From the Pastor

December 2009

December 6th falls on a Sunday this year. This December 6th also marks 20 years since that terrible day in Montreal when a man entered an engineering classroom at l’Ecole Polytechnique with a high-powered rifle, ordered the men in the room to leave and began shooting, killing fourteen of the women. Not random victims of a deranged mind, these women were methodically and deliberately singled out because they had dared to study engineering, a field previously dominated by men.

For years this atrocity was widely commemorated each December 6th across Canada with prayers, candle lighting and vigils – many taking place in and organized by Christian churches. However, in recent years participation and interest in this day and reflection on its significance has waned considerably. Perhaps time has dulled the shock of what happened and why. Perhaps the events of 9-11 and the deaths and injuries of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have drawn greater attention.

December 6th is also the 2nd Sunday of Advent. More than a time to purchase Christmas gifts, decorate our homes for Christmas and make plans for Christmas feasts, Advent is primarily a time to wait and to watch and to hope for the advent of Christ among us, together with all that means for creation: peace, harmony, justice, freedom, and abundant life. It is a time to sing with Mary, as she anticipates the birth of Jesus, about a time when the lowly will be lifted up and the hungry will be filled with good things.

And December 6th is the Feast Day of St. Nicholas who, beyond serving as the template for our modern image of Santa Claus, is remembered for acts of compassion and kindness. Legend tells of three daughters in Nicholas’ town of Myra in the 4th century about to be forced into prostitution by their father due to his inability to provide for their dowry, but who were saved by Bishop Nicholas’ generosity.

The Montreal Massacre of December 6th, 1989 represents fear, discrimination, violence, and the chasm between women and men, rich and poor, weak and strong, all of which continues to thrive today in far away places like Afghanistan and even in our own homes, our schools, our churches and our institutions just as it did for Mary, for Jesus, and for those three young women of Myra, ca. 342. And so this year, on December 6th, 2009 on the 2nd Sunday of Advent, we will remember and name those fourteen women. And we will voice our yearning for the end of the control of dominant powers in the world; we will lament the needless pain and suffering that surrounds us; and we will confess our role in it and seek forgiveness. It won’t feel very “Christmas-like,” but we will do it in the faith and the hope of the reality of Christmas – that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Stir up your power, Lord Jesus, and come.

Peace,
Pastor Brian