The Also Rans

Lib 158, Con 119, BQ 34, NDP 25, Grn 2, PPC 0

I enjoy occasionally heading my blogposts with a scripture verse. It is a way of defining not only topic but also my perspective for what will follow. Today is the morning after the night before. And today's visual is not Bible reference but election results! It is the latest (give or take a few after recounts) from yesterday's Decision Canada. It is but data, no more no less. The red-blue-and somewhat orange picture is what us citizens colored yesterday. A Bible vantage, however, is important to me even as I stare at the numbers. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live (Deuteronomy 30:19). It is this undergirding (yes faith perspective) which allows me to forge into a bit of opinionating about things I saw and heard yesterday. 

First there was the first. At beginning of day there was I and a few young moms with squirmy kids in tow and a few neighborly senior citizens, doing our privileged thing. We voted; no lineups, each of us probably with heads and hearts full of recent debates or conversations with relatives or friends or Zoom meetings, the choice was ours. One problem for me; the names on my ballot were persons who had made absolutely no effort to introduce themselves to me. So the ballot itself provided a bit of irritation.😒 It was my effort that had deciphered names and party connectedness in the week prior. The candidates were total strangers actually, most of the names suggesting possible citizenship in other countries. Ballot box options were based on knowledge of party platform or loyalty or whatever! I really would have appreciated an old fashioned ring at my doorbell. I do not like placing an X beside a political party’s “also ran” stranger.

Election results evening became a mental review of conversations I had had the last several weeks. The loudest voices around me, including relatives and fellow church members, were of very clear opinion, Justin Trudeau had wasted a whole bunch of taxpayers money seeking a mandate reinforcement, and "boy is he in for a surprise"(!?). Also in my circle were many who believe he has done a tolerable job – what with pandemic and all. And then also a number of PPC signs on the lawns of some very nice high-end community residences caused me to think about why these people might support an extremist! As well, some orange median signs and some Maverick candidate signs had suggested to me that this election may actually be interesting.

The results on television? Boring, boring - at least early in the evening. Color of map almost identical to 2019; red in the East, blue in the West, light blue and orange in Quebec and the North. In order to not be too bored and cynical at this waste of it all I found myself checking some nuances especially as the evening wore on.  For example:

NDP orange still colored a considerable portion of the map, but that’s because Indigenous communities do not represent high density urban populations;

Western Canada blue might suggest Alberta and Saskatchewan think alike (although us originals know that is not true at all) 😉;

Many second place finishers in the West are NDP, rather than Liberals as per last; 

Maxime Bernier and his Peoples Party indignation at same old same old deficit electioneering was appreciated by many, yet yielded zero seats for his PPC.  He enthusiastically thanked all his supporters (tears streaming down his wife’s face). He impacted this election. If he had not touted his ridiculous anti-masking stance he might have scored a seat or two;

Green Party 2 seats;

Elections or not, homelessness still has its presence right before our eyes. 

      

Results? Well, these nuances to the ‘data’ show a changing picture. Not as boring after all. My interest is piqued; things not exactly as per last time. There is probability of considerable change next election. I hope and pray same old same old politics (thanks Mr. Bernier) not lead to another snap election two years from now. There is a political force - not only a political philosophy - emerging in Western Canada which old school liberal conservative (conservative liberal?) thinking will not be able to contain any longer. If they do not acknowledge it this true North strong and free will probably break up into something else. [Imagine true East strong and free, but that would mean Ontario and Quebec need to get along. Even scarier, imagine the West enticed to think itself as true North strong and beholden to the U.S.] 

This election was perhaps an endorsement of the way Mr. Trudeau handled the pandemic, although his hoped-for majority did not happen. Unnecessary expenditure of depleted funds, and no resolution of how our country will continue for long. Some issues, like Climate Action, and our accommodation and policing of indigenous and immigrant populations left behind (Black lives Matter?😒). His mandate is weaker, but yielding a possibility of accomplishing more because now he must cooperate. With minority government we have opportunity now to force parliament to get at those items desperately needing attention, and may now get done even beyond pre-election promises! Also duh, I would so like if candidates be required to actually campaign in constituencies before their names appear on ballots.

I still rejoice in the freedom of this country Canada. When my somewhat frequent inclinations to critique and fussiness have come up in recent months, seemingly each time I get a gentle reminder from my immigrant friends. Without hesitation they tell me this country is the best in the world! Minority government? This may in fact be God’s way (not the Liberal's way) of helping all of us in this country to live on this island with a neighbor to the South .... to choose life, so that our children may live.

Big Numbers

This morning I have suddenly become fascinated by big things. Not exactly of the ‘size matters’ kind, but the presence of impressive things, whether they be church budgets or nice vehicles or nice teeth or nice hair.  What would the watering hole or Tim Hortons or after church chinwags be without the “Wow” factors. Everybody likes to elicit the occasional big laugh or success stories or big connectors in conversation – some of course needier of those than others!

