Truth and Reconciliation

Today is Truth and Reconciliation Day here in Canada, as we reflect on lives that were not valued as they ought to have been during times of colonization and even up to late in the last century with the now infamous events at residential schools across this country.   

Each of us has gifts and talents to share with one another that the community is poorer should we not have a chance to receive that gift. Each culture, similarly, has strengths and beauty and wisdom that we all can benefit from, as well as wounds and mistakes we all need to avoid. 

God gave life and breath to all of us for His good purposes and we are all invited to grow and flourish in the giftings and talents we’ve been given to praise God and make God known.  This is our practice ground because in heaven and for all eternity we will be one people together before God:

After this I looked, and there was an enormous crowd—no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood in front of the throne and of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They called out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb!”

Revelation 7:9-10

Loving God, whatever else we do today, on this day that is set aside for us to reflect on truth and work for reconciliation among those who have been harmed, we want to keep Your perspective in mind.  We are all bearers of Your image and are precious in our uniqueness.

In spite of our gravest failings You have made a way for all of us to leave bigotry and hatred and woundedness behind and to come into living loving relationship with You today.

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 

John 3:16-17

As members of one family we pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.  For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.  Amen

Let’s learn today and then act in the work of binding up wounds in one another and honouring one another as God originally intended.  Let’s truly make this a day of truth and reconciliation.