Sunday Reflection -- I wanna be a sheep

Today's reflection comes to you from

Matthew 5: 31-40, 

First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament (Downer's Grove IL: InterVarsity Press 2021, ISBN 978-0-8308-1350-6).

I've been feeling lately like my moodlings have had too much gloom in them, so I've decided to share only the first half of today's reading from Matthew's Gospel (aka Gift from Creator Tells the Good Story) -- out of my favourite translation of the New Testament. The Son of Man is the True Human Being or Chief, angels are spirit-messengers, and the sheep are good-hearted ones.

And don't we all want to be good-hearted ones?

When the True Human Being comes in all of his power and shining-greatness, along with all of his spirit-messengers, he will sit down in his seat of honour. All nations will be gathered and come before him. He will choose between them like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right side and the goats on his left.

Then the Chief will say to the sheep on his right, 'The blessing of my Father rests upon you. Come into the Land of Creator's good road that has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world. For I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was hungry and you fed me. I was a stranger and you gave me lodging. When I needed clothes, you gave me something to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in prison, you visited me.'

'When did we do all these things for you?' the good-hearted ones asked.

'I speak from my heart,' he answered them, 'whatever you did for the least important of my fellow human beings who needed help, you did for me.'  

Creator,

True Human Being,

Spirit of all that Is, 

too easily we forget
that you have done all these things for us --
we are fed, clothed and cared for 
by your generosity.

We can't make anything grow
or happen
without your help --

your strength in our bodies,
your intelligence in our minds,
your spirit in our souls.

Help us to remember
that we are called to help others
as generously

as you help us.

+Amen

(And just for the fun of it... I'm including a wee video to show that baby sheep can bounce like baby goats do!)

Remembering 209

Imagine losing 5 friendly faces out of your life every week.

Yesterday, the staff of the Bissell Centre and the Inner City Pastoral Ministry team gathered to remember the 209 people who died in the inner-city between February 1 and October 31. If you do the math, that's 5 people a week, more or less, depending on the week.

In my role as ICPM lunch coordinator, I don't often have enough time to ask people their names in the 10-second interaction as they collect snack bags and coffee outside the Bissell's doors on a Sunday morning, but I try to look them in the eye, greet them, and ask how they're doing. And if they come around regularly, I know their faces, if not their names.

We shed many tears during our ceremony, especially when Jeremiah from the Mustard Seed put his heart and soul into singing one of the best anthems of lament -- Gone Away by The Offspring -- "And it feels, and it feels like heaven is so far away, and it feels, and it feels like the world is so cold now that you've gone away."

Things are not getting better for homeless folks downtown. Today, I'm sending a very short letter with the picture above to the Prime Minister, my Premier, provincial health and housing ministers, and as many MLAs as I can with the request that they spend public dollars on 1) safe consumption sites and 2) affordable housing.

I just don't know what else to do. 

209 is too many. Even one is.

Monday Music Appreciation #18 -- A little Mahler, anyone?

My life has been busier than I like, which means I haven't been working at the Francis Winspear Centre for Music for all the concerts that I'd love to hear. That was the case on November 11th, when the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic played together.

I spoke with a fellow usher a few days after the event, and she told me that having the two groups perform together was one of the most incredible concerts she'd ever heard, leaving the audience spellbound to the point that they sat in respectful silence for longer than usual at its conclusion. 

So I've been listening to Mahler's 3rd Symphony, and can imagine what the concert might have been like with twice as many musicians on our Winspear stage. Timpani drums always fascinate me, and this piece has them in the finale like I've never heard them before. Gustav Mahler loved romantic themes, and he certainly didn't hold back in his 3rd Symphony!

So here are the last six minutes of it for today's Monday Music Appreciation, performed by the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai (Torino, Italy) conducted by Maestro Giuseppe Sinopoli. Enjoy!

A great opportunity

We're living in a perfect storm when it comes to the affordability of housing. Rising inflation, food, power, and heating costs are contributors to the fact that many people are finding it hard to make ends meet. But a bigger concern is the financialization of housing.

As I understand it, the world's money markets have woken up to the fact that investing in housing can make the rich richer. In cities across the globe, large companies (here in Edmonton, think Boardwalk and Mainstreet and the like) are buying rental properties from small owners, doing minor renovations that allow them to renovict tennants, and raising the rents. 

My friend, Sandra, lived in the apartment complex down the alley from me. It was purchased by a new owner who added a new building on the greenspace in the middle of the complex, but before that even happened, Sandra's rent was raised by 50%, and she had to move to a more affordable place after being in her apartment community for 15 years. 