Today's occasion of discovery is Daily Prayer, a regular online Anabaptist somewhat Lectionary-based devotional guide. The gospel reading was John 2:1-11, the miracle at the wedding. After the reading there is always ‘silent or spoken reflections,’ a sacred time, nobody looking for big entertainment or debate here. Even so, today one of the group participants noted the huge amount of wine provided by Jesus. Six stone jars each containing twenty or thirty gallons would contribute to about 180 gallons of wedding hoopla, obviously more than needed for this occasion, no matter how we might visualize the excess! After the meeting (Zoom, by the way) that big image is still with me.

[First I must type in parenthetically. I cannot but express appreciation for this regular opportunity to participate in quiet and orderly prayer with any who wish to log in. It has been a life-saving gift to me! It may appear as contradiction to my last blog where I celebrate free flowing unscripted speech or activity among people gathered for worship. Here I cannot but register my gratitude for almost the opposite - regular unadorned Bible reading and quiet personal prayer. These prayer times are orderly; they're scripted and they're good! More should avail themselves of this opportunity. I am indeed a fan of free unscripted speech; but here hasten to add it’s important for this freedom to have its source deep in the stirrings of the soul. Those stirrings may well come up in the discipline of quiet prayer. If joy and conviction, then it must be shouted from the rooftops (eg Acts 4:20). I advocate for more of that hallelujah stuff especially in our staid slightly academic educated Mennonite circles (German circles, as Tony Campolo would say 😉 ). If, however, it be merely a cry for attention or inner restlessness then of course it’s better to shut up.]

Back to the topic at hand, the BIG things! What fascinates me about the gallons and gallons of wine is that it receives no explanation or effort to have it make sense to the ordinary reader. The water to wine incident is a context setter, setting the stage for what will follow many more times in the next several years of Jesus’ ministry. The wedding is an ‘important ordinary’ occasion among the people of Cana in Galilee. Here we encounter the first recorded miracle of Jesus, with the commentary going on to taste test. It's quality, not quantity. And the significance is not lost on the people, What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him (2:11).

Now, some later occasions of similar vintage. Jesus feeding 5000 comes to mind. This reminds me of my sister-in-law who undertakes immense catering projects – almost superhuman – singlehandedly catering to banquets or special occasions, baking hundreds of buns or squares or cakes. Grandchildren and neighbors will help out here or there, but it’s her project, her event.  And when it’s over it becomes the town conversation (at least the conversations she’s involved in) for the next week or so. It’s an ordinary thing but almost a miracle.

I think about Jesus (although sister dear would protest at so noble a comparison). Jesus’ ministry becomes huge in very ordinary settings. Somebody is born deaf or blind or mute; a child is convulsing or a woman has an issue of blood. Some of these things are of the type that would cause us to clap hands over mouth; certainly not the prayer requests that show up in church where we only hear about death and cancer, but no demon possession or mental illness, etc. Word gets out among the ordinary people that Jesus is not afraid; in fact he handles the big ones right alongside the little ones, and if need be he also feeds the crowds.

Something very ordinary and down home, and something hugely beyond our wildest imagination. Jesus came to his own, his own people, and in that context there were things he just did, because that is how a supreme rabbi might care for the people! His mother, kind of nervous and aware of the big mandate her son has from God, gets worried, “They have no wine” she says to him, and then micro-managing just like many good mothers she makes sure the servants get it right, “Do whatever he tells you”(:5). Jesus gets it; both the mother reminders (!) and the big assignment. A miracle is performed, the party continues. I love it.

Those miracles of Jesus, Big Number events which attracted more and more followers; and they happened right in among the Q and A times as he met people here and there, village after village. And of course there were Romans, and Samaritans (John 4)and Canaanites (Matt 15) - in other words more than just the home crowd. Big news has a way of doing that. This also gets the tongues wagging, questions raised especially from those who thought they knew it all, and of course the recourse to theories and explanations of many things, this leading to the crucifixion. Hmm, Jesus among the religious and the political. Election anyone? 😟

I’m wondering what BIG things Jesus is available still to do for us, things that the Messiah, the Christ, is here for. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? (Matthew 7:9-10). More available than we might think. In John 16, towards the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus said to his disciples that although his departure was imminent, they would not be left alone. They will have the paraclete (the comforter), his Holy Spirit (:7). Big things. Little things. They happened, and available for us still.

Next time I hear one of these big convincing "wow" stories, be it science or coronavirus or environment or immigration or militarism or just plain bs, I will probably be thinking about this. Where might Jesus join the conversations? Of late I have poised that thought a few times. Interestingly people of other than Christian faith seem more interested in it than fellow born-again Christians! Among us Christians it moves into branding; who's brand are you wearing? And then we talk environmentalism or social activism or evangelicalism or liberals or conservatives or, most recently, vaxing or not. Inter-faith conversations, on the other hand, move right into it, Jesus by power of his Spirit here among us all! So very interesting, and also not as hard on the nerves.

Turns out this sounds a bit like a sermon. I’m okay with that. This is after all my blogpost, and my only promise at beginning of these blogs was to "say it as I sees it." 😊 This is my thought for the day.  

Also, along with this thinking - and this definitely no sermon - I do have a couple BIG prayer requests going. Pray that it may be so. Thank you for reading.