Shalom Sharing – Sitting with the Truth MCC Exhibit
Before I get into my sermon proper this morning, I will do the Shalom Sharing for this morning, although it is very related and becomes a kind of introduction already to the themes of the sermon. You will have noticed when you came up the sanctuary stairs to the upper foyer the MCC exhibit of large panels called ‘Sitting with the Truth.’ Rebecca Seiling from MCC Ontario was involved in putting this series of panels together and they were displayed at 50 Kent St over the last weeks. We asked permission to show them here this Sunday as we work on the peace theme of Truth.
The panels tell the story from survivors and staff of 3 Mennonite-run Indian Residential schools operated between 1962 and 1991 in North Western Ontario – Poplar Hill Development School, Stirland Lake High School and Cristal Lake Girls High School. They were operated by two American Mennonite affiliated organizations – Northern Light Gospel Mission and Northern Youth Ministries, with individual Mennonites in Ontario and Canada and from several conferences supporting this work financially and with some of the volunteers, including some folks from what are now MCEC congregations. These schools were a part of the larger legacy of what were called Indian Residential schools in Canada, and the forced assimilation and stripping of culture of Indigenous children. This has had consequences and effects that will last and play out for generations. This exhibit owns our own part as Mennonites in this destructive history. The panels give some windows into the particular history of these 3 schools, into some of the personal stories of survivors, and into an apology statement from 2013. We are invited to sit with this truth.
I have my own personal connection to sitting with the truth of this Mennonite residential school story. You may remember that 10 years ago, in December of 2012, I was one of a delegation of 6 Mennonites invited by the community and by MCC to a 3 day listening circle in Thunder Bay with about 35 survivors from these residential schools, one small part of the Truth and Reconciliation Process during those years in Canada. It was a sobering and humbling and deeply emotional time that still sits with me. The middle day, the Wednesday, we literally did sit in a circle process, everything was done in circles, and spent the entire day slowly going around the circle once, simply honouring and listening to each person tell their personal story of hurt and anger and pain, sometimes of humour and relationship and things learned, but so much about being torn from family, loss of language, corporeal punishment, strictness, spiritual harm, and lasting trauma that has followed their lives from what happened in these Mennonite schools. These were truths that needed to be told, and we simply needed to listen and hold them within the circle. I looked back at some notes from that time and part of what I wrote was ‘My heart was heavy after such an intense day, but I also felt the hope that comes when truth is told and stories are honoured… These days were first steps, but it was terribly significant that we were there as Mennonites to simply sit and listen.’
After church today, as we wait for the Ham and Scalloped Potato lunch, instead of a normal worship response time of conversation, you are invited to spend some time walking and reading through the exhibit , and simply sitting with its truth, listening to the voices that are there. There are little round note cards where you can write down responses if you wish. MCC does request that no photos are taken of the display as they contain some personal stories that were given in trust. May this be one step in that larger process of listening, truth and reconciliation.
Sermon:
Sitting with the truth. I like this image of sitting with the truth. It is the image I invite us to hold as I move into this sermon. It means taking time, not rushing to conclusions or solutions. It means sitting with the uncomfortable pain. It means admitting our own complicity. More than anything it means listening with an open heart. Last Sunday Brent and Janet introduced our Making Shalom Peace Series. With the help of 4 excellent readers, they also introduced us to 4 siblings that make for Shalom – Truth, Mercy, Justice and Peace – and that it can get pretty complicated knowing how these 4 siblings interact with each other, and sometimes try to out compete each other. A little bit like family. And yet how when they work together and are in balance, it opens up the possibility for real and lasting shalom, wholeness, well being, contentment, completeness, peace.
So this morning we take a dive into Truth. At first glance, it feels like this should be fairly straightforward. After all, we say that the truth will set you free. Simply tell the truth and all will go well. Even Christopher found out in our story this morning that it is not so easy. Truth can hurt and can injure. Truth can simply be hard to figure out, and so often within conflict, each side claims that truth is on their side. You see that especially in wars. They say that truth is the first causality in war. In looking for truth, you have to take into account context, and nuance, and different perspectives, and the potential harm or consequences that can potentially be unleashed with what feels and honestly sounds like truth. I like the quote by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams (in Christ on Trial, William Eerdmans Publishing, 2000, p.6) – it is in relation to Peter and the passion of Jesus, but the quote speaks much broader – ‘There is a kind of truth which when it is said, becomes untrue.’ Think about things you have said or blurted out that you were so confident about, and then in the saying you realized there might just be other perspectives, or that they brought hurt to someone else, or everything just didn’t add up or play out in real life how you imagined. I think about those who designed and began Residential schools who would have argued that what they did was founded on certain truths, and yet they played out so badly – those were already then and are now untruths, false truths – they caused great harm.
