Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
Matthew 16: 24-26 NRSVue
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Later today we will take down the Pride flag which has flown in front of our home for the month of June. We will replace it for Canada Day, although not without discussion about our usual practice to honour our country's birthday. We continue to be proud Canadians and what the Maple Leaf flag represents. I was a school kid when our current flag replaced the Canadian Red Ensign which was a statement about our roots in the British Empire. It my late teens I travelled in Britain and France with a Canadian flag on my backpack, a symbol which was received warmly.
In the last couple of years we have been more tentative about flying what is still a symbol of a colonial past, one in which Aboriginal peoples were deceived and treaties were violated.Our United Church of Canada participated in the dreadful Residential School system, which was a form of genocide, so we wondered what we should do on Canada Day. We chose to fly two flags, one the traditional Maple Leaf, the other a stylized version by a First Nations artist.
As most of you will know, the Canadian flag was commandeered earlier this year by the wretched Freedom Convoy and the unruly occupiers of our nation's capital. This bunch, which sadly included a fair number of conservative Christians, had a warped view of freedom. It was all about grievances and conspiracy theories and childish "you're not the boss of me" bluster.
In communities far from Ottawa vehicles were festooned with Canadian flags and when I saw them I muttered comments I won't repeat here. Do these supposed freedom Christians read their bibles? New Testament freedom is the invitation to lose our lives in order to find them, to freely chose selflessness rather than selfishness.Christian freedom invites us to stand on guard for generosity and compassion and doesn't come at the expense of others.
Apparently protesters will gather in Ottawa again tomorrow on a day when most of those present on Parliament Hill want to celebrate and express gratitude. How did we come to this?
This year we will probably fly two flags again, this time the stylized Maple Leaf and the orange Every Child Matters flag. The latter is on the request of the Six Nations of the Grand River and we are glad to comply. I will never cease to be a proud Canadian. Still, I can choose to be contrite about the inequities of the past and present, and work toward reconciliation. And I will never believe that my freedom as a Christian and a Canadian is all about me.
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