Chaplain's Corner

Thirty-one years ago this past May my wife, oldest son and I crossed the United States/Canadian border at a little crossing called Oungre on the North Dakota, Saskatchewan border.  It was the beginning of quite an adventure.  I had graduated from seminary a year earlier in Denver, Colorado.  My search for a congregation to serve resulted in a call to a church in Strasbourg, Saskatchewan and the need to immigrate to Canada.  Finally after 6 months of satisfying immigration requirements, with Landed Immigrant visas in hand, we traveled north to this country where we would slowly find out that we were indeed “resident aliens”.  Our context changed dramatically:  from urban to rural, form the melting pot of the United States to a Swedish congregation where many still spoke the language and where the customs of Sweden were still followed and from American to Canadian.

The differences were not immediately dramatic, and it took us about six months to really understand how very different this new context was.  Although we are neighbors and enjoy visiting one another’s countries; although we share many similarities with the people in the States, we are different.  One of those differences is how we celebrate the birth of our nations.

Being an American, July 4th is a very important day.  Patriotism flows pretty passionately in the vessels of almost every American.  We can be brought to tears when we hear our national hymns are sung.  The Stars and Stripes are proudly flown in many American yards and on many America homes.  Even the smallest country town will have fireworks displays that make many of the Canada Day displays look rather paltry.

Many churches in the United States have two flags adorning the front of their sanctuary:  a Christian Flag and an American Flag.  In some churches in the United States, hymns like The Star Spangled Banner, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, America the Beautiful, The Battle Hymn of the Republic,  This is My Country, This Land is Your Land, and God Bless America are sung side by side with How Great Thou Art and Great is Thy Faithfulness.  “God and Country” is a dyad that is very commonly embraced.  You might notice this especially in many of the Country Music songs that originate in the States.

So, when we spent out first Canada Day in this country, we expected Canadians to celebrate their National Day in a similar way to the way we celebrated July 4th in the States; and of course, it didn’t happen.  Most of the farmers in the church we served didn’t even take the day off.  Besides it being a statutory holiday, not much happened around the small Saskatchewan community where we lived.  No invitations to a Canada Day picnic, no fireworks, and a few people drove into Regina for the fireworks, but with the sun going down at 11:00 p.m. and our having a two year old, we didn’t bother.  As you can imagine it was quite a disappointment.

We have slowly learned that the way Canadians and Americans approach many things is quite different and we have come to appreciate the reserved, less passionate approach of most Canadians to almost everything in life, including their National Holiday.  So what does any of this have to do with spirituality?  Good question.

Just as our cultural selves develop in the context of family, culture and nation, so our spiritual selves are formed in a context.  And even within the great country of Canada there are many contexts in which the human spirit is nurtured.  We don’t get to choose the context into which we are born, or the spiritual context in which our spirits are nurtured. 

I recently had as young man express his resentment for having been raised in the home of parents who were evangelical Christians.  He has long abandoned the context and their spirituality, but he continues to struggle with the legacy that context left in his soul.  I don’t think his parents were overbearing or unreasonable.  I don’t believe they ever attempted to “shove their faith down this young man’s throat”.  However, at this point in his life he holds resentment in his heart over the simple fact that he was raised in an evangelical Christian home with parents who tried hard to consistently practice their faith.

Several years ago a young woman attending the University of Winnipeg came to talk to me.  She had been raised in a Christian family and exposed to the teaching of the church through weekly attendance at services.  At the university she took a class in which her professor challenged the students saying, “The only reason you are what you are spiritually is because you were raised in that context.”  He went on to teach what would be called philosophical relativism which questioned the existence of absolute truth.  As this young woman listened, she embraced her professors view point and threw off the spirituality of her youth for one that was absolutely inclusive.  Sadly, she did this with little more thought than she had given the spiritual context of her home.  But it does demonstrate how very powerful context can influence our spirituality.

Spiritual inclusivism is very much the rage these days.  Now, on any given day, you can watch programming on television which shares many diverse spiritualities; Bhudism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Catholic Christian, Evangelical Christian, Charismatic Christian.  And on it goes.  No longer are we restricted by pure logistics to the spiritual context of our upbringing.  We are free to explore and experiment within any number of spiritual contexts.   Many would purport that spiritual contexts are really no different that national contexts, the challenge is simply to adapt to the context in which you exist.  Much as my family has adapted to the Canadian way of celebrating one’s National Birthday.

But is the concept of relativism to be accepted?  Are all options morally the same, just different in terms of form and expression?  Was the professor at the university right?  Are their no absolutes?

These are vitally important questions.  In fact I believe these are critically important questions, questions of such dire consequence that we must not gravitate to an answer that suits our personal preferences.  These questions are of such importance that they demand that we give them the most serious consideration.  Our search for the truth in regards to this proposition takes on a life and death reality, even though the proposition itself insists that it isn’t all that important at all because all at the same time nothing is true and everything is true.

If philosophical relativism is in fact an accurate way to describe the nature of spiritual contexts, then we can easily sit back and follow Bob Marley’s advise, “Don’t worry, be happy!”  But if there is truth and this truth defines one true spiritual context and that context alone can determine one’s destiny: this is the claim of biblical Christianity, the claim of Jesus himself.  Then we better be diligent to search out, understand and embrace the spiritual context that Jesus taught for in it we will find life, meaning, forgiveness and a freedom from the fear of death.

Have a great Canada Day, celebrate it in the unique manner that Canadians do.  I’m thinking about a drive to Grand Forks to enjoy July 4th American style.  But when it comes to spiritual context, give careful thought to this matter for it is about much more than acceptable difference, it is literally a matter of eternal life and death.