Housing is a human right. But some investors see it merely as an opportunity to make more money, forgetting that real people need affordable places to live. Because our governments at all levels have not invested in affordable housing in the last 30 years, and because so much of what was affordable has been purchased by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) who have raised rents, or because rental repairs of aging buildings have been neglected, more and more people are finding themselves homeless. If this isn't a social justice issue, I don't know what is.

This moodling is a poor summary of the issues involved, but my point is that on Tuesday, November 22nd, which is the National Housing Day of Action, there's a great opportunity to educate ourselves about the many things contributing to our housing emergency in Canada, and to meet like-minded people who are interested in improving the situation.

The event is called "Housing: Who Is It For?" and it will take place at Metro Cinema (Garneau Theatre) 8712 109 Street, 7 pm on November 22nd. 

Tickets are now on sale. One option has two steps: email edmhousingcoalition@gmail.com to place your order (name, number of tickets) and then e-transfer the funds for your tickets to ecohhmembership@gmail.com from your financial institution. Sales in this way provide ECOHH with all the ticket cost and help our organization to continue to work for changes to make housing more affordable. 

You can also find tickets on Eventbrite.

Below is a trailer for the movie, PUSH, which will be shown at the event.

If you come, I'll meet you at the door! Bring friends!

 

Working and praying for peace

Yesterday, I found myself on my knees in the square near City Hall trying hard to see through my tears as I wrote the names of 60 or more Palestinians who have died in Gaza. The oldest was 63 and the youngest was an infant, and as a dozen others and I inked the names of the dead on a long roll of linen, the bombardment of recent weeks suddenly became real.

As I worked, a beautiful woman stood to the side and read out the names and ages of the victims. She became more and more emotional as she shouted out the names and ages of the children, until finally she began to sob, "May these angels find their loved ones beyond the gates of heaven, and may God be merciful to them all! There is no justice in this world for them!" Unable to continue, she handed her lists to a man near her, and took a break, only to continue 20 minutes later. 

When my knees started hurting too much from the concrete I was kneeling on, I gave my list to another person and went to stand beside the woman as she continued to read the names. After another page, she turned to me and we hugged each other long and hard. "My children are safe," she said, and I said, "Mine too. What you are doing is so important -- I'm glad that someone is acknowledging these innocent civilians and their children who have lost their lives." We lamented together as mothers, and after a few moments, she continued.

The thing is... war happens all over the globe all the time. It just doesn't often get our attention the way Gaza has in the past month. Before Gaza was Ukraine, remember? -- and we barely hear about that ongoing conflict anymore. Before Ukraine was Myanmar... and it continues, too. Syria. Congo. The list of ongoing conflicts is unending, and what can an average Jill like me who lives in a peaceful country (so far) do about any of it?

I can stand in solidarity with the communities here who are connected to places where war is being waged. Support aid groups. Demand that world leaders lead the world to cease fires now. And work and pray for peace in whatever imaginative ways we can, as the young adults who organized yesterday's event in Churchill Square did. It wasn't a big event, but it was impactful for those who wandered over, wondering what it was all about, who found themselves on their knees, as I did. We wrote the names and ages of 3,000 people on the linen scrolls, and that might be a fourth of the people who have died or are missing in Gaza up to now.

November 12 (tomorrow) at 1 pm, there is a gathering planned at Violet Henry King Plaza (the Legislature) in support of a cease fire in Palestine.

And in the evening is this year's ecumenical Prayer for Peace, 7 pm at St. Luke's Anglican Church (8424 95 Avenue). 

Just in case you want to join me at either event. 

War is real. Peace can be, too.

Monday Music Appreciation #17 -- on a Tuesday because it can't wait

Something in me can't save this song until next Monday...

The hummingbird on my shoulder

Gratitude to Jenny
at Hivemind Studios for 
my sweet little bird

She is the little one in Wangari Maathai's story, who sees the fire and does something about it. The other, bigger animals -- who are watching the fire helplessly -- think she is crazy as she flies back and forth to the river, bringing her tiny mouthful of water to the fire. 

To them, she says, "I am doing the best I can."

Our Indigenous Knowledge Keeper told Wangari's story one cold Sunday this past February, the day we had two very unhappy volunteers at Inner City Pastoral Ministry. I found them having an angry discussion in the parking lot after all the work was done, and they said to me, "How can you do this, week in and week out, when nothing improves and things downtown are only getting worse and worse?" It felt like an attack.

All I could think to say was, "I am the hummingbird. I am doing the best I can."

In all the situations in my life that seem hopeless, I think of the hummingbird. In broken relationships. In my imperfections as a mom. Listening to world news. Volunteering where there is need. Facing climate change. Trying to live simply. Caring for the people I love. 

I am doing the best I can.

That's why there is now a small female ruby throated hummingbird on my shoulder, like the one who visits my yard every summer. She's the one and only tattoo that I never planned to get... until one cold Sunday in February.

I like to think we are all hummingbirds.