Part 1 – Wisdom From Our Canadian Forefathers

In 2007, I spoke this message to our Coastal Church family and I feel it is even more important today as we see the continual drift of Canada into a more secular culture.There are lots of movies out there that have a theme where the great treasure hunter is looking for a treasure, and he should search for clues and hidden maps, and eventually he find the right clues and the hidden map, and it leads him to the treasure. There was a movie that came out not too long ago called The National Treasure, and in that movie, they were looking for all kinds of clues and codes which led them to find an amazing treasure. And of course, if you’ve watched any of the Indiana Jones movies, you are familiar with him following certain clues to make a great archaeological discovery. People like looking for clues that are left behind that could possible lead to solving a mystery.

Did you know that our Canadian forefathers, perhaps unintentionally, left behind clues on how Canada can stay great, can stay glorious and free?

 They engraved these clues into the Parliament buildings, which give us a prescription on how to keep our country great. I like to think they were saying, “This is how we started Canada, and if you find these clues or this code, you can keep Canada glorious and free.”

Several years ago, I wrote to the curator of our Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada’s capitol. I wrote to them and said, “I understand that in our Parliament buildings, you have Scriptures. Could you send me a list of where the Scriptures are?” I was pleasantly surprised by the list of Biblical References on the Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament buildings as compiled by Audrey Dubé, Curatorial Services, House of Commons.

And as I started studying the Scriptures I thought, “Wow! The Scriptures our forefathers chose were no accident.” If it wasn’t intentionally done, God’s fingerprints were certainly on this, He was leaving Canadians a message in our Parliament buildings. These verses are a revelation on how to keep this country glorious and free.

Now all we’ve got to do is to go back and read them, understand them, and apply them. I think every generation of Canadians really needs to know this, and we can’t lose it along the way. We’ve got to keep this and fight for it, and hold onto it. Somebody paid a price to put it there, and I think we need to appreciate it.

There is a very interesting group out of Quebec called Mes Aïeux that released a powerful song and they have a song called Dégénération. It has a very interesting theme that tells us if we don’t hold onto the truth from generation to generation, we have degeneration. They’re not a Christian group, at least as far as I know, but their song tells a story of how our great grand-parents had something, and every generation since has lost something. It reflects on this generation of Canadians is looking for something, they feel they are missing something.

It starts off with this old grandfather and he’s got a wheelbarrow full of dirt. He takes the wheelbarrow full of dirt and gives it off to the next generation, and they have a bucket. She takes that bucket and she gives it off to the next generation, and they have a bag. And then from the bag it goes to the next generation, and they just have their hands open. It’s like every generation lost something. One of the comments about the song was that the dirt represents moral capital, and every generation has lost some of the moral capital. 

Let me share with you a couple of the verses from the song, that I think it speaks to a lot of what our generation is feeling.

 Your great, great grandfather was the one who cleared the soil

Your great grandfather was the one who worked the soil

And your grandfather turned a profit on the land

And your father was the one who sold the land to become a civil servant

And as for you, my young lad, you don’t know what you’ll do 

In your one little bedroom, too expensive, and cold in winter

Sometimes a vague desire comes to you to own something of your own

Dreaming of night of having your own little acre of land

Your great, great grandmother had fourteen children

Your great grandmother had almost as many

As for your grandmother, three were enough

And your mother didn’t even want you

You were just an accident

And as for you, my girl, you go from partner to partner

When you make a mistake by aborting

But some mornings you wake up crying after dreaming at night

Of a big table surrounded by children

Your great, great grandfather lived through the misery

Your great grandfather went around picking up pennies

And your grandfather miraculously became a millionaire

Your father inherited some of it

He put it into RRSPs

And as for you, my youth, you own your bottom to the ministry

No chance of getting a loan from a banking institution

You calm your fantasies of holding up a bank teller

From a drunken notion stemming from voluntary simplicity

This is just the first couple lines of it. It’s your great grandfather, your grandfather, your father, and now there’s you, and there’s this hunger inside this next generation that says, “I want to go back to what they had.” I think the solution for what they are looking for is engraved in our Parliament buildings. The answer is right there, and sometimes we miss the obvious. As we look at the verses recorded on the Parliament buildings we need to ask, “God, what are You saying to us as a nation today? What’s the code? What’s the message for us to keep Canada great? What did our forefathers think about? What did they give us so the next generation wouldn’t lose the moral capital?”

Join me this upcoming week as I share six clues our forefathers left us to keep Canada glorious and free, right here on the blog!