June 3, 2020
Good afternoon,
" You should say… I am sorry, I am listening… and I am learning " from Osheta Moore, an African-American pastor from Minnesota.
I have stopped watching the video of the killing of George Floyd. I admit that I continue to watch the protests that have taken place all over the world in response to this killing. Today, all the four police officers have been charged. This will not bring an end to systemic racism that we find in Canada and the United States. During the 19060's and 70's in the United States, they had the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Non-Segregation of Schools legislations, and although these were important laws, it did not end the persecution of African Americans. Here in Canada, we have had Royal Commissions, Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women . And we are no closer to reconciliation between settlers and Indigenous people, or between blacks and whites in America.
Osheta Moore is a young female pastor who is right in the middle of this tragedy, in Minnesota. She says some hard things, and they are difficult to hear for a person like me who has so many white privileges. She says that " it is not about me, and being white ". Then she says the three things that are found above. If I want to move towards understanding I need to do more. We should always do these three things, no matter what the issue. I do not have any indigenous friends, so what can I say ? "Sorry, listen and learn", three things easy to write, but hard to enact my life.
We must have a stance of humility in all our attitudes. I read Matthew in two sittings yesterday. This is what I read: 'He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:2-5 , and in Matthew 20: 26-28 "Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” So, what are we to do." Jesus is calling us to be lowly, vulnerable and humble.
Wisdom from Richard Wagamese, an Ojibway man
Humility teaches us that there are no greater or lesser beings or things.
There is only the whole.
There is only the great clamour of our voices, our spirits,
Raised together in song. AMEN.
COME LORD JESUS, COME.
Fred
Tread on bold new paths !
Fireflies flash the direction
Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020
Fred Redekop
Pastor
Poole Mennonite Church
Ponder Anew 