedy.  A family is in grief, a neighbourhood is in grief. Flowers, teddy bears, small handwritten messages from school friends – messages of love and memory has arisen on the corner. Even those who did not know the family came to lay flowers, to pray, to talk with others. A vigil was held Thursday afternoon, with the agreement of the family.

Israel invades Gaza, and although we are told civilians are not targeted, the pictures we see are children. A children’s hospital is destroyed. Families in grief, neighbourhoods in grief. Rockets go in to Israel, and other children die, more families grieve.

A plane is shot down; among the dead, 100 researchers on their way to an international conference on HIV-Aids which takes as many children as it does adults. A young medical student just starting his career is killed – and in Ajax a family mourns the loss of a child because of a senseless act.

It seems as if the world has gone completely haywire. For us, here, it’s on our doorstep. I don’t think anyone can say they are untouched or unmoved by the tragic loss of Georgia Walsh, a beautiful child with who knows what future might have been before her. The picture of that small little body in the street lingers. We can only imagine what her family is feeling, and what the driver of the car is feeling. No matter how strongly we believe, no matter how we believe our faith upholds us, there is a part of us which says “Why on earth?” and part which wonders, really, if God is real.

Each of us has to work through some myths about death. People will say, for instance, that time heals all wounds. I don’t think the wounds ever heal. We learn to live with the loss, live with the grief, but the wound remains open. Those parents, all of them, will always look around and expect that at any moment, the child will run in the door. Seriously questioning the nature of God is not unusual for people of faith.

Then there’s "let go of the dead child and move on with your own life." This was once a clinical understanding; in reality, lifelong grief is normal, especially in cases of the loss of children. Losing a child challenges a worldview; children are supposed to be hope for the future, and when a child dies, much of a person’s hope dies as well. Closure simply does not happen.

When we speak of the healing of grief, we are treating it as an illness which can be cured. It isn’t. Sometimes the grief gets harder and harder to deal with as time goes on. The first Christmas, the first birthday, summer vacations – things which open up fresh grief and questioning. There will be guilt – why wasn’t I there, I should have been, I should have done……the driver of the van will be questioning everything he is, and his guilt and grief will not end. Some parents will turn completely and permanently away from God and belief of any sort. Others will turn even more toward God, and some will struggle with both.

Another thing we often hear is “It’s God’s will.”, or “God is in control” or “God had a purpose in this.”. If such deaths – a child struck by a car, rockets and bombs killing innocents, a surface-to-air missile bringing down a plane – if such deaths are God’s will, if God somehow causes these things to happen for some obscure reason only God known, then God is not God – at least, not the God in which I believe. If God is in control, that’s the same as saying God deliberately caused all this grief, yet had the power to prevent it; it’s the same as saying God has the power to intervene and stop all war, all disease, all death – and God chooses to – instead – cause war, and disease, and death. I cannot and will not believe that is who or what God is.

Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book called “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”. In it, he says “I no longer hold God responsible for illnesses, accidents, and natural disasters, because I realize that I gain little and I lose so much when I blame God for those things. I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it, more easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die, for whatever exalted reason.”

“The painful things that happen to us are not punishments for our misbehavior, nor are they in any way part of some grand design on God's part. Because the tragedy is not God's will, we need not feel hurt or betrayed by God when tragedy strikes. We can turn to Him for help in overcoming it, precisely because we can tell ourselves that God is as outraged by it as we are.”

…and when a child dies because of a set of circumstances which just are, God weeps at the death. God weeps. God loves us, unconditionally, and wishes nothing but the best for all of us. One of the strongest statements of faith we have is our creed. “In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us; we are not alone.” Neither life, nor death, can separate us from the love of God. Thanks be to God.

Wrestling with God preached at Leaside United Church July 13, 2014

During the night he got up, got his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and got them safely across the Jabbok brook, together with all his possessions. Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man appeared and wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint. The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.” Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go until you bless me.”  The man said, “What’s your name?” He answered, “Jacob.” The man replied “Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.”  Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?”

The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him. Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!”  The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. (This is why Israelites to this day don’t eat the hip muscle; because Jacob’s hip was thrown out of joint.) (Genesis 32:22-32)

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When I was in seminary, I had a teacher of Homiletics (preaching) who gave me a low grade in preaching, because – he said – the Gospel and the Good News always had to be preached. My response was that sometimes the Good News isn’t found in the Gospel, and that we do our congregations a disservice by avoiding certain stories. A real preacher, I said, would be able to find something in Hebrew Scriptures which is equally valuable for a congregation. My comments didn’t go over well with the prof, but fortunately they did with the rest of the class. My second sermon (in a different class with a different professor) got an A+, a grade which he had to defend to the Basic Degree Committee, and yes that sermon was on a text from Hebrew Scripture.