Last Sunday sibling Truth said ‘I am Truth. I am like light that is cast so all may see. In times of conflict, I want to bring forward what really happened, putting it out in the open… they need me first and foremost.’ And yet that truth can sometimes blind and burn, and get manipulated for people’s own purposes. We are in a time and place where truth seems relativistic – we ask ‘what is truth? Or ‘who’s truth?’ and question who gets to define truth. And we know that truth can be turned upon ourselves, and reveal things we would rather not know or share or admit to. Truth makes us vulnerable. It is no wonder that when people play the game ‘Truth or Dare’, it often feels safer and easier to manage, to say Dare rather than Truth, than have to open up parts of our lives or things we hold deeply to the examination from others. This is how Janet defined the character of Truth last Sunday:
‘Truth (‘emeth)–is the consistent one, always reliable and full of integrity. A faithful friend. Truth is also the most direct, straight-up and honest. Truth always wants to know what really happened–to get at the facts and the evidence, shed light on the situation and seek clarity. Truth is quick to expose wrongdoing, and refuses to hide any of the embarrassing details, sometimes at the expense of the relationship. Truth can seem forceful and demanding and even come across as a bit arrogant, and self-important.’
Let’s hold these definitions and character descriptions as we look at the story of Nathan and David and Bathsheba. Truth is front and centre in this Biblical story, but it takes the prophet Nathan to get to that truth. Kevin told the basic outline of the story preceding what was read today – of the powerful King David lusting after Bathsheba and using his power to sexually assault her, of sending for Uriah so he could sleep with his wife and unknowingly cover him for her pregnancy, of then taking the step to secretly ensure his death on the battlefield – murder, and then marrying Bathsheba, as someone in his role could simply do at will. All along David shaped the narrative, the story line, the truth, of what had happened to his own liking, to make him look good, innocent, perhaps even to the point of believing it himself. How does the story get told? How are things named or not named? The Bible I looked at had the title ‘David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba.’ Is that the whole truth, the language to be used? There is so much in this part of the story that could be taken apart and give pause to talk about sexual boundaries, abuse, ethics, violence and so on – and we have done that on other Sundays here at SJMC.
But our Scripture section today is about the role of the prophet Nathan and the passage we heard read, and what it might teach us about truth. Without Nathan, the story would have ended as it was first told and narrated. David could not see or admit the truth, and more importantly, neither could the broader community, although I wonder what was told and shared quietly, whispered, in the shadows, among the women around Bathsheba or the men on the battlefield. It took Nathan’s actions to lift out the truth and make it public – as it says later – ‘you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel.’ (2 Samuel 12:12) To tell the truth took courage. Nathan had some guts! You don’t speak truth to power lightly or without the obvious threat to your own well-being. It also took creativity. Nathan used a story – this tale of injustice with the rich and poor man and the cute little lamb that was taken away. He didn’t knock David over the head with the truth, but creativity drew David into the story’s own conclusion, allowing him to figure it out himself, up to the point of making that last connection back to David – You are the man!
Once the truth was told David did take responsibility. There was confession – ‘I have sinned’, repentance, penitence, accountability, a trying to make things right. Truth also had its consequences – life could not just go along as it had before the truth was told. Speaking the truth doesn’t just magically solve everything. I struggle with some of these in the text – the death of the son that was born, the wives taken away and given to neighbours – consequences borne out by the innocent and most vulnerable more than David himself, even as those deeply affected him. There is probably a whole different sermon here too trying to sort these out and their cultural context. I also suspect that Nathan was able to say what he did because it came out of a relationship with David – there was some trust and respect and prior conversations that gave Nathan the place out of which to speak. Sometimes we need those closest to us, who know us, love us, but also can also speak the truth to us. I remember very early in our time at SJMC, Wendy Janzen preaching on this passage, and saying to the delight of our youngest, who’s ears perked up – ‘Everybody needs a Nathan!’ Wendy’s phrase rattled around our Diller Harder household for years! But it is true that we need those around us, our very community, to move us towards Truth. In the end, I also think that the truth did ultimately set David free, even as the consequences played out, even as it was hard, even as it brought more pain… and it helped loosen a system and set others free. It moved this community towards Shalom. It allowed David to sit with the truth, and it allowed healing to begin. This is a complicated and multi-layered story, but it speaks to so many aspects of truth – honesty, courage, integrity, openness, respect, creativity, responsibility, power, relationship.
