Muskoka Lakes Ministry of Knox, Port Carling & Zion, Torrance
Sunday July 18, 2021
Message: A Nation Reunited
Reverend Glynis Faith
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Announcements
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* Monday evening ‘The Story’ study group via Zoom 7 pm
* Tuesday “Music for prayer and meditation at Knox” 2-3 pm
* Tuesday the Session of Knox meets at 6:30 p.m. here at Knox
* Wednesday the Session of Zion meets at 2 p.m. at Zion
* Thursday evening study group via Zoom 7:30 pm
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Prayer of Adoration & Confession
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Eternal and Gracious God, we give you thanks and praise for your generous blessings. We remember your Son Jesus, who gave us the ultimate gift of love, who gave everything of himself so that we may have his mercy and his forgiveness. We remember the Holy Spirit, who comes to be with us now, as a gift from your Son Jesus Christ, so that we may always have your strength and guidance and know that you are always with us. Lord, we know, too, that we can never be perfect. We regret that we have learned the mistakes of our ancestors: we have learned to be condescending and selfish, and we have ignored the suffering of the poor and the needy. Lord, forgive us and help us to treat all people as our equals. Help us to reach out to the needy and to bring the good news to the poor. Help us to fulfill the ministry that Jesus started. Help us to bring your love into the world, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray. AMEN
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Prayer of Intercession
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We lift up to You the hurts of this world, Lord.
We lift up the pains of this pandemic – the sickness – the exhaustion – the worry and anxiety – the frustrations and anger – the death and loss. Lord, we lay it all at Your feet and pray for healing, calm and strength.
We bring to You the needs of our communities – shelter – food – work – companionship – and clean drinking water. These are the basics Father, and we ask for Your provisions. Where these things are missing, we pray You will work mighty things through us. Fill us with the spark to fight for all peoples basic rights.
We lay our broken nation in sorrow at Your feet. May we be willing participants in repairing what is broken. May we be mindful of the great cost of divisiveness – may we be united in our efforts to love our neighbour as ourselves.
We pray for those injured in the crash on Lake Rosseau this past week. We pray for the mom who died in that accident. We pray for her family struggling with their loss.
Lord, we pray for everyone swimming, boating, canoeing, jet skiing and for those sitting on the docks enjoying a good book. Grant everyone enjoying the water added patience and a little extra common sense to slow down, pay attention and keep one another safe.
Bless the people of Knox and Zion. Bless the communities of Torrance and Port Carling.
All these things we pray in the Name of Christ our Lord. AMEN
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“ A Nation Reunited ”
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MESSAGE
Last week we looked at the reign of Solomon, who started off seeking wisdom from God – not so he could be the smartest in the land; but rather, to enable him to rule God’s people justly. God granted Solomon his wish, and because his request for wisdom was for the good of others and not for his own benefit, God also promised him wealth and fame. His reign started well, but over time Solomon leaned on his own abilities instead of standing on God’s promises. He oppressed God’s people with heavy taxes and forced labour, so instead of his rule ending with justice for all, it ended with burdened and resentful people.
You may remember from a few weeks earlier, that when King Saul’s reign went out of control, God prepared David as the future king. Saul became jealous and repeatedly attempted to kill David.
Well, once again the throne has become corrupt, so God speaks though a prophet to a young man named Jeroboam, advising that he will one day be king. Solomon will have none of it and (you’ll never guess) tries to have Jeroboam killed.
Now, it you have read 1 Kings chapters 12 – 15 in the past, you may have been puzzled – perhaps even confused at first that Jeroboam is told he will become king, and, coincidentally, Solomon’s son, who would ascend the throne upon his father’s death, was named Rehoboam.
When the kingdom is torn in two, Jeroboam becomes king of the 10 tribes of Israel and Rehoboam assumes the throne of the two tribes of Judah. Now, the Old Testament names can be confusing enough to keep track of at the best of times, but even more so when the kingdom is torn in two and the two ruling kings have nearly identical names.
1 Kings 12:1-14 Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away.
Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.
They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”
But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”
Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” ///
And with Rehoboam’s refusal to acknowledge the damage his father’s reign had caused the people, the kingdom was torn in two. Israel did not need to be divided. The people requested only to be treated justly – they asked that God’s will be done “love your neighbour as yourself.”
A nation torn in two. People forced to give up more than their share. People mistreated and taken advantage of, and when they speak their truth, they are not heard. Their burden becomes heavier, and a nation is divided.
I must make a confession here. This is not the direction my sermon started out, but I have struggled to wrap my head around the unmarked graves of indigenous children – the numbers, of which, continue to grow.
We should not be surprised. If we were listening, we have already been told that thousands of children in residential schools disappeared over the years. Through the Truth and Reconciliation discussions we heard of the abuses and neglect children suffered in these schools. Children taken from their families and their culture – thousands never returned and many of those children’s families never had the opportunity for closure – to say goodbye or to bury their loved one and place a marker to signify they were loved and cherished – that they were missed.
An elderly lady who was very dear to me and to my son, David, once shared her experiences of residential school with me. It was a hard story to listen to, but not as hard as it was for her to tell it. It seems to me that with every word she spoke, she relived the pain and the terrible fear. Each word brought back the darkness of the locked closet – each memory shared sparked the pain of a belt or switch upon her young flesh. She had been a timid little girl, nervous about making the wrong choices. Her fear of making the wrong choices would cause her to freeze, which brought on frequent discipline – locked in the closet over night – beatings – meals withheld and any number of cruel punishments.
