Sermon: On Sanctuary
Text: Deuteronomy 8:2-6
I planned the elements of this Sunday’s worship, such as the order of service, the theme, and the hymns early this week, using that early preparation to open up time to attend the conference, Striving for Human Dignity: Race, Gender, Class and Religion, hosted by the Islamic Social Services Association (called ISSA) on Thursday and Friday. I planned to share with you about walking through a labyrinth as an example of forming a spiritual practice in our daily lives. Yet the recent tragedy that has shaken so many of us, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, not only in New Zealand, but here in Canada, here in Winnipeg, changed my focus. The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, named it as a “terrorist attack,” not just “mosque shootings”, and indeed it was an act of terrorism which killed *50 people and injured 50 while they were at Friday prayers. Ardern urged her people to overcome the us-versus-them mentality and to simply remember that “they are us.” That message resonates with us: you cannot be calm and apathetic when your friends, neighbours, family members, and fellow citizens are shaken by shock, anger, grief, and fear.
I was juggling many commitments this week, and I was too busy to stop what I was doing when this act of terrorism took so many innocent people’s lives, the lives of people of faith, who are just like us. I was busy that night, and I was busy the next morning. I don’t have a TV and I get most news from my social media circle. I read a few news titles about the mosque shootings as I bounced between commitments, but I didn’t have the time to look deeper. It got my full attention only when a friend of mine sent me and a few others an email, and I am going to read it out loud because it gave me perspective. It gave me a more personal reason to pay more attention. My friend is a queer Jewish woman. She’s a human rights scholar who teaches journalism, and she said:
“I am sure you have all heard about the massacre in NZ - the death of 49 people and wounding of 20 - the fact that it was live streamed - the fact that the self-confessed murderer (now arrested, as well as 3 other people) wrote a manifesto about white supremacy and called himself "a normal guy...."
I know what it is like to be of a cultural/religious minority and hated for who I am. I know how much the support of others outside of my community means to me. I saw this in Winnipeg in response to the shooting massacre in Pennsylvania when THOUSANDS of people came to the synagogue - and only about 1/3-1/2 of the room was Jewish.
I am relatively new to Winnipeg. I have reached out to friends/colleagues and former students of mine in solidarity and support but it is a very personal, solitary, action. You have wider local networks than me... perhaps there is a way to reach out and show support?”
Reflecting on my Thursday night and Friday morning, I would like to put it this way. I was busy for all the right reasons, (for example, I have two kids and both have their parent-teacher interviews on the same day at the same time in two different schools), but busyness does interrupt our ability to become and stay spiritually mindful and politically awake. When we hear our neighbours cry out in pain and shock, demanding compassionate listening, we are never too busy to adopt the clarity of understanding to see the reality, the truth, and show our love with actions.
Actually my Jewish friend sent her email with the title: “Live shooting of white supremacist/Islamophobic massacre in NZ” and I am glad to see that this descriptive clarity is being shared more widely than before, that social awareness of white supremacy and Islamophobia has increased.
The rapid growth of white supremacy groups and their global interconnections have already become a real social threat. Researchers say that every province and region in Canada is affected by right wing white supremacy groups and hate crimes, but that’s nothing new. What is new is that the demographic has changed. The rising white supremacists are not skinheads with black leather jackets who listen to heavy metal music. These groups are “normal guys” and women, educated, employed, with a wide age range. “Great White Nation” is part of the global movement, and even as they present the Canadian flag on their posters, their nation of hatred transcends the borders of any single country. Angry, resentful people are drawn to groups like this to express their violent tendencies, but the songs to recruit members can be folk songs or Country music or very mellow-sounding music with harmful lyrics. Another thing that is very alarming to me as a parent is that White supremacy is insidiously pervasive; it even reaches schoolchildren’s lives, their thinking, and their every-day communication. White supremacy, Islamophobic right wing groups and their ideologies cannot be dismissed as ‘outside influences’ when they find fertile soil in the societal system in which ordinary citizen’s lives are rooted. For example, in my son’s life, kids play video games that lavishly praise the normality and superiority of White masculinity; kids subscribe to YouTube videos which flesh out such narratives with slurs and jokes and unfiltered images. Race-based kids’ slurs are used every day at school. Children are already both victims and perpetrators of White supremacy regardless of their skin colour and ethnicity. Children of colour have to make choices - to resist or to conform and assimilate. The pressure of white normality damages children’s self-esteem and self-love. It is very hurtful to see your children adopt race-based self-hatred.
