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Orange Shirt Sunday
WELCOME: To all who join us in all places, at all times, in all media formats. Please say hi to one another. Like each other’s posts. Send letters or telephone. Be one another’s rainbows of hope in our uncertain world! May our time together today be a mutual blessing.
Announcements – The Life & Work of the Church
Acknowledgement of Traditional Territory ((Please research and write your own land acknowledgement.))
We are gathered on Treaty 94, which is traditional territory of the Anishinaube people. Ojibwe, Odawa and the Pottowatomi. We acknowledge their stewardship of this land, water, earth, fire and wind that is centre to their lives and spirituality. With the Mnidoo Mnising (Manitoulin Island) peoples, let us live in respect and gratitude for all creation.
Lighting of the Christ Candle
As we light the Christ candle we are reminded that Christ came into the world to be a light and inspiration to all peoples and not just to a select few. We are called to follow that light by living with respect for all of creation.
Lighting the candle
We profess the light of Christ is here among us!
Call to Worship:
Today we wear orange to remember and honour all the Indigenous children who went to residential schools.
Today we wear orange and we pray for the residential school and intergenerational survivors who are still struggling.
Today we wear orange and we are thankful for those who speak the truth, and who work to shine a light on injustice.
Today we wear orange in the name of compassion and the spirit of truth and reconciliation.
Today, we pray,
All: Help us, God, to remember and act on hearing truth, speaking truth, and living reconciliation every day. (+1)
Invocation:
Creator God, we need you, every hour of every day.
Be with us here today as we worship you
in song, in word and in thought.
Be with us here, in this moment,
in this time, and in this place.
Quietly, patiently, and completely.
To bring you into our world, today, here and now.
Opening our hearts to be gently touched with your love.
Amen (+2) adaptations.
**Opening Hymn: (Refrain – start and at finish.) (VU 395 ) “Come In, Come In and Sit Down”
Learning Time – For all ages
‘Tea Doll’ – how every child matters to the whole community.
Every child matters. Makes a difference. Is essential to the community.
Phyllis Webstad calls us back to remember this. To remember, as we sang last week, Nothing is lost on the Breath of God — “No feather too light, no hair too fine, no flower too brief in its glory, no drop in the ocean, no dust in the air, … no creature too humble, no child too small… to be counted and told in God’s story.”
Orange Shirt Day – the beginning – Phyllis Webstad
Story of Orange Shirt Day.
Phyllis Webstad is Northern Secwpemc((sect-WHEP-em)) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem ((Stwaah-hum)) First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band): She says, “I went to the Mission for one school year in 1973/1974. I had just turned 6 years old. I lived with my grandmother on the Dog Creek reserve. We never had very much money, but somehow my granny managed to buy me a new outfit to go to the Mission school. I remember going to Robinson’s store and picking out a shiny orange shirt. It had string laced up in front, and was so bright and exciting – just like I felt to be going to school!
When I got to the Mission, they stripped me, and took away my clothes, including the orange shirt! I never wore it again. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give it back to me, it was mine! The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.
I was 13.8 years old and in grade 8 when my son Jeremy was born. Because my grandmother and mother both attended residential school for 10 years each, I never knew what a parent was supposed to be like. With the help of my aunt, Agness Jack, I was able to raise my son and have him know me as his mother.
I went to a treatment centre for healing when I was 27 and have been on this healing journey since then. I finally get it, that the feeling of worthlessness and insignificance, ingrained in me from my first day at the mission, affected the way I lived my life for many years. Even now, when I know nothing could be further than the truth, I still sometimes feel that I don’t matter. Even with all the work I’ve done!
I am honored to be able to tell my story so that others may benefit and understand, and maybe other survivors will feel comfortable enough to share their stories.
Phyllis Webstad first told her story about her experiences at Residential School at an event in Williams Lake, B.C. in 2013. People who heard her speak were deeply moved – and the idea of Orange Shirt Day was born. September 30 was chosen as the date for Orange Shirt Day because September is when Indigenous children were taken from their families to attend Residential Schools.
The day honours the tens of thousands of Residential School Survivors. It acknowledges the painful experiences they had at the schools. It also provides an opportunity for people to talk about the schools’ impact. Today, Phyllis’ orange shirt symbolizes what Indigenous students, families, and communities lost because of Residential Schools. The losses include time with family. Parental care. A sense of self-worth and well-being. Language and culture. Freedom.
