Everclear, Residential Schools, and being Everything to Everyone

Most of you, by now, have heard that I don't much care for live music outside of church. It's not my thing. I don't have any particular urge to pay money to see a band perform far too loud for the price of all of their CDs put together - if you could still buy CDs anywhere, but I'm trying to make a comparative here. I think what ruinated my experience with live music was a particular concert back in my early university days. I paid a bucket of cash to see Our Lady Peace play the Saddledome. I learned two things that evening: First, I didn't actually like Our Lady Peace anymore, and paying to see them felt like a bit of a rip off. Secondly, the other thing I noticed was that a band called Everclear was opening for them, and put on a vastly superior show, and gained a lot of my respect. It was a brief summer romance, Everclear and me, and for that summer, their biggest hit "everything to everyone" got played a plenty on my various CD players. Not mp3 player. Those didn't exist.
Everything to everyone. I was going to google the lyrics, but that didn't exist at the time of that concert either, so I'm going to be crazy and try to go from memory.

You do what you do
You say what you say
You try to be
Everything to everyone.

I really have no idea what Johnny Handsome was on about, but I think it was a vague anti-conformity message. Brought to you by the bean counting suits at Sony Records, the global headquarters for anti-conformity. But anyway, the impression I got from the song was that you should be yourself, and try not to be everything to everyone, because it'll never work.

Well, don't tell that to Saint Paul, because, as those of you who were paying attention to the sermon beyond the opening illustration about hats will remember, Paul is big on being everything to everyone.

I have become all things to all people, that by all
means, I may save some. I do it all
for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share with
them in its blessings.

A pretty different message, isn't it? Paul is speaking favorably about being all things to all people, which is sort of in direct opposition to the clunky caterwauling of Steve McHandsome from Everclear. Ah, but here's the rub. It's been two thousand years, and we're still talking about St. Paul . It's been ten years, and nobody's talking about Everclear, so obviously someone has made a more succinty point.
Now, what Paul is advocating is not what you might think he's advocating. He's not telling you to pretend to be something you're not, as tempting as that may be. You've all met them before, right? The social chameleons, the people who will ask you for your opinion before they give theirs, just in case they might be different? Paul's not saying that you should do that. But what he is saying is that the Gospel is supposed to meet people where they are at. Not always where you're at. Those may be two completely different things.

Now, this may be more political than I normally get, but there you go. In this great nation of Canada, we've heard a lot about residential schools lately. Yes, residential schools, where first nations children were taken to be taught in buildings run by the churches. Not, fortunately, the Lutheran churches, but primarily the Catholic and Anglican churches. And part of the opposition to the residential schools, in addition to the physical, mental, and sexual abuse, is the accusation that what they tried to do at the residential schools was to eradicate first nations culture.

The schools' purpose was, according to the Indian Act,
to "civilize" aboriginals, teach them English or French,
convert them to Christianity, and end their traditional ways of life.

Not the finest hour of Churches in Canada, and it calls to the point that St. Paul is trying to make. One of the biggest mistakes in the whole residential school affair was not trying to teach the children English or French (which they might very well need in Canadian society), nor was it evangelizing them, but it was coupling these things with the last one: Ending their ways of life. It's something that churches have apologized for, and will probably apologize for again, the notion that to be a Christian is to be white and North American, and to have your first language be English or French. And that flies in the face of the notion of Christianity as a global faith, and it flies in the face of how Christianity got its start. Take, for example, the fact that Christianity began as a sort of Jewish subsect. The early disciples had this same problem, and gave each other the business over this issue every once in a while. We naturally think that that's at worst wrong-headed, and at best, hopelessly quaint. That people should be expected to be Jews before they can become Christians? Oh my! But, it's not too far different from our assumption that the Gospel is for people who are just like us, and less so for people who aren't like us.

The great commission still applies: We are to go into the world and make disciples of all nations. Not turn every nation into this one, but to make disciples of all nations. Bringing the Gospel to the nations requires more than telling everyone to wear a shirt and tie, as though that was an official Christian uniform, but it's bringing the message of salvation to people, wherever they are and whoever they are. Even though it's tough to remember all the time, people don't have to become just like you to be Christians. They just have to be forgiven, not of the colour of their skin, or their language, or where they were born, but their sin. Their human failings.

Acts 10

34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand
that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

The Holy Spirit Falls on the Gentiles

44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

PJ.