Category Archives: Faith and Culture

Brokenness and Wholeness, Faith and Culture, Faith and Politics, Social Commentary

O, Canada?

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Ten years ago, on July 1, 2011, I was awakened by the Lord with a conviction that I was to help build the Lord’s house of prayer in my city (Ottawa) and nation. I had no idea how to go about this, but the calling to be involved in praying for the restoration of our nation has not gone away.  In truth, every nation is broken and in need of redemption. And so, the broken flag at the head of this post reflects my conviction – and the conviction of many – that the Canada we love is in a grievously broken condition.

I’ll be honest. I don’t really feel much like celebrating Canada Day this year. I’ll enjoy relaxing with family on that day, of course, but like many Canadians I have been deeply grieved by the recent discoveries of the burial places of hundreds of Indigenous children who died at residential schools that were operated on behalf of the government of Canada by ostensibly Christian institutions. Many Canadian Christians are especially pained not only at the reality of this sorry chapter in our nation’s history, but by the fact that these wrongs were done at the hands of people who claimed the name of Christ.

I won’t review the history here. Suffice it to say that the evidence is overwhelming.  At the very least it was a policy of forced assimilation, and there is evidence that for some politicians, the goal may have been genocide. Many families and communities were torn apart, and multiple generations were deeply traumatized.

Without a doubt, there were those among the white Canadian  Christian community – including missionaries – who dissented from such acts and policies. And yet, too many did not, and the critics were silenced.

How do we pray for our nation in the light of these revelations?

Perhaps we need to start with a simple Scriptural truth.  All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  That includes us. Every nation, every church and every individual is in need of humility and repentance. There are no exceptions.

Thankfully, our Scriptures also assure us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), and that if we confess our sin, we can have forgiveness, and fellowship with God and our neighbour can be restored (1 John 1:7-9). And so, we can go forward in humility yet without condemnation, to do the work of reconciliation and restoration.

Nations, institutions and individuals have illusions about their own righteousness. It’s far too easy for us to say that if we had lived in those times, we would have done better. Such illusions do us no credit and don’t serve the purpose of genuine restoration. Instead of pointing fingers and attempting to expunge our history of the memory of leaders who were admittedly deeply flawed, we would do better to humble ourselves and learn to walk in justice, mercy and love in our present-day dealings.

Exactly what this will mean, in terms of concrete actions, will be different for each person. But the place to begin is with a broken and contrite heart.

One last word. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16-17). It was never the gospel that was the problem. I know several Indigenous leaders who are believers in Jesus, and while they grieve the painful, broken history of the colonizers’ attempts to assimilate and humiliate their people, they are profoundly grateful for the gospel.

As I was working on this blog, I read a recent newsletter from a ministry that reaches out to Muslims with the message of Jesus. It contained a most encouraging story about an Iranian from a Muslim background who came to Canada as a graduate student, met some white Canadian Christians and found Jesus. He had a beautiful testimony.   No-one forced anything on him – they simply served him in love, and Jesus was revealed to another hungry heart. The gospel still bears good fruit as His people live servant lives and testify to the truth.

Until He comes, let us continue to give ourselves to walking in the light and bearing witness to the goodness of Jesus with our lives – actions as well as words.

In the words of the little-known but beautiful fourth verse of O Canada :

Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion within thy loving care;
Help us to find, O God, in thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the Better Day,
We ever stand on guard.

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Basic Principles, Faith and Culture, Reflections on Life, Seasonal Thoughts, Social Commentary

Raise a Yuletide glass?

Christmas is coming, and with it the inevitable holiday parties where food and drink of all sorts will be offered.

I love eating and drinking! Food and drink are among the chief pleasures of this life. Our capacity to enjoy food and drink is a wonderful blessing from our generous Creator. But, like all good things, these blessings can be abused.

In this short reflection, I want to consider the topic of alcohol use. My frame of reference in this post is that of a Christian believer. If you call yourself a Christian, I’m hoping this post will prompt some sober reflection on how we ought to look at this issue.

I grew up in a Dutch immigrant family. In my family growing up, it was considered normal to drink wine at celebrations. Alcohol was offered to adults, but drunkenness was frowned upon. Since surrendering my life to Christ at the age of thirty-four, I’ve given quite a bit of thought to this matter. As a new believer in the late 1980s, I soon learned that many of my new evangelical Christian friends saw alcohol use as totally off-limits for any genuine Christian. So I had some thinking to do. This post is the fruit of those reflections.

I have friends – brothers and sisters in Christ – who are recovering alcoholics, or who are married to recovering alcoholics. For them, alcohol is dangerous. It’s a no-go zone.

I have other friends – brothers and sisters in Christ – who have never touched a drop of alcohol, and who believe and teach that no Christian should ever do so. This conviction stems from their awareness of the potentially destructive power of alcohol.

I have yet other friends – brothers and sisters in Christ – who believe that moderate alcohol use adds to their enjoyment of social gatherings and does no harm.

My friends in the third group would probably see this as a matter of Christian liberty of conscience, much as the apostle Paul did in regard to the matter of clean and unclean foods (Romans 14), which was a divisive issue in the first century community of believers. His position was that as a believer you are free in Christ to follow your conscience in these matters.

But he also said something else, and to me this is the crux of the matter. None of us lives for ourselves alone.

Having given this matter careful consideration, I don’t see any Scriptural basis for forbidding alcohol use. It’s clear to me that wine was a common part of life in the Hebrew scriptures, in the Jewish community from which the first church sprang, and in the New Testament world in general. The use of wine was considered to be normal. I’ve heard the arguments that the wine used in the Bible was alcohol free, but I don’t think this conviction holds water.