When people choose to wear an orange shirt on Orange Shirt Day, they are sending the message that “every child matters.”
Hymn of Illumination (VU 603 )
Holy Scripture: –
Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29 NRSV
The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the LORD became very angry, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child,’ to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”
So the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their place there with you.
So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!”
Mark 9: 38- 50
John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
Thanks be to God.
Sermon: “Who May Access God.”
If you have seen my business cards, the front reads: “Be the church: Protect the environment. Care for the poor. Forgive often. Reject racism. Fight for the powerless. Share earthly and spiritual resources. Embrace diversity. Love God. Enjoy this life.”
These statements are each a way of being the Church. My focus today is on the phrase “Share earthly and spiritual resources.”
Sharing earthly resources we understand. Oh we understand it but its hard to enact. The fight over land, over resources, is why our European ancestors did such wrong to the people already calling Manitoulin and Canada home – already calling the whole of the Americas North and South home. And it is still a fight being battled out in our courts, in our streets, and schools, and lives. Wealth inequality is raged against through most of the Bible. God promises the age of God is where the poor are lifted and the rich are lowered. When no one is hungry. No one is without shelter. No one is in need. The early Christians in Acts practiced a radical communism where they actually sold their homes to pool their resources. Some Christians today live in small economic or resource communes. They are hard, hard work to remain just. But no one in them is rich nor poor. Our system of capitalistic socialism is easier just because it doesn’t aim to be just. And accepts there are rich and poor. I am the first to admit I have no idea how to live out the kindom of God with true wealth inequality on a scale larger than a house church — larger than a few households. I do know what’s expected of me: to share. To donate. To lend without interest. To meet the material needs of others not expecting reward.
The second part of sharing, sharing spiritual resources, is a pretty new concept to me. How do you share a spiritual resource? I suppose this could mean sharing Scripture with others. It could mean evangelism. Maybe it means sharing the church building. Maybe it means praying for one another.
I know when I first heard it I thought ‘how can you share what can’t be hoarded?’ It’s like saying go out and share the sky! None of us own the sky. We can’t share it when all have it. It isn’t something we can hoard, trade, buy and sell.
And then I began to remember a Simpson’s episode when Mr. Burns blocks out the sun. By theft of the sun, he could then “share” or sell access. In the same way, the air that belongs to all can be polluted. So it is possible to sell carbon credits — permission to pollute. Or wholly ignore them and steal as much fresh air as one wants to pollute and not share that air with the earth. With creation. With the plants and animals and humans and waters and fish. Yes… just because something is held in common does not mean we humans aren’t smart enough to figure out how to try to restrict access.
And the same goes with access to the Divine.
In our first reading today, Moses and God get in a tiff. The people Moses has led for God out of Egypt are sick and tired of eating nothing but the bread that appears each morning – the manna. In Egypt they were slaves, but at least they had some meat and vegetables. Moses prays to God – “this is too much! I didn’t ask to be your messenger. I didn’t give birth to all these people. This is too heavy of a burden.” And he’s a drama king. He asks God to kill him rather than ask him to keep leading the refugees. God grants Moses relief – and not only promises to send so much meat that it’ll “come out their nostrils” and they’ll be sick of meat. And to pass the burden of spiritual leadership among seventy elders of the camp.
So Moses gathers 70 elders. And sure enough – the Spirit of God descends upon them and they begin to prophecy about that wealth of meat coming soon. But two elders weren’t present. Maybe they won’t chosen for the 70? Maybe they just didn’t go? I don’t know. One way or another, they were out among the tent house camp and hadn’t gone to the big temple tent for the meeting. God still sent the Spirit to these two elders and gave them prophecy too. Even though they weren’t in the special place.
A young man and Moses’ right hand man Joshua both urge Moses to stop these unauthorized elders. Make them shut up! Make them be quiet!
But Moses says, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lords people were prophets, and that the Lord would put the Spirit on them!” Moses wishes everyone would prophecy. Thinks it would be better if we were all so connected with the Divine.
He has no qualms about sharing spiritual resources. Moses doesn’t want to limit any from divine experiences… even if those experiences are outside of the official channels. No one gave Moses permission to meet God in the burning bush. And Moses is not going to stop God from meeting people however God wishes.
Does God speak with you in the woods? Good. Does God speak with you in the church? Good.
Do you feel God when singing hymns? Good. Do you feel God when singing radio songs? Good.