How does this message on truth fit with us, now, in the many global and larger issues we are a part of, but also in those inter-personal relationships and situations we find ourselves in? How does sitting with the truth help us move towards Shalom? Depending on the situation, are we a David or a Nathan, or maybe a Bathsheba or Uriah, or those watching bystanders wondering their role? Are we in a Nathan moment right now when it comes to Canadian history and the residential school system and a truth that is finally being told, heard, acted on? A few weeks ago we had a link in the pastoral newsletter to the Open Doors interview with Clarence Cachagee from Crow Shield Lodge. Clarence was a Sunday morning guest with us a few years ago. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coo7fWNDDVI) He said this about the Truth and Reconciliation process around residential schools: ‘What we do is lean in to some very hard conversations in this lodge. We help people unlearn. We give them starting points… We don’t call people out. We create a safe place to call people in, where we can lean into those hard discussions… We talk about the truth… with that we are planting seeds. .. We’re giving them a starting point… There’s got to be a lot more truths talked about and disclosed before anything can get reconciled. Let’s push reconciliation out the way and let’s talk about the truth, let’s talk about ally-ship. Ally-ship is attainable. Reconciliation is not going to happen in my life or my children’s lifetime. It will take 7 generations to repair the effects of the residential schools.’ Can we sit with the truth for a long time, for 7 generations? I wonder if some of the simple things we have done here at SJMC – hosting the Blanket exercise, having the MCC exhibit, having a wonderful interactive time around making food and forming friendships last Sunday with the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Collective – I wonder if these are small parts of learning and listened to the truth, sitting with it, and moving us towards reconciliation.
One of the questions that has sat with me this week on this topic of Truth and Shalom, is whether there are markers of Truth that lead us to Shalom? Amidst all the complexity we have named around Truth, how do we know if our search for Truth is contributing to Shalom, to peace? I wonder if it has to do with whether telling and speaking the truth leads to life? Is it life-giving? Does it contribute to well-being? Does it move the situation away from the harm being done? Does it lift up the voices of those not being heard, the underdog, the oppressed? Does it speak a word to power? Then truth can be that light that brings healing and hope and new life. We heard it in the Children’s Story – to approach Truth ‘with a loving heart and an honest mind.’ These are the markers of Truth. When Nathan spoke the Truth to King David, it changed the secret destructive patterns of the situation and shifted the direction towards peace, towards restoration, towards wholeness, towards Shalom.
We heard Pam sing the gorgeous music of Ralph Vaughn Williams in The Call, with text by George Herbert. George Herbert lived in England in the early 1600’s. (1593-1633) He was born of privileged background, with the assumption he would have a distinguished career as a member of Parliament or become faculty at Cambridge. He had the skills and scholarship to do so. But he observed the plight and inequality of the world around him. It was a truth confronting him with his privilege and his responsibility. In sitting with the Truth, he chose to live as a poor country rector, cleric, in rural England. He served the needs of his people, cared for the poor and even wrote practical advice for other country pastors. He writes of Jesus as his Master, ‘in whose service I have found perfect freedom.’ (https://www.journeywithjesus.net/poemsandprayers/579-george-herbert-come-my-way) His example and integrity of life, lives on in his poetry, published after his death by pneumonia at age 40. One of his most famous is this poem, The Call, based on John 14:6 – ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’ Notice how Truth and Life is connected here, how we follow the Way. Here is verse 1 again:
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a way as gives us breath;
Such a truth as ends all strife,
Such a life as killeth death.
That captures the essence of Truth, when it gives life, gives breath, ends strife and brings us into Shalom. May this be the kind of Truth we sit with, and may that Truth truly set us free. Amen.