Back to the Garden

A sermon preached at St. Margaret's Anglican on Dec. 9th, Second Sunday of Advent. Scriptures: -          Baruch 5:1-9 -          Malachi 3:1-4 -          Luke 3:1-6 Prayer: “We are made for you, O God, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in thee.” (St. Augustine) Intro (Background) On the 2 nd of September, in the year 31 BC, Gaius Octavius finally defeated the armies of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Over the next couple of years, Octavius would go on to finish pacifying the realm, and in 29 BC he closed the Gates of Janus in Rome, and naming himself Caesar Augustus, signaled the beginning of a peace that would last for the next two centuries and become known as the Pax Romana. Critical historians have repeatedly pointed out that the “peace” of the Pax Romana was, at best, an imperial and hegemonic peace. It was a peace guarant...

There she held court. Turning first to her right, then to her left, she addressed her subjects in turn - exposing the secrets of the universe and the hidden truths about our common life. Alternating between narration and verse, the woman described the lives of those who wander the forgotten parts of our city streets. With fierce condemnation she called out the sexual violence perpetrated daily on those streets. She spoke with the voice of all the missing and murdered. She described innocence lost, children taken, trust betrayed. On the wings of strong and profaned language, her voice proclaimed to the world that the victims of this violence cannot be silenced. I blinked.  Curious about the identity of her audience, I peered across my empty mug at an equally empty cafe. The only souls in sight being myself and the proprietor who kindly brought the young woman a mug of water. She blinked. Her eyes burned with a fire that matched the heat of her words. Her long lashes ...

The above photograph was taken at an exhibit at the Winnipeg Graffiti Gallery created by Jordan Stranger. The exhibit was called "I am not an Indian" and features a Canadian flag with the front cover of the Indian Act superimposed upon it. As the red runs to the bottom, you see it turns into the bloody handprints of children, finally collapsing into the graves of residential school victims. This image is countered by the "tree of life" in the foreground that surrounded by various cultural symbols that point a way forward to a more truly multicultural Canada via the rainbow streamers connecting the pole back to the flag.  Introduction             In this paper I begin by examining the role violence plays in the construction of the political geography of Israel by providing a close analysis of the conquest narrative found in the book of Joshua. I focus on this text because it has strong resonances with the violent socia...