Well, this isn’t meant to be a brag – but a lead-in to the story today. When we were kids in Sunday School, we did sort of hear the story of Jacob and Esau, which is almost “As the World Turns” from the Hebrew Scriptures; I am sure I never heard the bits about Uncle Laban cheating Jacob out of the wife he wanted; I am more than sure it was not preached in a sermon – and yet to me it is so packed with stuff which is relevant to us today. Sometimes the good stories, and the lessons to be learned really are in the Hebrew Scriptures. – and I think the whole story is important to set up how God decided Jacob needed a strong lesson.

The story of Jacob and Esau focuses on the loss of Esau’s birthright, and the conflict spawned between their descendent nations, because Jacob deceived their old and blind father, Isaac, in order to receive Esau's birthright and blessing as firstborn. Genesis tells us there was favoritism in this family: "Isaac loved Esau, because he ate venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob.”

Anyone here reading sibling rivalry? The oldest and the youngest – even if just by a few seconds? Anyone hear “Mom always loved you best; you were the youngest, you could always fool her.” “Dad always loved you best – you only ate that meat so he would love you more.” Genesis says "…the children struggled within her. Rebekah asked God “Why is this?”.

Esau was born with Jacob hanging on to his heel, as if trying to pull Esau back into the womb so that he could come first. The grasping of the heel also refers to deceptive behavior, and Jacob did develop a reputation as being dishonest and deceptive.

Esau returned to his younger brother, famished from working the fields. He begged his younger twin to give him some stew.  Jacob offered to give Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for his birthright (the right to be recognized as firstborn) and Esau agreed.

The birthright is the  inheritance of goods and position, usually the eldest son. But Esau acted impulsively, and valued his birthright less than red lentil stew. By his actions, he showed that he did not deserve to continue Abraham's responsibilities and rewards under God's covenant; he did not have the steady, thoughtful qualities which are required. What Jacob did was not illegal, but neither was it honorable. Plus he was insecure enough about the birthright, even then, to conspire with his mother to deceive his father so as to gain the blessing for the first-born as well. Neither one was really exemplary.

Esau married two wives, Hittite women, violating his father’s and God’s injunction not to take wives from among the Canaanite population. His marriages were described as a vexation to both Rebekah and Isaac. This alone ruled out Esau as the line of continuity in the family. He could have overcome the sale of his birthright; Isaac was still prepared to give him the blessing due the firstborn. Acquiring foreign wives meant the detachment of his children from the Abrahamic line. So despite the deception on the part of Jacob and Rebekah, Jacob's place as Isaac's legitimate heir in the continued founding of the Jewish people is reaffirmed. Essentially the Bible indicates that a bright, calculating person who is less than honest, is preferable as a founder over a bluff, impulsive one who cannot make thoughtful and wise choices.

Esau vowed to kill Jacob. Rebekah intervened to save her youngest son from being murdered At Rebekah's urging, Jacob fled to a distant land to work for a relative, Laban (Genesis 28:5).

Having fled for his life, Jacob left the wealth of Isaac's flocks, land and tents in Esau's hands – the inheritance he had obtained by deception. Instead, he was forced to sleep on open ground and work for wages as a servant in Laban's household. Jacob was deceived by Uncle Laban concerning his seven years of service (lacking money for a dowry) for the hand of Rachel, receiving Leah instead. Despite Laban, Jacob eventually became so rich as to cause jealousy of Laban and Laban's sons.

God has managed to tell Jacob that it’s probably time to relocate. Instead of doing it right, Jacob messes it up. While Laban is busy elsewhere, Jacob loads up his wives, concubines, servants, herds, flocks, tents, whatever, and just leaves without saying a word, taking Rachel and Leah with him. Laban and the relatives, furious, vow to kill Jacob. God intervenes and tells Laban to leave Jacob alone.

What would you do in a society in which revenge is a virtue? Esau was going after Jacob for being so dishonest, and sent four hundred troops after him! Jacob does what all of us do in a crisis/crunch - not one of those nicely written Sunday prayer the King’s English, this is panic zone prayer with some finger pointing: "God, I would have stayed but you said ‘go.’ Yes, I’ve been a lousy, low-down dirty rotten scoundrel, and yet received your blessing. Please God, just get me through this jam!" Just in case, he sent Esau herds from his own wealth - 100 cows, 50 camels, 75 donkeys, up to 550 animals, hoping that Esau’s anger would ease up.