Drunkenness, however, was and is absolutely forbidden for followers of Jesus. To live a life that’s led by the Holy Spirit, we need to keep ourselves free from other influences. This means that for a disciple, alcohol use needs to be restrained and moderate. And when in doubt, we need to follow the most important and simple rule of all. Are we walking in love? In other words – is our conduct helping others live well, or does it have the potential to cause harm to another? Is what we are doing aiding or hindering in our primary calling – to display the goodness of Jesus to a needy world?

So, to my friends who exercise their liberty to enjoy a glass of wine or a bottle of beer in moderation, I have a question for you to consider. When you make the decision that it’s OK for you to enjoy a glass of your favourite brew or vintage, can you honestly say that you honour God as the Creator of all good things? If so, good on you. But if you drink to excess, and lose control of your ability to govern your own behaviour, how is this glorifying to God? And even if you’re very careful to stay sober, do you choose to draw attention to your exercise of your liberty, maybe by posting a pic online, or mocking those whose conscience won’t let them join you? If you do, whose good are you thinking of? Is this in any way doing good to your brother or sister? Or is it potentially causing division in the Body of Jesus, and doing harm to someone who can’t handle alcohol at all, and might be influenced by your choice?

And to my friends who never touch a drop of alcohol, I have a question for you to consider as well. Are you mature enough to see your abstinence as a personal choice, an expression of your own obedience to God? If so, good on you. Or are you using it as a measuring stick by which you assess who’s “in” and who’s “out” of God’s favour, presence and Kingdom? If so, be careful. It’s not up to you and me to exclude people that God doesn’t exclude. From what I can tell by my reading of the gospels, Jesus ate food and drank wine with some people that were counted as “unclean” by the religious rule-makers of the day. Their salvation was more important to him than someone else’s external rules about who was in and who was out.

I was trying to think of a good way to end this, but I can’t really find a better way than by quoting, once again, from the words of Paul. Love does no harm to a neighbor (brother, sister). Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. When you get right down to it, it’s not about us. When we think it is, we get messed up. When we keep our focus on giving delight to God and loving those around us, we do well.

Happy Holidays! And may your celebrations make Jesus smile.

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Faith and Culture, Worship

Every nation, tribe, people and language

The Book of Revelation is punctuated by a series of powerful images of the heavenly world and the Age to Come. In one of my favourite episodes from this amazing hope-filled book, the apostle John is given a preview of the Throne Room of the Great King after the Great Tribulation. He sees a crowd of worshippers from every nation, tribe, people and language, giving praise to the Lamb who has redeemed them.

Last night Marion and I, along with about a hundred other worshippers, were given a small but rich and delightful foretaste of this wonderful heavenly reality. We were treated to a cross-cultural worship experience at Eglise le Sentier, a French-language Baptist church in Gatineau.

The evening was sponsored by CASE2, a diverse team of Christian musicians from the Ottawa/Gatineau area. Of the nine musicians who comprise this group, four are active participants in All Nations Ottawa, our home church. We had attended a previous concert by CASE2 – a fund-raiser for a 2011 mission trip to Burundi – so we knew we were in for a treat.

The performance was energetic and passionate. The band was clearly well-rehearsed but their musical presentation was spontaneous and fresh. The songs – all original – represented a variety of musical styles. The lyrics were strong, addressing a wide range of human experience and always leading the worshippers to Jesus.

As the child of immigrant parents, having grown up with three languages, I understand and appreciate cultural diversity. I also find myself increasingly aware of the wide variety of languages, cultures and theological flavours represented within the Body of Christ, not only world-wide, but in the National Capital region. Last night’s concert was a microcosm of some of this richness. The nine current members of CASE2 are active participants in a variety of churches in Ottawa/Gatineau, ranging from Evangelical Baptist to non-denominational charismatic. Two of the nine are French-Canadians while seven are immigrants to this country – six from Africa and one from Belgium. They represent at least three continents and several native languages.

None of the musicians have English as a first language, yet they had intentionally crafted a bilingual repertoire, with some songs in English and some in French. Even the testimonies and song introductions were presented in both languages.

Several of the musicians had contributed songs to the repertoire, and many of the songs were prefaced with a brief comment by the composer. This gave the band members an opportunity to tell their story. They spoke of how faith in Jesus had changed their lives, and gave strong encouragement to those present to trust the Lord and walk closely with Him. Several of the musicians have had the experience of being refugees from a war-torn nation. At least one has been a missionary in a foreign continent and has been shot at by terrorists. Many of them have lost a great deal, but every one of them testifies that in Christ they have found even greater riches.

Towards the end of the evening I found myself reflecting on what I was experiencing. My faith was being encouraged by new friends from a wide variety of backgrounds. They had bridged several cultural divides – the divide between French- and English-speaking Canadians, the divide between evangelicals and charismatics, the divide between African immigrants and white North Americans.  They were not only singing songs, they were sharing their life experience. The audience, too, was diverse. It was probably about half white and half African. English-speakers were definitely in the minority, but Marion and I were far from the only ones, and not for a moment did we feel unwelcome on “the other side”. And that is as it should be. After all, we were among friends – we were among God’s people. But it has not always been that way among those who name Jesus Christ as Lord.

This experience has left me grateful for the many excellent friends that God has given me. I have been blessed with friends from many nations, tribes and languages – friends who have known what it is like to suffer great injustice, yet who live a life of gratitude without a trace of bitterness – friends who are true servants, who encourage my faith, who challenge me by their testimony, who enrich the Body of Christ by sharing their gifts and their love so freely. I will be sharing eternity with these friends. God has called us to live and work in partnership as one family. I am grateful that He is giving me an opportunity to get to know, love and appreciate some of them on this side of eternity.

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