January 31/2016
4th Sunday after Epiphany
On a quiet Saturday morning when he was home visiting family
shortly after his baptism, Jesus popped into the local synagogue and spent some
time with the men gathered there. In the
room, there would have been a few scholars, some local businessmen, some resident
tradespeople and some fisherman and possibly a farmer or two. They
gathered weekly to read the sacred texts to listen to the learned men talk
about what the texts meant and then shared conversation about how it played out
in their day to day lives. Jesus rises in their midst and goes over to the lectern
and then reads from the scroll. A
passage from the Prophet Isaiah,- then he sits down and says: “today this scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing. At first the men are delighted
and proud even of Joseph’s son being so eloquent and knowledgeable about
scripture but soon things start to shift, and the mood in the room becomes
suspicious,---what is he really saying,?what is he implying?…is he insinuating
that we are not good Jews? Is Jesus
suggesting that we don’t know how to interpret scripture? Is Jesus really saying that we are suppose to
love our Roman conquerors, to open our hearts to our oppressors, to forgive
debts to those who owe us money? Blasphemy!
– Irreverence! – Sacrilege!
And before you know it the room filled with peaceful men discussing
scripture becomes a room filled with wild
and angry men, so angry so furious that they seek to silence Jesus, they
grab him and drag him to a cliff edge where they are about to throw him
off.
After reading lines from Isaiah promising release and redemption and healing for those who have been cast off by the world, his audience seems well pleased by his words, even proud of the hometown boy made good. But then Jesus presses on. “No,” it’s as if he’s saying, “When I talk about God coming to free the oppressed and bless the poor, I’m talking about God blessing the people you can’t stand, the people you don’t want to be near, the people you think are your enemies.” And so he reminds them of a couple of stories where God blessed not Israel, but Israel’s enemies. And then they’re mad, so boiling mad that they’re ready to get rid of this so-called prophet.
Jesus’ congregation, you see, would agree with the farmer that says, “good walls make good neighbours.” Walls, after all, keep you safe, mark off important boundaries, and keep less-then-desirable things at bay, whether wolves from sheep, a hostile neighbour from your home, or fear-inducing refugees from your homeland. No wonder so many then and now think good walls make good neighbours. …
But Jesus disagrees. When you live into your identity as one of God’s beloved children, you see, there’s no more need for walls to keep the enemies out because there are no more enemies. Walls – and with them all of the ways we define, describe, and bracket out the “other” – are antithetical to God’s kingdom purposes.”[1]
Walls? Where are my
walls? –Have I tried to throw prophet over a cliff edge because his words made
me uncomfortable, and I did not want to know or to hear or to change?
Wednesday, at the Cape we hosted our second “Soup’s On” community
lunch. It was a casual gathering where
people came and went over a three hour period.
There was lots of visiting. The
conversations was amazing, and distressing and enlightening and
disturbing. There was on half hour
conversation that was particularly notable for me and I think I encountered a
prophet. I was told stories about what
it is to be a Aboriginal person in our local culture. I listened as the only white person in the
room, to this matter of fact recounting of racism and people being treated
differently, and being excluded, and being bullied, being – well maybe you have
better words for what this is – these are a few of the stories
An 8 year old Anishanabe boy in the Wiarton school who was being
bullied and beat up every day and his mother tried to teach him that he needed
to be the bigger person, and not to fight and not to use violence and not to hurt
other people – and she advocated at the school, and talked to the teachers and
the principal but they did not stop the violence – and then one day, she could
not take her son being hurt anymore – and gave him permission to fight – to go
against what she believed in, and he did; the next day at school when
surrounded by 10 other boys, he fought back and knocked them all down one after
another after another – and in the time that it took for one native boy to
knock down 10 white boys – not one teacher came, not one teacher saw….
And did you know that there are only about three places in
Wairton where the man who was telling the story and his family can have a meal
where they feel like they are wanted because in other restaurants they have
been treated poorly, they have received slow rude service by the wait staff, disrespect
from other patrons and just a general feeling of not being welcome.
And two weeks ago in Owen Sound in the midst of a
altercation by two business owners the one hurled the terrible words ‘fat
squaw’ referring to a cook in the restaurant, who happened to be the cousin of
the people at the manse that day.