There is value in theological education; in carrying on traditions as our elders have taught us… but so, too, there is value in approaching religion like a child. Open minded. Ready to experience new things. Open to how the Spirit of God is moving today.
Jesus’ experience in the Gospel reading today is about spiritual resources, too. Someone has been casting out demons and healing people “in the name of Jesus” without being an actual disciple of Jesus. John tattles, “We tried to stop the person…” Maybe Jesus needs to go rebuke the guy?
But Jesus says, “Don’t stop them. Whoever is doing good in my name can’t speak evil of me.” Jesus doesn’t want spirituality limited to only the “Right Christians.” Jesus wants access to the Divine to be universal… just as Moses did. Jesus, like Moses, goes to extremes to make his point:
If someone gives you water because you’re working for Jesus – that person is blessed.
If any of you make barriers and blocks, red tape and limitations, to those who are like children in their understanding of the divine – it’d be better for you to drown.
What’s causing you to put stumbling blocks in the way of other’s faith? Other’s access to the divine?
Your hand? Cut it off.
Your foot? Hack it off.
Your eye? Pluck it out.
Your money? Give it all away.
Your pride? Swallow it.
Your fear? Kill it.
What’s causing you to not share spiritual resources? What causes you to NOT want others to find their way by this faith tradition or that; by this scripture or that? Who are you to say who God can and cannot speak with? Who are you to limit who can and cannot have spirituality?
Everyone is given the holy fire, the holy spirit of God. Don’t let it go out. Everyone is given the Spirit like salt. But if salt is not salty… what is it? Just sand? So don’t dilute the Spirit in yourself; don’t turn your salt into sand; don’t worry about other people.
Be at peace with one another.
Share spiritual resources.
We don’t control the Spirit of God which, like a wind, goes where God wills it. Our job is to own up that God is a mystery. Larger than us. Up to more than we can understand. Acting in unique ways in unique places. God could be, and is, speaking and acting and responding to people who are not followers of Jesus.
We are not at war with other faiths.
Our enemy is evilness, sin, hurt, pain, the hell we humans can cause on earth. Our enemy is selfishness, excessive pride, and lack of mercy, lack of love, lack of seeing God in creation around us. Our enemy is often ourselves.
Embody the Church. Be the Church. Live out the love we have found here. Be that seasoning, like salt on potatoes, or a dash in a sweet cake, that brings out the best parts in others. Be good news. Good neighbors.
Amen.
Learning Hymn: (VU 613 vs 1,3,6)
“We Cannot Measure How You Heal”
Responding to the Word
Offering Invitation:
Every Person Is a Superhero: Esbikenh’s Story
((watch video))
This project is one way we are living out the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, which include reclaiming, revitalizing, strengthening, and maintaining Indigenous languages.
Through Mission & Service, your gifts help repair harm and extend hope. Thank you! (The offering will now be brought forward)
Offertory: “For the Gift of Creation?” (VU 538)
Offering Prayer:
God, whatever we have is from you. These offerings return but some of our treasure to do the work that Jesus walked among us to do. Use what is on these plates, with our time, our talents and what is in our hearts, to help in the healing of your broken world. Amen.
DEDICATION OF SHADOW BOX
All summer, we have kept shoes on our walk to remember the children who went to residential schools and never came home. We have learned of the generational harm residential schools inflicted. We have struggled with our pasts, weeped in the present, and sought after a future.
This journey is not over.
As summer gives to fall, as a spontaneous display builds into a holiday, we transition too. We are moving the shoes before the snow falls and installing an indoor, permeant display. This joins our framed story of Butterfly Girl and her experience in the schools. This joins our commitment to educating ourselves, educating our community, educating those who use our fellowship space, and educating our children and those to come after us.
This is not an end. Not a wrap up and pat ourselves on the back.
This is turning the next page of the same chapter – the chapter of reconciliation and witnessing truth. The chapter of listening, deeply, to the stories the Indigenous peoples have been saying all along. This is the sacred chapter of working on reconciliation.
Working.
We are not reconciled.
Working.
Working at confession and repentance on the church and government’s part.
Working at forgiveness and healing on the Indigenous peoples parts.
And working on amends on the church and government part.
And a covenant, a promise, a full commitment to never repeat the sin.
This chapter is nowhere close to over. We are in the middle of it.
