A church in our neighbourhood serves a free lunch every Wednesday. The food is tasty, and the gathering brings people together. A free meal benefits folks who find it difficult to make ends meet. As one wag puts it “Every time I think I can make ends meet, someone moves one of the ends.” Some diners have money in their pocket, and some do not. People sit down on equal terms. Nobody needs to stay away because they are broke. The church members show an understanding of the culture and needs of the community.
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Culture changes quickly from generation to generation. We are not always aware of how words, definitions and concepts affect out thinking. Bernice is a modern young woman. Once a month she cuts my hair. Our conversations give me insights into the world of youth. I told her about my summer trip to Fort Good Hope in the Northwest Territories. I described the location on the Mackenzie River. “It is about 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle.” “How far is that?” she asked me. The next time I told the story, I chose metric words. Dave, a retired trucker and auctioneer whose hobby is antique tractors, asked me where Fort Good Hope is located. “It is about 35 kilometres south of the Arctic circle.” His question was “How far is that?”
Mike, now retired in Saskatoon, sold Treflan in southwestern Ontario in an earlier career. He told this story to illustrate the importance of understanding the prevailing culture. “When I started selling herbicides to control weeds, most farmers employed migrant workers. The workers hoed their way up and down long rows of soybeans. My sales were meagre for two years. One day our washing machine broke down and my wife took the laundry to a coin wash. The place was crowded with farmers wives. They were doing laundry for the workers. My wife suggested spraying the fields and employing the workers in other ways. “They would have time to wash their own clothes,” Mike said “The next day my phone rang off the hook and I sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Treflan. I came to the conclusion that, while I knew a great deal about the product I was selling, I did not know the culture of the potential buyers.”
My life has been greatly enriched by people of different cultures. As a young minister I sat on a corral fence on the Sarcee Reserve near Calgary listening to elder George Runner’s stories. When I worked on the Blood First Nation in the southwest corner of Alberta, Jim Twigg, a rodeo announcer, told me legends of Indian cowboys. For a few years I led a church where half the congregation had been relocated from Vancouver during the Second World War because they were Japanese. I have grown into a deeper understanding of diversity, but I still have a long way to go. My prayer is “Make me open, tolerant and understanding.”
Religion endures from century to century when it speaks to each succeeding generation and culture. Lasting religion has a message people can relate to, something which speaks to their own reality. Johnny Cash wrote a song to explain why he always wore black. One verse from “Man in Black” goes like this:
I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity, Why, you’d think he’s talking straight to you and me.
SuggestedScripture:1Kings8:54-61,Ecclesiastes1:4-7
Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon.