And last, he moved his family in stages across the river. He placed Rachel, his most beloved wife, the furthest away from danger; Leah, his less loved wife a bit closer to camp; and the concubines even closer.

Jacob returned to an empty camp with little hope and has little hope, few options, and no escape. And someone tackled him, in the camp, and they wrestled – until dawn – all night in fact; and the writer is clear that God is the wrestler, and when it looked like God had not prevailed, God gave Jacob a kick that knocked his thigh out of joint, and left him with a permanent limp. Jacob will not let go, will not concede defeat.

"I won’t let go until you bless me!" and he grabs as God drags him across the ring. So God changes his name from Jacob-The-Deceiver to Israel-The-One-Who-Strives-With-God.

I find this astonishing - God takes on human form and encounters Jacob at his own level. God prevails, and names Jacob “Israel” – which is really a double entendre. It can mean either “one who strives with God”, or (and I prefer this meaning) “God prevails.”

Yesterday I was reading a story about Bob Jones University, in Greenville, South Carolina. Now, you may not know that Bob Jones U is the fundamentalist to end all fundamentalist universities. Want to look at the western version of Islamic Sharia law? Go no further than Bob Jones. Young women reporting rape were told by counsellors to look at their own “root sin” which would have caused the rape. While they may not be punished by stoning, they are punished by the suggestion that they caused their own rape, and they are ostracized within the community. Many eventually left the university, and some of their comments and stories are truly appalling. Bob Jones U will tell you that’s God’s understanding.

Two weeks ago the Supreme Court of the United States, ruled in favour of a company named Hobby Lobby, which claimed that for religious reasons they would not provide certain kinds of birth control for employees. The floodgates have been opened and all kinds of lawsuits now being prepared to get permission to refuse to hire gays for ‘religious reason’, or women for ‘religious reasons.’ There was a photo of George Bush JR, Mitt Romney, saying God wanted them to be president. There is the prosperity Gospel of Joel Osteen and Oral Roberts, which teaches that personal empowerment is of utmost importance, that it is God's will for his (note, only his people) to be happy. The atonement (reconciliation with God) is interpreted to include the alleviation of sickness and poverty, which are viewed as curses to be broken by faith. Note that: sickness and poverty are curses which are only broken by a very particular kind of faith. So not matter how sick or poor you are, if you just believe right it will all go away. If you look at all of these, you have to conclude that God is old, male, white, racist, bigoted, misogynist, and just plan out mean and nasty. The “love” ethic in the Bible doesn’t exist. In fact, looked at in this way, Jesus would have been kicked out and vilified.

These days, I see a wrestling with God – and in some ways, a kind of draw – just as God and Jacob encountered. Human beings were made in the image of God, we are told, and set a little lower than the angels, and yet somehow we seem to have wrestled God into our own image, to suit us, and put ourselves at the top of the heap, and God lower down. Where did we get the idea that God wants us to be rich, and that someone who is poor is cursed? Where did we get the notion that women cause rape? Where did we get the stupid notion that God wants some particular person to be President? Or that having stewardship of the earth means taking everything we can from it, and hang the consequences to future generations?

In early Israelite culture, blessings were never given without parallel curses. While Matthew’s Gospel gives us the Beatitudes only, Luke gives us the correct format; first the blessings and then the curses. It was a literary/oral format which prophets used. Remember in Deuteronomy, God says “I offer you blessings or curses, life or death. Choose life!”

So here we go. From Luke 6:24-26

“But woe be on you who are rich, for you have already received your consolation.
Woe be to you who are now full, for you shall hunger.
Woe be to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
Woe be to you when people speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”

I have faith, though. I have faith that God prevails, that good prevails. God wrestles with us as humans, we wrestle with God in how we are to live our faith, and we do try to wrestle God into our own image, because then we can live with God without doing any real internal discernment. God may have to give us a good kick in the hip. But God will prevail. I believe that, even in the darkest of days. God prevails. May it be so.

*Limping With Grace *a sermon based on Genesis 32:22-31* */by Rev. Thomas Hall

Power and the Church (Our Home???)

 O Canada, our home and native land –

True patriot love in all our sons’ command.