You are living it. That you are here today means you have not given up. You are keeping at this sacred and holy work. You know we will not reach at time of atonement – a time of being at one -ment with each other and the sacred unless we walk through this dark valley.
Keep up the hope. Keep up the good work. Keep up your spirits. Keep on wearing your orange shirts all through the year. Keep on seeking out education. Keep on insisting the church universal – all denominations – and our government stay on this chapter and do this work. Keep on sharing the good news that new beginnings, new life, healing, and peace IS possible… but such grace is not cheap.
Please, join me in dedicating ourselves to truth and reconciliation. Join me in dedicating this display as an aide to tell the truth and seek reconciliation.
God of our Ancestors,
who holds the spirits of our grandmothers and grandfathers and the spirits of our grandchildren,
Remembering the Children,
we now pledge ourselves to speak the Truth,
and with our hearts and our souls to act upon the Truth we have heard of the injustices lived, of the sufferings inflicted, of the tears cried, of the misguided intentions imposed, and of the power of prejudice and racism which were allowed to smother the sounds and laughter of the forgotten children.
Hear our cries of lament for what was allowed to happen, and for what will never be.
In speaking and hearing and acting upon the Truth may we as individuals and as a nation meet the hope of a new beginning.
Great Creator God who desires that all creation live in harmony and peace,
Remembering the Children
we dare to dream of a Path of Reconciliation
where apology from the heart leads to healing of the heart and the chance of restoring the circle,
where justice walks with all,
where respect leads to true partnership,
and where the power to change comes from each heart.
Hear our prayer of hope, and guide this country of Canada on a new and different path. (+3)
Let all who visit this building see this display.
Let all stop and read and understand.
Let all ask questions. Listen deeply.
Let all commit themselves, then, too to truth and reconciliation.
Let it be. Amen.
Prayers for New Beginnings:
Great and Heavenly Spirit,
God of compassion, healing and comfort,
We lift up in prayer the sacred lives of the children, some now known to us, all known to you, who died in residential schools.
We lift up in prayer the sacred lives of the children who went missing from these schools and whose fates are unknown to those who held them most dear.
We grieve the loss of so many thousands of these little ones, and we grieve especially their loss so far away from home.
We grieve the loss of youth with so much potential. These were children of this place, children of our land. The loss of their giftedness is our collective loss.
We lament how long their families have had to live with unanswered questions.
Hear our prayers:
-for those who were not informed of their children’s deaths at all, or on a timely basis;
-for those who were not told of where their daughters and sons had been buried;
-for those who have long hoped that a child who went missing somehow survived and had a good life—even as they may have also feared the worst.
We lament our complicity in the loss of these children. As members of a church which ran residential schools, we seek your help as we look to redress the many ways in which our church failed these Indigenous children, their families, and their communities. We pray that your reconciling love will teach us how to create true bonds of community and understanding as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples today.
We lift up with gratitude the efforts of all those who are seeking to honour the lives of the children who died, as well as the children whose fates are unknown, through ongoing research and acts of remembrance.
We ask for your continued guidance of them as they work to uncover the stories of the lost. We understand how precious this information is, and how vital it is to the healing of so many families and communities.
Bless those who are preparing to honour the children with sacred ceremonies and those who work to protect burial sites, in keeping with the traditions of Indigenous peoples across this land.
We pray for the families of these children and for all who loved them. Envelop them in the warmth of your infinite care and give them peace.
Inspire all of us with energy, wisdom, and commitment to the loving pursuit of the truth which will heal all of us in our brokenness and lead to reconciliation with our neighbours across this land. (+4)
Hear these names – these prayers – we offer now to you in our hearts—- (silence)
This we pray in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray:
…“Our Father….
**Sending Forth Hymn: (VU 625) “I Feel the Winds of God Today”
Benediction & Carrying the Light Out
Re-Created, and rejuvenated by the Creator, we head out to recreate, to play, to rejoice bring light in the creativity of our God.
– extinguish the candle
Let us bring salt and peace wherever we go!
L.C. Choral Benediction (MV 221)
Sourced Resources: used with permission.
(+1) Inspired by Honarine Scott’s Orange Shirt Day blog.
(+2) Beth W. Johnston, Hantsport, NS – Gathering, Pent 2, 2019 – Pg 34
(+3) Rev. Lillian Roberts
(+4) A prayer offered by Indigenous Ministries for the memorial register honouring children who died at residential schools (TRC Call to Action 72),
launched on September 30, 2019
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 