Jubilee and Treaty

2023 09 24 Sermon at Toronto United Mennonite Church
2023 10 01 Sermon at FreeChurch Toronto, and Rouge Valley Mennonite Church
National Day of Truth and Reconciliation / Orange Shirt Day.

Leviticus 25:1-17, 35 – 46, 55 – Imagine a great reset. The end of debt, freedom for the enslaved, forgiveness for the enslaver, and restoration of right relationship. This vision sings throughout scripture. Listen to these ancient words and allow your minds to wander. Picture what this reset looks like. How is it done? What does it sound like, taste like, feel like? How do you picture the jubilee?

Matthew 5:13-18 – Jesus says: you are the salt of the earth, a light on a hill. I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfil it.

My name is Peter Haresnape, and I am a treaty person. In 2010 I came to Turtle Island to learn from Indigenous land defenders. I received a volunteer work permit from Canada. That permit was possible because of treaties signed centuries before. Now I hold a Canadian passport. In my citizenship ceremony I affirmed my intention to remember, protect, and honour the treaties. I am a treaty person.

At the heart of the grinding conflicts between Indigenous nations and organizations and the Settler Colonial state of Canada is land. These conflicts are about law and language, spirituality and taxes, access routes and mining, child welfare and racist policing… At the heart of this is the question of land. Who owns the land that Canada claims, that world maps paint in a single colour from coast to coast to coast. How is ownership established, recorded, and transmitted? Is ownership even the right concept? Can you own a river in the same way you can own a house, or a toothbrush?

Christ the King: You Just Want to Destroy Traditional Monarchy

2019 11 24 Metropolitan United Church
Christ the King Sunday: You Just Want to Destroy Traditional Monarchy

Lectionary texts: Jeremiah 23:1-6: God will raise up a good shepherds and a righteous king
Colossians 1:11-20: Christ the firstborn of all creation, in whom all things hold together.
Luke 23:33-43: Jesus is Crucified under a sign that names him as King of the Jews.

The last week has been a challenge to carefully ration my consumption of the Netflix show The Crown which explores the 20th century through a dramatized telling of the trials and tribulations of the Royal Family. Since this Sunday is set aside in our Church Calendar to explore ‘Christ the King’ or ‘The Reign of Christ’ I decided that it would be permissible to watch an episode of the new season as research on monarchy. The third season covers the years 1964 – 1977, long before my birth, but offers me some perspective on the stories of my family, the lives of my parents, and the events that they lived through.

I don’t know that I got much insight into what it means for us to name Jesus as King. Are we saying that Jesus is like a king? What aspects of kingship are we claiming for him? Or is it more that we want to relate to Jesus as subjects? Or is it a more direct political statement – Jesus is King in a way that replaces, or challenges, earthy rulers? That is certainly how King Herod understood it. More significantly – what does this mean for us, for our work for justice and peace?

TUMC Candidating Sunday

2019 10 29 TUMC, Candidating Sunday
From the Lectionary: Joel 2:23-32, Luke 18:9-14

It’s an interesting time to be a pastoral candidate. This country has just settled on a new balance of federal political power, and over the last two weeks as I have visited groups and connected with committees of this church it has been hard to remember that I am not in fact campaigning. Here I am, a candidate, and here we are, getting ready to vote.

Let me assure that, unlike my opponent, I am going to support hardworking TUMC tithepayers! We’re going to build a baptistry and the Lutherans are going to pay.

Electioneering isn’t really my style.