The aboriginal version of this is “O Canada, our home ON native land…..did you know that?

Canada - a country we like to think of as free, founded on solid Christian principles. There is no question Canada is a beautiful country, but our history is far from a good one, and our nostalgia somewhat misplaced. While many of our rights and freedoms were founded on principles which came from European Christians, they were not available for everyone. True, some of us just were not aware, at the time; but that is no longer and excuse, really……

Canada’s earlier days were built on the backs of aboriginal peoples, who in the beginning were generous and open. Without them there would have been few survivors in this harsh land. Then, while we were forcing aboriginal children to go to ‘schools’ away from their homes and families, we were also building an infrastructure on the backs of Chinese who came here to work the railway, hoping to save enough money to bring family, and have a better life. To get in to Canada they were required to pay a head tax of some $900 – not a lot these days, but in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, that was a huge amount of money. More Chinese died in the building of our railroads than any other nationality – and yet, they persisted.

In 1949 Newfoundland became part of Canada – not voluntarily. Did you know that? Newfoundland was coerced into WWII, because of its strategic importance. After the war was over, the Canadian and British governments reneged on their promises to return Newfoundland to its status as an independent republic. When the Methodist Conference of Newfoundland joined The United Church in Canada in 1925, Newfoundland was not part of Canada. The Wesleyan Methodist Synod of Bermuda joined in 1930 as part of the Maritime Conference.

I was born in southern Saskatchewan, to a United Church minister and his wife – Dad from Hamilton, Mom from Toronto. Saskatchewan was still in the pioneer stage, and life was hard. In the south during wartime – Canora and Assiniboia – were Canadian women and children of Japanese descent, separated forcibly from their husbands, and sent to work the sugar beet fields, while the husbands went off to work in BC lumber camps. The Government of Canada confiscated everything they had, and it was not until 1988 that reparations of any kind were made. Many of those people had already died without hearing even an apology from the government.

There was no free medical care for most where I grew up – In Prince Albert, the family doctor, who became known as Mr. Medicare, gave us his services. Our dentist provided free services. Yet across the river there was a residential school for aboriginal children – and they were lucky to receive medical care at all.

This past week we celebrated the 147^th birthday of this country – and we need to loo with clear eyes at how we got here. I want to draw a parallel with a popular book and movie.

The Golden Compass, part of a trilogy of stories by author Philip Pullman, follows the young protagonist, Lyra Belacqua through her world in an effort to find and save her friends Bill and Roger. In Lyra’s universe, there are witches and armoured polar bears; yet, like our world, there is also a broad range of studies involving particle physics, philosophy, theology and spirituality.

In Lyra’s world, people’s souls are external to their body, an animal-shaped "dæmon" that always stays near its human counterpart. During childhood, a dæmon can change its shape at will, but with the onset of adolescence it settles into a single form which reveals the person's true nature and personality, implying that nature and personality stabilise after adolescence.

The Magisterium is the equivalent of the religious leaders of the church in this parallel world. The Magisterium exerts a strong control over this world, and wishes to control everything. Their greatest fear is people who do not accept the dogma and doctrine, and think outside the box.

Under the direction of the Magisterium, a group known as the Oblation Board  kidnaps children and subjects them to a process called “intercision”, whereby the daemon and the human are literally separated by a laser guillotine. This renders the human unable to think independently, and removes their ability to care. The same is true for the daemon soul.

The kidnapped children are sent to an “experimental station”, far north on the island of Svalbard, where they are in a boarding school where experiments can be conducted on them without their parents around. Those who try to run away are caught and punished, often killed. Most of the children kidnapped come from a nomadic group of sea people called Gyptians, or the poorer peoples who are indigenous to the land. Children of wealthy or educated people do not get taken, and don’t have their daemons removed.

Now - it’s important to note that the word daemons in this case is quite different than our word “demon”. The words daemon is a Latin spelling of the Greek used to distinguish the daemons of Hellenistic religion and philosophy, good or malevolent "supernatural beings”, between mortals and gods, from the Judeo‑Christian usage demon. In his writing “Theogony”, the poet Hesiod relates how the men of the Golden Age were transmuted into daemons by the will of Zeus, to serve as ineffable guardians of mortals. Their function is that of the soul.

In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the Canadian government’s approach to the “Indian problem” was forced assimilation and extinguishment of rights and claims. If the ‘Indians’ learned English, and adopted Christianity, then they would pass their adopted lifestyle on to their children, hence abolishing any native traditions within a few generations.