As I listened I felt sad and hurt and shocked to know that
this is what is experienced today a few kilometres from where I live and part
of me wanted to defend – maybe say ‘oh, you must have heard it wrong, that is
not really going on’ or justify the behaviour of my white brothers and sisters
– and it begs the question about whether this is what was going on in the minds
of the men in the synagogue. Where they
too looking of for excuses and defenses.
Why I was so uncomfortable with hearing these stories of
racism; was I ashamed for my fellow white man narrow mindedness? or was I
ashamed of mine?
Have I done that, have I been racist? I have
been a waitress – have I ever given someone poor service because of their skin
colour? Have I ever witnessed to
children picking on other children and walked away and told no one? Have I ever insulted someone or used a racial
slur without know it?
When I was growing up we used to live in Byng Inlet which is
on the edge of the Magnetawan First Nation, we went to school with kids from
there, and yet the stories we heard tell about the people from there were about
drunken Indians and broken down housing, and kids dropping out of school. Even
though it was never spoken, there was a great line between them, and us and we
never sat together on the bus or ate lunch together or went to each others
birthday parties. I cannot even remember
anyone’s name.
And then we moved out west, to Nordegg, Alberta which it is
right in the foothills 70 miles west of Rocky Mountain House. Further west was a Cree Reserve and the
children of that reserve came into Nordegg to go to school. In this little community of about 300
people, there too was a big divide between Natives and White – Nordegg was the
only community around that had a store, and there were big signs in the windows
and on the shelves that said “this store does not sell mouthwash, vanilla, Pam
or glue to Indians”.
No one ever told me to be afraid, but sometimes the loudest
messages are in words that are not spoken – and as I was growing up, whenever I
saw someone who I thought was Indian – I shrank into myself and stayed out of
their way. I never tried to make friends
with any of the children I was going to school with. As far as I remember I never even talked to
them. And at no time in my growing up
years or even in these years have I ever thought of myself as racist or
prejudice. And yet when I tell these stories in the light
of day, I was racist and prejudiced.
Just like those men in the synagogue.
Which means that there is no way to avoid it…Jesus is talking
directly to me this morning when he says that I am to bring good news to the
poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind
and to let the oppressed go free. Jesus is telling me that I am to love my
enemies, I am to confront my racism and prejudice and my fear. Instead of trying to kill the messenger, I
need to face my own fears.
I think it starts by stop making the ‘other’ – you know what
I mean – to stop the thinking ‘us and
them’. The stranger, the one that does
not look like me or act like me or think like me, is not someone that I need to
distance myself from them build a wall between us like David Lose was saying,
and lock our doors to keep myself safe and protected? What I need to do is the opposite, to go out
and befriend my enemy and face my fears.
Very shortly the Huseysin family will be part of our
community. Abdurrahman, Suhile and their
children Hasan, Elif and Celal – these are the Syrian refugee family that we
were matched with on Thursday. The
Huseysin family will be living in Dr. Looney’s house across from the liquor
store in Lion’s Head. This small family
will be the only Syrians in our neighbourhood.
And they will be distinctive because they will not look like us, they
will not talk like us and they may not dress like us, and they will not know
our cultural norms, at least for the first while. And they will encounter prejudice and racism
here – I can guarantee it, it is already happening. There are some in this community who think that
refugees should stay in their own country, that they should not take our jobs,
or live off our government, or receive our health care benefits and our free
education – you see what’s happening – already my language has moved into us
and them.
What we have here though is this amazing opportunity to do
the Jesus thing cause sponsoring a refugee is no less than letting the
oppressed go free – and proclaiming release to the captives, these people who
were captive in the midst of a war that does not end. We have this opportunity to do as Jesus would
do, to love as Jesus would have love .
So when we run into the Huseyins downtown at the grocery
store, or the post office or library, we can greet them or ignore them, we can
welcome them or resent them. And you
know what even more, when our friends and neighbours say things like – ‘they
should just go home’ we can confront that prejudice too. Because for me, it is time I stand up for
what is right and good and just and loving and welcome the stranger, and set
the oppressed free and bring sight to the blind and stop my racist ways and
love my enemy and see the Christ in the other and proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favour…its high time I listened to Jesus. Amen.
[1] David Lose: In the Meantime: http://www.davidlose.net/2016/01/epiphany-4-c-moving-beyond-mending-our-walls/
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