Here’s one interesting research result I learned from the conference.
Can a (fill in the blank) be a “real Canadian”?
Ask my children or other children of colour. Not all of them would answer the same way, but it is alarming that many children still might answer they should be really White-skinned or born here in Canada to be a Canadian. It is so saddening.
The research results show that the people polled say:
Christian: 80 % of people say yes, they can be a real Canadian.
Atheist: 70 %
Jew: 64 %
Hindu: 58 %
Muslim: 56 % of the people polled said they believe that Muslims can be ‘real’ Canadians.
There were so many powerful moments during the conference and if I can highlight one, ‘rethinking sanctuary’ seems to be relevant to the theme I originally planned to share if this attack at the mosques had not happened (and they shouldn’t ever happen): walking on a labyrinth.
As I shared with the children in The Intergenerational Time, the labyrinth which became widely known to the public and Christians in the 90s comes from the pattern of the medieval eleven-circuit labyrinth that remains embedded in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France.
For us Christians, sanctuary is a beautiful word. I am sure that, to many others, sanctuary is a beautiful concept, a beautiful practice, a beautiful space/place. This beauty is based on the promise and assurance of safety for all who come in. “You are safe here.” Sanctuary means a place of worship and hospitality where all people are nurtured and encouraged to safely explore and experience the holy. During the second day of the Striving for Human Divinity Conference, Dr. Omar Reda was the theme speaker. He is a leading expert in psychotraumatology and trauma-informed care as well as the mental health of Muslims, immigrants and refugees, the Libyan revolution and the Arab Spring. His words challenged me to rethink my ideas about sanctuary. Dr. Omar shared with us that sanctuary implies the dynamic in the meaning: if those inside of it are safe, then those who are outside are considered the enemy.
I pondered the invitation to rethink ‘sanctuary’ a little further. Even in secular times such as ours, we Christians hold a privilege; we can still believe and hope that the church will continue to receive protection and will continue to be respected as a place for protecting others. For example, we have known cases in which certain churches were able to provide protection for refugees, especially those who were in danger of deportation and serious persecution in their country of origin. This past Friday morning, I felt shaken and vulnerable when I realized that the rapid rise of the radical right-wing, White supremacy groups and ideologies meant that the sanctuary of sacred spaces is no longer a promise. People inside of mosques may never feel safe again. The basic assurance of safety, of the mosque as sanctuary should be a given, and yet the ability of those mosques in New Zealand to provide for their own worshippers was stolen from them. Literally, in Christchurch, NZ, those who were inside of the mosques were killed, and those who were on the outside of their sanctuary were the real enemies, hateful and hostile. And we are reminded, they are us – that man, the killer, by his own description, “Just a normal guy”. They are us. Our Muslim sisters, brothers and kins, our contemporaries of faith. This must shake us. This must awaken us. We must practice Christian humbleness to truly repent, to be truly awake and to truly encounter God who weeps with those who weep and mourns with those who mourn. May God humble us and feed us with not only daily bread but also the words of life. (Matthew 4:1-4; Deuteronomy 8:2-6 - our scripture readings of today.) as we walk together on this winding labyrinth of healing, justice and reconciliation, sharing vulnerability, showing solidarity, loving in action.
*updated for most recent numbers of dead/injured on Saturday afternoon
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