When I was twelve years old, I fell in love…
…with the music of Stompin’ Tom Connors.
At first, I
thought his whole schtick was a joke: this
tall, skinny guy in a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and a leather vest, pounding his
boot into a sheet of plywood as percussion to go along with his singing and guitar…
but that inaccurate first impression did not last long. For as soon as I listened to his lyrics, he
fanned the flames of Canadian pride in my young soul. His songs are so local and so accessible: they’re
about Canadian heroes, Canadian places, and his own experiences of tough times,
and a few of his 300 songs became Canadian icons: the Hockey Song, the theme
for CBC’s Marketplace, Sudbury Saturday Night, Bud the Spud. His Canadian patriotism was the real deal,
built on a true sense of pride in this land and a recognition that for him,
singing songs from Nashville about Texas made no sense at all. For honestly, where else would one hear lyrics
like, “Oh the girls are out to bingo and the boys are getting’ stinko, we think
no more of INCO on a Sudbury Saturday Night?”
Thus far, the year
2025 has been a challenging one for Canada, and my inner proud Canadian got
awakened – for the first time, really, since those days when Stompin Tom told
me why I should be proud. So I
hope you enjoy today’s service, with hymns and prayers from across the land, an
extra bit of Canadiana when I think it’s both appropriate and necessary.
The lesson we
heard today, from the 3rd chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians,
speaks about foundations and nuance and inclusion, important things for us to
consider on the cusp of Canada Day 2025. As someone with deep Jewish roots, well-honed
rhetorical skills, and a passionate new relationship with the risen Christ,
Paul needed to make sense of the good news of Jesus Christ without snubbing the
Jewish faith that was so important to him and to Jesus. He needed to lift up these two truths, at once
Paul describes the
law of Moses as “our guardian, until Christ came”. That word “guardian” is sometimes translated “tutor”
or “schoolmaster”, the kind of private instructor and mentor that the wealthier
households in Galatia may have employed.
This teacher, Paul writes, “protected us until we could be made right
with God through faith”. This image of a protective teacher reminds me what it
was like when we were parenting young children, and what it will be like for
Shannon and me as a grandchild enters our lives this summer. With a child, one
encourages their innate sense of awe and wonder and curiosity, but also teaches
the basics, like, don’t touch the hot oven, don’t take your sibling’s favourite
toy, do say please and thank you, two plus two equals four. Foundations of fact and safety and healthy
relationships get laid in preparation to give a base from which to engage the
nuanced grey areas that arise as one moves through life. In the Apostle Paul’s
metaphor of the Law acting as our guardian, then, knowing rules and laws like
the ten commandments remains important, but that is not the end of the story.
As followers of Jesus, we inherit the age-old wisdom of the Hebrew
Scriptures, and to that we add a relationship with Jesus Christ and his loving,
forgiving, inclusive grace. Jesus
repeatedly brought his life and his words back to love: love of God, love of
neighbour, loving one another as God loves us, understanding that once you get
right down to it, God is love. In Christ,
that love is both holy and emerging, a love we can count on and which is
adaptive. A framework where everything
is either entirely good or entirely bad with nothing in between, is not
adequate for humans trying to love one another amidst life’s complexities, for
it leaves no room for nuance, no room for circumstance, or growth, or
forgiveness, or grace. And in Christ, as we learn how to love, barriers come
down. In today’s reading, Paul put it
this way: "“There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and
female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
On this Sunday when I affirm some of the qualities we strive for
as Canadians, Paul calls us toward inclusive, both/and thinking. The Law of Moses sets a clear and important foundation,
and then our task as humans is to figure out the greyscale, the nuance between the
absolutes of black and white. In Christ, we engage context and circumstance and
change. And while I know that Canada is well short of being
Utopia, with some pockets of particular nastiness that do seem to be getting
louder, I am so relieved to live in a place where we can still speak of diversity,
equity and inclusion as things we strive for.
When I first heard the nauseating notion that Canada would just
love to become the 51st state, I was offended, and I so wished that
Stompin’ Tom was still alive to write some real barn-burner songs about it, but
it was more than merely taking offense. In the constant barrage of aggressive
words toward Canada and Panama and Greenland, the childish renaming of the Gulf
of Mexico, the targeting of Spanish speakers and people of colour, the hurtful
denial of anything beyond two genders, there is something both sad and alarming. This approach speaks of an inability of that
governing regime for reasoned, mature thought, so much so that the ability to
hold contrasting positions in tension not only went out the window, it got
trampled, tagged for deportation, and treated as if it were the enemy. As a proud Canadian and as a Minister of The
United Church of Canada, that all-or-nothing, get-rid-of-the-objectors nonsense
is something I want no part of. The style and content of all of that, is
completely outside of the ideals I have grown up as a Canadian.
I love living in a place where broad engagement is part of our best
self, where it is still possible, sometimes at least, to wrestle with ideas. Whether we agree or disagree isn’t the issue,
because north of the 49th expressing thoughts other than those of
the grand poohbah doesn’t get your university’s funding withdrawn, your TV and
radio stations silenced, or your immigration status cancelled. As a nation and, yes, as the United Church we
get it wrong a lot of the time, but the goals of hearing one another – and
respecting one another – and recognizing that we get better and better as our
rainbow of ethnic, religious and gender diversity gets broader and brighter – are
things that will make us stronger. At
our best, we deal with nuance and complexity and difference really well, and
continuing to strive for that must remain central to our identity as a nation
and as a Church. And that openness to
difference, that desire to figure things out in respectful ways that benefit
the common good, is nothing short of the will of God.
Before moving to our next hymn, I invite you to join with me in a
time of prayer for Canada. This prayer,
by a Manitoba Mennonite worship leader named Carol Penner, celebrates and prays
for this beautiful land on which we are privileged to live. Let us pray:
Thank you God for this piece of the world,
a slice of land broad and wide, blessed with rivers and great lakes, wide skies
and great forests, high mountains and gracious plains, beautiful from sea to
sea to sea.
Thank you for letting us live in this
land, even though we do not own it;
this land is your land, which we use in trust for future generations. Thank you
for its rich history, which includes Aboriginal and Metis and Inuit peoples. Give us wisdom as we continue to work on
issues of land use and ownership with these First Nations.
Thank you for our system of government, for
the right to speak freely, and to elect our leaders. Thank you for the freedom
of religion and conscience that we enjoy.
Thank you for universal health care, and a social safety net, even though not
all are caught by it, and not all dwell in safety. O God, we want a country that is the best it
can be, a home for all, welcoming refugees and newcomers, sharing this wealthy
country with the world.
Bless our leaders, our Prime Minister and
all members of parliament;
guide their steps, and help us use our voice to guide them
as they make difficult and far-reaching decisions.
We thank you today for our home and native
land,
thank you for giving us a home here, where we live in peace and security.
God keep our land, Canada, keep it strong
and free,
keep it safe and beautiful for future generations. Amen.
References:
Connors,
Stompin Tom. “Sudbury Saturday Night.” © 1967, Anthem Music. Accessed at
https://lyrics.lyricfind.com/lyrics/stompin-tom-connors-sudbury-saturday-night
Henrich,
Sarah. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-12-3/commentary-on-galatians-323-29-3
Penner,
Carol. https://leadinginworship.com/
Prest,
Stewart. https://theconversation.com/canadas-fight-with-trump-isnt-just-economic-its-existential-246619
© 2025
Rev Greg Wooley, Osoyoos-Oliver United Church Pastoral Charge
