REFORMATION DAY 2016
I’m not a big believer in coincidence.
I also cannot consider myself a Lutheran, having never followed all of the beliefs and the traditions of the Lutheran Church. I’ve never been Confirmed. However, I’ve served and worshipped among Lutherans for decades.
I was ordained as a Presbyterian Elder more than a decade ago; to my knowledge, I’ve never been un-ordained.
So I find it *interesting* that this matter has come to my heart and mind on Reformation Day.
A quotation presented by the Institute on Religion and Public Life:
“…Therefore, it seems fitting that we, Lutherans, make our own mea culpa. It seems fitting that we confess our sins associated with the Reformation and, especially, our continued unkindness toward our brothers and sisters of other theological traditions. It seems fitting that we, once again, make Jesus’ prayer our own, not only in word, but also in deed “ ut unum sint .” (Latin: ‘That they may be one’)
Joshua Genig, pastor of The Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Atlanta, Georgia
TREATY WITH THE SIOUX—BRULÉ, OGLALA, MINICONJOU, YANKTONAI, HUNKPAPA, BLACKFEET, CUTHEAD, TWO KETTLE, SANS ARCS, AND SANTEE—AND ARAPAHO, 1868.
Apr. 29, 1868. | 15 Stats., 635. | Ratified, Feb. 16, 1869. | Proclaimed, Feb. 24, 1869.
ARTICLE 16.
The United States hereby agrees and stipulates that the country north of the North Platte River and east of the summits of the Big Horn Mountains shall be held and considered to be unceded Indian territory, and also stipulates and agrees that no white person or persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy any portion of the same; or without the consent of the Indians first had and obtained, to pass through the same; and it is further agreed by the United States that within ninety days after the conclusion of peace with all the bands of the Sioux Nation, the military posts now established in the territory in this article named shall be abandoned, and that the road leading to them and by them to the settlements in the Territory of Montana shall be closed.
What am I talking about…
The North Dakota Pipeline Protest
DAPL map overlaying Treaty Lands
Unarmed protesters, on their own land, being attacked by police and National Guard members in riot gear, armed with rubber bullets, pepper spray, a sound cannon and police dogs. Forcing the unarmed protestors off their own land.
Beating unarmed protestors.
On their own land.
Granted, Custer broke the 1868 treaty in 1874 because gold was discovered in the Black Hills. Gold, in America, is more valuable than treaties. Treaties are just pieces of paper [what’s in your wallet?]. One hundred and forty years, and the Courts still have not settled this dispute.
This is Medicine Bottle, originally photographed by Edward S. Curtis, a day or two before Medicine Bottle was hanged in the late 1800s. His crime? BEING A SIOUX.
On Reformation Day, can the followers of Jesus acknowledge and accept the idea that ALL LIVES MATTER?
That our promises matter.
That our honor matters.
That Justice matters.
That how we treat people matters.
May God have mercy on our souls…
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Chronicles in Ordinary Time 