This policy was known as "aggressive assimilation". The government of Canada provided the funding, and the churches managed what were first called industrial schools, and later residential schools. Children were easier to mould than adults, so the laws allowed for children of aboriginal peoples to be forcibly removed from their families, taken to the schools where they were required to speak English, not allowed to speak their native tongue, and forced to accept the Christian God. Many were beaten and punished if they spoke their own language. Sexual abuse of the children was rampant. Those who tried to run away were either caught and punished, or died in the wilderness around the school. Many committed suicide.

Residential schools were federally run, under the Department of Indian Affairs, but through the churches – mostly Catholic, Anglican and United Church. Attendance was mandatory. Agents were employed by the government to ensure all native children attended. Students of most of the schools lived in substandard conditions. All correspondence was written in English, which many parents couldn't read. Brothers and sisters at the same school rarely saw each other, as all activities were segregated by gender.

At first there were about 69 schools operating, but by 1931, at the peak of the residential school system, there were about 80 schools operating in Canada. All together, 130 schools operated in every territory and province except Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick from the earliest in the 19^th century to the last, which closed in Prince Albert in 1996. Approximately 150,000 aboriginal, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their communities, separated from family and their own way of life, and forced to attend the schools.

In 1994, I had the privilege of sitting for a day listening to aboriginal survivors of the residential schools. No one in that room left the same person. I heard more than one person say their soul had been ripped out of them. There were tears of pain in remembering – on the part of those who spoke – and tears of pain for their agony, on the part of those of us who heard. I heard no anger on their part – just complete bewilderment that people could be treated in such a fashion, using the cover of Christianity. I heard grief for the soul they had lost.

In Lyra’s parallel universe, the Magisterium covers up its lust for power and control by claiming that what they are doing is for the good of those children they kidnap. - just a little cut, and then the children would be sent home. In reality, once the children are taken, they never return home. Life is literally never the same, for their souls have been taken from them. The Magisterium practices a patronising and patriarchal system of religious teaching which removes any question of their authority.

Here in the real world of Canada, both the government and the churches practiced a patronising and patriarchal system of assimilation. There was a common, and quite racist belief, that aboriginal peoples were somehow “less” than white people were. Perhaps there was a belief that by becoming Christian, and learning western ways, aboriginal peoples “put on new clothes” and became new people. I am being extremely generous here. For I believe that while they may have said the words “in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek”, it was not a real commitment of faith. Galatians says clearly that everyone is equal in the sight of God, yet even today we can see that aboriginal peoples are still not seen or treated as equal, either in the eyes of the church or the eyes of the various governments. Extinguishment of aboriginal rights and claims is very much still an item on the agenda. The fact remains that those aboriginal children and families were ripped apart in the name of the Christian God. – and I note that although hundreds of Chinese came to Canada in this period - and there is no doubt they were badly treated - they were not required to give up their language, religion or families. No other ethnic group has been treated with such incredible disregard as the aboriginal peoples of Canada.

The words of Jesus are important to remember. He is more than scathing of the religious leaders. Jesus says “Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters. Don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your spiritual Father. Don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. The greatest among you must be a servant. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.”

Two worlds, where children are taken and abused - where families of those who are deemed “lesser” are abused. Where a policy of extinguishment extends to particular cultures. Two worlds where religious leaders are more interested in control of thought and action, and delude themselves that they have the way to bring others into the realm of God. In their need to exert power, and control, in fact they deny others the opportunity to go there.

So we have concluded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Winnipeg. It is not an end, and it will not solve everything. Native peoples are already saying that apologies are a step, this commission is another step, but they are also looking for justice to be done. As we continue to celebrate this country, being a true Canadian means justice is done for all, not just for some. Then we will be the true north, strong and free.

1. Pullman, Philip. His Dark Materials: Book 1 The Golden Compass. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 2002.

2. Canadian Indian Residential School System, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_Residential_school_system

3. Residential Schools: The Background 1899 and after

www.albertasource.ca/treaty8/eng/1899_and_After/implications

4. Residential School: Canadian Shame

www.shannonthunderbird.com/residential_schools.htm

5. Time Magazine article

6.Galatians 3:26-29;

For you are all children of God through faith in Jesus. All who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Jesus. And now that you belong to Jesus, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Matthew 22:35 – 36; 23:1-13

“Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters. Don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your spiritual Father. Don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. The greatest among you must be a servant. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.”