Today's Scripture Reading (August 18, 2026): Jeremiah 21
In Canada, we have, over the past couple of decades, been involved in the
fiasco of Native Residential Schools. The last federally funded Residential
School was not closed until 1996. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that
the Christian Church meant well, that we even believed that we were following
the will of God. But instead of helping the Native Canadians, the church helped
to spread the disease of cultural assimilation, which aimed to beat the Aboriginal out of the First Nations children. Residential schools created an unacceptably
high death rate in the schools. We weakened Native Canadian families and
hindered their connection to their own culture. The church caused irreparable
damage, and we continue to suffer the effects of the damage we created. And all
of this because we moved ahead of God, and we tried to dress our own selfish
will up as if it were the will of God.
We saw the same reaction during the Crusades, one of the darkest blots
on Christianity's record. We ran ahead of God in declaring war against all who
disbelieved in the Christian God. We were determined that we would tear from
the hands of the infidels the city of Jerusalem. The cry of the Crusaders was simple:
God wills it. But it doesn't appear that anyone actually asked if that was true.
Instead, the Crusaders routinely killed people, and some of the victims were even Christians who just happened to be in the way of the Crusaders.
We seem to have established a pattern: we act as we want to, and then
ask God to perform a wonder to get us out of the trouble our actions have
gotten us into. It is an old pattern. Jeremiah speaks to the pattern almost six
centuries before Christ. Israel had set itself on a path that would ultimately
carry it away from God. But when trouble came, then they went running to
Jeremiah (they didn't have to go far; they had imprisoned him in the courtyard)
and asked him to inquire of God. Maybe if Jeremiah asked, then God would move.
And so, we pray, "God move in this situation, even though we haven't
listened to you, haven't asked the questions of you that we should have asked."
And sometimes, God moves. But at other times, his response to us is much the
same as it was to Jeremiah: "Now I am moving in a different direction. It
didn't have to be this way, but this is the path that you have chosen, and I am
willing to walk it in my way." Whenever we move ahead of God, destruction
is always the result. History has shown it over and over again. And God wants
us, needs us to understand that we need to hear his will before we embark on an
action because we think "God wills it."
Maybe the church needs to join with Archbishop Michael Peers in his
apology from the Anglican Church to the survivors of the Residential Schools.
I accept, and I
confess before God and you, our failures in the residential schools. We failed
you. We failed ourselves. We failed God.
I am sorry, more
than I can say, that we were part of a system that took you and your children
from home and family.
I am sorry, more
than I can say, that we tried to remake you in our image, taking from you your
language and the signs of your identity.
I am sorry, more
than I can say, that in our schools so many were abused physically, sexually,
culturally and emotionally.
On behalf of the Anglican
Church of Canada, I present our apology.
We are all sorry for the destruction that results whenever we move ahead
of God. We are sorry for proclaiming that "God wills it" when God has
done no such thing. And we are sorry for asking God to bail us out when all we
needed to do was to listen to God in the first place. To the world, we ask for
your forgiveness for our misrepresentation of God.
And we promise to listen better in the future.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 22
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