Throughout her life, she was easily frightened by raised voices, loud sounds, threatening tones or any indication of aggression. She wore the scars of the residential school her entire life, even into her mid 80’s. This lovely lady considered herself one of the lucky ones because she never developed a taste for cigarettes or alcohol. Her way of escaping the memories, of dealing with the past was caring for other people and her addiction was hugs. My son, David is not one to hug, but he always had a hug for her.
I never once doubted her words. I don’t consider myself racist. I have indigenous family and friends, and I don’t believe I have ever thought of them any differently than my other family and friends.
So I ask myself, why was I so shocked when unmarked graves started showing up in large numbers – hadn’t residential school survivors and their families already told us children from the schools were unaccounted for? Have we not heard and read the heart-breaking stories from the Truth and Reconciliation gatherings?
Why was I surprised? Why am I so shocked by these discoveries? This is something I am still searching my heart for – why am I surprised to hear the evidence uncovered to support the survivor’s stories? What did we expect would be found?
I believe what I am struggling with is my own inactions. I also question those systemic images, stereotypes and less than gracious attitudes buried deep within our culture – buried deep within me. I ask myself, if this type of thing happened at our public schools or even in our long-term care homes, would my reaction change?
I pray these unmarked graves will make us all look deep within ourselves. It is one thing to believe people’s stories, but reconciliation only occurs when we believe with enough passion to take steps towards repairing the long-term damage that these graves represent. Residential schools and the thousands of missing children have contributed tremendously to the addictions and struggles of First Nations People. Our previous generation changed them – and not for the better.
Rehoboam could have taken the step towards reconciling a broken nation. It was a simple step – ease up on the taxes and slave labour. Yet he chose not to, resulting in the nation divided. In many ways our country, Canada, is divided as well. Past sins have harmed, separated and divided the great people of our First Nations and those whose families settled into this land. But it doesn’t need to stay that way. Just as Rehoboam could have done something to fix the situation, we too can work towards healing and reconciliation. Each of us might search our hearts and take time to consider what steps we can take towards reconciliation with our indigenous brothers and sisters. What steps can we take towards building good relationships with our neighbours.
We cannot turn back the clock, but we can change the direction of the future. We cannot reunite families torn apart by colonialism, but we can commit to do our part in educating ourselves to the truth, and commit to reconciliation. We can’t do it alone, but we certainly can do it together – we can restore our broken nation – our broken relationships – our broken hearts - - we can be a part of the healing process. And we can pray for God’s presence and healing in our relationships and in our land.
Christ is our model of reconciliation, putting aside his glory to experience our temptations and sufferings through the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ, our Lord stepped down from heaven, walked in our sandals, served eagerly, and taught us the love of God before reconciling us to God through the Cross.
The Cross of Jesus points up to God and down to humanity, and it stretches out from the left to the right. At the heart of the Cross is Jesus, giving willingly to reconcile the created to their Creator. The Cross required more than just believing the truth, it required action – - - one painful step at a time. Those steps, my friends, brought forth the healing symbolized by the empty tomb – new life – new beginnings – a new day and one more opportunity for us to follow in Christ’s footsteps of sacrifice, healing and reconciliation.
We live in the most beautiful nation in the world, a nation originally cared for and populated by our indigenous brothers and sisters. Please, don’t just believe in the painful stories of residential school survivors and their families, start taking one step at a time to understanding their stories, the injustices they suffered and still do, and then take one more step towards reconciliation.
Perhaps a good first step is to acknowledge that no one in Canada should be living without clean water. This is one of my pet peeves, and I vow I am no longer just going to be peeved, I am going to make a whole lotta noise until promises are kept and every reserve and community has clean water. We have the resources, and we have the technology, and it is high time we read up on just how bad the situation is, and then start lobbying the government to do their job and and provide ALL Canadians – EVERY SINGLE ONE with access to clean safe H2O.
Friends, let ours be the generation that stands together in Christian love to reunite the people of Canada in love and through reconciliation. All glory and praise be to God.
Please join me in this prayer:
God of the Innuit, Aboriginal, early settlers, and immigrants. Creator of peace, unity, harmony, love, compassion and grace. Spirit of change and newness enable us to search our hearts and minds. Where there is hatred, anger, doubt, despair, or darkness enable us to confess and change our ways. Use us Lord, God to share Your great love in this world through our words and our actions. Lord, make us channels of Your peace. By Christ’s example and in His Perfect Name we pray. AMEN
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#740 Make Me a Channel of Your Peace
Words: Sabastian Temple (1928-1997), based on a prayer of Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) Music: Sabastian Temple (1928-1997); arrangement, the compilers of Praise Ways
Words: copyright © Franciscan Communications Center, 1967 Music: copyright © Franciscan Communications Center, 1968
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Make me a channel of Your peace: where there is hatred let me bring Your love;
where there is injury, Your healing power, and where there's doubt, true faith in You.

Make me a channel of Your peace: where there's despair in life let me bring hope;
where there is darkness, only light, and where there's sadness, ever joy.
Oh, Spirit, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of Your peace: It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
in giving to all that we receive, and in dying that we're born to eternal life.
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Commission & Benediction
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Friends in Christ - - - Let us go out into the world with the heart of Christ - - let us go out seeking reconciliation - - - let us be part of our nation reuntited . . . And as we do . . .
May the love, grace and peace of God go with you. AMEN